Philips DTR1500

...the Sony D800U, and the Philips DTR1500 what I liked about both, they have dual SCART inputs, and have a novel way of mounting, the traditional horizontal way, or vertically next to your telly - with the addition of a small plastic widget.

The Philip’s DTR1500 (£77 from Amazon.co.uk) came in about £40 cheaper than the Sony model, this was the one for me.

Delivery from Amazon was swift, upon opening the box the following ...
...-SCART Lead (1M), Mains lead, RF coax lead.
-Instructions/Guarantee
-Remote control + Batteries.

Set up was also swift, the aerial plugged straight into the back of the receiver, then looped back out into my VCR and TV so these could still receive a signal. I only needed to use one of the SCART sockets, this connected straight to the back of my TV with the supplied lead. I also decided to connect by Hi-Fi to the audio ... more

With the prices of most terrestrial receivers now well under £100 I decided to give one a go a couple of months ago.

Two models appeared on the market that appealed to me, the Sony D800U, and the Philips DTR1500 what I liked about both, they have dual SCART inputs, and have a novel way of mounting, the traditional horizontal way, or vertically next to your telly - with the addition of a small plastic widget.

The Philip’s DTR1500 (£77 from Amazon.co.uk) came in about £40 cheaper than the Sony model, this was the one for me.

Delivery from Amazon was swift, upon opening the box the following was supplied:-

-Receiver
-Upright Stand
-SCART Lead (1M), Mains lead, RF coax lead.
-Instructions/Guarantee
-Remote control + Batteries.

Set up was also swift, the aerial plugged straight into the back of the receiver, then looped back out into my VCR and TV so these could still receive a signal. I only needed to use one of the SCART sockets, this connected straight to the back of my TV with the supplied lead. I also decided to connect by Hi-Fi to the audio Phono’s at the rear of the unit (a coax digital socket is also fitted for connection A/V receivers)
**A word of warning, some of the ‘cheaper’ digi-boxes only have one SCART lead and don not have loop through RF, this can be a bit limiting!**

I plugged the mains lead into the socket, to my horror nothing happened – then it dawned on me, like a t**t I had not plugged the other end into the box !

Upon remedying this and selecting the appropriate AV channel on the TV, I was greeted with a set up screen, this showed the box to be auto–tuning, I left it to get on with this while I had a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake.

Set up took about 5 minutes, after this I was able to check out all the new channels.

There are currently about 23 channels available, I won’t bore you with details as these have been well documented by some TV chimps, but the extra BBC channels ITV2 and UK history are the most watch-able. About 21 radio stations can also be heard, with crystal clear clarity, including Radio1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and other stations such as Kerrang! These sound great when pumped through the Hi-Fi. I have no need for my old analogue tuner any more, so have got rid.

With regard to picture quality, It is near perfect the only glitches I have noticed are the occasional ‘orange’ line when it is raining/stormy, I have yet to witness any lockups. This though may be due to having an external roof aerial. As stated before, the sound is quite acceptable, especially through external amp.

The remote control is small and neat, takes 2 off ‘AA’ cells, it is quite responsive and works from many angles.
The remote can click up and down between channels, also the volume can be controlled to the output phono’s (but not the SCART output for some reason). A numeric keypad allows you to tap in station numbers manually if desired. By using the navigation keys info on current programs can be seen on screen, also what program is to follow. If you need subtitles, a button is provided for this, it works like ‘888’ with analogue TV’s, but is much clearer.
The digital tele-text is available on channel 9, this will give you full listings and all programs.
By pressing the MENU button an on screen menu is displayed giving various options such as parental control.
Pressing the GUIDE button brings up all the accessible channels and what they are showing.
A timer is also provided for use with your VCR. The draw back with this type of tuner is that you can only tape what you are watching (more expensive boxes have hard disk recorders included so you may record what you like). What I tend to do is tape from the analogue stations, and watch the digital (or vica-verca), this does allow some flexibility.
The RADIO button allows quick switching between TV / radio mode.

The front of the unit also has TV/Radio & channel Up/Down buttons in case of remote control failure, along with some pulsating LED’s.

Instruction manual supplied is clear and thorough. Unit supplied with standard 1 year warranty.

IN GENERAL: A very useful, reliable piece of kit. Have had no problems with it. Would recommend.
 

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