I got my Fetch TV (http://www.fetchtv.co.uk) Box delievered today and am so far impressed with it. It was easy to set up and has many useful features such as being able to export recorded shows and films onto a USB flash drive.

The BBC iPlayer feature is great and very useful. It works via WiFi too which is good.

The on demands TV shows and films are not as good as other providers eg. Virgin Media etc but are still very respectable. There are many new and premiere films on the service and is good overall.

I would highly recommend!

Looks like IP Vision did their own version of the BBC iPlayer which the BBC has refused to support, so the BBC may force the company to be take it off the box!
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419...s-own-iplayer/

I returned mine after a month, the software had so many bugs in it. iPlayer completely stopped working, everytime you tried to watch something it rebooted the box. No programmes ever actually loaded.

Got rid of it and replaced it with a Virgin V+ box, although not perfect its a million times better than the Fetch TV box.

This happened to my box but i just reset my Digital Rights in the settings menu and all was fine.

Got my Fetch TV today and so far very impressed. Easy to set up. Good picture quality. Easy to use. Iplayer and soon the skyplayer will make it a great gadget. The ondemand offer is a bit poor though, but it is early days. Of courseit is not a matchfor Virgin media or the full sky package but I prefer it to Top up TV .

didnt even no fetch tv was live so is there a lot of vod stuff .

I have to agree. The features of the Fetch TV Box (I have the smartbox 8000) are great, but there are so many bugs. I would not recommend it to anyone.

Since getting mine (Feb 2010), I've experienced 'skipping' in recorded programmes and unrequested recordings taking place. The latest software update sent to me by customer services is a BETA version that has completely stopped BBC iPlayer and the digital recorder from working at all.

There are also some minor bugs that are irritating - for example, if you use the guide to record a programme, and that programme doesn't start exactly on time, the recording is given the name of the programme currently being played (which would be the one before that which you're really trying to record).

Customer service is slow and poor - standard response seems to be "all will be fixed in our next version of software" (which was promised in early March 2010, but hasn't yet appeared), They are also still struggling to fix my current two problems.

Shame, since this piece of technology promised so much, but delivers very badly.

Just uploaded a vid on YouTube showing my box -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd_zMB1gGV8

whats it like at playing video files etc, over the network

I stream video to it from a Western Digital Mybook World Edition running ushare and it's not bad. FetchTV customer support only seem to recognise streaming if you're using Windows Media Player, so if you're expecting support on how to set up streaming using any other device, I guess you're on your own.

The user interface is a little sloppy and it would be nice if it had SMB support.

Review
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/06/3...smartbox_8000/

A good review, but I suspect suffers from not having a long term use. I can honestly say that I loved the smartbox when I first got it. However, over time (the last five months), the continual bugs and issues have finally got me down. Added to that the unresponsive, poor and rude customer service, and I have to say it's a pretty bad piece of kit, best avoided.

So, it's been a good few weeks since the last update for the Smartbox 8000, and I'm still experiencing problems that make it pretty much unusable (mainly recordings that skip during playback). Despite sending emails to both FetchTV and IPVision, I've had no reply. Advice from me for anything thinking to buy any FetchTV product is to avoid - they are really not worth the trouble.

I regreat that I must agree with the negative reviews on here. I purchased my box at Christmas 2009, did not expect great things at first and was impressed with what I did get. Customer Services then lied to me on the phone about integration of Five Player and ITV Player, something it would seem is not going to happen! There are real problems (which Fetch do not seem bothered by) whereby the box records random programmes which you have not requested it to do. The box offers to record the series of something but then says it does not have enough data so instead offers to record at the same time every week (until you tell it to stop) so this is NOT series link at all! Recordings are skipping all over the place, all the time. For the price of this box it is not worth the money, in fact right now if the box was half of its current price it is not worth the money!!

I have emailed Fetch twice in two months, I have not even had so much as a generic reply. Do not waste your money on this, at least not at the moment!

Found this review on the which magazine. Seems FetchTV have gone down hill.

I have just received this email from FetchTV.

I hope the update isn't version 4.7.46-30 which was released at the back end of August. Seems like FetchTV have really balls'ed up this time. My Smartbox is far less stable following this release. Multiple resets a day, often getting itself in a loop where it will start up, reset, start up, reset.... you get the picture.

Come on FetchTV - other manufacturers seem to be able to make reliable boxes, why can't you?

I dont have any real problems with my box & like the service it offers

So am now wondering whether these boxes are prone to overheating, causing the resets. Anyone noticed any problems in this area? Also my smartbox has a fairly prominent "bulge" in the top casing, although all the innards don't quite fit - is this normal?

The bulge is part of the design

Seems the boxes are made by Netgem who have some new boxes out!
http://www.netgem.com/fetchTV.php

http://www.realwire.com/releases/Net...rnetTV-adapter
Maybe fetch will soon sell the new N5000!

Let's hope that if they do, Netgem put a little more quality in their boxes. I really can't believe how buggy the software in the current smartboxes is. I work in the software engineering industry and there is really no excuse, these boxes are obviously low quality and rushed to market. Shows how much disrespect fetchtv and netgem have for their customers.

Personally I'd never go for another unit from either company, and would strongly advise others to avoid as well.

Well I still loves my box, film selection is ok, Picture quality is the best out of all my boxes which are two humaxes & one thomson top up tv box and I even think the epg is the best one out of the boxes.
Only glitch I do have from time to time is that sometimes the box will not recognise my usb memory stick, but if I unplug & then plug in again it normally sorts it.
Sky player on it is a bit of a mare to navigate but then thats prob down to sky.
Regarding streaming I have twonky media on my computer & it works fine.

Overall I like the service & if it had a lady garden & could cook & clean & iron I'd marry it.

Thankyou please xxxx


Oh, they are doing one film for 99p on wed's.

Right lets go chuckle at tge oneview forum.

I think the "extra" services (e.g. Iplayer, Skyplayer, Media extender, etc) are actually pretty good. But the basic job of being able to record and playback recordings just sucks. Again, only today I've had the message telling me that my hard disk needs to be erased, loosing (again!) all my recordings. FetchTV customer support just seems to be of the attitude "that's tough". It's a recognised fault to the point that other users suggest reguarlly backing up recordings - doesn't that just miss the whole point though?

I really am hoping that FetchTV/IPVision/Netgem just disappear off the face of the earth so that no-one else has to experience their shoddy engineering. Gives others in the industry just a bad name. Must be embarassing to actually work there.........

I have just moved to Fetch TV from Top Up TV. I certainly have no complaints about Fetch. When I received the box it would not connect to the WIFI, but their Customer Service (by email) was quick, helpful and actually solved the problem.

My only complaint, although used to it now, is that the remote controller is incredibly laggy.