Freesat Recordable 4K TV Box 1TB

This unit connects to a Satellite dish (traditional or broadband) and lets you record a programme and potentially watch or record something else at the same time (Requires 2 cables from the traditional dish - otherwise of course it's one thing at a time)I already have a TV that 'can' receive and record Freesat but when it's recording you are often unable to change to or watch another TV channel. I bought this so that recording could go on separately from the family 'channel hopping' around as usual.Compared to the TV the Box HD output quality is as good as the original programme on the TV and recordings don't show any quality loss. Signal quality levels reported from the dish were also fine and similar to those on the TV's own signal meterAudio output on HDMI or Optical can each be selected as Stereo or Surround (although the latter is only going to be noticed if a surround track is being broadcast Otherwise you just get Stereo but its all managed seamlessly and works well). The box remote has its own volume control which can get confusing if someone turned it right down - I just leave it on full volume and use the normal TV volume as everyone knows where that isThe unit as delivered had 2 year old firmware and operation (while fully functional ) did seem a bit clunky/slow sometimes in the guides/menus. The Manual had nothng to say on updating this manually but I had connected it to a wired internet network connection, left it in standby overnight, and next day it had updated itself to the latest 2023 firmware. This may have included a few menu improvements but the main difference was there were now no unreasonable hesitations when moving around menus and functions.Timed recordings started and stopped as expected and where available captured both the surround and stereo tracks so you can (re)select what you want to listen to after the recording which is nice.SO generally this would be great for providing improved FreeSat 'box functionality to a TV that doesn't include it or (as in my case) to provide a 'child proof' stand alone free-satellite dish recording capability.With the latest firmware installed there is nothing to complain about and operation is easy and quality is great.

In our area terestrial TV is via a repreater with only a handful of 13 Freeview channels available. Firstly tried Sky, but the box made a continuous noise, even when not in use. So Freesat is basically what is left, and we only get a choice of this box in various capacities, or a reconditioned Humax.We have found the box pretty good: it works, the picture quality is good and it is very quiet (and completely silent on standby). When powered up and the room is otherwise silent you can just hear the hard drive being accessed (but not annoyingly so - more on this 'feature' below). The remote is nice to hold and so far seems to be sensible. Before I continue please note:- I will never use an App to control it so I can make no comment on that.- Catch-up TV will always be via a wired ethernet connection, not over wi-fi.Looking a Pros and Cons below, the Cons outnumber the Pros considerably, but for me these are little niggles rather than deal breakers.Pros:- Neat, inoffensive looking device- Silent when on stand-by- So far has worked perfectlyCons:- The UI is a little primitive, especially the program guide- The hard drive is continually being accessed when the device is powered on (to enable pause or rewind of live TV). I do not want to pause or rewind live TV, and it would be nice to be able to turn this feature off to improve the life of the hard drive and to remove the slight noise that this makes.- No buttons to skip chunks of time to skip through adverts. I don't know how long the adverts will be anyway, so I just use fast forward - no problem- Sound is muted when fast forwarding on double speed. On our Freeview box, at double speed there was sound (sampled so voices msounded normal), so you could fast forward through a program still hearing what was going on, which I found very useful when skimming past the silly bits on Top Gear while still hearing what they were saying- No light on the front to tell you that recording is in progress- Cannot add time to start or end of recording. This was also missing from our Freeview box. It rarely caused an issue and hasn't so far with this box.- I would love to have a delete button on the remote control so I can remove a recording without diving into menus- On-line manual only, and you need it if you want to do things like pair the remote with your TVFinally, not really a Con - once you have set up the remote to also operate the TV, you lose control of the volume on the Freesat box, so if you want to match your TV volume across different inputs, and your TV has no individual controls for this (mine doesn't), you must set the volume you want on the Freesat box before pairing it with the TV.

Having good experience of BT TV humax in the past I was quite keen to try this option after yet another absolutely awful experience with Virgin TV & Broadband in 2017/18 for which I was paying £960/annum. Had an engineer install the system as we needed a sat dish and I also needed an internal house Ethernet network extended. Great install, straightforward operation, good picture & sound. This seemed as good as the old Humax. We then had a few teething troubles which a very capable and responsive support team sorted out quickly. Since then we have had very good service from the system, costing us only the initial purchase & installation of £450 instead of what is now an unbelievable £2900 with Virgin. Now I really would love to give the box a five star rating, but I have to slightly downgrade that on the basis that we need to reboot the box about once every two months for various minor blips. That seems really harsh even as I’m doing it, but there’s no 4.8* rating available, which is what I would choose to give. Seems to me that the occasional blips are a build up of old instructions to the software that for some reason don’t get wiped as part of normal process. Really not a big deal though, and something that we experienced with Virgin a lot more regularly, I mean a lot more. Oh damn it, I’m going back to change to 5*.

