First Freesat PVR delayed until winter

The release of the first Freesat personal video recorder, originally expected over the summer, has been delayed.

Humax, which is manufacturing the product, said in a statement this week: "Humax has assigned one of its top development teams to the Freesat digital television recorder and they have completed the first stages of software integration and finalised the hardware design. Once testing of this stage of development is complete the more advanced features for Freesat will be worked on and tested.

"Because of the complex nature of the development of such an advanced recorder product Humax will dedicate an appropriate period to ensuring the good operation and stability of the product before releasing to market. It is currently estimated that the product will be available suitably in advance of the Christmas 2008 season."

The PVR will feature an "appropriately large capacity hard disk" but, unlike the FOXSAT-HD Freesat receiver, will not have an analogue component output.