Legend LPVRC

The Legend LPVRC digital TV receiver sports dual standard definition digital TV tuners, so it's possible to watch one channel while recording another. The usual PVR functions are present, including the ability to timeshift, pause and rewind live TV, with a buffer of up to 90 minutes.

The silver device features a clean, elegant appearance, and would be at home in most modern home theatre environments. It's roughly the same size as a DVD player, and weighs 3.5kg. The front panel includes a small display; however, it's limited to showing four characters and is of little use beyond indicating the current channel. The front face offers power, EPG, menu, OK and navigation buttons, while the rear houses the connections. Two sets of antenna connectors accompany two SCART connectors, composite, component and S-Video out interfaces, along with RCA and both S/PDIF and coaxial digital audio outputs.

A USB port is also present, which makes it possible to transport MP3 and JPEG files to and from the device, and it comes in handy for setting up photo slide shows or music playlists for parties.

The LPVRC can be configured to download updates over the Internet, and is designed to support an EPG, with IceTV functionality slated for later in 2005.

One minor drawback is the fact that the Legend device records in a proprietary format, so you need to convert recordings to a watchable format before playback on a PC. By default, the included 160GB hard disk can store up to 80 hours of recordings, with a 400GB model also available capable of storing up to 200 hours. You can always archive footage off using the USB port, and then later burn it to DVD, but there's no Ethernet connection to directly transfer data over a network.

The USB port isn't the only design flaw: there's also a fold-down port cover at the front of the machine, but there's nothing behind it. While the machine works quite well in operation, the lack of attention to detail in the front port cover (which should really hide the poorly positioned USB port) is a little disconcerting. Legend needs to further polish the product before it's ready for mainstream consumption.