August DVB-T201B PC/Laptop USB Freeview TV Receiver & Recorder – Black
Posted by Notcot on Apr 29, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
- USB 2.0 digital TV receiver, watch over 30 channels Freeview digital TV on your PC or laptop.
- Plug & play, powered by USB port, dimension: 86x27x14mm, weight: 23g, Black rubber finish
- Universal and regional channel scan, real-time and schedule recording
- Support playback of DVD disks, support HDTV reception
- System Requirements: ·Windows XP, 2000 or Vista· CPU 800 MHz or more · Memory 256 MB or higher · VGA 8 MB RAM · Sound card
August DVB-T201B PC/Laptop USB Freeview TV Receiver & Recorder – Black
August PC/Laptop USB Freeview/HDTV Receiver – Black (Star Winner from ‘What Hi-Fi’, ‘What Video’ & ‘Active Home’ Magazines) – Vista Compatible
Brought this as a gift for my father and tested it out before I gave it to him. I tested the device in two locations with two different aerials and the results were very variable.
Tested at work with supplied aerial, 3rd floor near a window. I could not receive any channnel’s at all, very disappointing. Tested at home, again with the supplied aerial. This time I got 9 channels but some were the radio stations.
When I plugged this into my household aerial however the results were much better. Device found 66 channels, all the major TV stations and with excellent picture quality.
The supplied software seems ok, it has an EPG and allows you to record TV straight to MPEG 2 files. It did slow down a bit on my work windows XP machine but that could have been down to the PC itself (quite an old model).
Although I only did a few quick tests of this thing I was overall quite impressed. The only problems I had came from using the supplied aerial. I would probably advice anyone to through it out straight away. Investing a further £10 in a better quality portable aerial would be a very wise investment.
Rating: 4 / 5
First of all, the supplied antenna was no use at all, but no surprises there. I got no channels using that, when I used the adapter and plugged it into my main antenna however, I got 70 services. The picture quality wasn’t quite a match for my TV, but it wasn’t a million miles away.
Secondly, the supplied software isn’t particuarly inspiring. It gets the job done but in a rough around the edges kind of way. If your a Vista user I strongly recommend using Windows Media Centre instead; you can’t use the supplied remote but the picture quality and EPG are far superior.
Overall, a great bit of kit for the price, highly recommended.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is an amazing device and I really love it. It is very impressive that such a tiny device can turn a laptop to a digital TV and recorder. Very easy to set up, simply install the driver and Blaze player, then scan for channels, it is a shame I can not get any channels use the small antenna provided where I live, although I am prepared for it after reading other people’s review, but no problem to get channels with my roof top aerial. The remote is very handy and gives me more freedom to control the programs.
The only annoy thing is that the Blaze player keeps asking me to register when I have already done it. Contacted the August technical team and have been told I need to run the Blaze as administrator because I am using Vista and then register again. After that everything seems fine.
Over all, very happy about this item, excellent value for money.
Rating: 5 / 5
Purchased (about £30 at the time) as I wanted to be able to watch TV on my PC on the odd occasion. Loaded up the software plugged in my roof antenna and found 70 stations and off we went. Good picture pretty happy with the experience. After a few months I happened to notice that the unit was worryingly hot to the touch, I was pretty concerned so I called DVB support but said that this was normal and should not affect the units performance.
Guess what! Seven weeks out of warranty the unit lost signal the LED dimmed and the unit got EVEN hotter and I assume finally fried itself in the process, I contacted support but they were not interested as out of warranty. No replies to my emails either.
I have given it one star for as it was good while it lasted and it helped to heat my bedroom.
Rating: 1 / 5
Absolutely floored by this little thing — it is as light as a feather, yet delivers stunningly good sound and picture quality. I guess I must live in a strong signal area, as I got 22 channels with the indoor antenna not even properly set-up (lying on its side on the desk!). Plugging in to the rooftop antenna brought up 80+ channels. Great software loaded with features, flawless install on Windows 2000 — all this for a piddling £20?! A+++++++
Rating: 5 / 5