SRT5390

With a 120GB hard drive in its belly, the Strong SRT5390 can record and store close to 60 hours of very good quality MPEG-2 video.

Getting started with this unit is a matter of connecting your antenna cable to the set-top box, and then connecting the antenna output to your TV. Then you simply turn the unit on and tune your TV so that it finds the signal coming from the set-top box.

It didn't take long at all for our TV to find the Strong unit, and in our tests it performed splendidly. It tuned into all of the available digital free-to-air channels in a very short amount of time and displayed them flawlessly. Indeed, we were watching TV within 15 minutes of opening the box (even though there was nothing on worth watching at 1pm). It also detected the HD channels that were available, even though it isn't able to view these channels. We were able to edit these out of our favourite channels list very easily.

Its on-screen menu system is logical and well laid-out, but it does take some time to get used to some of its functions, especially when playing back programs.

You can also use the Strong unit to timeshift live TV programs, as long as you start recording them beforehand. That means if you want to sit back and enjoy the footy without interruptions, you should hit the record button just prior to kick-off. That way, if someone knocks on you door or calls during the middle of the game to recommend you change phone carriers, you can just hit the pause button and ensure that you don't miss a second of the action.

Recorded programs can also be split and even marked with skip points (up to 10), so you can cut out parts of a recording you don't want to watch. This unit also allows you to record a program and play one back at the same time.

This unit is lacks a USB port for transferring recorded programs to your PC for archiving. It has a range of other output ports--SCART, composite, RF and S-Video output as well as coaxial digital and optical digital audio output.