Manhattan TV Reviews 

Purchased the tr4 1Tb recorder to replace Sky satellite tv. What a brilliant machine, it is fast and so easy to use (the program listings are similar and as easy to use as Sky TV) I just wish Manhattan had released it earlier. I am cancelling Sky and saving £30 per month. I highly recommend the tr4.

I have a TR2 (waiting for the TR4) just a mention of the excellent customer service I have received since buying my box a couple of years ago. If I have a problem I have sent an e mail and someone has always got back to me very quickly. Very knowledgeable pleasant staff who have talked me through how to fix my problem. I am a long retired pensioner, but they explain things I can understand. It is so nice to speak to someone instead of pressing buttons Well done Manhattan.

After many years with a Humax Freesat box I moved to a Manhattan Freview box because of the better streaming Freeview provide - The box works as expectted BUT whoever signed off on the BLUE TEXT ON A BLACK BACKGROUND needs to be sacked for gross misconduct as it is UNREADABLE!!! I have raised it but Manhatton support think its the way forward and ALL providers will have BLUE TEXT ON BLACK BACKGROUNDS so people at best strain to read bit of the text - KEEP IT SIMPLE is always best and having ALL the text WHITE ON A BLACK BACKGROUND has worked from school days with blackboards and white chalk - IF Manhatton wanted to differentiate and it is only a "IF" they could have had the words in CAPITALS or BOLD WHITE not blue - CHANGE IT OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS AS CUSTOMERS WILL SWERVE YOU AND GO TO HUMAX

Do not get any of these boxes. I have one and it is absolute rubbish. It is the second one I have as the first one broke. It keeps freezing and keeps deleting the recordings (which it has done as of today!) I have spoken to Customer Service and been sent a USB to update the box but this still does not help! Wish I’d never bought it

Rubbish box, and I bought two of them, one for me and one for the wife. The problem is with recording, cut off before the end of the film or freeze. I have just tried to play back two films, non got to the end, both failed on two different channels so it's not them. Nothing more u/less than a set-top box recorder that fails. The thing also freezes, you can get over this by unplugging the thing, but the not recording thing stays with it. It's like buying a book and the last page has been torn out, u/less box. Going in the bin buying new tomorrow

The Manhattan T3 - R is a waste of money and Manhatton service is a joke.
The Manhattan T3-R was purchased from Argos in October 2022 with a T2-R. After many problems with the TR-2, which resulted in a replacement being provided, this was then also returned / refunded as it was also faulty. The T3-R was not initially used much as it was in a different room but after the return of the T2-R we used it in the main living room and had many problems with this unit also but as time had elapsed Argos refused to give a refund. The unit will now not record (faulty hard drive) but as Manhatton service was so poor (went back to them many times with the T2-R & now the T3-R has problems and they want me to return it to them at my expense) it is now considered scrap and I have now wasted a lot of time & money. To have problems with one unit can happen, when this happens again with a replacement also (T2-R) this starts sending alarm bells and to now have issues with the the T3-R leads to one obvious conclusion regarding the Manhatton range. The T3-R is now scrap and I will not waste any more of my time & money with them.
We have now purchased a Humax Aura 2TB 4K Ultra HD Smart Android Freeview Player / TV Recorder and this is brilliant and works well (highly recommended).

Date of purchase: 23 October 2022

Had great service after returning my set top box especially since it was my fault! They sent out new cables for me which in fairness they didn't have to do and the initial phone call to the techy guys was really friendly and positive. Many thanks all round :)

Very good customer help line. Fast, effective help for problems.

Amazing support from this company who got my T2.R working perfectly, especial thanks to Mukesh who sent me a USB stick and talked me through the updating process including initialising the hard drive which I was having problems with. Can't fault this technical support team, brilliant !

I have the TR3 box and freezes frequently. I can't record 2 channels & watch a third as the instructions suggest.
Tech support suggested a factory reset to solve the freezing problems but it didn't last long before freezing again. Also often stops recording before a programme finishes even though the programme is running to time and the fact that l have put 10 minute padding time.
I wouldn't buy another one. It is still under warranty too.

I bought the Manhattan T2-R recorder from ASDA Living in Arleston, Telford in March 2023.
Within a few weeks it completely froze and I could neither record nor play back programmes which I had recorded.
I phoned Manhattan Customer Services and the engineer suggested turn off unplug turn on, check signal strength and a few other things.
None fixed the problem, so eventually the engineer said the only way to fix the problem was for me to carry out a factory reset. I did and all my recordings were erased.
Over the next year I had all sorts of problems sometimes daily. The main problems are:
• a whole days scheduled recordings do not record
• programmes which have been recorded disappear and I cannot view them. A few days ago, I recorded 4 programmes and they showed up as having been made. When I tried to view them the next day, they had all disappeared!
• I get a blue screen and then all the controls are inoperative. I cannot switch the machine off. I have to unplug at the mains and plug in again, much later. Sometimes overnight.
• the device affects the picture on my television. Sometimes images are pixelated or I cannot tune to some TV stations.

I have updated to the latest software, provided by Manhattan but that has not fixed any of the habitual problems.
I phoned Manhattan on 16th May 2023 and spoke to Layla Ghosum. I asked her how long should the device last. Should I be having these problems after just 15 months? She said that IF THE DEVICE WAS NOT FAULTY it should last for years. Certainly longer than 2 years. Clearly mine is exceedingly faulty. I decided to buy a Humax. This works so much better.

