hensoni
Member Since: 01 Oct 2007
Location: Sleepy Somerset
Posts: 576
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| Cheap Freeview HD receiver |
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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270835712548?ssP...1438.l2649
I've had one of these for several months and it has been sooo close to the recycling bin several times.
I'm not the only person that has had problems with these units and there are thousands of customer returns sat in Tesco's Outlet store, both on-line and at the larger stores for 20 quid including p&p.
Guess what, there's nothing wrong with them!!!! They need a s/w update from the (likely) installed v0133 which is available from Channel Zero's support page on http://www.ch-zero.tv/support which takes them to v0161. v0133 is wholly unworkable, but v0161 is tidy. It even has a SD / HD link that automatically senses a simulcast on a BBC HD channel and automatically selects it! It doesn't return to the original SD channel after the HD programme has finished, but hey, it's only 20 quid and my £300 Humax HD PVR has worse functionality.
The remote is cheap and cheerful, but the whole unit IS cheap.
The picture quality on HD is very good. I'm using a cheapie HDMI cable and although there are a few artefacts, it's perfectly watchable. The unit upscales SD transmissions and they're reasonable, but not as good as my SD PVR and a decent quality cable
There is considerable anecdotal evidence that the manufacturers have got the audio channels muddled up on the PCB - the HDMI L/R are the wrong way round. As this will be hardtracked on the PCB, it will either be right or wrong - there should be no "build quality" discrepancies. I haven't had chance to check this out properly yet.
Info on AV and TV forums suggests that this may be the last firmware revision for the product - but it works very well. There are a few quirks (such as powering up with the EPG, rather than a TV channel) but many of these can be "worked around" with undocumented features. As LR owners, we're used to those aren't we? 
If you need a cheap HD receiver, then this may well be worth a punt. Club missing my D3
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 11th Nov 2011 12:48 am |
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mcsimmo
Member Since: 08 Aug 2011
Location: North of the south
Posts: 1795
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Thats sounds impressive. If only I understood what it all meant.  Man with no D3 anymore, but cant leave the forum....how sad.
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| 11th Nov 2011 8:34 am |
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hensoni
Member Since: 01 Oct 2007
Location: Sleepy Somerset
Posts: 576
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Have you done the firmware update? Club missing my D3
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| 11th Nov 2011 10:08 am |
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