When making a 'reservation', it doesn't do the sensible thing and assume that you want to record the channel currently being viewed. Instead, it defaults to whatever channel happens to be listed first.

You can't enter the desired channel with the numeric keypad and so you have to keep holding down the channel up/ down buttons until it is reached. With thousands of possible channels to choose from, this is wasteful of both your time and handset batteries.

Another limitation is that there's no one-touch recording (OTR) for manual recording.

Nifty features

On the plus side the HD8000S offers a versatile zoom, freeze, dedicated radio mode, sleep-timer, onboard teletext, picture-in-picture (only available on the HDMI output for some reason) and a 'mosaic' of four or six adjacent channels; highlighting one selects it.

Then there's the media player, which proved to be compatible with the DiVX/XViD and MPEG files we copied to the receiver's HDD from a PC. MP3 tracks and JPEG/BMP images can also be played, although uncompressed audio WAV files are not even listed!

Naturally, the media player will also handle the receiver's own recordings. Overall, it's a decent 'jukebox'.

HD Performance

With HD sources like BBC HD and the Astra test service picture quality is excellent. But we couldn't view ITV HD, although Vantage told us that reception should be possible.

The HD 8000S also does a better-than-average job at 'upscaling' standard-definition channels to hi-def. However, we would have liked the ability to pass SD video to the HDMI port in 576i form – some TVs have excellent onboard scalers.

The analogue ports are also good, as high-quality live studio broadcasts demonstrate. Pictures from these are crisply detailed, with true-to-life colour. Channels of lesser quality suffer (especially when viewed on revealing HD-Ready displays) because blockiness and other artifacts are only too apparent.

In HD mode the component output does a creditable job, although the HDMI output has a slight edge.

Sluggish searches

'Standard' automatic and manual searches are fast; a sweep of Eutelsat W2 clocked in at around four minutes.Blind searches are naturally slower. In the standard 4MHz 'step' setting, it takes around half-an-hour to complete. If 1MHz steps are chosen, though, you can expect to wait for over two hours.

Sensitivity is excellent if our positive 'feed-hunting' experiences are anything to go by. Switching between channels on the same satellite takes a couple of seconds or so – an acceptable wait.

But there are glitches. Sometimes the sample receiver – loaded with the most recent firmware available at the time of review (2.33T) – stopped responding. The only solution was to switch off the receiver at the mains and reboot. As the receiver can get warm in use we suspect this was due to overheating on our test sample but we are assured by Vantage that this is not a common problem.

An exciting receiver

Although far from cheap, this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting satellite receivers available. It is quite an achievement to pack in hi-def support, twin-tuner PVR upgradability, networking, blind search, comprehensive multimedia playback and strong AV performance into a single package.

We hope the bugs are fixed and that basic features like OTR and easier timer-setting will be added. Full FTP and a web interface would also be good. But for now this will vie for the attentions of those wanting a luxury receiver.