An Inverto taster...

While I'm putting the Inverto IDL-7000 through it's paces for the review, I thought I'd give you a few first impressions and pictures.

Firstly, the looks: while the idea of a white unit didn't have me jumping up and down with excitement, now it's here and in with the rest of my kit, it looks good. The case is a fairly tough looking white plastic - in fact it looks like it will sustain knocks far better than the thin steel cases that a lot of equipment comes clad in these days. There is a black panel on the top with a raised "Inverto" on it, with a slightly rubberised feel. Different, but in a nice way! Several people commented on it looking quite Apple Mac/iPodish.

A couple of things worth mentioning; the vacuum flourescent display is large, and I can actually read it from my sofa, and the standby button on the left gets backlit in red sometimes (I have yet to work out the exact circumstances!) and looks cool :) The VFD is used to display a variety of information, and I'll go through it all in the full review, but it's a useful form of feedback.

I get my Freeview via a Goodmans GDB3 tuner, and after unplugging it and getting the Inverto installed, I immediately thought the picture from the Inverto was better. I need to get them side-by-side to be sure. The Inverto automatically scanned the ether and tuned itself in, then we were ready to go. As you can see from the rear of the IDL-7000, it's a well-connected beast. We have (from left to right) the aerial connections (the external aerial cable goes into the first tuner, then a provided short patch cable takes it through to the second tuner, then you can feed the signal on to other devices), RS-232 data interface for updates etc., digital audio outputs (both coax and optical), video out (CVBS, composite, FBAS), audio outputs (L/R), S-VHS, TV Scart, VCR Scart and mains.

Just a quick look at the library screen - I shall take some decent grabs over the next day or so and go into them in detail. Notice the thumbnails along the bottom. The Inverto generates these for each recorded program, and you can select one and jump straight into the recording at that point if you like. Quite neat!

Well, that's all for now. There will be a full review up in a day or two. If you have any specific questions you'd like answering, just leave them in a comment on this item.

Update: The Inverto is being listed by Unbeatable for £219.99.