By Philip Wong
19/06/2006
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/video_recorders/0,39037596,39251860p,00.htm

Not all A/V boxes are made equal, digital video recorders being are no exception. While DVRs are renowned for their near-lossless digital recording, only a handful are able to capitalize on this potential with a noise-resistant digital feed. One of the first available in Singapore is StarHub's Smart TV DVR settop box. Leveraging on its digital cable network, the telco has been able to roll out a full digital recording solution that not only operates in pure bits and bytes, but also brings to the tables a suite of value-added functions.

Design
Compared with the sleek Pioneer and Panasonic DVRs, the design of the Smart TV is nothing to shout about. Featuring a boxy form factor measuring 360 x 240 x 75mm, the all-silver box has an uninspiring look and is reminiscent of the company's past offerings. On its arced front panel, you will find a strip of black acrylic running across, an LCD display, a set of LED status indicators and control buttons. The latter comprises eight squarish and tiny keys laid out in a rather unusual plus-shaped arrangement.

	A full-featured keyboard for messaging functions. (Click for larger image)

The settop box has neither cooling fan nor a highly perforated chassis to keep heat under tabs. While this approach minimizes noise leakage, the resulting high operating temperature is a concern that does not go down well in our books. In fact, our review unit ran surprisingly hot even in standby mode and this was despite efforts to ventilate the set in an open TV console with adequate cabinet clearance.

If you are a hardcore Nokia Communicator fan, you will probably not bat an eyelid over the chunky remote control. Measuring 220mm long, the pencil box-sized remote bristles with keys which are, nonetheless, well-labeled and easy on the fingers. The clamshell controller also folds open to reveal a full-featured alphanumeric keyboard designed to facilitate SMSing and emailing with a simplified text input capability.

The Smart TV's user menu is a potential love-hate affair for some, especially for techies like us. On the one hand, it displays comprehensive firmware and hardware information such as reception strength and available disk space. On the other hand, it offers very limited tweakable settings for home customization. You will get to fine-tune language and recording buffers, but not the usual A/V parameters which are customary in most--if not all--DVRs.

Features
Under the hood of the DVR settop box is a 120GB hard drive-equipped recorder, a cable modem and a set of digital tuners integrated into a single compact package. It varies from past StarHub settop boxes and other non-digital tuner-enabled DVRs by wedding advancements in digital cable infotainment and communication with the image superiority of digital video recording. That said, it lacks advanced playback controls, video-editing functions and the hard drive maintenance (disk defragmentation) of standalone recorders.

While most recording enthusiasts should be familiar with the time-shift function--the ability to pause or manipulate a recording program--Smart TV has brought this to a completely new level by extending the capability to live TV broadcast. Utilizing dedicated hard drive space, it enables a live program to be automatically recorded with a maximum 2-hour buffer, all at the touch of the remote's pause button.

	Get the up-to-date broadcast schedule with a built-in electronic program guide. (Click for larger image)

With this digital settop box, you also gain access to an electronic program guide that stores and displays three days worth of program schedules. This can be expanded to display helpful information such as program synopsis and multilingual support. Recording your favorite show is also made easy with the Record by Show feature, making it a straightforward browse-and-select recording procedure.

For chatterbugs, StarHub is also throwing in ICQ-style SMS and text-based emailing functions to enable you to keep in touch with friends and family. These messaging tools would have been an enticing deal sweetener if not for a number of restrictions. For one, the SMS is open only to the company's mobile subscribers, while an i.Mail subscription is mandatory in order to access the Smart TV's emailing feature.

The telco has rectified its past offerings' connectivity deficiency by outfitting the DVR settop box with a set of high-performance A/V outputs. At its rear is a PAL-format component-video output, two sets of composite-A/V sockets, a 10Mbps network port, a digital optical audio jack and a USB terminal. Though there is no official documentation on the USB port functionality, we were told that the port is being reserved for future expansion needs.

Performance
If there is a key differentiator for the Smart TV, it had to be the superb picture quality of the cable reception and video recordings evident throughout our month-long evaluation. Images piped through the component-video output were grain-free matched with sharp contours and saturated colors. This was in stark contrast to the intermittent A/V synchronization problems and frequent lockups plaguing trialists.

The Smart TV also put up a very strong showing in video recording. We had a hard time faulting the recorded clips which were best described as a ''mirror image" of the broadcasted programs. This came as no surprise with its conservative 60-hour stamina for the 120GB storage capacity. We reckoned the recording compression rate was configured in the region of Standard Play (SP) mode, known for its high-picture quality.

	There are also games to keep the restless little ones occupied. (Click for larger image)

Audio playback was on par, if not better than, the competition. This was characterized by skip-free and pristine-clear stereo sound. In fact, we pushed the envelope by routing native digital audio to a Rotel A/V processor via the optical interface. Under such configuration, audiophile-grade performance could be attained using a quality digital-to-analog converter integrated in external A/V receivers and stereos.

We also gave the highly touted Live TV a thorough workout and it functioned flawlessly as advertised. Pausing and replaying were instantaneous, while rewinding and fast forwarding worked just like any other video recorder with a minimal learning curve. The quality of Live TV programs was spot-on with the same level of performance garnered as above.

Less flattering were the duo messaging tools recallable using the remote. Though there was a full-sized keyboard for text entry, input was sluggish with a slight lag in between each keystroke. There was also a text formatting error where spaces would show up as "?" in both SMSes and emails. Nonetheless, delivery of messages was a breeze and comparable with any communication software and devices.

To sum it up, the StarHub Smart TV is a highly recommended companion for cable couch potatoes with its EPG convenience and stunning all-round picture quality. However, at S$899, it is rather overpriced for a 120GB DVR. That's if you missed out on the opportunity to bag the nifty box at a S$698.25 introductory price.