Freecom DVB-T USB stick DVB terrestrial receiver / radio input adapter

* Introduction * Many years ago, I was one of those unfortunate people who decided to subscribe to the, now defunct company, OnDigital. I had a rather nice set-top box next to my TV in the living room, and I could receive and watch channels that weren’t normally available – and it was great! Now its gone, and in its place is FreeView, a new digital service that provides digital channels. * Free Who? * FreeView is an organisation, managed by DTV Services Ltd, a company owned and run by the main TV companies, BBC, BSkyB Channel 4, ITV and National Grid Wireless (I’ve no idea who they are either) ... more

With analogue TV on the way out it was time to get to grips with the TV future of our home. We have cable from Virgin Media but I was looking for a cheaper alternative and one that was perhaps a bit different from the usual freepay boxes. I found such a device on riverstream.co.uk for a pricey sum of 16.97 plus 99p postage. It promptly arrived just 2 days later and I was keen to seen the outcome on my new computer. Unfortunately everytime I tried to load the software which comes with the unit my computer crashed. Umpteen emails and a new device later and I was still no further forward. That ... more

I got one of these to add extra digital services to my household on my PC as I thought it would be good to watch a bit of TV whilst doing some Uni work or general web browsing, the price was excellent and the unit is quite a lot smaller than other digi boxes or TV boxes for the PC so that was a plus. Initial installation wasn't too difficult, install the drivers, plug in the stick and the PC does the rest for you. However, the supplied software leaves much to be desired, it is rather slow, hard to navigate and switching between channels seems to take a while - plus it uses a lot of computer ... more

I've had this thing since mid-2006, so I've pretty much seen all the ups and downs with it. Firstly, the provided aerial is not brilliant, but provided you're in a strong signal area, you'll have no problems. Do consider the fact that you may need to connect it to a loft/roof aerial. Secondly, the software is fully functional, but it lacks in some areas. For example, you'll need to have 2 channel listing files set up, one for day time television, and one for night. This is because the stick doesn't recognise channels that are off air at certain times, so you'll have to step in here yourself ... more

Summary: I cannot recommend this unless there is a major re-working of the software. Have had my unit for a few months and I use it on a notebook, for which this (portable) device is primarily designed. The unit handles just TV (running no other apps on your notebook) pretty well. Unfortunately, my video memory is shared and the moment you try and hop a few channels the Freecom tends to struggle. I know this is a combination of the shared graphics and the Freecom, but I have no way of upgrading my video memory so have to live with it! The software looks bad and under-performs. This is one of ... more