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5stars
152ratings4stars
41ratings3stars
29ratings2stars
11ratings1star
15ratings
Would recommend82% agree
Good value88% agree
Good quality90% agree
215 reviews
Cost effective and brilliant
While looking for a PVR i came across this compact design and, having bought a different one previously that wasn't as good as i had hoped, this unit definitely ticks all the boxes.
Not only does it record TV but also radio channels as well.
You can set its timer to record both, and set a time to finish a manually started recording.
Granted its not perfect. Sometimes it will delete a timer setting for no apparent reason and it will stop recordings on its own, but like i said that doesn't happen very often.
You may need to test what memory sticks it will use. I use INTEGRAL and they work perfectly.
For all its faults it is a brilliant box, in fact its so good i now own 8 of them.
I would recommend it to anyone. Its brilliant. Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Genuinely records in HD - but with poorly designed timer control software
I’ve given this item 3 stars mostly because it has a number of usability issues that drive me ‘up the wall’.
First, for the record, I’ve bought about eight of them over the last year or so – and will continue to buy them as my need arises because they do the one thing I require – record in HD. In that time, one unit has died but the remainder continue to work. Over the years I’ve bought many cheap set-top PVRs (Teknikal, EMtronics, Clarity and others) all claiming to be able to record HD programmes – but none can – and some even struggle to record ‘full’ SD (720x576) programmes as well. The August 400 (and the 415) do at least achieve that feat – which is reason enough, for me, to keep buying them. So why only 3 stars? There are two reasons:
1 - when recording (or just displaying) an HD programme – the video output freezes and remains frozen for the duration of the recording. I don’t know if this applies to the HDMI outputs as well – as I use small, AV input, monitors to view the PVR outputs and do not use the boxes as a primary means of watching broadcast TV.
2 – The control software for programming timer recordings is a pain in the proverbial …
(a) Using the EPG to set up recordings for a series of programmes which follow one immediately after another is not possible as the software interprets a programme ending at say 9pm as a timer conflict with the following programme which starts at 9pm. Paradoxically, if you start by selecting the later programme first, then select the earlier programme – the timer sees no conflict and will successfully record both programmes. The real butt-pain comes when you need to edit the timings of a programme in the middle of sequence of carefully input (in reverse time order) programmes – then you find that the software will object to a new programme where the end time coincides with an already input programme’s start time. No other cheap PVRs suffer this problem.
(b) There is no option to specify the length of a recording (so called one-touch recording) simply by pressing the record button multiple times and/or inputting a desired recording duration – so if you start a recording manually you must be sure to stop it manually at the end of the desired period.
(c) The colour scheme for the edit screen is poorly chosen. A thin white underline ‘cursor’ is invisible against a yellow 'selected data-line' highlight background and is a very poor, low-contrast, combination whilst attempting to tweak timer etc settings settings (spot the cursor in the photo) - and a higher resolution monitor doesn’t help - it's a matter of colour contrast - not resolution!
(d) The timer software allows for the programming of only 8 recordings at most – this is a meagre number – particularly when compared to the competition.
(e) The EPG has no memory for the currently selected broadcast station, it loads up a fresh listing each time it is accessed (a real pain if you want to timer-program a sequence from the same station) – and it often does so slowly, usually in peculiar time order (often starting days ahead but with missing time-slots which may or may not be populated a little later) – and then it frequently ‘sticks’ and will show only the now and next programmes.
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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
An Average Quality Device
It's an average range product, it does well for it's price.
But there are some unusal technical flaws, the one purchased scrambles/mixes up the channel order at least once a week, so it then needs to be retuned. Also the order of the channels can't rearrange without it scrambling the channel order.
It can pick up a wide range of channels, but i found that quite a few channels are pixelated or the signal isn't being picked up properly. I know it's the device that can't pick up the signal because the built in set-top-box picks it up crystal clear.
The best feature of this device is it's Recording function, plug in a flash drive and record instantly.
But be aware that any recording over 90 minutes, sometimes gets compressed and some data seems to get lost.
Also if you plug in a flash drive and use it to watch something from the flash drive that wasn't recorded on it from the device, it only lets you watch apx. 20-30 minutes of the video before it freezes up.
Overall it's an Average Quality Device, it won't hurt your pocket & you get a few features out of it.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Great little product and excellent VFM.
Great little unit, fits anywhere, you can take it away on holiday and the removable flash drive means I can watch recordings wherever I want. Remote is a bit complicated and needs some getting used to but it works fine.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Good little box
This is an OK little box for the bedroom, I wouldn't recommend it for the main television, maybe get a more expensive one for that. But it has stopped all the pixelating I was getting on my TV in the bedroom, which is what I wanted it to do. So it saved me from getting a new aerial. Quite easy to tune in once I had connected a scart lead.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Nice Bonus Features
Although very small & inconspicuous, the August DVB400 is neat & does a lot more than other boxes of this type. Saving space by not having any 'in-built' hard drive, instead it records to a USB memory stick & if that stick gets full, rather than having to delete a programme, just put a different stick in. But a really clever feature is that it plays pretty well any computer video format saved to the memory stick. .mov, .avi .mp4 will all play through the Scart or HDMI sockets to a TV (or a DVD recorder) - very handy if you don't have a Smart TV or you don't want the expense of computer conversion software. It will also play mp3 audio & jpgs in the same way.
So far, I haven't discovered any bad points, a second tuner might have been handy, but at the price it's a handy little box - NO COMPLAINTS!
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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Small and compact with a self setting clock
For the money, this is a very good product. It does however have one serious drawback; the designers deemed it a good idea to display one channel at a time in the ‘electronic program guide’ – God knows why? This means you can’t quickly view through 10 or so channels at the same time as you can with virtually every other TV/Video on the market. But, for the money it does the job. For £20-£30 more, I think this could be made into an outstanding product.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
BAD
I can't believe this is getting so many good reviews. It has severe issues with the EPG that make it really difficult to use.
1. The epg only displays one channel at a time which means you have to constantly change screens (which is painfully slow to refresh every time) to plan ahead.
2. The epg only lets you put in programmes on a timer STARTING FROM THE LAST PROGRAMME YOU WANT TO WATCH!!!???!!!. i.e. to set a whole evenings programmes on timers-you have to start from the end of the night and work back! -ridiculous.
3. Channel numbers change and re-order themselves regularly for no reason.
Not recommended at all.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Excellent Freeview HD Box
Very handy Freeview HD receiver that can plug into a HD ready TV to obtain HD programmes. It is excellent value and works well. The PVR facility is an added bonus. On the down side there is no EPG for the HD channels. In the settings menu it is possible to rename stations which is handy if you can receive 2 TV regions and want to identify the 2 ITVs but it is not possible to put a space between the letters. It is not possible to search stations by region which can result in the wrong ITV being at channel 3 and the correct one in the 800s. The receiver tuner sensitivity is not great which could give problems in weak reception areas Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil
Good little freeview box
I bought this tuner to add freeview and media play to my little 13" old style CRT tv, this does all what I need it to do and the inclusion of a scart socket has made it super simple to connect and gives out a full rgb connection so the picture it great! I bought this more for the media player so I can listen to music and watch mp4 files also handy to have freeview and record programs, the epg is a little odd but usable a work around is to add stations you watch to the favourites list.
All in all very happy and has updated my trusty bedroom tv.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitaldaffodil