| News FREEVIEW SPECIAL! This month's news letter is a "Freeview Special". I realise that many of you don't have access to UK Freeview terrestrial transmissions (especially those who are not in the UK) but I hope you'll find at least some of this of interest. I hope to do a follow-up with a "Sky-Plus special" so please send in your contributions. I don't broadcast my email address (minimises spam) so please contact me via the email form. You may find it easier to type your message in "Notepad" then copy/paste it into the email form. Please don't use this form for any other matters because the emails come only to me, which means that Mark won't see it and, if I'm away, you won't get a reply until I return. Sky+ reports must be submitted by August 21st 2007, please! Your Freeview section begins with an interesting letter from the designer of SetPal tuners. That's followed by comments from you, dear readers, with grateful thanks to all who contributed! And we have a couple of new products which may interest you. SETANTA Starting in August 2007, Setanta TV will be transmitting 46 Premiership football matches, 60 SPL (Scottish Premier League) matches & other top sporting events all receivable via digital TV through your TV aerial, Sky Digital and Virgin Media Cable TV. Setanta will be on channel 34 on Freeview. Setanta Sport (Tel. 08700 55 21 36) is available on the Digital Terrestrial platform, but you'll need a receiver with a CI slot. Into this slot you must fit a suitable CAM (conditional access module which runs the Seca Mediaguard encryption) which Setanta will sell you for £29.99 (or you can buy a used TopUPTV CAM or an Aston CAM, which is the same thing). You will also, of course, need a subscription card, which will cost £10.99 per month. You only get Setanta sports 1. It runs from 12PM-3AM. It is covering several friendlies then, when the season starts, covering Premiership, SPL and some games from other European leagues. Try searching eBay for "Freeview CAM" or "Seca Mediaguard CAM" or "Aston CAM" or "TopUpTV CAM". Setanta are also set to show Live Transmission of Blue Square Premier fixtures and Setanta Shield matches. Details of the provisional fixtures are here: http://www.footballconference.co.uk/News/FC_Story_Page/0,14288,_2512973,00.html Travelodge removes P.0-R;N Budget hotel chain Travelodge has removed its pay-per-view adult TV system from all its 20,000 television-equipped rooms. The system is being replaced by flat-screen digital TVs with 18 free-to-view channels. http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=2587 All change at ASTRA SES ASTRA announced that its new ASTRA 1L satellite has been successfully deployed to its final orbital position at 19.2° East and is ready for commercial operations. ASTRA 1L will deliver Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcast services to continental Europe. The new satellite allows SES ASTRA to move the satellite ASTRA 2C from 19.2° East to 28.2° East in order to serve the dynamic UK and Irish markets. SES ASTRA is now able to offer 16 additional transponders on ASTRA 2C out of which at least 10 transponders will be for DTH in UK and Ireland and the remaining transponders for other services across Europe. Furthermore, the move of ASTRA 2C allows a realignment of transponders across the different satellites positioned at 28.2° East, permitting activation of another 8 transponders on the steerable beam on ASTRA 2B, which is currently positioned over West Africa, and bringing the total of transponders on that beam from 8 to 16. Furthermore, the inter-satellite backup system at 28.2° East is strengthened as ASTRA 2C carries backup capacity for ASTRA 2A, 2B and 2D. The repositioning of ASTRA 2C is scheduled for the third quarter of this year. In addition, the new satellite ASTRA 1L enables SES ASTRA to bring its satellite ASTRA 1E from 19.2° East to 23.5° East, further strengthening this orbital slot for DTH transmissions across Europe. Your right to a dish The European Commission has adopted a Communication in which it states that private individuals should be free to use satellite dishes without undue technical, administrative, urban planning or tax obstacles. If your landlard won't let you watch the programmes that you want to watch, he is in breach of European law! http://tinyurl.com/332pra
Martin, The EU Communication which states that "private individuals should be free to use satellite dishes without undue technical, administrative, urban planning or tax obstacles" might not be all it seems and a landlord could well NOT be breaking the law by denying his tenants the right to install a dish. Dave Sullivan Yes, it will be decided on individual cases. But it does refer to "programme of his choice" (I forget the exact wording). So even if the landlord provides Sky Digital reception, a tenant could complain because he wants to watch a specific German programme. I believe it will come down to what is "fair and reasonble" in the individual circumstances. For example, I think it's "fair and reasonable" to have a dish on a balcony, provided it's unobtrusive. But I'm not a lawyer so please don't ask me for advice on individual cases!
Freeview tuner design Freeview tuner performance Recently, I wrote to a friend of mine who was involved in the Setpal tuner design: "Hi, I'm gathering information about Freeview receivers. Lots of people complain that one receiver gets all multiplexes and another one doesn't. For example: The receivers using "Setpal" tuners seem to be good for poor signal areas but sometimes need an attenuator for strong signal areas. Some cheap "supermarket" receivers appear very "deaf". I wondered if you have any comments about this. I'm not after any of your design secrets - just basic information that might help your average Joe Public to choose a suitable receiver." He sent me the following reply. (I've edited out some commercially sensitive information). Note that it contains a lot of technical terms! "Hello Martin Now, it's a long time since anyone asked me about this! What we did at NovaPal was to tackle the pre-Freeview situation where anyone installing an OnDigital (ITVdigital) set-top box was well advised to carry a supply of in-line attenuators in addition to his usual wide-band aerials and mast-head amps. Problem was the designers of the first DVB-T products (including the Pace-acquired X-Com box, which was the only other Freeview-specific product at the time of the SetPal launch) attached little if any thought to RF performance. In general they used an analogue TV tuner front-end (36 MHz IF output, from Philips, Siel, Thomson or the like) and followed it on the system board with the SAW filter and IF/AGC amplifier required to condition the signal prior to ADC. The analogue tuners typically had a noise figure of 8 to 10dB, but more significantly they had poor strong-signal performance: yes, they could handle a single-channel signal up to about 0dBm without overload, but their blocking and intermodulation performance was poor. In the presence of a stronger adjacent-channel analogue transmission their digital sensitivity fell through the floor. And strong adjacents was exactly what the UK's DTT plan prescribed -- it was the only way to allocate the necessary channels, and with a nominal 20dB back-off relative to analogue peak sync which in real-world antenna situations could result in a 40dB unwanted-to-wanted ratio. Also the first-generation COFDM demods had poor Gaussian CNR performance: even with a clean (in terms of multipath and inerference) signal, they needed over 20dB CNR to make glitch-free sense of a 64QAM mux. No wonder few products achieved the DTG/BBC recommended sensitivity of -78dBm. So what we did was design our own tuner, based on the design I'd already done for the BBC's professional monitoring receiver (subsequently licensed to Broadcast Technology). This used double-conversion (with a first IF SAW at 1220 MHz), had 3 AGC loops including a wide-band RF AGC, two cascaded 2nd IF SAW filters, and exceeded all the DTG recommendations of the time with noise figure of 4dB, ACI protection ratio of typically -43dB and 64QAM sensitivity of -83dBm. For the demod we used devices with the excellent Tality COFDM core, initially the NxtWave and later the Zarlink chips. Inevitably it was more costly than the cheap tin can products, but it had the advantage of being fully integrable with the product -- some licensees (Fusion, Goodmans, Matsui, Beko, using hardware designs from 4TV), laid out the tuner as part of the system board. Daewoo's Antrim VCR factory was hurting from Pace's withdrawal, and were happy to do a manufacturing deal with NovaPal, who also lined up the other brandings and stylings of the SetPal STB product: Labgear, Triax, BT and Dijam. In general, quality ex the Daewoo plant was very high, once we made a few tweaks to their production test set-up, and the product lived up to its claims of sensitivity and resistance to interference. The overload issue you mention was exhibited in a small percentage of the first-generation SetPal, in which component tolerances affected the RF AGC detector. This issue was completely eliminated in the second generation, which used a new image-rejection tuner chip from Zarlink in a single-conversion design, with the Zarlink demod, achieving a slightly improved RF specification with a massive five dollars cost saving. On the back of this came the SetPal iDVCR, also from the Daewoo plant and marketed under the Daewoo and Bush brands. Thomson and Mitsubishi were also lined up to badge the product, but events intervened. NovaPal ran into financial troubles during 2004. A proposed third-generation twin-SCART SetPal box, already designed, was cancelled, and Access Devices took over the Daewoo relationship with a non-SetPal product of their own, with inferior performance. The 4TV/SetPal designs continued in production at Beko in Turkey (including Beko TVs and DigiFusion STBs and PVRs), using my SetPal 2 tuner design, and we did a special DAB/DTT version for Frontier Silicon which was made at Flextronics in Austria and came out under the Goodmans and Mitsui brands. But without NovaPal to drive the development cycle forward, customers' next generation (2005) products moved away from SetPal. Though by this time the tuner manufacturers had got their act together, and the latest miniature canned tuners were yielding performance pretty much as good as SetPal had pioneered three years earlier. And as I understand it, that's where we stand now. The Freeview STB has become a cheap commodity item, generally made in China or Korea, and its performance is pretty much adequate for the job. The need to comply with Europe-wide specs (e.g. Nordig 2) has kept the tuner designers on their toes, and there shouldn't be any deaf dummies out there. No doubt there are good and bad models, but I no longer have a handle on which these may be. Since then, no-one's come to me requiring a superior-performance design -- I guess it's a market where no-one will pay for something that's better than 'good enough', which is just as it should be in a commercial world. Which brings me to the bottom line: apart from this potted history I'm not sure I can add anything to your study: there's no current successor to the SetPal; I'd expect all products to be pretty much similar at design level, and the fact that they aren't in practice must be down to someone cutting corners in what is after all a cut-throat environment; or just poor quality control." Your Comments Your response to my request for equipment reviews was somewhat better than I'd expected! Thanks to everyone who contributed.
I've got a Goodmans GDB-2 which I got free from a friend. It works fine and has never given any problems (I've used it it 2 locations, both times with a roof aerial). My only gripes are 1) The remote control buttons are rather the worse for wear - it doesn't seem very durable to me. 2) The box performs a firmware update every night, which involves a message appearing on the screen, followed by the box switching off for a few minutes. I've no problem with this, except that there's no way of stopping it from doing it ever, so it's a pain if you're watching (or recording) something when it does the update. Martin Edney
We use the Labgear DTT100 Setpal freeview box and have done for some years, in fact I wanted to buy another but couldn't. Only problem we have is if we switch it standby it can take an age to startup so we leave it on at all times (very environmentally unfriendly I know) but it works fine then. Made in the UK too!!! Regards, Rob Goodall
I have an Asda box - the Pacific PSTB1 which we bought on 24/3/07 for £18.77 and I got it working straight out of the box that day. Our post code is SG12 and we have no trouble with reception. We didn't even have to get a new aerial. The only problems I have noted is that sometimes it's a bit slow loading when we change to some of the more obscure channels. And somtimes it won't change channels easily but this might be the non alkaline batteries in the remote,(which I haven't yet checked). I didn't realise how long we'd had it. My nokia phone did cause it to change channels when I switched the phone off recently - to my wife's annoyance. We always turn it to standby overnight as I understand it can get a bit hot if left on. David Snell
I bought a Nokia 221T set top box over 4 years ago. I have had absolutely no problems installing it or in maintaining it. It hasn't gone wrong yet! It has a good navigator function used from the remote and you can customise it to siut your preferences. It was expensive to buy £125 in 2003 but was/is value for money. Donald Rankin
I haven't tried set top boxes but I have Freeview on a Panasonic lcd with built in tuner fed from a rooftop Triax Unix 52 C/D-W aerial via a Teleste CM7274 Head Amplifier in the loft with good quality cable. We are one of the few around here that have Freeview since officially the area is not covered (Post Code NP11 ). We receive all available multiplexers from Wenvoe and reception is really good with only the occasional bit of electrical interference, it should improve when they are able to increase the power after analogue is turned off. This is probably not what you asked for but I thought it may be of interest. Yours etc, Ralph Davies.
I have TWO Daewoo SV 900 VHS video recorders which use the Setpal system. Both of them keep crashing, losing channels, but interestingly *different* channels from each other. Almost every time I switch on, I get the message "New channels found, please rescan". If I don't rescan, on one machine I have (always) lost BBC1 and BBC2, which renders it useless to do a timed recording on those channels. My understanding was that Daewoo's Setpal have now NO support for their designed machines, as I read that the company (Setpal) no longer exists, having formed in Cambridge and subsequently disbanded, all previous personnel having moved on to other projects. Am I misinformed? I really hope so! Perhaps you could ask your "Setpal designer" what has gone wrong with their backup? When I purchased each machine, I had at that time believed that digital was digital, and that this conformed to a universal format. It subsequently came as a bit of a surprise to learn differently. I would be grateful to receive your comments. Roger
I'm not in the UK at the moment, where my various Freeview receivers are stored, so, technically this is going to be reasonably useless. However, my last project was junking our dependence on Sky, and this entailed purchasing 5 or 6 Freeview receivers in succession, and linking to DVD and HDD recorders. My experience showed that the Sony Freeview boxes performed impeccably, in a lousy signal area (Mid-Sussex), while the others were unreliable, eccentric and frustrating to use. The winning point for Sony was the electronic programme display, which was comprehensive and transfered prog. information(not a clue how) to Sony, Panasonic and Samsung DVD/HDD recorders. Prog. display and information export on the others was useless. Unfortunately the Sony boxes are no longer manufactured, and the only way of using them is buying Sony hardware with the Freeview incorporated, or on eBay where the price (a few months ago) was getting seriously high (£85 plus) and came with the associated risks of buying on eBay. My opinions on Sony extend to their DVD/HDD recorders, which again are excellent, and importantly for us, handle any DVD disc from Tesco cheap 'n' nasty to the top end professional stuff. Both Panasonic and Samsung machines are erratic and unreliable with any DVD disc, in my experience. Downside with Sony was tech. support which was pretty awful. Load of waffle, as I said, but my advice is to buy SONY. I search for the lowest non-Internet price and purchase from John Lewis, pocketing their price differential refund and their free extended warranties. I have no connection with Sony or the John Lewis group. ATB Richard Lyon
Hi Martin. I have freeview although my postcode says I cannot get it. I am at a low point in Ellon Aberdeenshire. I run a Sagem box, which was one of the first ones out. I also have an AVer media dual tuner PCI card in my desktop PC. The signal is via a high gain yagi array with masthead pre-amp and an eight-way distibution amp, which combines sky and all other signals and sends them to all the outlets. A lot of the equipment I use was supplied over the years by yourselves and yes I did buy "Piping TV.." etc. All freeview channels are received and are perfect. Kind regards Andy Seager
I started with a Pace Twin (Feb 2004) - despite its abysmal software which gradually improved (though was never 'robust') and its tiny HD, I loved this m/c. I felt Pace quit when it was just getting its act together. Anyway, one day I switched on and nothing much happened ... So I bought a Topfield TF5800. This, IMHO, is an absolutely fantastic m/c, though it has nothing like such a simple interface as Sky+. It is pretty near as dead reliable as anything can be with a computer in it. I guess I've had about 4 or 5 recording failures in 18 months. I also like the USB interface as I can easily record lots of radio which I transfer to my MP3 player for use in the gym. The one thing that is annoying is that when you are watching something off HD (which is around 98% of the way we watch stuff), it insists in putting up little boxes telling you what it is doing with its tuners and, sometimes, actually stops what you are watching - not a major problem as it remembers where you are in every recording. It could just get on with it without telling us - what does it want? Praise about how clever it is? I have also bought a Digifusion FVRT95 off eBay for £33.01 (inc postage) which is okay as a 2nd m/c - only a single tuner. I haven't used it enough to comment on the software's reliability (poor reputation), but the interface is quite easy and quite friendly. I have done lots of playing about with aerials - mainly 'cos of leaf problems in summer. I ended up with a Blake DMX05WB on a 8' pole above the roof ridge with Labgear masthead & distribution amps to 6 outlets. Occasional freeze type glitches in the signal, but rare. I'm at PE26 using Sandy Heath. Topfield appears to be slightly better than the Pace was as a receiver but this is entirely subjective. Patrick Martin
I wanted to test my aerial before I bought a freeview box/flat screen with freeview tuner. The cheapest I could find with reasonable performance (from Internet reviews) was a Wharfedale from Argos for £34. I'm sure you know Wharfedale. A well respected GB firm, like Bush, bought by the far east box pushers when they went bust. This Freeview box worked like a dream. It pulled in the various channels with no trouble and produced spectacular pictures. Didn't have all the bells and whistles like some more pricey jobs but so what? Eventually I got a Sony Bravia 40" W2000. A good set, but the Freeview tuner won't lock onto Sky News, perhaps because Sky don't push a lot of bandwidth in that direction. The only thing this will help you with is that it's not how much you pay, it's how good the designer is right at the start. I can't imagine the bits and pieces of hardware in the "Wharfedale" and the Sony cost more or less than each other by more than a few pence, and the Sony will no doubt be the more expensive. But the designer chappy at "Wharfedale" obviously got his calculations correct! Kind regards Rod Gray
