Konig Digital Freeview Scart Receiver

Could not wish for better, easy to install, in fact it installs itself very quickly. I only have a cheap loft aerial fot the tv i am using it on but it worked perfectly, no blips or buzzing or loss of picture, as a matter of fact the picture is 100% perfect. I would recommend this little creature to anyone who wants a small neat digi box.

Doesn't support red button but I never use red button anyway so it's not a serious matter. Teletext displays "No Teletext Data" but I never use teletext either. The manual is too small so I had to get a magnifying glass to read it but it doesn't give set-up instructions.

Now the brickbats are out of the way, on with the review. This excellent piece of kit is pretty much straightforward to set up: Connect the power supply to the DC 5v power socket, connect the remote control sensor to the IR socket, connect the antenna cable, plug it into the scart socket on your tv and plug in the power supply to your electricity wall socket. Select the designated AV channel on your tv, AV2 on my tv and up comes the On Screen Display (OSG), set your region and it launches straight into an auto scan to find the channels. The auto scan found all of the channels available in my area and the picture quality is excellent without pixelation and about the same high quality as I used to get from Cable. And that's about it! Subtitles are enabled by default and to turn off the subtitles press the yellow button, change the subtitles to off using the volume buttons on the remote and then "Enter". The info button which displays programme information on the bottom of the screen only shows the Now and Next programmes but there is the EPG button which displays full programme info for all channels to plan viewing. In use the EPG was a little slow and displayed "No Information" for most of the channels at first but then displayed the programme info after around a minute.

My tv is wide-screen so I had to go into the Main Menu > Setup > TV System to change the Aspect Ratio to 16:9. After that was done and with my tv wide-screen control set to auto, wide-screen was turned on and off automatically according to the channels' aspect ratio.

Cosmetically, the unit is unseen being behind the tv and the only thing that's visible is the small black dome shape of the remote sensor with its red LED which I stuck to the front of the tv with its adhesive pad. The scart plug is too long for the scart socket on my tv and sticks out a bit but doesn't affect performance.

Overall, the small size of the unit dictates its limitations but as a basic Freeview box it does the job excellently. It's perfect for anyone looking for a basic Freeview box. Anyone who can't live without the little extras like red button and teletext that somehow never actually get used should look elsewhere and probably spend more money!

Highly recommended for its superior picture quality and ease of use and so oil give it foive.

This was supplied by Express Pro - delivery rapid, so no issues there. However, the product is not as advertised, as it has no Konig (or any) branding and has different sockets from the photo (appears to be Ex-Pro Scart Digibox Freeview Receiver & Recorder).

The unit is very small, and has fair instructions (though very small print). Once connected into our old 14" telly, it found our local Freeview channels quickly, and was ready to use. My only real issue is that it doesn't have MHEG support, so the 'red button' services don't work, though subtitles do. But if you want loads of technical info about which multiplex you're watching/hearing and/or need a fast-acting signal strength meter to assist aerial adjustment, then this is ideal.

Overall a good buy for a second set.

*Update* After 3 days, the picture became jittery and unstable - this rapidly became so bad to be unusable. Returned to Ex-Pro and replaced without fuss - new unit works OK so far. Both old and new units had quirks though, e.g. subtitles are always enabled on power-up even after you switch them off; some channels don't work after being in standby, requiring full power off/on cycle.