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Fetch TV Smartbox 8000 january 2010
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n www.fetchtv.co.uk n 0844 3711011 n £219
Fetch TV SmartBox 8000 This Freeview PVR with added broadband TV functionality is a little rough around the edges but still has some appeal The Opposition BT Vision+ n Similar in concept with the same shortcomings of download speed and poor VoD selection but subscriptionbased – usually more expensive in the long run
Appearance and connectivity The SmartBox 8000 may promise a goldmine of content but it’s nothing much to look. It’s all-plastic, with a slightly convex, scratchable acrylic top that prevents anything being placed on top. There’s no front panel display, even though the design suggests one, and the
power supply is a separate in-the-plug type. The remote handset is shaped like a giant plastic humbug. It looks quite cool on the coffee table but isn’t actually very nice to handle. The buttons are fiddly, not well laid out and the one-piece cursor control button (like a games controller) has the OK button at its centre, and it is genuinely quite difficult to press this (to, say, select a menu item) without accidentally moving the cursor (off the menu item to select). The SmartBox’s back panel is crowded as the receiver is so small. There is one aerial input with a loopthrough to the TV or other DTT gear. The HDMI output is preferred, to make the most of any HD internet video and to get the best picture from digital reception. SD output for archiving or piping around the home is catered for with a mini-DIN socket that provides the normal Scart outputs by way of a DIN-Scart converter cable. Presumably there wasn’t room on the panel for an
Interface
Sagem DTR 67500ECO n Twin-tuner Freeview recorder with similar functionality (including HDMI), without internet downloads but huge 500GB hard disc drive
The problem with free-to-air DTT is that you don’t get a lot of up-to-date films and popular sport. Fetch TV has combined a Freeview receiver with an internet-delivered video-on-demand system in the SmartBox 8000 to get something like the best of both worlds. To sweeten the proposition even more, the £219 SmartBox 8000 is a twin-tuner Freeview+ machine so you can pause and record Freeview broadcasts, and the internet side can cope with HDTV and has access to the BBC iPlayer (and from next year, Sky Player too).
The EPG displays a grid of data for several channels at once or info for one channel at a time. You can use it to record and jump directly to Fetch TV 2 What Satellite & Digital TV
TV shows can be watched as often as you like within a 24-hour period, but only within seven days of renting them. HD downloads can be slow
Recordings and downloads are grouped together in the same menu. Synopses are included and downloads are shown with an expiry date
Test freeview actual Scart socket but this approach isn’t good if you need a cable longer than that supplied or you want to feed a device with, say, phono inputs. Similarly space-saving is the analogue audio output – a 3.5mm jack socket – although the digital audio output is mercifully a normal optical S/PDIF. The back panel has an Ethernet connection for your modem/router for the internet, and a USB socket for plug-in memory. There’s a more convenient USB on the front too.
Setup The SmartBox 8000 is simple to set up. All that’s involved is scanning the airwaves for the Freeview channels and connecting to the internet. Connecting to the internet is best done (for speed) with a wired Ethernet connection and the SmartBox 8000 will automatically configure itself for your modem, router or switch. If a wired connection isn’t possible, then the SmartBox 8000 has wi-fi built-in too, though the walls of the house in which the SmartBox 8000 was tested ruled out that option (even though the router was only 4m from the receiver).
Basic use The SmartBox 8000 presents a fairly standard Freeview channel list and EPG (either as a grid of channels and times or a schedule for the current channel). Channel selection is from the list, by number, or the up/down buttons. A favourite channels list is available and useful because you cannot re-order the Freeview channels. To watch VoD TV, the Fetch TV mode is accessed from the menu or through a Star button on the handset and presents a menu of programme categories for browsing and a choice selected for download. Pay-TV items are deducted from your account with PIN protection. Most content is protected and available for viewing in a 24-hour period within seven days of download. Alongside the BBC iPlayer content (which is only for streaming, not download) is another pay channel of content from National Geographic. Sky Player will join Fetch TV next year. The downloading speed depends on your broadband connection but you can easily be looking at an hour to download a film (far longer for HD) and shows are stored on the 160GB hard disc drive.
PVR and multimedia The HDD is also used to pause and record live TV. Reception is buffered, so pausing is instant and rewind back to a channel change available. The SmartBox 8000 has two tuners so you can watch one channel while recording another, or record two channels at once and watch a previous recording (or an internet stream). Programmes can be recorded manually (and stopped Ethernet connection
USB
S/PDIF digital audio output
automatically at the programme end or manually) or with the EPG (the event timer can then be altered if required). During playback, recordings can be paused and played in fast-forward or rewind at speeds up to 100x. You can also move forward or back in jumps but there’s no way to go directly to any point in the recording (but you can restart a recording from where it was left). Recordings without copy protection can be ‘exported’ as MPEG-2 files to a memory device plugged into the USB sockets for consumption on a PC (or another SmartBox) and you can also play back files from USB memory or even from a separate PC on the same network. MP3 music files can be played and photos displayed, although the facilities for this are pretty basic.
Performance The SmartBox 8000 isn’t able to receive Freeview HD channels, but the benefit of an HDMI connection is that Freeview pictures, whether live or recorded, never leave the digital domain and are excellent. Sound is dynamic and clear through both HDMI and S/PDIF, and even the analogue output holds up well. The quality available from the pseudo-Scart connection is poorer, though it’s on a par with most Freeview receivers. Material downloaded from Fetch TV VoD or BBC iPlayer is also excellent. Downloaded content can vary depending on its source but streamed iPlayer shows are much better quality that previously seen from a PC connected directly to the same TV, and the (poor) selection of HDTV material is as good as Sky HD if you can wait for the very slow downloads. But the software does not perform so well and the test box lost sound several times (necessitating a powerdown) and occasionally got confused during playback of both recordings and downloads, freezing the picture and losing its place n Geoff Bains
Verdict The internet will undoubtedly play an increasing role in TV reception, and the SmartBox 8000 and the Fetch TV idea is a good start. More streamed programming would avoid the tiresome download delays and the current download offering (both free and pay-TV) isn’t very attractive. But the pay-as-yougo approach, the quality of playback and the access to HDTV is commendable – as is the basic Freeview reception and even the PVR functionality. It’s a pity that the box itself does not share this quality and the software is not robust enough for nonenthusiast users who just want to watch broadcast, recorded and downloaded TV.
Proprietary SD analogue video and audio output
Aerial input and loopthrough
Features Product: Fetch TV SmartBox 8000 Price: £219 Freeview+: Yes Freeview HD: No Hard disc size: 160GB Card reader: No MHEG-5: Yes EPG support: 7-day On-demand channels: Via internet Teletext: Yes Multimedia formats: JPG, GIF, MPEG-2, WMV Operating system support: Yes UHF modulator tuning: None Software upgrade: Internet download HD outputs: HDMI Mini-DIN (composite, S-video, RGB) SD outputs: Audio out: 3.5mm jack stereo analogue audio, S/PDIF optical digital audio Data ports: 2 x USB 2.0, Ethernet
Ratings PLUS
n Internet VoD n HDMI output n USB export and playback
Minus
n Poor construction and remote
design n Some software problems n Relatively poor VoD content choice Build Setup Searching Performance Features Value
12V power input
Stereo analogue audio output
HDMI output
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75% What Satellite & Digital TV 3