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Sagem DTR 94320S
by askmeanything The product: There are instructions on how to install and use which are included in the box. It has 320 GB that equates to 320 hours of programmes and in HD 120 hours. That's not a huge amount of space but has served my recording needs so far over the period of a year. There is an HDMI lead and a power pack, a remote control, ... an Ethernet port to connect to the internet, two SCART sockets, a USB connection through the front of the box (beside the red digit clock) and digital/analogue sockets. The Sagem looks quite stylish in black with a rounded metallic frame that has a clock on it. The clock disappears when changing channel and recording but does return and is accurate. The idea of this device is to be able to watch and record Freeview and HD channels and all for the cost of this set-top box. Expect to pay over one hundred pounds. There are hundreds of channels available without any subscription payments required. There's plenty to watch without needing to pay out tons of money for a subscription service. To change channel press the P+ and P- buttons or type in the required channel number. The remote control is in a less stylish grey which doesn't match the box. I thought there would be a subtitle function but I can't find it which means my Mum can't watch some of the recorded programmes. My experiences: The HDMI connects the receiver to the televisions set. It took a while to understand how to use this. The TV guide comes up on the screen at a press of a button. Scroll through the on screen TV guide to find the programme you wish to record. I'm afraid scrolling is a painfully slow process. Select the programme and press the button. I am not too impressed with the sound. It just doesn't seem all that clear to me but this might be the television. I am puzzled as to why sometimes the recording doesn't finish through to the end. I watched everything but the last five minutes of 'Empire to the Sun'. I assume the programme had been shown later than scheduled but I thought the box might have the capabilities to adjust to that. When the digital switchover was made I found the box stopped working. I was forced to pay to get someone in to help. Eventually, it was put right but I don't know how. From the beginning I have always had to press the source button on my television control. Then move the arrow keys down until on the screen a menu appears and I scroll down until HDMI2 and click on that. After this a message comes up to say there is no signal and to check for loose connections. I even had to call an engineer out because I didn't understand it. I thought there was a loose connection between the box and the television. I've learnt to ignore this. I have to switch on the box control. It then states 'wait' on the television screen. Then there is a labouriously long pause. Finally, you can watch TV, or press list to see what you've recorded, or click on watch you recorded or record. When scrolling through the recorded programmes each one that you touch will begin playing, in the top corner of the screen, even if you don't want it to. Fast forward the adverts and I can't stop it in time to meet the next part of the programme. Therefore, the very important function doesn't perform, so I have to sit through all the adverts anyway! It pauses just fine and can be re-wound but the same problem occurs as with fast forward. I don't have the same control as I did with video tapes or DVDs and I can't take programmes to other people's houses. I consider this a backward step. The device has just completed its first year of use. It provides a great picture, but that might be the television producing it, and normally records well. Yesterday, though, I set the recorder and noticed that the power light wasn't doing anything. I quickly repeated the recording process and thankfully, it did record. However, it was freezing up and several times I switched the power off everything at the mains and restarted. This is not the first time that there have been difficulties. Luckily, I just managed to get it to record with seconds to spare. Had I been out, or even in a different room, I wouldn't have noticed that there was something wrong. A whole series over a number of days and weeks can be recorded but I don't trust this and either don't bother with the series or record one episode at a time on the day of transmission. The whole series can be recorded at the touch of just one button which makes it very easy if you want to do this. I have no confidence that my recorded programmes will be safe from deletion in the future. This saddens me and sometimes technology advancing can have disadvantages that make them seem rather backwards. Now I keep getting an on screen message asking me to update. I keep saying no because I'm scared it will not work anymore or delete the recordings. I don't even know why it needs to be updated. Finally: This was brought on the recommendation of a sales person in Currys. I took his word that it was the best. I must remember not to take their advice but check the reviews before buying. The advice, in my review, is to not buy unless it very cheap as it can't be relied upon. Read the complete review |
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Amstrad DRX890 Sky Plus HD Digibox
by Lakerfanster **Introduction** I had wanted to get Sky for a while and having moved to a smaller town in February last year I was unsatisfied with the Pubs in the area compared to where I used to watch Football in my hometown of Taunton. I had been thinking about Sky for a few months but was put off by the price so opted for making do with ... ESPN on Top Up TV. I then heard of several offers which Martin Lewis was mentioning on Moneysupermarket and I decided to have a look into it. Unfortunately there were only a limited amount of codes available so when I saw a status update on Facebook from someone who was in my Year at School who now works for Sky I jumped at the chance. I managed to get the whole TV Package at half price for 12 months which I thought was an excellent deal and was manageable financially. **The Setup** When you sign up for Sky they send someone round to install the Box and setup the dish if needed. As I am living in a flat which has a satellite connection