Reviews of Set Top Boxes »

Everything you'd expect of a satellite except SKY

Advantages: Free to view at a highly affordable price
Disadvantages: No SKY but not in itself a bad thing

...subscription. That's where the Comag SL-65 comes in. The SL-65 is an entry level digital satellite receiver, which connects to a dish at one end of a wire, and your telly at the other. If you don't mind being stuck to one satellite, you can connect it to an existing dish instead of a Sky box, but with the right kit, you could be surfing up to a couple of thousand channels a night! There's four main communities who would probably like this unit. ...
...but not beyond everyone) Comag rebadge their receivers for a number of retailers, most famously in Europe for the LIDL discount store, and are branded 'Silvercrest' - it's the same gubbins inside the box. A standalone unit usually costs around £30, and one complete with dish, static mounts and cable can be had for about twice that. A dish rotator can be had on ebay for around £40 - you'll also need a compass and a signal detector, both of which ...

dobieg 15.04.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Comag SL 65

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Hitachi HDR253 digital TV recorder

Advantages: Good value, 120 hours recording
Disadvantages: No live replay, slow to start-up, slow to pause, poor program guide format

I bought this unit a few days ago, because my old unit died after 5 years. I wouldn't buy another British made unit, because the one just died had many small problems from day one. I went for this model because it's a well known Japanese brand, and I thought I couldn't go wrong. I regret I didn't make more research before I bought it, and I should have checked the Which reviews. I bought it from Argos, and they have a non return/exchange policy on ...
...would exchange/refund on other items. The price was OK at £120, but I rate this unit only satisfactory for the following reasons : - There's no live replay - Live pause is slow to start - Program guide is horizontal, so it's difficult to see a whole days program - It's not possible to rearrange favourite channels, eg group all ITV channels together - There's no guard time, so if the BBC starts a program slightly earlier or ends slightly later, ...

synctime 23.11.2009 · Read full review

Review of Hitachi HDR253

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Satellite TV at a bargain price

Advantages: An economical way to get a wide range of channels
Disadvantages: You could end up with a dish you don't need

Last year when I was in B&Q I spotted an offer which seemed to good to miss - A satellite kit for free to air digital TV for just £19.99. Even though I already had a satellite dish and was watching FreeSat from Sky in my lounge I thought it might be possible to erect the dish from this kit on the other side of the house so that I would have a signal on the other side of the house. The trouble was when I got it home I realised that because of the ...
...fit this second dish where I thought I could and so the whole package has languished in the spare room gathering dust! Fast forward to this week and I have just decided to invest in a new FreeSat box with twin tuner so I called out the aerial people to upgrade my existing dish to accommodate the twin tuner. I did tell them I would like to continue to use my Sky box in another room so they helpfully fitted a four port LNB to the dish so that I would ...

laramax 06.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Philex 28212R

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Thompson dti 6300 16

Advantages: Price. easy to use,
Disadvantages: has ruined my life as i have sooooooooooooo much to watch now

After reading lots of bad reviews about this box I looked for others, as i couldn't find any for the same sort of money i thought i would try it and send it back if i didnt like it. Once it arrived i plugged it in and set about setting it up, the channel search took about 5 mins as it had to do a search for the top up tv channels. As i wasnt wanting the top up tv part i went to settings and turned off all topup tv channels which gave me more hard ...
...series link at 11:30am i went about putting some programs to record the series which was very easy and straight forward. All the problems i heard about this box i have not found. It was a great buy and all the family love it. ...

didgestar 29.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: not helpful
Review of Thomson DTI 6300-16

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Twenty-First Century TV Revolution

Advantages: Fantastic Features and Ease of Use
Disadvantages: EPG slow to Load

...When turned on, the Humax shows a blue LED display at the front, broadcasting the current channel and the current time - the text here is bright and easy to view, and again pleasing to look at. Set Me Up I have set up a lot of AV equipment over the years, and I'm happy to report that the 9300 is one of the simplest and easiest machines to get going. Simply put the aerial in the aerial slot, the SCART or HDMI cable (both included) in the SCART ...
...to 'make a reservation' as Humax call it - it's a really simple and pain free process! If the programme you have selected is part of a series, then you can choose to record every episode from now until eternity - the box will do all the hard work for you. The Remote Made from black plastic, the remote control is a fairly chunky device which feels quite robust. All the buttons are found in intuitive locations, and are responsive when pressed. ...

JOE.B 29.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Humax PVR-9300T

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