I am in a "fringe" area for Freeview from the Oxford transmitter. I have a high-gain external aerial and a Labgear masthead amplifier. I have two Freeview boxes, a Humax F2-FOX T and a Sagem ITD64. Used off the same aerial point, the Sagem is far superior to the Humax. Whereas the Humax frequently loses the EPG info, and blocks or freezes on Five and some of the radio channels (MUX's A and B), the Sagem is much more reliable, holds the EPG, and only very ocasionally blocks or freezes on the lower powered MUX's, even in bad weather. It also recovers without needing a reboot, whereas I usually have to turn off the Humax to get the EPG back. Hope this is useful Chris Cole
Hello everyone and Thanks to Martin for Satcure. Freeview Boxes My first one was a refurb Nokia Mediamaster from Currys. I still use it. Somewhat slow to change channels but reliable and runs cool. Second one was a Thompson from Currys again "2500" or similar number. It ran so hot I put it on a metal tray in case it burned the TV shelf, We then discovered that no TV in our house (or the neighbours) could receive analogue ITV1 without bad interference no matter where the modulator was set. It went back with appropriate written complaint and money back. Third one is Humax Fox, this is a nice box, good EPG, crisp channel change and easy scheduling plus a good remote as well. But it runs HOT, almost too hot to touch at the power supply end. So we only power it up as needed and use the Nokia for scheduled stuff. Regards David Mountain
I visit quite a lot of customers in the area south of the M25 down to the south coast. Many of these areas have a poor signal. I have often noted that customers who had set top boxes and then bought a TV with Freeview integrated (often a LG or Samsung TV) started having signal-related issues - e.g. some channels often freezing or blocking and some channels not tuning. The previous set top boxes worked without trouble and showed the signal as adequate on built in signal test. The TVs tested in our workshop worked OK. I assume from this that some TVs need a better signal level. Of course we know freeview is not perfect and I know places where it just does not work. This is not helped by TV manufacturers who seem to have software issues with their freeview TVs! Philips, Daewoo and Toshiba are the three that come to mind. Finally, the constant battle of convincing the customers about aerial upgrades continues. Hope this view from an engineer in the firing line is helpful. Chris Iles
My chosen 'Freeview box' is a little different to the norm. It's an Ubuntu Linux based AMD PC with a Hauppauge Nova-T DVB PCI card installed. I run a software based PVR called MythTV. It's a cracking setup - both Ubuntu and MythTV are free and with the latest versions of the OS and software it's now relatively simple to setup and operate - even the Hauppauge remote works! I've had it running for a few months now and it's proving very reliable. In fact, we use it to save our recordings rather than Sky+ that we also have, as it suffers from that awful recording glitch that's been reported. The only negative point I can think of at the moment is power consumption. I've measured approx 80 watts at idle (LCD screen on standby). That's good for a PC, but poor when compared to a proper box I guess. Here's the spec:- - Ubuntu Linux 7.04
- MythTV 0.20
- LG 20" LCD L204WT Screen
- NorthQ 4001AL, 400W Metallic Blue, 120mm Fan, 12-17dBA PSU
- Hauppauge! WinTV-NOVA-T DVB-T PCI Card
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz Socket AM2, 1MB
- Gainward GeForce 7300GS 256MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Crucial DDR2 PC6400 1024MB 512MB CL5 x2 Memory (matched pair)
- MSI K9N NEO-F nForce 550 Motherboard
Regards, Matt Walker
I have only got one freeview box which I purchased in 2004; a Panasonic TUCT30 digital set-top box. General performance is OK apart from the inability to incrementally step between channels (you can preselect and then you must accept), and the tendency to "lock-up" if you attempt any of the interactive features, within BBCi for example, or some of the teletext controls. My other TV is a Panasonic TFT with integrated freeview and this works like a dream. Mike Jacobs
I have 2 freeview boxes, a Nokia 221T and a Humax 9200 The Nokia is a bit of a poor box. On paper it had most of the features required but it has never been stable in software terms. I have good signal strength and the box hangs up every few days. Sadly the Nokia Software development for this box never accommodated the 7 day EPG. On the positive side it has the 14:9 mode which is helpful if you have 4:3 TVs and is reasonably responsive to button pushes. The Humax is a hard disk recorder. This is superb, every home should have one. Within 48 hours my Mrs was converted from "what do we want that for" to "wouldn't be without it" and the pile of VHS tapes around the TV has gone. The only negatives are that a built in DVD recorder able to archive programmes in more than real time would be good. Also in an ideal world the device would be able to connect to additional storage (either USB or Ethernet) but these are relatively minor issues with a really good box. The EPG integration works well and we have been very happy with it for 6 months. Mark Hawkins
I only use a TV with built in freeview and a Hauppauge WinTV USB thing. I guess these don't count as set top boxes! M.P.: Oh yes they do! Thanks for a very interesting forum. Terry PS I am about 2 miles from a huge FM radio transmitter and on the fringe for TV. This means I need to filter out the FM band before my distribution amp and at each set to avoid total chaos! Terry Lyne
