Samsung BD-DT7800

LIKE PANASONIC, Samsung has hitherto concentrated on producing Freeview+ HD recorders that also double up as Blu-ray disc spinners.

Also, like Panasonic (see page 42), it has now produced a standalone PVR for those not wanting HD movies and TV in one space-saving package, perhaps.

The BD-DT7800 also includes much of the Smart TV and multimedia functionality enjoyed by Samsung’s combi and TV ranges. Is the marriage a successful one?

Build and connectivity

The receiver certainly looks smart. Its silvery-black finish is underlined with a transparent strip on the fascia sporting a blue light in the middle, topped off with a blue LED status display that denotes the time, channel number and other status info – such as whether you’re online. To the right of this is a concealed USB port suitable for attaching storage for media playback and recording and a CI+ slot which could be used to plug in a CAM for ESPN or Sky Sports. On the left side sits a row of small row of touch-operated controls.

The rear panel sports HDMI and component and composite connectors but no Scart output (should you still need it in this HD age) an optical S/PDIF and phonos for audio, Ethernet port (WiFi comes built in) and a second USB. A UHF loopthrough can be used to pass the TV signal to another terrestrial receiver.

The accompanying remote is fair crammed with buttons. Some are on the small side, though they’re well positioned on the whole and their purpose is clearly signposted. Four coloured shortcut buttons make quick work of navigating the wealth of features on offer.

Basic use

A branching icon-heavy main menu lists all available functionality under sensible headings.

For TV use, channels can be re-numbered, sorted by type (e.g. TV, radio) and into one of five favourites lists. When watching a channel, pressing a channel list button brings up either a list of channels or you can view a list of what’s on one channel in the next seven days and schedule recordings.

Pressing ‘i’ when watching a channel brings up a programme information bar also showing data for seven days in advance including synopses for the current or other channels (without needing to switch to them).

Freeview’s seven-day EPG data is displayed in three-quarter screen as a programme grid showing what’s coming up on six channels at a time with the selected channel running in the top left of the screen alongside programme synopses. From here you can set recordings in the timer and are asked if you want to record a whole series.

Samsung’s Smart Hub platform governing all online-enabled functionality makes good use of icons/widgets in an Apple-like fashion.

DLNA networking (e.g. streaming from storage devices such as a NAS drive) comes via the manufacturer’s AllShare application, which requires software to be installed if streaming from connected PCs.

PVR and multimedia

In 2011 you’d expect a twin-tuner PVR to offer dual recording but, sadly, that’s not the case here. Instead, you can watch one channel while recording another either to the internal 500GB HDD or USB- connected storage.

You can watch a previous recording while recording, but you can’t start watching a still-in-progress recording without switching to the programme being recorded and rewinding.

Annoyingly, you can’t record while making use of the media playback (even if said files are stored on the internal drive) or Smart Hub functionality.

Rather than the PVR caching what you watch so you can rewind as you go, timeshifting only starts when you press pause – but you do get a progress bar, and can skip back and forth in 20-second increments.

During playback you can fast-forward and rewind at five levels of speed. Recordings can subsequently be renamed and edited, chopping them into two or deleting chunks using a basic but serviceable thumbnail- based timeline interface, then exporting the results as required.

Smart Hub widgets currently include BBC iPlayer (in its ‘big-screen form’ with high-quality streams), YouTube, Google Maps. BBC News, LoveFilm, Twitter and Facebook.

Performance

Limited capabilities aside, the PVR is at least reliable as a recorder – there were no incidences of recording failure to report.

Standard-definition picture quality via HDMI is visibly boosted by 1080p upscaling and HD looks sharp too, especially on BBC HD. A ‘DTV smart resolution’ setting automatically optimises the resolution of digital TV broadcasts with noticeably smoother results.

For those with compatible TVs and glasses, 3D compatibility and adjustable 2D to 3D conversion is included, both of live and recorded TV and media files.

It’s early days for the technology, however, and results are ‘hit and miss’. But converting a repeat 2D airing of this summer’s Wimbledon showing on BBC HD and watching on a Philips TV using active shutter glasses yielded impressive results not too far off the original live 3D broadcasts.

Media file format support is broad. Most of our files played as promised with the exception of one WMV and one DivX file. Setting it for up WiFi is made easier thanks to automatic setup and one-button WPS support ■ Grant Rennell

Verdict

£250 is an aggressive asking price for a receiver with so much to offer, though arguably its value lies predominantly on the ‘bonus’ connected side of things rather than its somewhat limited capabilities as a recorder, which aren’t as flexible as most readers would probably demand.

RATINGS
PLUS
■ Price
■ Twin tuners
■ Smart Hub apps
MINUS
■ No dual recording
■ Can’t record while playing media or using Smart Hub

Build
★★★★★★★★
Setup
★★★★★★★★
Searching
★★★★★★★★
Navigation
★★★★★★★★
Performance
★★★★★★★★
Features
★★★★★★★
Value
★★★★★★★

What Satellite & Digital TV rating
74%


FEATURES
Hard disc size: 500GB
Freeview+ HD: Yes
CI slot: Yes
EPG days: 8
Upscaling: Yes
BBC iPlayer: Yes
USB media playback: JPEG, MP3, DivX, AVI, MPEG-2, VOB, MPEG-4, XviD, MKV Media streaming: Yes
SD out: Composite video
HD out: 1x HDMI, component
Audio out: Optical S/PDIF, stereo phonos
Ethernet: Yes
WiFi: Yes (built-in)