already there was no need for another dish so setup was simple and only took ten minutes or so. You are sent out your card which they will insert into the box and then will go through the process with you in case anything happens that needs the process to be repeated. Anyway once this has been done and your box is connected to Sky you can now receive all the channels that you have requested in your package. It's also simple to upgrade to extra channels or take away a package via the internet connection or by phone. **The Box** I have always liked the look of the Sky+ boxes as they look stylish and sturdy and look nice with the other equipment you have may in your setup. The box is made by Amstrad. Sky have pioneered the way people watch TV as most people nowadays have some form of TV Recorder whether it's Sky, Virgin Media, Freesat or a freeview recorder. The box has 250GB of space to record which allows an amazing 185 hours of standard TV Or around 60 hours of HD TV. This will be enough for most people but if you need to have more storage you can get the bigger hard drives all the way up to an astonishing 2TB which gives Up to 350 hours of HD TV or up to a whopping 1180 hours of standard TV. The one I have is the 250GB one and that is more than enough for Sport, Music, Films etc. **Using the Box** An important aspect of any recorder of player is how easy it is to use and what the on screen menus are like. Well I'm pleased to report that you'll find some excellent navigation here with menus easily readable and simple to scroll through. Channels are a little trickier to remember especially if you watch a range of material but you can add channels to your favourites and also find them through your TV Guide with a press of a button and a quick scroll through the subjects menu which divides the channels into their genre ie Sport, Music, Documentaries etc. It's also easy to setup a programme to record and you can choose to record the whole series which keeps a reminder for future shows and will record them for you without you needing to set it up again. **Picture and Sound** Sky are always raving about how good the experience is and the picture from this box is excellent, whether watching HD Sport or a SD episode of your favourite soap the picture will look excellent and deserves a Decent TV to show what it can really do. This Box will provide an excellent picture Whether or not you have a full HD TV. The movies look stunning on this box and the picture quality allows you to make good use of your whole package. The sound is also excellent and is ideal if you like the Music channels or want clear dialogue with the news channels. You can connect the box up to your Home Cinema Amp for even better sound quality. **Recording and on demand** This is a great part of the Box, You can view your recordings quickly and easily and can set reminders and record content from a variety of different menus. I have had the box for less than a month but have already recorded a fair few things and there's still loads of hours left. The on demand content includes Movies which change throughout the year. A great tool of this box is that when connected to a Broadband connection either connected to the router or through the sky wireless router you can view BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and Demand 5. This is a really great tool especially if you have a big TV Screen instead of watching Iplayer on a small PC monitor. **Overall** This is a fabulous piece of kit for a variety of reasons. It has masses of channels whether you opt for the extra packages or not and the Picture and Sound Quality really allow the Box to shine. With some decent deals out there for Sky packages it might be worth looking into if you like your Sports, Films etc or you just want to add extra channels compared to your freeview box. I wholeheartedly recommend this box as a great all round option for any TV Fan. Most people will be able to get the box free with setup too which is a real bonus. Read the complete review |
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Amstrad DRX890 Sky Plus HD Digibox
by hotrock4 Introduction:- We recently moved into a new house and having Sky installed was close to the top of our list of luxuries that we wanted when we moved in, we mainly settled with Sky due to the fact that we cannot get Virgin Entertainment packages in our area at present, and when compared to other digital TV companies, provided ... the best value for money for us with the channels available, subscription prices, and service. Of course as part of the deal when signing up with Sky as a new customer we received for free a Sky+ HD box which will form the basis of this review. Setting It Up:- As mentioned we got free installation as first time customers so setting up our new Sky+ HD box was simply a case of sitting back and watching the installation guy do his stuff. The Sky box itself was well packaged in a solid laptop style cardboard box along with the remote and HDMI cable which was soon setup underneath my TV, with a cable neatly run around a door frame and along a skirting board to connect to the phone line. The longer bit of the setup was to come, this took around 15 minutes for the Sky man to do in which time he also programmed my remote to also operate my TV. I was glad that I didn't have to sort this bit out whilst it looked pretty self explanatory by the on-screen instructions it would have taken me far longer than the him, without having to program the remote. Once the installation was complete I was left alone with our new Sky+ HD box whilst I waited another 15 minutes for it to finish running through the setup procedure after which I was free to watch what I wanted. Being familiar with a Sky box already as I'm sure most people will be in one way or another helped tremendously, as I can see somebody who didn't have a clue passing quite some time trying to figure out all of the little system shortcuts and tools without someone to guide them through the process. Despite all of the functions of the four coloured interactive buttons on the remote being displayed on screen most of the time when available to use I've found that I don't really tend to notice this as they are tucked away and blend in quite effectively at the bottom of the screen. My box wasn't