Freeview hard-disk recorder Sony HXD560 experiences We bought the HXD560 just before 1st January from Richer Sounds. It is a digital 80GB hard-disk recorder, with DVD recorder, and (single) Freeview tuner. It complements our existing (ordinary) Sky box, and means that our video has only been used once in the past six months. Freeview: Works well - provides a 7-day EPG for all channels, subtitles, interactive etc. Even has EPG for radio - a nice feature that ordinary Sky does not offer. Hard disk recording: Works well - about seven different MPEG quality settings. We usually use LP, which works out at roughly 1GB per hour. It can record from Freeview at the same time as playing an existing recording, but you can't view a different Freeview channel when recording as the box only has a single Freeview tuner. Series Link: This has been quite unreliable, so we haven't used it recently. The EPG does have a 'series link' option for most programmes, which will automatically populate the timer with the details of the next programme in the series. However, for weekly-repeat programmes, the timer usually loses the actual programme time details during the course of the week, so it is more trouble than it is worth. Workaround - rather than use the series timer, do it the old fashioned way - set the timer to record every Monday, at a set time, on a particular channel - but this only works for programmes that always start and finish at the same time. External recording: The HXD560 has a DV input, as well as two rear SCART sockets and front composite and SVideo inputs. We have only used the SCART input, to record from our Sky box, which works really well. DVD recording: You can record to HDD or straight to DVD, and you can copy to/from HDD and DVD - useful if you want to free up some space. The box supports dual-layer discs, but prefers DVD+RW to DVD-RW. The box can transcode whilst recording to DVD, to squeeze long programmes into small discs. One big problem that has recently surfaced - it crashes when viewing or recording Channel 5. See http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=605507&page=2 for more information about the problem. A simple workaround for us is to record from Sky, rather than the internal Freeview receiver, for this channel, until the problem is fixed. Michael Jorgenson
I purchased a Freeview box from CURRYS. It was the cheapest I could find, as the predictions at our location was no signal. I erected a new antenna, purchased from Wilkinsons and advertised for Freeview digital. I had a signal immediately, and it automatically tuned in the channels available. The problem with this Freeview box was, the signal would drop out and give a 'No Signal' with blue screen. The only way to bring the signal back was to turn the mains off, it had no on/off switch. I forget what Freeviewbox it was! I decided to take the box back as faulty. I was advised to try another. It was the 'MATSUI DTR3 A.' What a difference. When the picture goes into lines, it is automatically reset, and is held there, until the picture is available, then continues as normal. These signal drop outs are seconds. The same thing can happen with the audio. The audio stops, it then resets itself and continues as normal, with just one or two syllables being lost, with the picture retained. I don't now have the irritation of having to turn off the mains to reset. Again this device does not have an on/off switch. The drop outs must be due to my new high gain antenna not being directed correctly! Brian Walters
I have 2 Sony VTX-D800U decoders and they are great: a) one of the better on-screen interfaces b) works on lowish signal (we live in a marginal reception area) c) used vertically uses up very little space d) last but not least excellent picture quality Now discontinued, but if either of mine conked out I would immediately buy another one on ebay. Have also tried a Panasonic, but it was much less sensitive, prone to pixellation, muddier picture, cheaply made, very ugly on-screen interface. Took it back & swapped for our 2nd Sony. Sorry no model number but it was at the time only about £40 whereas the Sony was £80 - worth every penny. PVRs ... I also have a Humax single-tuner PVR 8000T. Records OK but the on-screen interface is unwieldy and it is poorly thought out in terms of useability and controllability. Compared with Sky+ it is very clunky. Poor remote control as well with fiddly buttons. Lacks some very basic obvious features like automatically adding a few minutes to the start and end of a programme. Finally I have a TVonics DVR150. As Freeview PVRs go this is by far the best of a very bad bunch, but still light years behind Sky+ in terms of ease of use. Also not brilliant at coping with a low signal. Finally, very difficult to get this one to fill a 4:3 Sony screen attractively which both the Sony and the Humax manage much better. Can't anyone for goodness sake devise a Freeview PVR which is as easy to use as Sky+??? It can't be rocket science. In case you don't have access to Which? I have copied their Summary on STBs below. It is highly unusual for them to say that only one product is worth having. Best Buys LOGIK Vesa Digital TV Adapter
Price: £50
Score: 73% The LDR V2 set-top box from newcomers Logik stood head-and-shoulders above the rest and is the only one worth considering. It's an easy to use box with a well-designed, simple 8-day EPG. It's well-featured too with two Scart sockets for easy connection to both TV and recorder and the Scart-link feature that lets you programme a compatible DVD or video recorder via the on-screen TV listings. BTW on the subject of Which? Sky are still actively promoting Sky+ as a "Which? Best Buy" with an on-screen Which? logo - this despite the fact that this status was recently withdrawn because of reliability concerns. Jeremy McAuliffe Jeremy also provided a run-down on the "don't Buys" but I think we'd be into copyright problems if I included everything here! Please subscribe to "Which"" magazine to get all the details!
I have a Nokia 221T which I have had for some time. I think I made the decision to buy this one due to having two scart output ports but actually I use neither at the moment due to other reasons of set up. I have nothing to compare it with but equally I have no real complaints but here are a few comments: 1. We now turn everything off every night and luckily our video, dvd player and freeview all have no problem with this. They seem to all come on as they were before. 2. I have had to re-boot but only a couple of times due to it freezing 3. I have separately earthed it as there is a slight current on the box. I recall that this was in fact a replacement as the first box had a very strong current 4. I have successfully left the timer to turn on to different stations at different times. Once it worked, however the second time it did not but maybe it was me! 5. I find the menu pretty good and fit for purpose. 6. Its not too bad looking Hope this is helpful Paul Myers
I moved to Freeview boxes when my £99 "Sky" digibox + satellite mini dish without a Sky subscription packed up. The digibox still worked but it was easier to buy a cheap box than to sort out what was wrong with the satellite set up. I have had a succession of Freeview boxes from ADSA and Tesco &endash; always buying the cheapest. None of the ASDA ones lasted very long &endash; but they all packed up within the guarantee period so I got my money back. The Tesco Digilogic DSTB1000 seemed better &endash; though one of the two I had packed up recently. I replaced it (within the guarantee period) with another Tesco Digilogic &endash; but a newer model (I do not have the number as I have returned it). However, the sound kept cutting out briefly so I returned it and now have an Asda Durabrand CG5660-M for under £20. From web comments I am not convinced the more expensive Freeview boxes will last any longer and I will certainly avoid a TV with a built in Freeview receiver until they are more reliable. Judy Allfrey
I have a Humax PVR-8000T, which is the best thing since sliced bread. I've had it about 2 years. The programme guide is better to use than that built into the TV (Toshiba). It's simple to operate and, at 80Mb, has enough capacity for my needs. Its single tuner is adequate for 99% of the time. The only drawback is the lack of any means of recording your favourites to disc, but then at the price what can be expected? About every three months it starts to lose the programmes on the guide and a re-boot is required. Picture and playback quality is excellent. Definitely reccommended. Bill Morrow
Trevor has sent in a list of common faults but much of it is so technical that it would be useful only to a fully-equipped workshop. However, his conclusions are interesting: On the basis of my experience I have developed the following criteria of features to look for when purchasing a Freeview box. 1) Avoid buying separates. Try to buy a box with an integral Power supply. Avoid external adaptors- they fail. 2) Try and ensure that it is in a robust metal case. Plastic boxes are fragile and are subject to cracking and melting. They also do not bounce well! 3) Ensure that the box has a 7-day EPG. Now and next info is insufficient. Without the 7day EPG box is liable to crash. 4) If you have to buy a box without the EPG ensure that it comes with an RS232 connector so as it may be updated via a PC. Updates on the BBC engineering channel can be few and far between and are never for the model you have. The only exception are Grundig and Thomson products which have updates running continually on multiplex A. Just switch to Channel Five and your box will update. Do not rely on an over-air update for the box you wish to purchase. If I was asked to recommend a box using the above criteria I would recommend the Goodmans GDB 2/3 or clones as these are easily updated using a PC or the GDB6 which already has it installed (V1.8). These boxes fulfil most of the criteria although the EPG is somewhat clumsy. Trevor Austin
I have had a Pace twin digital box for some years: it had to be returned under warranty for some fault, for which I can no longer remember the details. Otherwise It has behaved well and given no other problems, apart from its restricted storage capacity (10 hrs), which the passage of time/progress has made seem inadequate, though it certainly focuses the mind on priorities. Because of this (perceived) lack of capacity I relegated the Pace to the bedroom and replaced it with a Humax PVR 9200T. This functions well, once one has mastered the inadequate manual, but is let down by the noise of the cooling fan (just like a PC's) which the Pace doesn't have (or if it does, it's noiseless). I run the two boxes from a single aerial with a splitter mounted under the eaves, about 3-4 feet from the aerial. So far the signal seems to have been adequate for both, though in the early days of going digital, and using only the Pace box, the signal was severely affected by above normal atmospheric pressure. Tony Pettifer
Sadly, (or FORTUNATELY for us as, we sell satellite!) there is still no DTT in these parts (Portugal/Algarve), although they are selling TV's with in-built DTT tuners like there's no tomorrow! Oh well, it's coming soon one may think, but apparently there's no sign of them replacing the (VHF/UHF!) analogue network in the foreseeable. I did have one long distance enquiry, which was solved skilfully & efficiently by 'Everclear Aerials' of Bonnyrigg, just outside Edinburgh (my original home town). An early DTT receiver (Sagem) was pixellating frequently, Everclear noted that the house was close to the river Forth (across which is the nearest transmitter, Craigkelly). He assumed the problem was being caused by reflected signals from the mass of water, & simply turned the WB aerial 90° to point to the Glasgow Black Hill transmitter, fitted a small booster & hey presto! Problem solved, and change out of £70. The 4 year old Sagem was spared a trip to the wheely bin & Sky were deprived of another subscriber. Shame! Finally, I extend my sincerest thanks to you for your tireless efforts in providing an excellent & interesting website, & I wish you all the best for the future. Warmest regards, Trevor Morgan.