I've owned a T3-R since November 2019 and lately I've been having problems with the hard-drive and the picture freezing So I contacted Manhattan and the guy told me to send it back and they'd replace the hard-drive, so I did just that expecting to be charged a fee for a replacement hard-drive I've owned this box for over 3 years Yesterday I had a brand new T3-R box delivered FREE OF CHARGE from Manhattan no questions asked, That's what I call service!!!

worst tv box I have ever bought and I have bought plenty and since latest software update it’s much worse especially trying to skip backwards it has a mind of its own. Looking to find a better box which should be easy.

My T3-R unit malfunctioned quite badly. I discussed the problems with David of customer services. Having run through various checks he suggested returning the item for repair. I was told the turnaround period was normally very good but the worst scenario would be two to four weeks.
I returned the unit and tracking showed delivery to
Manhattan took place on a Thursday. A replacement unit was delivered to me the following Tuesday.
Unbeatable service; very pleased.

I have had Freeview boxes since they first appeared on the market and have never had an issue. However I foolishly bought a Manhattan TR-2, which I have soon discovered is not fit for purpose. All the problems I am having are linked to recording or the playing back of recordings. Technical Support have at great length blamed the TV, the aerial and the local transmitter, but despite their explanation my other Freeview recorders work fine when connected to the same TV, aerial and transmitter.
Manhattan appear incapable of accepting the simple fact that the problem is their product which is obviously substandard.

Onto a 2nd box after 1st started locking up and not responding to remote control after only a couple of months, now it's doing the same after a few more months!!
This is a poor quality product which was sold by Curry's who will now only offer a "gift card" refund, or for another £100 on top of the £120 paid, give me the option to purchase another make entirely!!

T3-R 1TB
Bought first box in October 2021. It refused to find more than 29 channels. Returned to Amazon for replacement. This one found all relevant channels. Within a few weeks it started to develop 'quirks'.

1. When scrolling through the EPG (tv guide) it would frequently freeze, crash then restart.

2. Scheduled recordings would frequently fail apparently 'due to power loss'. Absolute cobblers as other appliances testified to no power interruption.

3. Recordings would also frequently fail 'due to a clash'. Also nonsense. And if this was the case, why did the system not flag this at time of programming the recording?

4. A little further on, recordings that did work started freezing on playback. Sometimes for a second and frequently for so long, the box actually froze so the only way to kick the bloody thing back to life was to unplug the power and restart it.

5. Recordings also played back out of sync. No adjustments fixed this or the image freezing issue.

6. Too often, in the morning, the box will not respond to remote control commands. Cue the unplug and plug back in fiasco.

My first communication to Manhattan in May 2022 (approximately) resulted in a phone call from a David. This seemed positive at the time. He talked me through an update. Unfortunately, this had no effect as the box continued to crash as described above.
Further emails were ignored until I threatened a Trust Pilot review. Then a Kan emailed in November '22 saying he (she?) was "jumping in for David". He offered a replacement box. Hardly ideal as recordings can't be transferred. The box's performance was getting worse so I eventually agreed in March '23.
Box arrived and it behaved in exactly the same way right from the start. It also has a new trick. Images freeze and stick on LIVE TV now. Not just recordings. Amazing.
It has crashed 23 times since plugging it in and frozen completely on an almost daily basis. Recordings are practically unwatchable.

Needless to say, my emails are being ignored again. My second to last email suggested they refunded me so that I may find an alternative. Nothing.

In summary, this is a very expensive piece of garbage. Style over substance.

AVOID.

UPDATE

Funnily enough, two days after this review went live, I received an email 'apologising' for the 'delay'. What it meant was 'OK, we have to answer as ignoring you isn't working'.

Needless to say my reasonable request for a refund and return of this junk was ignored completely.

They advised of a software update which they stated addressed a number of issues, among which the picture/sound sync discrepancy. After the update, this issue remains as was, the box still fails to record (that's actually worse now), the box crashes with the usual monotonous regularity and picture freeze during playback is as glorious as ever.

To add to the arsenal of faults, there's now a new issue! Since the update, when skipping back (live and recording) the machine immediately skips back to where you started. It takes on average two attempts before it accepts the command.
WELL DONE EVERYONE!

I would give manhatten zero for there freeview recorders they are hard too use and, hard too setups I would never knowing what u know now buy another manhatten freeview recorder ever again nor is it a brand I would rate to anyone

I bought a Manhattan t2.r tv recorder in November 2022as It seemed to do everything I wanted it to do, ie, record more than programme whilst watching another. Between then and now I have had to contact them 6 times to complain about recorded programmes being wiped from the hard drive. They tried to talk me through possible scenarios which didn't work. Eventually they told to send to it back to them to repair a possible fault on the hard drive, and they expected me to pay for the delivery, or send it back to Amazon. I tried to leave a message on Manhattan's website, but even that is out of date. I asked them for a replacement and the guy asked me why. I said it was unfit for purpose. He again asked me to send it back for repair. Why would I want to send it for repair when it is only 3 months old?
Don't touch this company with a barge pole.
Lorenzo Ravinoff