If only the picture was as clear as the price (Thomson DTI 6300)

Member Name: freetimeaction

Product:	Thomson DTI 6300
Date:	30/10/08 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Record TV, pause live TV, Cheap

Disadvantages: Poor picture quality

My fiancee' bought this set-top box from ASDA, as we are unable to have Sky+ in our area (Listed road) but we wanted the ability to record TV.

The functionality is excellent, with a great menu, and huge hard drive. Our current TV has freeview built in, and i was surprised to see the Thomson box was worse quality than the freeview we were previously using. The picture was pixelated (not crisp).
When watching a recording back, the picture was dull, and not as clear as normal TV viewing.

The box has froze twice already, and then wouldn't find any channels and had to be re-set up.

It offers a 160GB hard drive, which is enough to record 100 hours+ of TV. The menu is very simular to Sky+, and even the remote looks like Sky+.

We visited another high street retailer, to compare the Thomson to other brands on show. Immiediatly I could see the quality difference between the two side by side on show.

I returned the unit for a refund, and purchased a HUMAX 9200 at nearly double the price, but you get what you pay for.

I highly recommend testing / viewing the actual box in use before buying. My TV is a 50" HD Plasma. Using this box on a non HD tv may be fine for quality, but it looked awful on ours.

Summary: Great if you don't have a big TV, other wise it's poor