LG LST-5402P

The LST-5402P is a dual HD tuner set top box with a 160GB internal hard drive. It has a few minor problems, including slow on-screen editing and some small recording issues, but for those after a HD set top box with hard disk recording capabilities, this device is a good bet.

Recording can be done via the timer or manually, and both are fairly easy to do. As this is a twin tuner device, two channels can be recorded at the same, as you would expect, but both channels can not be recorded via the timer if the programs overlap. Therefore, in those circumstances at least one program has to be recorded manually.

The timeshift function also works well with no lag present when pausing and replaying live TV. When play is pressed again the recorded sections begins a few seconds before the time 'pause' was pressed - a handy inclusion if you missed a few vital seconds of viewing while scrambling to find the remote.

There are 20 slots for timer recording which should be ample for most people. You are given some minor editing options on the device itself, including cropping and combining, but these functions took a ridiculously long time to perform. Renaming and sorting recordings after this painful task however, was straightforward. We found the quality of recorded video to be quite good, and while there were some minor compression artifacts, for the most part video was smooth and sharp.

Picture-in-picture mode works well and a convenient 'swap' button lets you switch back and forth between the two channels. We found that once or twice when switching between channels there was slight audio sync problem, but it didn't pose much of an issue as this was corrected automatically within a few seconds.

The mildly transparent menu system and the remote are well laid out and easy to use, although the remote is a tad on the large side. The LCD display on the unit itself also scrolls to display the channel title, which is always a valued inclusion.

There is no USB port included, meaning your files are stuck on the device. However there are a host of other connections that should satisfy most users, including two composite, a component, RGB, s-video, HDMI as well as a coaxial and optical audio output.

While there are some minor shortcomings, if these don't bother you too much the LST-5402P is an appealing HD hard disk recorder.