Hi @meltam
Thanks for the feedback on the layout of the product finder, I’ll look into accommodating your suggestions on the WiFi, USB and optical disc selections.
PVRs are an interesting category and one that is becoming less compelling for many users used to subscription services such as Netflix and Stan and catch up channels for the Free to air networks allowing you to stream previously shown shows rather than recording them. Most new TVs also allow you to record live broadcast TV to a USB hard drive and while they don’t offer the full functionality and features of a dedicated PVR, it performs well for the occasional show you want to keep or watch later.
Regarding your question on the max HDD, I would need more info to give a definitive answer. Panasonic are really the only player left in the Australian market to provide a Blu ray player and PVR and I wouldn’t recommend you opening up the unit to put in another drive. However most recent PVRs of any make will allow you to add an external drive that is formatted to work only with the PVR and is an easy way to expand your recording capacity. A couple of the PVRs also allow you to record directly to the external drive, rather than having to copy the files from the internal to the external drive and these features are noted in the product finder.
Of the PVRs we have tested over the years, we have found the Humax 4Tune and some Beyonwiz PVRs to be the only models where you can copy the recording off the drive to be viewed on another device and the file format. You can also install a standard 2.5 inch HDD to double the storage from 1TB to 2TB for the Humax. Unfortunately, we have been getting a lot of reports of flaky performance, including our tester who has one at home and continues a love/hate relationship with the device.
While there has been requests to continue testing Beyonwiz PVRs and we have tested several Beyonwiz PVRs, we will look into the Beyonwiz U4 if we can be fairly certain that the company will continue to offer support for the product.
Regards
Denis
