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What is the Aura like compared to Manhattan T3-R?

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    james_uk

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    Joined: Jun '13
    Posts: 187

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    Hi, I have a 5000T right now and had a Fox-T2 before (which was brilliant).

    I may be looking for a new box in the future but on having alook at the compertition, the Manhattan T3-R looks like the only other one i'd consider.

    The obvious stand out difference would be that the Manhattan only records 2 programmes at once but apart from that i'm not sure what other differences there are? If anone has used both that would be helpful?

    From readng some reviews on amazon for both i seen a couple where people had tried both and liked the manhattan more, said it was faster and more stable etc..

    Not used anything by this Manhattan company before, i wonder if they are due out a new unit any time soon themselves?

    James

    | Sat 10 Apr 2021 20:46:28 #1 |
  2. davidrew

    davidrew

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    James,

    I had the same dilemma last autumn. I felt our 5000T had had its day and Humax seemed to have abandoned the product from a development point of view. Whilst it worked it was so slow, the interface seemed to be very dated, and at least one streaming service always seemed to be broken.

    I looked at the the T3-R and did contact Manhattan about a future triple tuner option but they advised this was not in their planned product schedule. I've never used a T3-R but what impressed me was that Manhattan were actively developing and supporting it.

    No triple tuner and limited storage options was a deal breaker so I punted for the Aura on its release in November and even with the initial software it worked reasonably well, the interface speed was like night vs day compared to the 5000T. In hindsight I don't think the box software was quite fully ready, it was rough around the edges, and the promised APP was nowhere to be seen. What I liked was that Humax had taken the technical decision to use Android (now Google) TV as the base OS platform which has a long support life and makes application development and releases very flexible.

    I admit I was a fierce critic of Humax in this forum for their apparent development and support abandonment of the 4000T/5000T. With the Aura things have been completely different, I am part of the beta testing programme and the way Humax have responded to and implemented improvements, suggestions and fixes has been brilliant. Even the latest public software release, and the eventual availability of the Aura App, transformed the user experience, once the cumulative work on the beta's is made publicly available it goes to the next level.

    On reflection I think the 4000T/5000T hardware platform unfortunately left the developers nowhere to go as it simply lacked the horsepower required for a more modern and extensive user experience. The Aura is now Humax's flagship product which needs to succeed and they seem determined to ensure it does. From my experience so far I would have no hesitation in recommending it as a 5000T replacement, the only thing it currently lacks is official versions of Netflix and NowTV (which I don't use anyway) but by using Android at least there are workarounds.

    | Sat 10 Apr 2021 23:06:42 #2 |
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    james_uk

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    Joined: Jun '13
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    Hi David and thank you for your really helpful post, i must admit what you have said does sound a lot more promising than i thought.

    Its really good to hear that humax seem to be doing good at supporting the unit up to now.

    I think i would miss being able to record more than 2 programmes if i didn't have a humax as my box really only does get used as a freeview player / recorder. I also don't use netflix etc on my box and wouldn't with the aura either.

    | Sun 11 Apr 2021 21:23:23 #3 |

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