I have currently got 3 around the house, including a Panasonic sky box in my main living room. The others I have are as follows: - Nokia 221T
- Goodmans GDB3
- Freecom DVB-T Scart type
The only one I have had problems with is the Freecom DVB-T, which locked up after 4 months use, and had to be returned, but was replaced no problem, and the current unit is still working OK, 4 weeks on. The reception is good, and the menu's useful on this one, as well as fitting directly to a scart socket on the TV, and has a separate power supply unit, which can be hidden away. The remote unit is a small sensor which can be stuck anywhere suitable, so it is a little more expensive than most models, but has the advantage of being easily positioned, especially if you have an LCD TV on your wall. The Nokia 221T unit is the oldest, about 6 years old now. Never had any major problems, although it occassionally locks up, but no worse than my Panasonic Sky box, which is a lot older. I have this working off a set top aerial in my conservatory, so it picks up weak signals very well. The menus tend to let it down a bit, as you have no guide, but not bad for its age. The Goodmans GDB3 I bought about 4 years ago when my daughter was at University. It was cheap and is probably the best unit. The guide and menus are good, and I have noticed the same menu's on my fathers Philips digital freeview TV, so they must use the same system. Never had a problem with it, and it was constantly "on" when it was at Uni, as they never switched anything off! Hope this helps. Regards. John Arnold
I have had a Pace Twin box for the last two to three years. Generally very happy with it; shame I can't buy another for someone I know. I had some problems with it locking up but most of these lockups have been solved by giving it some air space underneath. Replaced the hard disk with a larger one as the original only gave 10 hours, which isn't enough. I think the EPG is great, especially when I see what other boxes give. I bought a £50 Phillips box for someone and the EPG is c**p. I guess you get what you pay for. Ray Leask
I have 3 Digifusion FVRT 100 boxes which have all been a complete nightmare! Have replaced power supply units and fans but they still will not boot to standby except after many attempts, if left in standby will eventually lock to "Hold", continually lock up during use, lose recorded programmes, take forever to respond to commands and now Digifusion appear to have withdrawn all support and nightly EPG updates. Noel Jones
I have an aerial in my loft, with a masthead amplifier going via a Sky box and a video recorder, then into an amplifier/splitter into 5 rooms. The picture (including the one from the sky dish was always very grainy. We don't watch enough TV to justify the Sky costs so terminated the agreement but left sky box running. Added 2 freeview boxes into this, one (a Humax PVR-9200T) into the living room before the main TV and the other (a Ferguson FD1 Prism) before a small TV in the kitchen. Picture on both is excellent. Reason for choosing Humax - Good reports in what I think was the Sunday Times. Ferguson - Wanted cheap and small box for kitchen, this met both requirements and had no adverse comments on the internet. Best regards Dave Barratt
Living in a marginal reception area (for Phone, analogue TV and DVB-T !) I decided to buy a cheap DVB-T receiver to test the waters, after spending £300 to upgrade our aerial/distribution system. Started with a cheap Wharfedale box. Installation was OK, but in use it was clunky, with a poor EPG which often failed to update. Quite a few digi glitches, especially on Channel 5, but heaps better than the terrestrial signal. Tended to lock up quite frequently- about once per week, needing a reboot. This one is still in use in one of the bedrooms. Moved on to a TVonics DVR 150 Recordable receiver. Nice box, and very quiet for a HDD unit. Excellent Remote including multi-device control. Setup was a breeze. The picture is better than the Wharfedale box, but we still get glitches on sound from time to time. Navigation is excellent, and the EPG on of the best I've seen. Access to recording/playback functions is also excellent, with an intuitive set of menus for playback from last view, from start, or any selectable time form start, or end of program. We still get times when it needs restarting- sometimes it refuses to respond to the remote, sometimes the sound goes altogether when changing channels; however the restart is fast, and recording instructions are retained. Overall score 8/10 ! Neil Mellerick
For Freeview UK TV we have a Daewoo receiver with Setpal that works very well - it only very occassionally hangs, resolved by unplugging the mains power supply. The aerial is a Triax Unix 52 TV Aerial, I've never experienced any reception problems. Matt Viljoen
Lichfield is fairly close to Sutton Coldfield but I live in a hilly area, close to the bottom of a valley. Analogue reception is poor without resorting to a very tall, very obtrusive mast. Fortunately, digital reception is good, even using a small 'caravan' aerial, mounted below roof height. The aerial is connected to a seven port amplifier in the loft space with individual coax cables going down into each room. I've used three receivers in total. I bought a Sony VTX-D800U when I first moved here nearly three years ago. It has always worked fine with excellent picture and a reasonable program guide. It is still working in my son's bedroom. Just after I bought the Sony, Freeview PVRs started to become available and I bought a Topfield TF580PVR-S in November 2005. This is an excellent device. Picture just as good as the Sony though a bit more garish at times. There are one or two niggles about it's operation during playback but nothing serious. Just before Christmas 2006, my CRT television gave up the ghost after about five years and I bought a 32 LCD, Toshiba WLT66 series. This has an integrated digital receiver and gives the best picture of all, presumably because of the elimination of the analogue Scart lead. I might upgrade the Topfield some time to something with an HDMI port that can write DVDs though I'll probably wait to see how the HD-DVD / Blu-ray spat works out. Although the internal tuner is better than the PVR, it is rarely used. I hardly watch anything live anymore. Early in the evening I set the PVR to record everything that I want to watch and watch the recordings when convenient. I don't have any interest in football and if I want to watch a film I buy the DVD so that I can experience it in surround sound. For people like me, Freeview provides all the television they need. If Sky were to start transmitting everything in HD I might be tempted to buy a dish but even then I'm not convinced. Alan Naismith In fact you are only 7 miles from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter and the Wolfbane prediction site reckons that a log-periodic aerial should work fine. But "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Anyone else wanting to know what aerial is recommended should put their postcode in here: http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?DX As a general rule, Wolbane prediction tends to be pessimistic and often suggests "amplified high-gain" where a perfectly ordinary aerial will do fine. If the predicted "Field dBµV/m" is at least 35, then you should be OK with something like a QR18 and a masthead amplifier. If it's lower than that, a DAT45 with "MRD" should work. If it's less than 30 but at least 25, a DAT75 with "MRD" might work, (but it's a massive beast and not easy to install or align). Please read our eBook "The Freeview Bible" for (a lot) more information.
