Manhattan T3-R Freeview Play 4K Smart Recorder 1TB

Product Information

This update introduces support for ITVX, allows for finer adjustment of lip-sync, and resolves issues from v2.04. Playing 4K HDR still seems to cause issues for me too. It takes a good 15-20 seconds for it to buffer everything up correctly and every time it switches streaming quality up from 1080 to 2160 it blanks out the screen as it sends out a resolution change via HDMI. As with any Freeview Play device, both boxes will support a long list of streaming apps – BBC iPlayer, All 4, My5, UKTV Play, CBS Catchup Channels UK, Legend, STV Player, POP Player, PBS American and BBC Sounds, along with a YouTube app. To make turning your TV on and off as easy as possible, when you turn on your T3 it can now turn on your TV and change it to the right input. Your T3 will also go to standby when you put your TV in standby. This all works with AVRs and soundbars too. When using surround sound speakers audio and the T3•R was set to output surround sound, audio could be heard for HD programmes with 2.0 audio from only the left and right speakers. HD programmes are broadcast with either AAC 2.0 or 5.1, both of which the T3-R transcodes to Dolby Digital. For more info, please see the BBC’s blog post here .

Add a remote control button sequence to overlay the PCM and DD lip sync adjustment slider without having to go into the PVR’s menus. The usual features you might be used to on your Sky/BT/Virgin Media box – such as pausing live TV for up to two hours, initiating series links and making one-touch recordings – work like a breeze.

Audio visual quality is top-notch, having the ability to stream in 4K from YouTube is welcome, and the Freeview Play interface is on the right side of leading-edge. You shouldn’t buy it if… This update introduces support for ITVX and resolves known issues from v2.00.Please note that v2.01 wasn't officially released; it was distributed directly to customers who reported an issuewith creating child profiles on BBC iPlayer that wasn'tresolved by a fix in 2.00. The T3 can also be manually set to a resolution in the Picture & Sound section of the Settings menu. This could cause an issue if you set a resolution (e.g. 2160p), then move the T3 to another TV that doesn't support that resolution. The 2160p resolution would not be detected and could not be selected when connected to 4K TVs with HDMI inputs that only support HDMI v1.4 and not v2.0. 2160p at 25Hz is now supported for HDMI inputs that only support HDMI 1.4. While these looked spectacular, those trials come and go, and while you can’t even watch the archived versions of Blue Planet IIand Dynastiesin 4K, other BBC 4K content is sometimes added (such as the recent Doctor Who new year special in 4K).

When you turn your T3 on for the first time after it has updated, a message will be displayed confirming the update has taken place successfully. One sad piece of news is that an accompanying smartphone app for the 4-series won’t be coming at this point. The “On Demand” button displays the most popular Catch-up services, which are all in one place, providing easy access to the the world of iPlayer, ITV Hub, ALL4, Demand 5 and UKTVWhen recording both series and split events (e.g. movies) on the same service, the system could re-use the same booking ID causing: The series recording to disappear from the Schedule (but episodes in the next 8 days to continue showing the series recording icon in the Guide) The previous release effectively performed a retune each night (‘Automatic Service Update’) to ensure that the T3 was tuned to the strongest transmitters. However, this behaviour caused difficulties for some customers due to a phenomenon called tropospheric propagation that can cause distant signals to be temporarily boosted and travel long distances. It happens more often at night and is very prevalent in coastal areas and at times of high pressure. An affected customer would typically find that in the morning their box had retuned to a weaker transmitter and suddenly some channels have poor or no signal. There is a limitation when it comes to recording. The T3-R can only record two channels at a time, while you watch a third. We’re told by the boffins at Manhattan that they’re looking into enabling a third channel to be time-shifted simultaneously, and that the feature could come via a firmware update. Fingers crossed.

The TV Guide could appear to be unavailable from the Home screen even though channels had been tuned The T3 will ignore retune events for transmitters that it cannot receive or are not currently tuned. Despite several pay-TV companies already offering Freeview-over-broadband, such as with Sky Glass, Sky Stream and Virgin Media Stream, Everyone.TV (formerly Digital UK – the company that develops Freeview) doesn’t provide a full streaming version of Freeview yet. Freeview On Sky Glass There’s WiFi, so you don’t have to mess about with cables to your router. There are twin tuners, so you can record two programs at once. You can also record every episode of a series. What’s more, your recordings are logically organized so you can find them easily afterwards. The T3-R normally starts and stops recording when the broadcaster signals that the programme starts and ends. This is because programmes almost never start or end at the exact scheduled time – they're usually a minute or two early or late, and sometimes even more. This broadcaster signalling is normally very accurate and means recordings start and stop exactly when they should. However, sometimes broadcasters get it wrong, particularly on the more niche channels.So that leaves YouTube. If you search for “4K” on YouTube, you’ll find some interesting content – mostly nature clips and 4K movie trailers. It all looks stunning, but it’s mainly a screensaver replacement and not content you’re actually going to sit down and watch. Just as Muttley follows Dastardly, picture quality follows broadcast fidelity. The best-looking HD channels, such as NHK and BBC News, look beautifully sharp and artefact-free. Detail is pronounced and there’s an omnipresent sense of texture and depth – essentially what you’ll see, or more pertinently record, looks transparent to the source. And now – the T3-R, which combines ALL these features in one very affordable device. So at this point, if you’re looking for a Freeview box, I would say the real decision is whether you want something cheap and basic – like the T1 – or a full-featured box that will upgrade your Freeview experience, like the T3-R. The T3 would freeze when playing ‘Law & Crime’ video content in interactive service 271 Channelbox.