Advantages: Twin tuner flexibility. Good tech support with upgrades etc from toppy.org.uk forum
Disadvantages: A lot to learn, not helped by p***-poor manual

...April 2008 - Two years down the line, I remain convinced that, foibles excepted, the Topfield 5800 remains the clear leader in its field, so much so that I've bought second one before they stop making them in favour of the new 5810T. *************************************************************** I'd owned a PVR before; the excellent Humax 8000PVRT, designed solely for Freeview digital terrestrial TV, but since buying it, two things happened. a) I got fed up with paying £19.50/month to Sky, just for a load of dross intermingled with the free channels I can get elsewhere and b) My TV started to become very troublesome, and any replacement I was to buy was likely to be a flat screen monitor requiring outboard tuners. The Humax's single tuner for Freeview would then have been a limitation. To put the icing on the cake, I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Cheap, given the wherewithal to finish it cheaply.
Disadvantages: Somewhat limited facilties. Crap manual

...the "Nerd Raid Warning" alarm. Well for a start, there's no real point to operating the Barebone's two Freeview tuners without a hard drive, since at this point, it's just a set-top box and your TV can only be connected to one tuner at a time, so it makes sense to dive straight in and fit that hard drive, assuming that you've not been totally enthralled by making naughty words in pasta by now, thus ensuring that you'll never be asked back as the entertainer at your little niece's birthday party……or gone dipping sheep, a crime only slightly less heinous than muffin the mule. The drive can be any full size (not laptop) IDE-type, now also known as PATA (not SATA), up to 500 gbytes. This presents a minor problem. Most new hard drives intended for a PC now spin a lot faster than they used to with an ensuing increase in noise levels... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Very easy to use, very accurate.
Disadvantages: Quite small, loud noises can interfere with tuning with built in mic.

...This is a must for any musician on the move, or simply someone who needs to tune guitars often. The whole thing is incredibly easy to use, with three clear lights that light up according to the note. To use it, you can either use the built in microphone, and it will pick up the sounds very easily, but can be troublesome if there is too much background noise, things like a tv, even other guitars playing in the background can be fine, but there are times when it becomes difficult. The other way is to simply use your musical cable (same type you use for an amplifier) and plug it into the jack socket in the side of the tuner. It will then pick up anything you play. The small dial alternates between the right and left sides, making it very clear how far you are from hitting the right note. The red lights will turn off and the middle... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Digital TV, Very good picture quality, Aerial included
Disadvantages: Remote Control looks cheap, Software rubbish

...The JetWay DTV DVB-T PCI card is a Digital TV Tuner card for desktop computers. This means once you have installed it and its accompanying software, you can watch Digital Terrestrial (i.e. Freeview) TV on your computer. A USB version is also available but the one I have is the PCI version, which is installed inside a computer. I bought it for £54 including delivery off eBay but later found it at Ebuyer for just over £40. INSTALLING Installing it was pretty easy. I just turned off my computer, pulled out the power for safe measure, removed the back plate at an available PCI slot position, slotted the card in and then screw it down. That was the hardware installation done with. The rest was just to plug the power back in, fire up the computer and lastly install the drivers and software for the JetWay card from the CD provided... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: "Free" TV from the other side of the world... where-ever you are!
Disadvantages: Really none I can think of that concern the device itself

...This review is actually based on my use of the Japanese version of this product, SlingMedia's Sling Box SB150-120. The UK model is the SB150-110, and as far as I have been able to establish (from friends actually using it on my advice), the UK model differs from the Japanese model only in respect of the TV Tuner. The UK Model * I am told * features a TV Tuner that is DVB/FreeView capable (which would not work in Japan anyway) and is of course based on the PAL TV system (whereas Japan's model uses NTSC like America). The device itself is smaller than you may expect, and most definitely ugly, but you can't really hold that against it, particularly when there is no reason why it has to be on view (there are no IR remote sensors on the front, for example). It comes with all the cables, software, and instructions you will require... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: DVB TV, Recording, Time shift. Pause Live TV
Disadvantages: Software needs improving

.... The back of the unit has connections for the Aerial and the USB cable. The box is nice and re-assuringly heavy compared to the first DVB box I bought. The box the tuner came with had the unit, USB cable and the IR remote (with batteries). It also had the software CD and a user’s manual. Remote The remote is very impressive for this tuner. It’s a nice big, but not bulky unit. It is very much the same as the remote controls you see used with Windows Media Centre (and wouldn’t be surprised if that was the intention of this remote). The only complaint I have is that when combined with the software provided by Hauppauge, the remote does very little. All that you are able to do is change channels, the volume and pause and record the television channel. As I am aware there are plug-ins available for Girder (a third party... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Turns your PC into a Freeview Personal Video Recorder
Disadvantages: Not all PCs suited to siting in lounge

...’s hardly a suitable situation for family viewing. Besides, I’ve a 16:9 TV, which can take advantage of Freeview’s native wide screen format whereas my 4:3 monitor renders this as the usual ‘band across the middle’ with stripes top and bottom. You CAN specify a 4:3 format to fill the monitor screen, but you lose one of digital TV’s main attractions like that. Incidentally, sound is fed via an optical link from my sound card to my Yamaha Digital Surround tuner/amplifier – this gives me true 5.1 channel sound when watching a DVD and stereo from the TV. It also goes without saying that any analogue sound card can produce stereo at the very least. My only reservation is that there seems to be a discernible jerkiness to the depiction of movement – it not too distressing, rather like sitting too close to the screen at the cinema, but it has... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful