Philips HDT8520 review

A difficult birth, but this Pace/Philips Freeview HD PVR is now as able bodied as any

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Philips HDT8520
With twin Freeview HD tuners on board, you can watch one channel and record another

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In a simple act of synergy we reviewed the all-new HDT8520 with a Philips LED TV. During testing the HDT8520 lost a few channels despite being in our usual reviewing position, which could be a cause for a concern (we had a similar issue on its little brother, the DTR5520), though its picture performance is otherwise excellent.

Highly detailed broadcasts from BBC HD were presented crisply and with plenty of life, while SD channels hold up well. Sure, there's the odd wobbly edge and a touch of picture noise in backgrounds, but there's some decent upscaling going on.

Jamie Carter
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),