Tesco Clearing HD Boxes for £30

lbearlbear Posts: 1,773
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Tesco appear to be clearing their stocks of two of their Freeview HD boxes for £30.


IN STORE

They have the Vestel T8300 clone badged as a Technika STBHDV2010 Note the important last letter which Tesco appear to use to indicate their supplier.

ON THEIR WEB SITE

They have a different model badged as the Technika STBHDH2010. This looks very similar to the Alba sold by Argos for £100 and which had very bad reviews in Which? It also looks similar to the Grundig and Goodmans HD boxes marketed by Harvard (who previously owned the Alba name). The customer reviews for these models are mixed to bad, several citing boot up problems, so you may wish to avoid.
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Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 674
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    Did anyone buy one of these in-store?

    None at my local when I popped up there this morning before the usual Saturday rush.

    Too much of Tesco's own brand stuff is rubbish, I know, but I won't spend £120+ on a first-generation box.
  • maw1maw1 Posts: 418
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    There is another thread on this.

    Anyway I bought one, the Vestal one.

    It seems to be a customer return, the box was scruffy, the batteries were already in the remote, and it had already been tuned in some while ago before BBC 1 HD started. However there are no scratches on the box and it works perfectly after a rescan.

    Shame on Tesco for not stating they are a customer return.

    So it wasn't a Vestal Virgin? :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,979
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    The Tesco direct store in Wrexham have an area where they display reduced price TVs etc with a full warranty, some with no boxes etc. A sales person told me they were returns being recycled usually the impression implied is ex display stock.




    JO
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 95
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    I got one in Broadstairs Tesco it was brand new in sealed box vestel model good buy for £30 got it for my spare tv that does not have freeview HD built in not alot of use yet we dont switch over till next year but it seems to work very well as normal freeview might pick up signal from east anglia when they fully swich over later this year if I lucky Im on highest part of thanet.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6
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    I picked up a Technika STBHDV2010 for £30 from Tesco Handforth Dean today. They had about 20 of them on the shelf. Mine looks like its never been used although the box was a bit scruffy. Reception is fine and picture nice and clear.

    Anyone know what the ethernet is used for?
  • jam73jam73 Posts: 159
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    Humph. My local Tesco has a display of the STBHDH2010 model, at £50 ... and 1 x STBHDV2010
  • pinkteddyx64pinkteddyx64 Posts: 2,467
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    scrads wrote: »
    Anyone know what the ethernet is used for?
    The Ethernet port is used for IPTV services such as BBC iPlayer.
  • StasisLeakStasisLeak Posts: 494
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    Tesco Edmoton London have stacks of the V model (new) for £30. Tried one out and quite pleased I did as I am very pleased with the results of the HD downscaling to my CRT TV. Only one scart and no RF out (only loop through) but does the job for me. Only question I have which may sound a bit dumb, is which setting should I have the hdmi output set to when using a scart lead? The different settings do seem to soften the picture, but I presume I should leave it on the SD setting for a CRT?

    Also, does anybody know what the latest firmware version is?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 43
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    maw1 wrote: »
    So it wasn't a Vestal Virgin? :D

    Well I thought it was funny anyway! :D
  • lbearlbear Posts: 1,773
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    kurgan2 wrote: »
    Tesco Edmoton London have stacks of the V model (new) for £30. Tried one out and quite pleased I did as I am very pleased with the results of the HD downscaling to my CRT TV. Only one scart and no RF out (only loop through) but does the job for me. Only question I have which may sound a bit dumb, is whic]h setting should I have the hdmi output set to when using a scart lead? The different settings do seem to soften the picture, but I presume I should leave it on the SD setting for a CRT?

    Errr the SCART lead outputs analogue signals. If you TV and box can both be set to "RGB", use that. Set the HDMI output to 1080i as this will avoid any down-processing within the box.
    The Ethernet port is used for IPTV services such as BBC iPlayer.