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Don’t listen to the naysayers, this box is near perfect. Early adopters got the bugs which are now all sorted. It gave the best initial user experience out of all the boxes I’ve ever had including Sky, BT and Freeview. If some of you are still experiencing bugs then they must be associated with your individual box and you should arrange a replacement under the terms of the guarantee.Why move to Freesat? Well, in the STV area they recently rejigged the transmitter frequencies and despite three aerial visits by Freeview they were unable to facilitate a reliable signal. They would leave it working but in the days following all the HD channels would intermittently disappear and some SD channels occasionally got pixellated. Apparently it had to do with nearby wind turbine interference.Some pros of the box are that it is quiet, fast, has a quality remote which is responsive, is relatively cool running, has a small footprint and a good choice of energy management settings. Other reviewers have criticised the guide as being outdated but I love it because actions are clearly explained in logical steps. One reviewer complained about excessive clicks to delete a recording but I prefer that to the instant delete on Freeview - will likely lead to fewer mistakes.The only improvement which comes to mind is the registration process on the box to obtain a Freeview account. This is slightly confusing.A couple of subsidiary comments that may help. During setup I tested the record function but it wouldn’t let me record and view at the same time. I checked in settings and it declared only one cable despite my having fitted two. Examining the cables I saw one had got loose which I fixed and retested but still no joy. I fiddled for half an hour, repeatedly swapping cables, was about to send it back as faulty but a quick Google search led to the word RESCAN and bingo two cables were declared and the record function then worked properly.The other point is about picture quality. All in the household mentioned that the picture was a “bit garish” which hadn’t manifest itself on Freeview. That was fixed by going into my Panasonic TV settings and deselecting “Dynamic” mode in the picture section. This is variously known as “Vivid”, “Movie”, “Pro”, or something similar. Of course some people prefer a vivid setting but I don’t and after this adjustment the Freesat picture is now perfect for my mid-range equipment. The picture is deep, rich, focused and a smidgeon better than Freeview!All that’s now left to do is to replace the LNB with a wideband one so that I will be able to record up to 4 programmes at the same time.

After a nightmare of a time trying to extract myself from the clutches of SKY I turned to this Freesat box. So glad I did and it is something I should have done years ago!I opted for this as the recordable version and as I already had a wideband dish it was a simple matter to just plug in, let it tune itself then away to go with all the available Freesat channels, some in HD.I find the features excellent - watching and recording is easy, the remote is very good (not tiny like some) and the unit itself is surprisingly compact. Onscreen display is straightforward and it didn't take long to identify all the available features.There are options for viewing "on demand" services like iPlayer although if you have a smart TV you may not need these.I paid just over £209 for a Freesat-refurbished unit that is as good as new. As a one-off payment I will recoup the cost in a short time by saving on over-priced subscriptions.All in all I am very happy with this box and have had no issues so far.

I have had this box for a few months now ,having moved from a sky+ box due to the constant sky subscription price hikes. I am already regretting this decision.Unfortunately I only read the reviews on this platform ,which I now suspect must have all been written by people who have just awoken from being in comas since the 1980s .This box is the most unreliable device I have purchased since a cat deterrent noise device I once bought for my garden, that seemed to actually attract more cats.I will start with the positives of the box which would be ...1 If you can stand to put up with it for two years you will have saved money from the sky subscription2 it’s not yet exploded or burst into flamesThe negatives I have discovered so far...1. The box seems to disagree with my choice of recordings and instead of recording my option It will record something completely different ,only the beginning or the end of my option ,24 hours of the channel my option was on 24 hours before it startsIt does all this whilst putting it under the guise of your chosen option so you only know if it has done any of the above when you get around to watching it.2. The remote control becomes unresponsive the light on the box flashes to your pressing of the buttons on the remote but nothing occurs. Makes the fast forwarding and rewinding of recordings frustrating.3. The screen often goes blank.4. The deletion of viewed recordings is time consuming5. On demand is frustrating with the constant adverts but is needed when the box has failed a recording.6. The remote recording from the phone app is just lies7. The entire menu and general software is just completely awful in comparison to my old sky+ box .It is in desperate need of a software update and radical changes to its menu and recording functions to be any where near the worth of its price tag.To summarise if you are looking for an alternative for your sky subscription this is definitely not it ,in its current state but if you have been locked in a darkened room most of your life and have the patience of a Saint then you may find this appliance bearable for a while longer than me.

I've always been a fan of this brand of satellite TV recorder, until now..... I've had it since last August and after a few months, when I play back a recording, the video 'glitches ' every now and then.... it jumps forward around 30 seconds to a minute! Annoyingly, this is usually at an important moment of the story line! If I wind it back, it will then usually play the part which it had previously skipped.... it's so annoying!On top of this, it has now started to tick like a watch and made loud sporadic clicks.I'd like to send it back, but I have accumulated quite a lot of recordings which I wish to keep!The irony is that my previous recorder had started to glitch, which is what prompted me to replace it in the first place......This recorder does everything that I wanted, but couldn't find elsewhere for sale. I would certainly recommend that anyone looking for something like this should pause and consider other options when looking to invest in one of these.

I like it easy to set up, only down side it seems to take a while to do things like delete an item, maybe i'm not patient enough