Manhattan T3-R Freeview Play 4K Smart Recorder 500GB

I needed to replace an 11 year old Humax. Should just mention that my TV is an 11 year old Samsung, HD 'ready' but has no Smart functionality. It does have 4 HDMI ports and 2 USBs. In order to access on-demand I've had to use a Fire Stick, which has given me all the catch ups and streaming services. I used a Manhattan Free View box in a different house (receiver only) some time ago, and was impressed with the interface, so decided to try the T3-R. It promised all the functionality offered by Humax, and was reasonably priced. I've been using it for 4 days and am very impressed with it. I had thought of buying a new TV, but basically the T3-R has transformed it! I now have a (slightly) smart TV!! I live in an area with very limited aerial Freeview channels. Having connected the T3-R, and signed in to WiFi, it found two new aerial channels that I'd never recieved before, and provided me with all the catch-ups, several other channels to stream, including Dave, and YouTube. I can actually see HD channels in HD, which wasn't possible with the Humax.The T3-R has all the functions that I wanted - record, rewind and pause live TV, a clear and responsive TV guide interface, allows you to switch into iPlayer to watch a programme from start (previously I would have had to access Fire stick to get into iPlayer). The record function seems very versatile compared to my old Humax, can be turned off and on at will. I was particularly impressed by the fact that the T3-R has taken over the original interface of the TV completely so unless I plug the aerial in, I don't see it at all. The remote control supplied is a learner, and can be reprogrammed to take over some of the key functions of the TV remote - not all unfortunately, but at least I'm not juggling quite so many handsets. One slight beef, which has been mentioned by others, is that there doesn't appear to be a Recording indicator light. It's not a major issue, there is a menu that allows you to see recording options. So far, I'm delighted with the T3-R - it means I can keep my old TV for a while longer, and enjoy a much more varied, responsive and streamlined service.

I used to have a Panasonic TV recorder which cost £200 and I had nothing but issues with it and eventually threw it away. I was therefore a little sceptical about splashing out for another one, however having seen the mostly positive reviews about the Manhatten recorders, including the favourable customer service comments, I took the plunge and bought a T3-R. I have had it a month now and am delighted with it.It was easy to install, just follow the on screen prompts, and within 5 minutes I was watching TV through the box. It found my wi-fi signal immediately and once I had input the security code it then searched for the tv stations. Happily it found all the channels including all the HD ones and channels like Freesports and Now 80's etc. The remote is a doddle to use and the interface is very quick indeed, which makes it so easy to search through the programme guides without any "buffering" or delay, the response is virtually immediate. The booklet explaining all the features and set up options is easy to follow and there are lots of wonderful features on the unit like being able to add on demand programmes to a watch list to view as and when you want. Recording is simple to programme with a touch of one button. One thing I didn't realise is that to watch the on demand channels like BBC iplayer and ITVhub, you have to register an account to use them. I was able to do this with a tablet and it was easy to do, just could have done with knowing you had to register accounts to use these features. (It is free to register and you only have to sign in once, not every time you want to use the player).There is only one niggle I can think of and that is, like others have said, when the unit is set to record a programme there is nothing to show that it is actually recording. The hard drive is so quiet it is hard to tell if it is running. Maybe if the (red) standby light flashed on and off while the unit was recording would help?I bought my unit more as a recorder to record stuff while I was out than as a TV viewer, however I have been using the on demand channels quite a bit when there is nothing on telly worth watching.The picture quality from the unit is very good, especially with HD channels, and there has been no stuttering on playback of the programmes I have recorded so far. I was also impressed that when a programme I had set to record was changed at the last minute to be shown the following day from when it was originally scheduled, the unit recorded it the next day without me having to do anything, so I didn't miss the programme.I did have one issue with the box switching itself on overnight every three nights or so, and had to switch the unit off in the morning using the remote control. I contacted Manhatten by e-mail and within an hour they had e-mailed me back with a code to perform a personal upgrade to stop this happening. I was able to install the upgrade and have not had an issue with the unit switching itself on since. The overnight automatic updates works flawlessly as the unit has already upgraded to version 1.08. I also contacted Manhatten by e-mail to ask if DPlay would be added to the on demand list anytime soon, seeing as it is a free service. Again, I had a reply within 12 hours informing me that there are talks taking place to add more on demand content soon and to "watch this space". It is nice to know that you can contact the manufacturer and they actually reply, and very quickly! The customer service is great. I have also been getting e-mails informing me of upcoming upgrades and what the upgrades are for, which is very useful - well done Manhatten!Overall I am mightily happy with the unit and very impressed with Manhatten's customer service. I would have no hesitation in recommending both the unit and the company.

