In four months’ time, 64 matches of the beautiful game will be played in South Africa’s blazing sun, amounting to thousands of minutes of football in the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. Freeview HD means one could watch every World Cup match in high definition. Toshiba’s HDR5010 means one will be able to record every minute of the action, too.

Specifications

Photo: Toshiba

The device PVR functionality has a capacity of 500GB, providing enough storage for 120 hours of HD television. With the HDR5010, you get access to Freeview’s full range of SD channels, as well as well Freeview HD channels provided by content partners like ITV and the BBC. The HDR comes equipped with dual tuners, allowing for recording two simultaneous broadcasts, as well as two additional HDMI slots for using the decoder as an HDMI adapter if your TV supports too few. In addition, the HDR5010 will be able to play mp3s and DivX videos, for those who want to use it as their go-to media centre.

Pricing and availability

Photo: Toshiba

The Toshiba HDR5010 will retail for £349 when it makes its debut at the beginning of June, providing sufficient time for manufacturers who may have products in development to beat Toshiba to the market. It may also be too close to the World Cup for anxious fans who may already have alternate HD decoders, whether or not they support PVR.

Football with clarity

Freeview HD’s path to adoption has been fortuitous in that it has the World Cup to piggyback its marketing campaign. To the extent that football lovers want to see the beautiful game played with unprecedented clarity will determine how much of a boost the service will get. Where Toshiba has made a move to beat its competitors is in understanding the value of PVR in HD set-top boxes. Where Toshiba may struggle, however, is with that pricing, a full £200 more than the expected price of the average, non-PVR, Freeview HD decoder.