Manhattan T2-R 500 GB Freeview HD Recorder - Black

My Freesat box gave up the ghost recently and I'd never really used Freeview so i thought i'd give this one a go as it was reasonably priced and had all the features I needed. What annoyed me with freesat was they lost the C4 HD channel, which is a bit rubbish when all the other main stream channels were available in HD (there was a work around for this, but it wasn't the best and you couldn't record it). This freeview option from Manhatten was very tempting because it was a lot cheaper than some of the freesat options out there. This is probably because there's no wifi or smart TV options with it, it just allows you to record tv programmes and pause them. Which is fine by me as my TV already has all the Smart TV apps etc, so i just needed this option so i wasn't needlessly duplicating things. Set up was a doddle and took a few minutes, Picture quality is excellent, as is the Programme Guide interface, it's really neat, responsive and does the job really well. You can easily set your favourite channels instead of scrolling through loads of channles you never watch. The remote is very neat as well and very easy to get used to and use, and you can program it with your TV remote which is a good feature. All in all, i'm really impressed with this little freeview recorder, comes with a 2 year warranty as well if you register (which was very easy to do by the way), glad i bought it.

This simple to use and quiet good quality I would recommend highly to anyone considering buying

Bought this as I was leaving SKY after quite a few years. This is a Freeview HD recorder, not a Freeview Play so it doesn't have the catch up apps like iPlayer and ITV Hub, it's not 4K either. If you want any of those go for the newer T3-R version. For me this version was fine as I don't have a 4K TV yet and have a Now TV stick, more importantly the T3-R is more money. Posistives: Compact size, good picture (HD), easy to install, reasonable price, EPG (programme guide) easy to navigate, can show alternative showings of programmes to avoid clashes. Negatives: No light to show when it is recording, if recording a series the last one recorded is on the top so you need to scroll down to the earliest one - the oldest should be on top, remote hasn't been able to contol the volume - this is TV dependant but the SKY and Now TV remotes manage to do it. Overall this is a good value option if you want a Freeview HD PVR with no additional apps .

Works perfectly

To be honest I'm confused with some of the bad reviews on here. I have a Smart TV which is connected to the internet and through this I can get on demand tv, netflix, prime and a host of other apps, so I chose the T2 because I didn't need it to be connected to the internet. Although I can if I use an ethernet cable. If you need a box that connects to the internet (Wi-Fi) then you'll need to pay a bit more and get the T3. We had Sky, and have had it for 20+ years. Unfortunately we very rarely watched any of the sky channels and realised we were just paying for the pause, rewind, record and series link abilities. I was a bit wary about getting rid of the sky box and buying a freeview box, mainly because of the bad reviews. Anyway, I took the plunge, cancelled Sky (that constantly goes up in price) and bought this T2 box and a new aeriel cable. Simple to connect. Works a treat. Took a couple of days to get used to the remote, but now we have it's very easy to use. Like the sky box it records, series links, pauses live tv and has access to 15 HD channels and loads of other channels. As I said before, it doesn't have on demand, but that was my choice. I've seen a review on the T3 and the reviewer has the same opinion that I do. There is nothing wrong with this box. It will do everything you need it to do. The HD channels are clear and crisp and the audio seems to be 100%. So far it's recorded everything I want, and the recording process is extremely simple and all done on one button, record, delete, save, series link. If it was crap, I would say, but at this time I have absolutely no complaints.

A really worthy hd recorder made by a British manufacturer. Easy to set up and install. Picture and sound are of a good quality. A nice remote to control everything. The box or unit itself is neat and compact. Nice that Manhattan allow people to plug headphones into the back since many tvs simply don't have wired headphone sockets anymore. I like the TRASH feature for deleting programmes when you've finished watching them. After sending a recorded programme to the trash, you can choose to empty the trash, losing the program permanently, or if for some reason you want to view something again, you can reinstall it again. Program guide is smooth and fast when scrolling. The only problem I encountered which was easily solved was that sometimes there would be a slight stutter in the picture/sound when watching live or a recorded program. Manhattan asked me to tell them the signal strength for the affected channel. I had 100 percent for both signal strength and quality. Manhattan said the signal strength was too strong at 100 per cent and that would cause the aforementioned problems. Between 70 and 80 per cent signal strength and 100 percent signal quality is what works best on the freeview platform. I bought a cheap attenuator from Amazon which allows you to dial down the strength. Hey presto! Problem solved. Perfect picture and sound! Clifford Slug is happy!

