Product Round-up The UK’s ongoing digital switchover means that Freeview HD has probably now rolled out to a transmitter near you. If you’re using old digital TVs or set-top boxes, you won’t get the four – soon to be five – high-def channels through your aerial, alongside the standard line-up.
One of the best ways to upgrade is with a new recorder equipped with DVB-T2 tuners. If all goes to plan, Freeview recorders will continue to evolve with the launch of YouView, which aims to set a common standard for ‘connected TV’. However, more than half of the DVRs below already access content such as the BBC iPlayer.
In many ways, products that cram in too much end up disappointing. The most dependable get the basics right – like tackling the problematic surround sound used on some HD broadcasts. Read the rest of this entry »
Android App of the Week I’ve been using ALK’s CoPilot 8 for Android since I reviewed it in these pages back in 2009. I liked it a lot then and still do. So when ALK announced a major upgrade, my ears pricked up.
CoPilot Live’s nav screen is tidier than before
The first thing you notice about Premium is the redesigned menu system. I’m not sure it’s an improvement because the on-screen buttons are quite a bit smaller and less finger-friendly than before. Thankfully, the navigation screen has been tidied up more successfully. Read the rest of this entry »
Android App of the Week There’s not much wrong with the stock Android web browser but if you fancy something a bit more capable you might want to consider Dolphin HD as an alternative.
Dolphin HD: browse with tabs
Now before I go on, this recommendation is not about page rendering speed. If you want to download Dolphin, Opera, Firefox or any of the alternatives and then try to gauge which one loads pages a quarter of a second faster then the others, well, be my guest.
No, the appeal of Dolphin HD – which has just hit the big 5.0 – lies in its features set. Firstly, you get good ol’ tabbed browsing so you can open up to eight pages and flip between them just like you can on a PC. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Freesat, launched three years ago, hasn’t quite caught the imagination in the same way as Freeview HD, but if you don’t have terrestrial coverage, or you want more channels than Freeview provides, without having to go for pay TV, it’s a good option.
Echostar’s HDS-600RS includes Slingbox functionality for remote viewing
Echostar’s HDS-600RS is a digital recorder designed for Freesat that offers a unique extra – it has Sling’s software built in – enabling you to access it using the internet when you’re away from home. A few years back, we’d have said that was a unique feature, and it’s still useful to some – though arguably a large proportion of punters will find services such as the BBC iPlayer will suffice. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Back in October 2010, Reg Hardware looked at TVonics’ first Freeview HD recorder, the curiously styled DTR-HD500. The DTR-Z500HD is a more conventional ‘shoe box’ shape, though much smaller than many of the others I’ve looked at, but it once again packs in a good spec.
DTR-Z500HD: a more sober design than the last TVOnics DVR
There’s a 500GB disk drive, Ethernet network connectivity – BBC iPlayer isn’t supported yet, but is in the works, apparently – and twin tuners, so you can watch one channels while recording another, or record two at a time. Read the rest of this entry »
