A fantastic product overall, the Digital Tuner for Xbox One is simple to set up and remarkably easy to use from there.
Background:
I, like many people I imagine, have recently been watching less and less Live TV and more video on demand (iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video etc.). On Xbox One especially I'd be surprised if people weren't using these features more and more. My existing Freeview box wasn't cheap but was flaky at times with slow input changes and the occasional difficulty coming out of standby, hence the decision to try out the first party digital TV tuner.
Installation:
I feel they really couldn't make this any easier- simply plug an aerial into the dongle and insert the dongle via USB. A prompt appears on screen to take you through a simple setup screen that takes a couple of minutes (the same as the one used for external Freeview boxes for the most part). I was impressed that Microsoft didn't cut costs by providing a short cable between the console and dongle but it's probably around a meter long which was a nice surprise.
Usage:
Because the Xbox doesn't have any remote commands to learn or interfaces to overlay on top of the result is clean and as the designers intended- it really is nice to see channel changes without the old Freeview box's interface popping up.
Functionality is somewhat limited (you won't be watching two channels at once for example) but what it does is done well. The interface is snappy and really beautiful compared to most Freeview EPGs. An extra bonus is that because the dongle works via USB this frees up an HDMI slot which can still be accessed (it's the last channel on the guide).
An unexpected bonus is that our old Freeview box would stay in standby day and night, consuming just under £13 worth of electricity every year when not in use. The Xbox One tuner has its power provided by USB and as a result means one less box on standby!
Quality:
It's plastic but without feeling like an egg carton- the production quality is great for something you'll never see, touch or even think of- I would have been happy for them to cut costs here but I certainly won't complain.
Summary:
If you know what the limitations are (e.g. no recording as of yet, Freeview's channel selection) then there really isn't much reason not to love it. A great accessory.
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Reviews with images
Changed my life no more missing those important moments on TV with the pause function
Lets me pause live TV in UK for 30 mins (plus rewind/forward ect) very handy indeed. Just split my aerial cable from the roof and both and XBox One share the signal fine. Shame Microsoft don't have this built in to there machine.
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