Sagem DVR84250T HD: A high-spec, high-price device

As the global downturn impacted peoples’ buying habits last year, one comedian joked that the crisis meant everyone had downgraded their supermarkets. Those who previously shopped at Waitrose went to Sainsbury’s. Those who shopped at Sainsbury’s now shopped at Tesco and so on. The same thing might have happened with consumer electronics. Bang and Olufsen moved down to Sony. Sony down to LG. LG down to Alba. The only problem is that consumer brands are a lot of more difficult to stratify than supermarkets.

Take Sagem, for example. Previously this French brand was known for its cheap, but fit-for-purpose set top boxes. Especially in countries that did not give STB away free, such as France, Italy and Spain, Sagem were a dominant brand. Now, however, they have extended themselves into a price range in excess of some of the more consumer-centric brands – Sony, Samsung, Philips – and are offering devices with technology that might justify the price.

Take the latest digital video recorder, the DVR 84250T HD. The HD is the first indicator that this is not a cheap STB. HD because it has the technology and storage capacity to cope with high-definition recording. With 250GB there is the opportunity to store hours of programming. Compare 250GB with the 80GB that Sony provides with their some of their current models. If that storage is not enough or if you want to take the media off your box, then connect up a USB hard drive and the capacity can be boosted to 4TB, or almost 2000 hours of storage.

Another vast improvement against some other players is the inclusion of twin tuners. Record one programme and watch another. Or record two, if you need to. My main concern with this is the price and the Freeview HD.

On the price side, this is quite a heavy box. With a similar standard-definition Humax for around £250, this has a retail price of £405 or £347 on Amazon. This is probably too much for what you get and I think a Humax would offer better value or a Sony would give better physical design, usability and quality. However, it is quite a close thing and if the design appeals and if you need to take programmes off the PVR regularly, then this could be the right machine for you.

On the Freeview HD side, is this really Freeview HD? If it is, great. If not, or if it’s just “Freeview HD ready”, then you are paying a lot of money for services that are not yet available, and you need to assume that Sagem has a compliant box when HD programmes do appear on your channel stream.

With so many questions, and not a lot of answers from Sagem, it is best to put this box to one side until the whole question of Freeview HD is clearer and you don’t need to pay a premium to purchase one of the first boxes capable of receiving and storing the signals.