Toshiba HDR5010 marries Freeview HD to a PVR in time for the World Cup

When Humax introduced the UK's first Freeview HD set-top box last week, quite a few of you were understandably disappointed that it didn't come with PVR functionality. Well, you can now strike that off your list of worries, as Toshiba has just gone official with its own Freeview+ HD PVR box that packs a healthy 500GB of internal storage alongside two HDMI inputs and one output, a duo of USB ports and Ethernet connectivity. Equipped with dual tuners, it'll allow you to record a pair of simultaneous broadcasts, while the internal hard drive -- good for storing 120 hours of video -- should be augmentable with external variants. Toshiba makes sure to include DivX and MP3 playback support in the HDR5010, so it should also make for a decent media streamer when it makes its admittedly distant debut in June for £349 ($545).

[smorges Posted Feb 10th 2010 2:42PM]

Just 2 hours of recording on a 500gig hdd? Really?

[CtrlBurn Posted Feb 10th 2010 2:57PM]

@smorges
It records video in 4K, so it'll look better than it did coming over the cable/air.

wait.

[superdug Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:00PM]

@smorges

The SOURCE site says 120 hours ... that's about 60 times better than I originally was told

[Vlad Savov Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:07PM]

I'm sorry fellas, text has been corrected. It is indeed 120 hours.

[superdug Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:11PM]

@Vlad Savov

Now aren't you glad that comments are back?

Oh wait, that was the actual intent for comments wasn't it. Damn you Engadget for making a tool to work the way it was intended!

[htowngator Posted Feb 10th 2010 2:45PM]

Two hours? That sucks.... Unless you meant 200 hours?

[ChazClout Posted Feb 10th 2010 2:46PM]

Sounds great. it may replace our Humax 9300.
Is the RBS 6 Nations Rugby available on BBC HD?

[antwalsh Posted Feb 10th 2010 4:32PM]

@ChazClout yes

[Tes Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:09PM]

Way too rich for my blood.

[FORDY Posted Feb 10th 2010 5:01PM]

I've been waiting for Freeview HD to purchase my first P/DVR (I know, a sin.)

Do they generally (or even better, does this one) have commercial/advert scanning?

[ScottishDan Posted Feb 19th 2010 11:11AM]

@FORDY
I'm not personally aware of any PVRs that do "commercial/advert scanning" however, my Topfield 5800 has some nice TAPs that allow you to skip through ads quickly with a few button presses and even trim down your recordings on the fly, if thats what you like to do

[FORDY Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:40PM]

Commercial/advert scanning?

[richb93 Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:44PM]

As far as I'm aware Freeview HD hasn't even launched yet as the frequency range is currently used by analog+current freeview. This will only be good for SD Freeview until HD is launched. That and the fact that analog is only being switched off slowly across the UK. Some places have already stopped it but it's not planned to be switched off until 2012 where I live.

[ilh Posted Feb 10th 2010 4:15PM]

@richb93
It starts next month for a number of areas, with more areas continually being added. This should have a fair audience when it launches in June.

Personally i'm waiting for a tuner to stick in my PC as 1, this is a rip of and 2, 500GB isn't enough compared to my WHS.

[richb93 Posted Feb 10th 2010 4:16PM]

Agreed, I love Media Centre and hopefully I'll be able to pick HD up as my card is HD ready.

[Jimbob Posted Feb 10th 2010 4:29PM]

@ilh

Our analouge switched off in August, still no HD Freeview though )-:

[IanR Posted Feb 10th 2010 5:21PM]

@richb93

Freeview HD started broadcasting in Manchester (and other parts of the North West) and a bit of London in December 2009 it just that you have not be able to buy a box yet. They called it a soft launch with the main marketing push about to happen when the new Freeview HD boxes start to arrive in the next few months.

[gargravarr Posted Feb 11th 2010 12:05AM]

I have a Panasonic HD PVR with dual tuners that I got before the Beijing Olympics. It replaced the SD model that died after four years heavy use. Here in Australia ours have dvd burners included too. I would imagine when this one dies, Blu-Ray recorders will be cheap enough to replace it.

[Information Central Posted Feb 11th 2010 3:21AM]

WTF is a "PVR"?

[ScottishDan Posted Feb 19th 2010 11:06AM]

@Information Central
Are you serious? Where have you been for the last ten years?

PVR stands for Personal Video Recorder - think of it as a VCR for the modern digital age, PVRs generally record their content onto internal hard disk drives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder

[Information Central Posted Feb 21st 2010 2:48AM]

No, that's a DVR.

[xrs10 Posted Mar 7th 2010 4:05AM]

@Information Central
here's a few:
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=5269

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

[Information Central Posted Mar 8th 2010 3:27AM]

@xrs10

Yep, that's more like it. But that isn't that type of product that this article was about. So the "PVR" moniker is inaccurate for the featured product.

[xrs10 Posted Feb 11th 2010 9:28PM]

so i'll be able to hook up my PS3 and record gameplay footage?