Digital Stream DHR8203U review

A slow EPG blights this Freeview+ HD recorder's otherwise impressive performance

Digital Stream DHR8203U
The touch sensitive buttons change colour to yellow when pressed

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The DHR8203U manages superb picture quality. Hi-def channels such as BBC HD and ITV 1 HD are stunning in their depth and detail, though that's hardly a surprise.

More of a shock is the excellent quality of most SD channels, which are solid, colourful and almost completely free of artefacts and noise. The DHR8203U doesn't shout about its upscaling abilities, but it's pretty clear that it's doing something special since pictures even from low bittrate channels are always watchable on a big telly.

Stream gui

Hit the 'Media' button and a list of recordings is presented. The DHR8203U's MPEG4 recorder churns out TRP files, though they're only visible in the Media list and can't be transferred to an external USB drive.

Stream installation

The quality of recordings made on the DHR8203U is also excellent. Colours are vibrant, detail is high; they're identical to the original broadcasts. All good, but an option to reduce the quality (and, therefore, size) of recordings would be useful.

Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),