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Television Standards Converters, Modulators etc Standards converters, modulators anything else for providing signals to vintage televisions.

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Old 5th Jan 2018, 1:36 am   #1
McMurdo
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Default Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

I've just bought one of these dinky things to try out so I thought I'd write a little review.

First, it's small, about the size of a box of cook's matches. (The stock photo of the box and remote suggests it's as big as the remote..its smaller). It is powered off a 5V compact DC wall wart through a barrel DC plug.

In the box comes the unit, the remote, 2 x AAA batteries, a composite AV lead and a remote channel/clock display with velcro pad.

It picks up the usual freeview channels including HD, PBS America and Talking Pictures (Sutton Coldfield tx here). Output is on composite + L/R audio on a 4-pole 3.5mm jack socket, and HDMI. You can use them both at once.

The box is small enough to stick in a drawer, in a cupboard or slip behind a wall-mounted lcd tv. It could, with an engineer's precautions, be hidden inside an older TV or velcro'd to the back.

The box has its own IR receiver for the remote and also a micro USB socket which plugs into the provided mini 7-segment display to show channel number when receiving and clock when turned off. An extra IR receiver is also in the display pod.

There is a USB connector on the front for a USB stick or portable hard drive. You can then record off-air programmes to this either on the fly or scheduled via the TV guide.

I've only played with it for an hour or so but it seems a versatile box especially for feeding an aurora. There are multiple TV display options for the HDMI, eg letterbox, pan and scan, auto, 16:9, 4:3, 1050, 575, interlace or progressive. The composite video can be zoomed both in and out (to quite large degrees) to fill or centre a picture on a 4:3 (or 5:4!) screen although the HDMI also follows the zoom command, so forcing a letterboxed broadcast to fill a 4:3 screen means you lose a bit of the hdmi content all around. The zoom is a 1-touch button on the remote that scrolls through the options sequentially.

The only downside I can see so far is that my tv remote volume buttons keep telling the DVB box to try to play a move on the USB stick! And..the navigation buttons on the DVB remote tell my tv to either mute the sound or change the AV input to 'antenna'. Annoying but this little LCD tv has a weird remote control standard that I couldn't get a universal remote for (a thread a few years ago!).

The photos show the unit, an 'hd ready' lcd tv showing the menu and the little monitor shows the composite output (zoom at normal). The last pic os the clock/channel display/remote eye.

PS: its 20 quid.
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Last edited by McMurdo; 5th Jan 2018 at 1:36 am. Reason: added the price
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Old 5th Jan 2018, 2:20 pm   #2
winston_1
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

Interesting. There are also similar DVB-S2 satellite receivers available.

Two questions however.
1. Does it support MHEG red button services?
2. Is the EPG OK on HD channels?
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Old 5th Jan 2018, 5:42 pm   #3
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

Quote:
Does it support MHEG red button services?
Don't know what that means

Quote:
Is the EPG OK on HD channels
I was using the EPG last night and it's all the same no matter which type of channel you're on.
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Old 5th Jan 2018, 6:04 pm   #4
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

I like the channel display, it took me ages to find a set top (freeview) box for radio with a display. Very useful for radio as the TV isn't on.
 
Old 5th Jan 2018, 10:56 pm   #5
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

Quote:
Originally Posted by McMurdo View Post
Quote:
Does it support MHEG red button services?
Don't know what that means
MHEG red button services is the digital text service run by the BBC where you press the red button to get text.
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Old 6th Jan 2018, 1:11 am   #6
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

A couple of niggles as I've been using it tonight:

The EPG 'quick' navigation, which is supposed to use the coloured keys to move a page up or down at a time, doesn't work. Pressing the page up/down key just effects a 'cursor right' command. So to move the epg cursor from say Ch81 to Ch105, you have to just keep pressing the 'down' arrow until you get there.

When given 'shortcuts' within a menu, it shows the 4 coloured buttons across the bottom of the page (like softkeys) and their function. Unfortunately they are shown in the incorrect order to the buttons on the remote. So you naturally always press the wrong button and select something you didnt want.

There's no 'back' button on the remote. To go back through a menu, you sometimes have to press the 'left' arrow. Sometimes you press the 'up' and sometimes 'menu', 'exit' or 'enter'.

I aren't planning on using this on a main TV, so I'm not too fussed. But it just shows how poor (or non) product development can become apparent. Why are the colour keys in the wrong order to the screen? Did no-one notice either at the factory or at Antiference when they designed/ordered them? Its the little things that mean alot, sometimes.
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Old 6th Jan 2018, 1:30 pm   #7
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

Hi can you point me to where you got it for £20 from?...thanks!
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Old 7th Jan 2018, 7:11 pm   #8
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

CPC

http://www.cpc.co.uk
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Old 7th Jan 2018, 9:05 pm   #9
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

It's actually £24 including vat with the discount code from one of the monthly catalogues they send out.

http://cpc.farnell.com/antiference/d...ngdom%2Fsearch

Sounds like it already needs a software update too!

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Old 8th Jan 2018, 12:44 am   #10
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Default Re: Antiference DVB01 freeview HD review

So can you tell me if it supports MHEG red button services?
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