Leaving Sky after 17 hears, we (wife and myself) were lost, thinking of what would be the best replacement for Sky box. We searched on the web for best Freeview recorders on the market and a number of PVRs came up. We took our time and went through the reviews for all of them, including Manhattan T3-R which wasn't even the first, second, third or fourth in the list. To our greatest surprise, the recorder with the least negative review was the T3-R. The positive reviews for T3-R influenced us to go for this equiptment. We are glad we did.The T3-R is not only good, it is a better replacement for our Sky box. The installation was easy - just follow the clear instructions and even over 80 like me installed it with ease. The operation is easy. You can record two programmes at the same time, while you watch pre-recorded programme or record one programme while you watch a channel. You can go to the programme guide and programme your favourite programmes you want to record, seven days in advance. You can even go few days backwards and watch some programmes you have missed. The pictures are crystal clear. The remote handles well. We just cannot fault the T3-R.We had what is now to me a little problem. After installation, the TV blinked out for a second or two and the screen went dark and came back again. Then it went on to blink out for three or four seconds with sound but dark screen. I contacted Manhattan and I was advised to unplug and plug in the HDMI cable, switch off and switch back. I did all these but the problem persisted. I got back to Manhattan and I was asked to exchange the HDMI cable supplied with the equiptment with another HDMI cable. This I did and bingo, everthing was fine. The Manhattan Technical team asked me to produce receipt for the purchase and they would send me a replacement HDMI cable. This I did and a replacement HDMI cable was received the next day. Great service indeed!! The only minor negative is not having LED to show when you are recording, but you get used to it.All in all, we are very satisfied with the T3-R. This equiptment is a 5 Star PVR and is highly recommended.Manny

I've had the Manhattan T3-R for a couple of weeks now, and on the whole I'm very happy with it. I'd echo many of the existing reviewers comments. I think the styling of the unit itself is quite modern, and unobtrusive - fits in well with the rest of my AV kit. It's quiet when it operation - you might occasionally hear the hard drive spin up when you wake it from standby, but thats about it. The UI is really clean, clear, and most of all, responsive - it picked up all my freeview channels without too much hassle, even whilst using a simple internal digital aerial. No issues with audio syncing or anything like that although there has been one occurrence where the speed of the video playback for a recorded programme slowed down for about 10-15 seconds before returning to normal playback. Recorded programmes are easy to find and clearly grouped.I have a couple of minor issues/suggestions that would be nice if they were addressed at some point in the future:* Add the ability to adjust the size of the text on the TV Guide (either to make it larger or smaller as required) - would even be nice to toggle the visibility of the area at the top which displays programme information for the currently selected programme - personally, I prefer to fit as much of the TV guide into one screen at any on etime to avoid scrolling too much - but that may just be my personal perference.* As others have pointed out, streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Britbox etc are (sadly) not available on this platform at present - from a technical standpoint I can't see why they couldn't be integrated - perhaps its some sort of licensing issue / restriction with Freeview Play - the box would be pretty much complete if they were available direct from the UI rather than having to resort to a secondary device to access such services - we can only hope that they will be added in future.* Would be useful if the box was able to indicate when its recording a program via the LED on the front.* The search functionality, whilst it works well, only seems to work with catchup/on-demand programmes - it would be great if you could search for any programme on any freeview channel.* I couldn't find any obvious way to re-order channels according to my own preferences - for example, I'd like to replace SD versions of channels with their HD equivalents (i.e. BBC1, 2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc) in the TV Guide - so that where BBC1 (Channel 1) would normally appear in the TV Guide, it would instead show BBC1 HD (Channel 101) , BBC2 (Channel 2) would instead be replaced by BBC2 HD (Channel 102) and so on. If anyone knows if/how to re-order the channels, then let me know...!Despite these fairly specific omissions, I would still have no hesitation recommending the device to others who want a simple one-stop-shop for Freeview and catchup TV.

It’s a good picture and record great