Group test: Freeview HD recorders

We'll make no bones about this - we're well into the summer sports season yet we've been extremely disappointed at the lack of decent Freeview HD recorders available at the moment. Despite making announcements months ago, big names such as Sharp, Pace and Humax have all failed to deliver the goods, only citing vague 'production difficulties' in response to our enquiries.

Even so, Panasonic, Sagemcom and even Tesco have managed to produce some attractive recorders, covering a huge price range from £200 to more than £700. So here's our - somewhat truncated - guide to the best Freeview HD recorders available at the moment.

Overview Price: £749 More info: Panasonic Size (WxHxD): 430x59x238mm Key features: Freeview HD recorder with twin tuners, 250GB hard disk, Blu-ray player/recorder, Dolby Digital and DTS audio, Internet connectivity, DLNA support Connections: RF In/Out, 1xHDMI, 2xSCART, 1x USB, SD card slot, composite video in/out, Ethernet, coaxial and optical digital audio Panasonic DMR-BW780 Most Freeview boxes are aimed at people who just want a simple and affordable entry into digital television, but Panasonic's DMR-BW780 goes right to the opposite extreme. With a price pushing the £750 mark, the BW780 is an all-in-one home entertainment system that will appeal even to the more sophisticated home cinema buff. It's got twin Freeview HD tuners and a 250GB hard disk for recording, along with a dual-layer Blu-ray recorder so that you can archive your recordings when the hard disk is full. It's also got both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs so that you can set up a surround sound speaker system for the full home cinema effect. It doesn't stop there either. There are both Firewire and composite video inputs so that you can watch your camcorder movies on your TV, and an SD memory card slot and USB port for watching photo slideshows. There's also an Ethernet port allowing it to act as a DLNA media server, and to connect to internet video sites such as YouTube and Daily Motion. It's a terrific package, but we were horrified to see that the EPG carries annoying adverts - something we've never seen on a Freeview box before, and never want to see again.

Verdict Plus points It's got it all - Freeview HD recording, Blu-ray playback and recording, surround sound, home media server and internet connectivity. Minus points Very expensive, unintuitive remote control, and adverts on the EPG(!).

Overview Price: £300 More info: Sagemcom Size (WxHxD): 260x48x160mm Key features: Freeview HD recorder with twin tuners, 320GB hard disk, Dolby Digital Plus audio Connections: RF In/Out, 1xHDMI, 1xSCART, 1x Ethernet, 1x SP/DIF, analogue stereo output

The box itself is fairly straightforward, equipped with twin tuners for Freeview HD and a 320GB hard disk. There's an eight-day EPG, with some useful features, such as the ability to organize your recordings into folders. However, it does have a couple of rough edges. There's an Ethernet network connector on the back but - unlike the Technika SmartBox - it doesn't provide access to the BBC iPlayer, merely listing that as an option for a 'future upgrade'. We also found that the box responded quite sluggishly to the remote control, making it rather frustrating when you're trying to quickly skim through the EPG. So while the simplicity of the RT190-320 makes it a good option for newcomers to digital TV, others may prefer the more versatile SmartBox instead.