Harvard PLC are set to launch the Goodmans GFSDTR320HD and GFSDTR500HD Freesat+ Digital TV Recorders. The machines will feature high definition twin tuners, which will enable the recording of up to two programmes at the same time, and a 320GB hard drive for the GFSDTR320HD PVR and a 500GB hard drive in the GFSDTR500HD PVR. The PVR chassis is very similar to the Zoran based Freeview+ version (see below), which we at PVR junction are very familiar with, therefore it wouldn’t suprise us to learn the the new Goodmans Freesat+ machine is based on the same platform.
Unfortunately there isn’t a confirmed release date or official press release as this information was obtained by PVR Junction unofficially with Harvard PLC. However we have been told release is expected during August 2009 with prices around the £300 mark for the GFSDTR320HD and £350 for the GFSDTR500HD. This should interest those in the market for a freesat+ PVR and our advice would be to wait another few weeks for these PVRs before deciding.
Nice to see more competition for freesat recorders
Hi i would like to know if these models that are vented on the top of the boxes have a fan,as there is another model that has no vents on the top that is run by a fan to keep it from overheating and the fan runs all the time.
I would have thought these would be cheaper than the Humax which is less than £250 these days
The humax will rule at this price range. We want a £200 basic HD PVR that is easy to use. Symples
I’d like to see Humax’s response to these new PVR’s,especially as it’s fast approaching not far off a year since their first one debut’d. Though their first HDR reviewed comparatively well, i’ve been keenly keeping an eye on cumstomer’s reviews of their first Humax Freesat+ machine and quite a few people are annoyed by minor irritating issues, i.e. subtitles appearing on screen when they have paused live tv ( which they don’t seem to be able to cut out) and start up times being sluggish. Also erasing programmes from the HDD seemingly there is no quick way to erase a selection of programmes at once other than going through them individually which people say takes ages and you cannot apparently select a group of programmes and erase them all at once.The other annoying trait is that when you switch from HD mode to SD mode the sound is far too high. The other significant upgrade i’d like to see in their next machine ( which hopefully will debut soon) is a larger HDD. I personally feel that the current 320GB it offers is really too small, especially for HD programmes, which i sincerely hope Freesat sees fit to introduce more very soon! Ideally i’d like to see Humax produce at least a 500 GB version and also would be nice to see them compete in the HDD with combined Blue Ray recorder market, currently Panasonic rule the market here, with their BS850. It would be nice to archive recordings and be able to len and borrow from friends.
You’ve missed one or two of the more popular pet hates about the humax foxsat-hdr like non-freesat mode, and the firmware change to stop deleting while the machine is recording to disk. Whereas you may be confusing the Humax with other similar recording devices with some of those minor issues (as you describe them) like volume changes between certain channels and multiple delete, not applicable to the Humax.
I agree with Mike with high definition content taking up large amounts of space there do need to be versions available with larger hard drives.
I would be happier if they were vestel based. The UI and ease of use is unsupassed imo
320Gb model now available for £199 as a special Radio Times offer (see RT for 14th Nov – offer open until 10 Dec)
I have had the Humax Foxsat PVR for a couple of months now and I’ll admit that there were quite a few of the above mentioned niggles that initially really annoyed me.
On the plus side though, the Humax box upgrades its firmware even in standbye overnight, which mine did without me knowing. This fixed all the niggles I had – eg. not being able to delete an item while something is being recorded, subtitles popping up when pausing live TV, I can now delete numerous programs in one go (through edit mode), now if you switch to non-freesat mode and then back all the recording schedules are unaffected.
So in short all the above niggles have been sorted – Apart from the so called sluggish boot up time. The reason for this is that the box only uses 1 Watt of power when in standby in power save mode. If you don’t wish to be this green, you can turn off some of the power save feature and the machine will boot up as quick as any other. Although not perfect I was happy that Humax listened to customers and addressed issues.