The August DVB400 HD receiver is perfect for those with an older HDTV that doesn’t have an internal HD freeview receiver.
The DVB400 is compact and easy to setup, plug your aerial into the receiver, and a HDMI cable from the receiver into your TV. Turn everything on and the box will scan for available channels, both standard and HD. The HD picture quality is excellent, visually it’s far better than standard definition and it breathes new life into an aging TV set.
The remote is OK, it’s fairly small compared to most remotes these day and it feels rather cramped.
On the front of the unit is a USB port, this allows you to plug a USB memory stick or external hard drive in and use this to record TV shows. This area could do with a bit of work, while it’s functional and works OK, it’s not easy to use and I don’t think YouView/Virgin/Sky have anything to be especially worried about. One advantage over the big boys is that you can then take your recordings and transfer them to your PC/NAS/tablet, although August really need to sort out the file name as it currently just shows the channel and the date/time stamp so when you’ve a lot of recordings you’ve no way of easily finding what you’re after.
If you are planning on using the recording function there are a few other things to be aware of, there isn’t a series link feature
For a second TV, perhaps the old one in the bedroom, this is a brilliant way to add HD channels. If you’re looking for something in the living room then it’d be better to investigate freeview recorders or YouView boxes, as they offer a far slicker recording system and some have additional features such as catch up services.
The August DVB400 HD Freeview Set Top Box is available on Amazon now: https://goo.gl/QHVmmm
