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

Product Information

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. Keep in mind, there could still be additional last-minute delays due to tests and certifications that are always necessary with new devices. As is usually the case with Freeview, customers will still need an aerial for the T4 and T4-R boxes to deliver Freeview channels over the air.

Press the GUIDE button on your remote control. This displays the TV Guide, making it easy to tell when you find the right input. After discussion with Arqiva (who manage the UK’s broadcast infrastructure), we’ve implemented improved behaviour that has replaced the Automatic Service Update: The same goes for the internet-based streaming shows (which we’ll touch upon in a second) – those have nothing to do with the Freeview signal, and they look excellent on the T3-R.The Manhattan T3-R is the perfect upgrade for those looking for a smarter Freeview experience, complete with UK-focused on-demand apps and PVR capabilities. 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 “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 UKTV When connecting the T3•R to a 4K AV Receiver or Soundbar that is in turn connected to a 1080p TV, after the T3•R woke from sleep no Audio/Video would be seen and the AV Receiver would display an error message stating it needed to be connected to an HDMI input on the TV that supports HDCP 2.2. They’ve told me that (2) and (5) will be looked at, but I have no idea about the others. (1), (4) and (9) are must haves for me.

The Manhattan T3-R, available in 500GB and 1TB options is the brand's best yet, and can be found at prices that don't break the bank. Unfortunately, red flags started flying when Netflix wasn’t preinstalled and were only raised when the Google Play store announced that the Netflix app wasn’t supported on this particular device. The Now TV app would install, but on launch sent up an error message saying that the service wasn’t available through this device. You can just about get away with not supporting one of these services. Missing both is a big mistake. When HDMI Control was turned on and the T3-R entered networked standby (sleep), e.g. during overnight housekeeping, problematic TVs that send unnecessary HDMI connect and disconnect notifications could cause the T3-R to wake the TV.

Recording and Playback

When creating a child profile in BBC iPlayer, the T3 would reboot when entering the month in their date of birth (resolved in v2.01). This (rather fundamental, I have to say) feature will finally be available on the T4 and T4-R, so the search will finally be global – type in the name of a show, and you’ll see whether it’s available on any free-to-air channels, on your recordings, or on any of the streaming apps. As quiet as it is speedy, the box makes 1080p content look sharp, but comes into its own when you have a 4K HDR TV, as both picture technologies are supported. It's limited to the YouTube app to deliver HDR content at the moment, but it is future proofed at least for when the terrestrial TV providers start offering the content.

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.When first turning on the T3-R from standby and going to the Recordings menu the recordings sections could appear empty until exiting and re-entering the menu. When switching between interactive Freeview channels (e.g. 74 Jewellery Maker) they could fail to load partially or fully. After the T3•R had been on for more than 48 hours the internet could stop working until you went to the Internet Settings menu or restarted the T3•R.

As with every Freeview device, the number of channels it can find depends mainly on your aerial and on the Freeview signal and reception in your house. Once the scanning is finished, it’ll jump straight into Channel 001, which is, in most cases, BBC 1.When padding was set to Manual a recording could fail to start if it was triggered before the hard drive was initialised. Following (normally temporary) EDID failure during the HDMI handshake the T3•R’s Audio Output would change to Auto. This primarily affected Audio Receivers and Soundbars. Streaming apps - maybe nice to have but I already have Apple TV 4k boxes for all my streaming needs. And because the Manhattan T3-R has two tuners, you can record two programmes on two different channels at the same time, and also watch a third channel or a pre-recorded programme.