Icecrypt T2400 HD PVR

Limited in many respects but an impressive PVR

Currently the only Freeview HD PVR on the market to come with a 2TB drive option (and still for under £400), the T2400 looks better at a distance than close up, sporting a striking multi-colour, 16-character VFD display and multi-functional silverringed jog wheel. Connections include two Scarts, composite video, an optical S/PDIF and stereo phonos.

A concealed CI slot is blanked off so unusable, but you do get front and rear USB ports plus Ethernet. The remote (which can operate numerous brands of TV) is large with logical button labelling, though buttons such as Play could be more centrally placed.

The box is straightforward to operate, though the interface is a little clunky in places – a recording clashes menu, for example, looks a little crude. You can have up to eight favourites lists and view EPG data for five channels at a time in three-quarter screen grid form with synopses or a list of shows for one channel. Recordings and reminders can be set from here (there’s also a manual timer) with series links and shows sorted by genre and searched for by keyword.

Recordings can be placed in folders and SD recordings exported (in TRP format) to USB drives. You can watch in-progress recordings from the start, fast-forward and rewind up to a relatively slow 16x speed (or slow down to ½ or ¼), or ‘drag and drop’ to a point or skip to a desired percentage plus a jump button.

Glitches were rare, though we often experienced minor audio drop-outs at the very start during playback of recordings.

The T2400 can play MP3, JPEG, DivX and MKV fi les (it handled all ours with aplomb) from USB drives but network functionality currently stops at copying fi les via FTP from a PC to the hard drive.

Picture quality is decent including upscaling of SD pictures to 1080p, and sound is clear from all sources.

Ratings
PLUS
■ Good price
■ Large hard discs available
■ Generally impressive PVR
functionality
MINUS
■ Slow fast-forwarding/rewinding
■ Some menus ugly
■ Scant networking functionality
Build ★★★★★★★
Setup ★★★★★★★★
Performance ★★★★★★★★★
Features ★★★★★★★
Value ★★★★★★★★

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