Recommend an installer Some of you may be aware that we have a list of recommended installers here: http://www.satcure.co.uk/useful/installers.htm If you'd like to recommend one, please write to us with details and your reason for recommending. Become a Digital TV Installer - update We are still getting new subscribers to the course and several have now completed it. Most of them will (hopefully) soon be joining the "recommended" list! (top) Questions Freeview fiasco One has to ask why???? How much money has been spent so far, and has yet to be spent, on a substandard service for the main population areas? Here is Crowthorne - in the Thames Valley, once renowned for its technological expertise - I cannot get Freeview. This is not completely true. I can sort of get some of the mulitplexes - if the weather is fine and atmospherics favourable. (I stand a better chance of getting Brazil on shortwave). Unfortunately the programmes which do arrive seem to be the home shopping programmes - which I do not want - and not the main channels - which I do. I am told this is because the signal from Hannington needs to be attenuated until the Guildford analogue service is switched off. I have been advised that my best option is SKY. This would appear to be the case for large areas of the country. Now, I understand that Freeview is not capable of carrying HD signals. The advice again is that if you want HD you should go to SKY. Surely someone should lose their job over this fiasco? I don't mean some Government minister - they have probably moved on by now - but some technical director - or perhaps all the technical staff charged with making this happen. How much of the license fees and other tax pots have been squandered on this so far? No wonder the content being transmitted is so appalling. The broadcasting situation is bad enough. I do not even want to think about the multiroom + timeshift scenarios. John Beeston At present, Freeview is a temporary low-power service which is not intended or expected to be received by all. Of course we are being encouraged to switch over if we can, because this will reduce the load on the aerial installers and equipment suppliers when the official switch-over occurs. It might even be cheaper to switch now if you need to employ a professional. It's quite possible that installation prices could rocket when "panic sets in". The alternative to Freeview is not Sky - it is Satellite TV. You can get this simply by installing a used or new Sky Digibox and dish system. Buy a £20 Freesat card if you want to receive the 5 additional programmes (CH4, Five, Sky3, Five Life and Five US). Alternatively, buy a Free To Air satellite receiver and either a motorised dish system or a multiple LNB dish system. Such a system will get you hundreds of free programmes (but not the five listed above).
New Products We have added to our range the Labgear masthead aerial amplifiers with variable gain. The advantage of these above all others is that the power supply can be fitted next to the TV set and incorporates a gain control. So there's no need for a power point in the loft AND you can adjust the gain for optimum signal while you monitor what's happening on the TV screen! | 
| Due to popular demand we have got a bunch of twelve-volt operated LNB switches from America. This replaces the CS012 which Global has stopped manufacturing because "there's no demand". (So why is everyone asking for it?) |
Of course you can order these direct from Sadoun in America yourself, but you'll have to wait at least a week for delivery and pay the postage and import duty.
Sky Digiboxes We have a limited number of refurbished Sky Digiboxes for sale. These have been properly repaired (where necessary) and tested - not just dusted! They come with a 6 month guarantee. (Sky is so confident that it gives only a 3 month warranty on its own refurbished boxes!) 
Please note that we do NOT include a remote control or Scart lead. We assume that most people will buy a box simply to replace an existing Digibox. However, we DO include FOUR eBooks for download, including the "Digibox Missing Manual" and you can order other bits separately, if required.
Happy Customers Many thanks for once more giving a five star service, I submitted my order Wednesday afternoon, around 3 o'clock and the LNB arrived Saturday morning IN RURAL FRANCE. Why can't all companies give such a great service? We are now back in the land of tv reception thanks to you all! Well done to all concerned. Trish Kerstin
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): SAT019035 Ordered yesterday - through the door this morning, magic or what. Thanks. Tom
Hi there, people tend to spend a great deal of time writing critical emails when an order or product goes wrong, but never write an email when it goes right. Let me address that. Thank you for a very speedy order and for the technical help in solving what could have been a nightmare with fitting multiple wall plates. Not only did you point me in the correct direction on the products page (must learn to use the scroll wheel!!)but the parts arrived the next day ensuring that I could complete the work whilst the "Sparks" had the floorboards up. The "mix and match" modular wall plates ensured that I could put in exactly what I needed for a rather complicated whole house AV system. So again thank you for your help and I look foward to using & recommending you in the future. thanks Adrian Ginzler
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): SAT017881 Please ignore my refund request made earlyer. My copy of the 'BIBLE' has now downloaded correctly. I am well pleased with its content & happy for you to have the payment. I will check my bank statments carfuly over the next 2 months as I have no intention of trying to cheet you. Sorry if this has caused any inconveniance. Thanks, Geoff.
Just to give you feedback. I purchased a replacement Pace Zif Tuner having read on your site it was likely to be the cause of the problem (no sat signal being received). Fitted it without major problem and everything now works perfectly. Thank you for a superb site with excellent advice. I will definitely use your site again and recommend it to others. Thanks again!! Jon Cottrell Hi Jon, That's great news. Always pleased to hear that our efforts are appreciated. Many thanks for taking the time to let us know. Best Wishes Mark and the team at Satcure Technical (top) eBook Updates How to Fit Extra TV Points This new eBook is still on special offer. - All eBooks have been moved to a more reliable secure server which requires a username and password. If you can't access it, please contact us (wherever you bought it - SatCure or The Cool Book Shop) with your proof of purchase and ask for the new download information, stating exactly which eBook(s) you purchased and the EBK number(s).
http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.uk | 
"Installing a Sky Minidish" tutorial on DVD. Click 
