The T4•R builds on the strengths of the T3•R and T2•R, with more powerful hardware for improved performance. It introduces many new features while retaining the user-friendly interface that our customers love, adding significantly more flexibility and customisation.

Our blog covers the redesigned TV Guide in Deep Dive #1: Unveiling the T4's redesigned TV Guide, which makes browsing and catching up easier. Deep Dive #2: Search and discover great telly explains how you can quickly find or discover new shows. Our next deep dive will cover the recording and playback features.

In response to user feedback, we've added a front-panel LED that lights up white during active recording. The T4•R also addresses demand for more storage, offering 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB options, compared to the T3•R's 1TB limit.

The T4•R needs a a rooftop aerial to pick up most live TV and radio channels. We don’t recommend using an indoor aerial. You can stream some channels over the internet, but they cannot be recorded.

If you don’t have an aerial but do have a satellite dish, check out our Manhattan SX Freesat HD Box. It offers access to hundreds of TV and radio channels, making it an excellent, budget-friendly alternative for former Sky subscribers.

The T4•R works perfectly as a Freeview TV recorder without an internet connection, and you can use the TV Guide to browse shows for the next seven days. However, to access all features, including catch-up and on-demand services, you need to connect it to the internet. You can easily set it up using Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable for a wired connection. Being online also ensures your T4-R receives the latest software updates automatically. If you choose not to connect to the internet, you can still download updates from our website and install them using a USB stick.

Yes, the T4•R allows you to instantly pause and rewind up to the last two hours of the channel you've been watching.

With Freeview, you can get over 100 channels, all with no subscription. The exact number of channels you'll get depends on the coverage at your address. Use the Freeview Channel Checker to find out the ones available to you.

The T4•R is designed specifically for Freeview and doesn't support Freely, the new service that streams live TV via an internet connection without needing an aerial.

Here's what you need to know:

• Freeview is here to stay! Freeview will continue in the UK until at least 2034, with potential to extend beyond that. The T4•R provides the full Freeview experience, offering access to over 100 TV channels and a wide variety of radio stations.
• The T4•R is built for live TV control, letting you record, pause, and rewind up to 2 hours of live TV on any channel, including radio stations. Freely, on the other hand, doesn't support recording, pausing, or rewinding Freeview channels, even if you connect an aerial to access them.
• Freely has significant limitations. Without an aerial, you get around 30 TV channels and only BBC radio stations—missing popular stations like Smooth Radio, talkSPORT, Capital, Heart, Classic FM, and LBC. While you can connect an aerial to get more channels, you'll still only get limited pausing (up to 15 minutes) on some internet channels, with no pausing at all on Freeview channels.
• The T4•R also comes with a user-friendly interface that makes finding your favourite shows easy. Our custom TV Guide is clear and simple to navigate, with useful ways to view and find content. It seamlessly integrates with catch-up services too. Freely TVs, however, all share the same standardised interface and limited feature-set, meaning less flexibility and fewer features.

In short, the T4•R focuses on Freeview to give you the best possible TV experience from your aerial, complete with full control over live TV and the ability to record and rewind shows whenever it suits you.

The T4•R is a subscription-free experience that features YouTube, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, 4 (Channel 4), My5, UKTV Play, GREAT! Player, Watch Free UK, PBS America, POP Player, BBC Sounds, STV Player, S4C / Clic, and Explore Freeview Play.

We don’t currently include or have plans to include premium subscription apps like Netflix and Prime.

The T4•R can search for any live TV programme scheduled within the next seven days. It also searches for any on-demand and catch-up programme available from the apps.

When recording on two channels, you can still watch, pause, or rewind a third channel, depending on the channels being recorded. Here's how it works:

• If the two recording channels are on the same multiplex, you can watch any other channel.
• If the channels are on two different multiplexes, you can only watch channels available on either of these two multiplexes.

A multiplex is a group of channels broadcast together, such as all HD channels. The T4•R allows you to watch a third channel when possible and notifies you if you need to stop recording to do so. You can also set the T4•R to highlight channels you can't watch with an icon in the TV Guide and Channel Browser by going to: Settings > Menu Preferences > Flag Unavailable Channels.

Yes, the T4•R remote can adjust your TV's volume, turn it on or off, and change its input by learning from your TV's remote.

Yes, if it's connected to the internet through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, the T4•R will automatically look for updates every night and install them if it finds any. If your T4•R isn't online, you can update it by downloading the update files onto a USB stick and plugging that into the T4•R.

If you'd rather updates didn't happen on their own, you can turn off Automatic Updates. To do this and to manually check for updates, go to: Settings > System > Software Updates.

The T4•R is designed to save energy. It uses less than 10W when on, only 0.9W when asleep with Wi-Fi, and just 0.3W with Ethernet. It doesn't have a fan, minimising power use and keeping it whisper quiet.

It also has a feature called Auto Standby. If you don't press any buttons on the remote for 3 hours, it will automatically go into standby mode. You can adjust or turn off this feature by going to: Settings > System > Standby Options.