supplied with an instruction manual either which could be handy for some, the 100+ page user guide online could really do with condensing into a small user handbook of some description. ==The Features:== Sky+ The most important feature of our new Sky+ HD box is obviously to be able to take advantage of the Sky+ subsricption that we are paying for, I am glad to say that over the past 4 months this box has been keeping up with everything we have asked of it in the way of viewing all of the Sky channels that we are subscribed to receive as well as the free Sky content. The pictured we receive are always top quality and our signal quality has remained strong even in some of the more recent bad weather. HD Viewing The HD capabilities make a great difference on the HD channels that we do receive especially when watching animated or computer generated scenes, with the colours being brighter and lines more defined, it really is a whole load of tiny little changes brought together to give a super defined crisp picture. Nature scenes and shots of crowds also show a vast improvement when being viewed with a HDMI connection as opposed to a SCART connection. Unfortunately we were priced out of taking the full HD package as we felt that the price for this was far too much to justify basically getting a whole load of channels we already had but in HD. Record, Pause, and Rewind These are probably the most advertised features of the Sky+ box that I have seen and I must say that it has lived up to my expectations. The ability to pause live TV is great and if this isn't enough the user can rewind to where they left off if they have forgot to hit pause. The only thing I find a shame here is the inability to fast forward past present time meaning unless the program has been paused or rewound for a long enough period the adverts still cannot be skipped. The record feature on the Sky+ box really has changed the way I view the TV that I like, instead of being stuck to set times or recording via an external device I can now pick and choose when I watch the programs I have recorded straight from the Sky box's hard drive. The record function is pretty user friendly after a little figuring out and allows up to two programs to record at any one time when the box is not being used. When the box is in use only one channel is able to record as well as the one being viewed. The other handy feature of the record function is the ability to select between recording either just one program or a whole series. There is also an option which allows the recorder to be set by time rather than program which saves marking every program for record if one channel is to be recorded for a long period, and is also handy to cut down on hard drive usage; for example when recording a football match the time can be set to only record from kick off to finish and miss the hour of pundits beforehand. Auto Standby This really is a simple feature but one that I find really handy as I will often fall asleep with the TV still going; it simply allows the box to be set with a time of inactivity in channel hopping before it switches itself off. Our box is currently set at 2 hours which I believe is the maximum before turning the feature off completely, however it does warn that the box is going to enter standby mode so if watching a film or still awake it can be cancelled until the set period of time is up once again. Connectivity: The connectivity of the Sky+ HD box fulfils everything that you would expect from a set top box and more however still doesn't manage to really break any boundaries or do anything too different to what any of the other big players are attempting at the moment. The box allows for the following to be connected:- 1 x HDMI port for TV 1x SCART port for TV/DVD player/Seperate Recorder 1 x Phone Line port 1 x Broadband port (No wireless available) 1x Set of Home Home Entertainment/Surround Sound connections. Overall this is everthing you could really ask from the Sky box especially with other devices being able to connect via the television. With TV's becoming super connective with wireless and several HDMI and SCART connections I can't see it being long before a new Sky box is along with a whole load of new connectivity features. Specification At A Glance DImensions:- 346mmx 225mm x 73mm HD Enabled:- Yes Hard Drive:- 250GB (Approx 60 hours of HD TV or 180 hours normal TV) Record:- Record and save for later (skip the adverts) Pause/Rewind:- Pause at a given point or rewind to last viewed point. Price:- As mentioned previously we actually received our Sky+ HD box for free as we were new customers signing up to a 12 month contract; our contract is costing us £26.50 each month which is £5 more than the basic package, for this we get the entertainment, and children packages. If however you are looking to buy a Sky+ HD box they retail at around £140, whilst that may sound quite expensive, when compared to Freeview + boxes they are actually around the same price for a branded model, with the only advantage being a few more channels over the free ones provided by Sky. In Conclusion Overall I am more than satisfied with my new Sky+ box and it was everything I was expecting after having used other peoples Sky, the main thing I worried about was the signal dropping out in our rural area during bad weather but this hasn't yet proved to be a problem. The record, rewind and pause features make this box a real pleasure to use and own, as sad as this may sound I don't get much time just to sit and watch TV so when I do its great to have the programs I want to watch right on hand. I find the subsricption prices of less than £1 a day to be fair enough especially as we have extra packages on top of the basic service. As far as the Sky+ HD box's functionality goes I cannot fault it, it brings our subscribed channels into our house without problems and all of the features and functions work as they should when I want them to. I would really like to give this Sky+ HD box top marks however the lack of instruction manual could really stump maybe an older, or less technologically minded person when it comes to starting out and getting used to how it works, and for this reason its 4/5 from me. (Also on Ciao under username MrGump) Read the complete review |
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