UPDATE YouView Broadband TV Service Brings Faster Humax DTR-T2000

The broadband based YouView (IPTV) catch-up and video-on-demand TV service, which is also bundled via several broadband ISPs (BT, TalkTalk etc.), has today launched a cheaper and faster set-top-box for retailers called the Humax DTR-T2000 (NOT to be confused with the HDR-2000T). But sadly there’s still no mention of WiFi support.

Apparently the new compact hardware, which much like older models also comes with 500GB of HD storage space, will retail for around £199.99 (the current DTR-T1000 and T1010 can also be had for under £200) from all of the usual stores (e.g. John Lewis, Tesco, Argos, Currys PC World, plus Humax Direct).

Graham North, Commercial Director of Humax, said:

“The Humax DTR-T2000 brings the seamless YouView service to the masses, with its attractive price point enabling even more consumers to benefit from this sophisticated TV service. The new box offers the first compact Humax YouView product available at a cost-down price point while still providing the high-quality service and choice of programming that customers expect from Humax.”

Unfortunately the press release doesn’t include any details about the device itself, other than to reference its affordability and faster performance. Personally speaking, one of the reasons we’ve never really considered YouView for our own home is due to the lack of WiFi (the master socket is upstairs and HomePlugs don’t work – separate electricity circuit), although in its place the Roku 3 box and combined Freeview HD + BlueRay player manages to cover most of our needs.

Naturally we’ve requested a full spec list from YouView and hope to update soon. No doubt some of the ISPs, at least those that choose to stock a rebranded version of Humax’s kit, will be taking a look at this and potentially seeing if they can update their own hardware.

UPDATE 15th July 2014

Sadly we had to wait a bit but YouView has now kindly furnished us with a very detailed specification list. Still no WiFi though.

Features – Humax YouVIew DTR-T2000 
EPG – 15 day with 7 day Backward
Recording Hours – 300 Hours SD 125 Hours HD
Pause, Record and Rewind Live TV – Yes

Power Supply –
Power type – External (12v DC 3amp)
Power Consumption – TBC
Input Voltage – AC 90-250 volts, 50/ 60Hz
Protection – Separate Internal Fuse & Lightning protection

System Resource –
Flash – NAND 512MB
RAM – 1GB (DDR3)
HDD – 500GB / 3.5” Internal type

Video/Audio Processing –
Video Decoder – MPEG2 (HP@HL), H.264 (HP@L4.1), WMV, Xvid
Picture Decoder – MPEG2 I-Frame, JPEG, JPEG2000, BMP, GIF, PNG
Output Resolution – 1080P/1080i/720p/576p/576i
Graphics – 32bpp with 256 alpha blending,1280 x 720 resolution for Native UI & Web Page,3 layers ( GUI / Subtitle & Teletext / Web Page

Audio Mode – Single/ Dual/Mono/ Stereo/Joint Stereo
Audio Decoder – MPEG1 Layer-I/II/III, MPEG2 AAC, MPEG4 AAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MS WMA Transcoding of E-AC3 to AC-3,HD-ACC to AC-3 Down-mix of E-AC3 multi-channel HE-AAC to Stereo
Dolby – Dolby Digital Plus

Front Panel –
VFD Display –
LED Display – 2 Colour ( Red in Recording, White in Stand-by mode )
Buttons – 5 keys (power, Vol+/-, Ch+-)
USB Port – 1 x Front (Not Enabled)

Front End (Tuner/Demodulator) –
Demodulation – DVB-T2 OFDM
Input Connector – IEC 169-2, female(RF)
Loop Connector – IEC 169-2, male(RF)
Frequency Range – 470MHz to 862MHz(UHF)
Signal Level – -70 to -10 dBm

I/O Specification –
Tuner – 1 x ANTENNA IN , 1 x ANTENNA OUT
TV Scart – 1 x TV SCART
RCA Out – 1 x CVBS/L/R
HDMI Out – 1 x HDMI 1.3 with HDCP
S/PDIF Out – 1 x Optical
USB – 2 x USB 2.0 (1 x Front, 1 x Rear Not Enabled)
Ethernet – 1 x 100BaseT
Wi-Fi – N/A
CI/CI+ – N/A

Accessories –
Quick Start Guide – Yes
User Manual – Yes
Remote Control – Yes
Batteries – 2 x AAA
Scart Cable – No
HDMI Cable – Yes (1.5m)
Ethernet Cable – Yes (2 m)

Physical Specification –
Size (W x H x D) mm – 360 x 50 x 245
Weight – 2.508kg
EAN Code – 8809095666540
Giftbox Dimensions (w x h x d) mm – 408 x 345 x 108
Giftbox Weight Product Included – 3.429kg
Carton Dimensions (w x h x d) mm – 610 x 353 x 455
Carton Weight Product Included – 18.09kg