This is a small good looking box, has a 1-click button to record programmes on a large well designed remote with all the constantly used buttons grouped at the top - and that, unfortunately, is about where the positives end. I plugged in all the leads and set it up. The first thing I noticed was my usual sharp, crisp and bright high quality tv picture (HD) was now no more - it was now a very poor quality picture once the norm a few years ago. I found the remote intuitive, I set up the machine and the channels and worked out how to record in well under an hour. Recording is a doddle, bring up the guide, choose the programme and just press one red Record button - all record options are also done through the one red button, you can also record two programmes at the same time. This simple, easy recording facility is the best (and only) positive about the machine. I knew the machine needed upgrading (it wouldn't record a series, had to programme each day separately). So that was the first, and start, of the problems. To download any updates, the machine has to be connected to the internet - via an Ethernet cable, not Wi-fi. Problem one, with both machines at either side of the room I decided to use the USB setup. Followed the internet instructions and downloaded the updates as stated, plugged in - machine said there was no USB connected, took it out, machine said USB disconnected - what? Re-tried with a new un-zipped download - same. Well, I thought, the only option left is the Ethernet cable. Problem two. Luckily we live in a tiny bungalow, I had to pull the TV stand towards the centre of the room and pull the Wi-fi box as close as I could from the other direction and with the Ethernet cable at full stretch between the two, I managed to update the machine. The process to update the software is far harder than it should be I feel, the whole dragging machines and cables to meet in the middle process is not something I wanted to do regularly or even again - and if even going to the palarva I went to is not possible in your home, I do not know how you would go on. When the machine is On/Recording, the light is Blue, when the machine is On Standby/Recording, the light is Red - there is no indication (at first, more later) if the machine is recording, At the beginning I had to physically go into the Recorder and actually check the settings whilst it was recording. After a few days the TV picture started to break up into pixels, also with sound interference, the TV has never done that before, and then I realised it co-incided with the machine recording (in the background, red light). The interference then became so bad that the picture was lost and a message popped up on a black screen saying Signal Lost or no Signal, Check Cables. Turning the machine on (blue light) instantly brought back the picture, I then decided the machine probably must have to be left on. (It goes into Red Light Standby after 3 hours). My husband then told me there had been no interference one night when I was out. Great I thought, the machine is finally settling down - but no, the machine actually failed to record anything at all that day/night. Then two nights later, the sound bar would not respond at all to its remote. The following day, even when the machine wasn't recording, the interference was so great we could not watch the TV. I had had more than enough by now and unplugged the whole thing. And, just like that, we had our beautiful, high quality picture and sound back. Had it less than two weeks with constant and escalating problems - returned.

This Freeview PVR is fine for those looking for a basic unit, and only need to record two programs simultaneously. I have owned several Freeview PVR's, however this is the first Manhattan experience. The response of the unit from the remote control is the best I have experienced with every button press having an instant affect, even without the remote pointing directly to the receiver. Setup is straight forward. and I have no complaints about picture or sound quality, both of which are excellent. I would have given 5 stars however I bought this for use in a home cinema with a projector, and found that I had no pictures out of the unit. A replacement from Amazon was exactly the same. On further investigation I found the unit worked perfectly when connected to my Samsung television. I contacted Manhattan support and we concluded that the problem was likely to be a HDCP issue, suggesting an issue with the projector. The projector is HDCP compliant and has never had an issue with other equipment. In the end I had to purchase a HDMI splitter to connect between the PVR and projector to bypass the HDCP issue, and pictures no fine. I'm just a little irritated in having to spend out for a splitter to allow the unit to work. ****Update**** I've just returned the unit for a full refund as I was experiencing regular picture and audio disturbances from either of the two aerials in the house. Possibly it's local interference which others won't experience, however the television and old Humax box work without this issue. Incidentally I purchased a Labgear 4G/5G filter to eliminate that, but as expected it made no difference. Looking at the signal strength and quality monitor within the unit the signal strength doesn't drop maintaining near 100%, however the quality drops off, sometimes dropping to 0%.

Super bien! Merci!

Advertised as a Freesat box on the website but actually a Freeview box, so not compatible with a satellite dish! Returned to Amazon. Product of no use to me, but the Amazon return and reimbursement process was hassle free and efficient.