    However the BBC and other broadcasters have not ported their catch up services to the Freeview HD platform yet. Some makers use this for their own IPTV services.
  • 01tomki01tomki Posts: 94
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    I got one tonight from Bury, very impressed with it, I'm just using it until the humax hd recorder comes down in price, £300 is too much. So now I have 2 boxes one sd recorder and a hd box
  • StasisLeakStasisLeak Posts: 494
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    lbear wrote: »
    Errr the SCART lead outputs analogue signals. If you TV and box can both be set to "RGB", use that. Set the HDMI output to 1080i as this will avoid any down-processing within the box.

    I have already set the box and TV to RGB, but when I set the box to 1080i the picture looks a bit soft.
    When set to 576 or 720 it looks a lot sharper and much better than the SD channels.
    I figure the box will HAVE to downscale on HD channels when connected to a standard TV, will it not?
  • egalegal Posts: 263
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    Is it possible to delete unwanted (undesirable) channels from channel list?
  • lbearlbear Posts: 1,773
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    A friend has just bought the Harvard version so I have done a comparison with the Vestal.
    The Harvard does have 2 scarts but pretty pointless these days as an input on vcr scart can't output to HDMI anyway.

    The Harvard has no digital display of pr no, most Freeview boxes don't, but the Vestal does and I would miss it.

    The Harvard has no manual tuning by individual channel. You can only tune the whole band in one go. This is a big problem in overlap areas where it is best to manually tune your preferred region. How much of the band is covered you can't tell, is ch 69 included, don't know. It seems to tune "backwards" from the high channels to the low judging by the fact it found no channels on CP till near the end of the scan and found radio channels first and ITV last. No problem but rather unconventional.

    Glad I got the Vestal.

    I would be interested to know if there are five buttons on the right - possibly concealed by a flap - on the "Harvard" version. The only apparent difference between that and Argos's Alba appears to be the presence and non-presence or covering of these. Both have a "two level" front panel and no display.

    The Grundig and Goodmans only have a blue LED on the centre of the front panel and not these buttons (I wonder if this is the cause of the concerns Which? had about the Alba) From the handbooks, the only difference between the two Harvard marketed models is the colour used on the menus and differing front panel designs.
  • StasisLeakStasisLeak Posts: 494
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    Just a further bit of info on theTechnika STBHDV2010.
    Although the remote has a timer button, it does not seem to function and there is no mention of it in the manual.
    There doesn't seem to be any other way of setting a timer or reminder in the epg, so if you wish to connect to a dvd recorder or vcr for timer recordings, this does not seem to be an option.
  • 01tomki01tomki Posts: 94
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    well after using the box for a day I have found it is alot better than a Segamcom HD Recorder that I had 3 of. I have the 'H' model, which seems to be the bad one.

    The EPG is fantastic, much better than the one on my Samsung TV. The only bad thing now is that I have 2 boxes and a PS3 all lined up, however, as soon as the Humax HD PVR comes down in price, I will get rid of both boxes.

    Also, has anyone else noticed slight picture freezing on BBC HD? this is from Winter Hill
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    maw1 wrote: »
    So it wasn't a Vestal Virgin? :D

    :D:D:D Wouldn't surprise me though if it had been...
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 27
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    I've bought one of these today. Has anyone used the Dolby Digital out from the SPDIF ? When I set Audio to Dolby or auto no sound comes out of my amp which is DD compatible. Fine with stereo setting. The info on BBC hd has the DD mark.
  • gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,503
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    Regardless of the mark, comparatively few of the BBC HD programmes are broadcast in DD5.1. I suggest you try it on Jools Holland tonight.
  • Ray CathodeRay Cathode Posts: 13,231
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    Most C4 movies are in 5.1 IIRC.
  • StasisLeakStasisLeak Posts: 494
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    egal wrote: »
    Is it possible to delete unwanted (undesirable) channels from channel list?

    Yes, on the STBHDV2010 anyway.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 38
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    can anybody confirm which of these 2 models does transcoding for 5.1 audio via the Optical/SPDIF connection? afaik to get 5.1 on freeview hd channels the stb needs to be able to transcode the HE-AAC format used for broadcasting 5.1 on fvhd, into DD so when you connect the stb to your surround system it can understand the DD audio.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 63
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    Does anyone know if the H version has a timer. I bought the V one yesterday to replace my goodmans gbd2 that I still use as a backup linked to a VCR but the Tesco one hasn't got a timer.
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