Humax HD-Fox T2 Freeview HD receiver

ITV’s genuine HD output is limited to about one broadcast per day and includes The Bill, Champions League football and movies, usually at weekends. No great shakes in itself, but footy fans will certainly appreciate the huge gulf in quality between the scandalously low bit-rate ITV SD transmissions and the HD ones. At least standard def Freeview looks as good as you can get.

Man of the match?

The HD-Fox T2’s media player is easy to navigate and it does a satisfactory job with MP3s and JPEGs, although slideshows are spoiled by tediously slow file transitions. Video playback is marred by limited file compatibility that includes DivX and XviD, is fussy about AVI codecs and excludes just about everything else. Hopefully, Humax will do an over-the-air upgrade soon.

Verdict

Judging Humax’s HD-Fox T2 purely on performance it’s hard to find much at fault. Its closest subscription-free rival is Freesat, which it kicks in to the long grass with a much prettier EPG; by listing ITV HD as a dedicated channel and by the imminent arrival of C4 HD. It is expensive though, and unless you’re in a desperate hurry to get Freeview HD, it might be worth waiting until other zappers, or DVRs even, from the likes of Bush, Sharp, Toshiba, Topfield and others start to appear and prices begin to fall. ®

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