Gadget User Blog

Need a cheap, dirty solution for digital television? This box at just under $70 may be one to consider. I have just set it up for my Mum, who was getting terrible reception from analogue and it works pretty well.

What’s most amazing is that we are getting such good reception with an indoor antenna. In fact, the rabbit’s ears from her telly. Not too shabby in our opinion.

It is a reasonably easy to use unit. Tuning in the stations using auto-tune was relatively simple. Bit of fiddling with the system set-up (which system doesn’t take a bit of fiddling?) and we were away. Have skipped channels that we don’t need, and have kept those that have the strongest signal.

I really only have one gripe and that is not to believe the garbage that these companies print about electronic program guides (or EPGs). In my experience these do not work. You’re lucky to get a heads up on what your watching on the television at the current moment – forget trying to find out what’s on tomorrow… and in seven days? Dreamin’.

To be fair, I did see a Bush STG today at a friend’s house that was displaying program information as you would expect. I didn’t have time to check how many days in advance it was, I simply was amazed it was displaying what would be on in a couple of hours!

Anyway, back to the DSE. It has proved very easy to operate. My Mum seems to have worked it out okay. It has a mute button, and volume control, which is pretty standard for most units. It does mean you can put the telly remote down for most of the watching session.

Given their price now I’m not sure why more people aren’t switching over to digital. There are some being advertised post-Christmas at $44. This is very good value to ensure great reception and a couple of extra channels, with more to be added in the next 12 months or so.

So have a crack at digital telly. If you buy from a reputable dealer, you can always return the unit if it doesn’t work to your satisfaction. If you’ve got some money to burn, you can buy the new LG plasma with a HD digital tuner built in.

GUB will be reviewing a Strong HD tuner shortly.

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