Sagem 320GB Freeview HD Digital TV Recorder
Posted by Notcot on Jun 16, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
Product Description
Freeview+ HD with 320GB HDD Recorder. Features Pause live TV, 8 day electronic programme guide, twin tuner & 1 HDMI sockets.
- 320GB HDD Recorder
- Twin Freeview+ HD
- Pause Live TV
- Up To 160 Hours Recording Time
- Hard Drive recording: Y
Purchased this item from another retailer today as a present for my Dad (so he can enjoy the World Cup in HD!!).
After an initial hic-up with the unit not being happy with one of the HDMI connections on the TV everything went smoothly. Automatically found all the normal freeview channels along with the 3 HD channels of BBC1, ITV1 & CH4.
Good picture quality on all standard channels. Very good picture quality on HD channels.
Navigation of menus seemed very easy and user friendly.
One little niggle is the sound is much lower on the HD channels than the other channels – not sure at the moment if there is a way round this.
All in all a decent piece of kit for anyone doesn’t want the monthly expense of Sky HD (and is obviously happy with the mainstream HD channels).
Rating: 4 / 5
This is an excellent freeview hd recorder. does exactly what it should, all works, its very light and compact, looks ok. only one minor niggle which is that the electronic program guide is slow to use and to navigate, hopefully this may be fixed in a firmware update, apart from that I cannot fault it, hence top marks.
Rating: 5 / 5
This box is very easy to setup and i was watching the World Cup opening ceremony in HD about 15 minutes after unboxing the unit.
The picture quality for the all important HD channels is excellent. Good colour, nice sharp on screen text and graphics and generally feels like ive got my moneys worth. The maximum display resolution was detected for my TV without any input from me required..
Im using the digital sound output to my amp and also through the HDMI to my TV. I had to change the audio settings when using both to get the volume up to an acceptable level. The default setting seems to be very quiet but its easily fixed in the menus.
The EPG is nicely designed but the big issue here is the speed of the navigation. There is a very noticeable delay from the point you press, for example, the up button to the time that the display actually moves up to the next channel and the EPG is generally sluggish to use. I really hope this can be fixed or at least improved in a future update but i do think this could be something im just going to have to live with. I’ve used a TopupTV box for the last couple years and for all its bugs, the EPG was a pleasure to use and way faster than the Sagem although no where near as attractive.
Recorded programs are as good as the original live broadcast including HD programmes which seem to take up less space on the hard drive than i imagined they would. Theres also an option to organise recordings into folders which i can see being quite handy.
In general im am very happy with this box but i think the sluggish menus will at times drive me up the wall. If you are the impatient type then you might wanna try to have a play with one of these in a local shop to see if its going to be acceptable. It is probably the slowest reacting software that i have seen on all the freeview units ive used over the years.
The unit itself is quite small, around two thirds the size of my HD-DVD player and its also nigh on silent. I always knew when my TopupTV Thomson box was on but this one must use a laptop style hard drive as you really dont hear it at all. The only other thing i think needs mentioning is the remote. The record, pause, play etc buttons are right at the bottom. Considering how much these get used it would have been much more comfortable to have them in the middle of the remote. The other remote control issue is that there doesnt seem to be a way to use it to control your TV aswell. Other set top boxes ive used have let you input the remote code of your tv so can use one remote for both.
Rating: 4 / 5
Lets start with a positive the picture both SD and HD are excellent,unfortunately that is it.There are numerous problems with this product slow EPG,various functions not working correctly,very low audio output on HD,poor display on box,box itself is quite flimsy but even with these I would have kept mine if it was not for the continuing sound drop outs that happen for a split second every couple of minutes,even after contacting sagemcom they appeared unable to solve this problem.Although I did not buy mine from amazon like previous reviewer i wanted to warn others.I have now returned mine
Rating: 2 / 5
Delivered today and what a brilliant product!! This is my second Sagem product recently purchased.
Set up was quick and easy just by following the onscreen instructions. No problems with finding the channels.
Small, neat design and looks great under the telly.
HD channels are fantastic, great depth of colour and detail is crystal clear. The standard channels are much better than my previous old box (which was a old Humax freeview).
Menu really easy to use, remote control simple and the leaflets provided in the box were very useful.
Looking forward to watching Wimbledon tennis in HD
Well worth the money!
Rating: 5 / 5