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A few years ago I purchased a (Netgem) BT Iplayer Freeview box (a returned sale) for £30 from ebay so I could get Freeview in my room in a student house in Belfast. Now, a couple of years on, I’ve decided to share my experience of this particular piece of kit.

From what I’d read on the subject on the internet, it seemed unlikely that the loop antenna on my TV wouldn’t be sufficient to receive DTT (Freeview), even though the iPlayer supposedly performed better than other boxes when there was a weak signal. I assumed my house would have poor reception (particularly in my downstairs room) so I also grabbed an amplified set-top aerial from Argos and was initially quite impressed with the quality of the picture and sound. In fact, aside from the fact that initially the EPG was only a now/next (see below), I would have been delighted.

Setting Up

The box immediately auto-tuned to pick up the available channels; the standard 5, plus ITV2, BBC Three and Four etc. The picture’s good, although subject to interference from mobile phones and cars outside (I blame that on the set-top aerial though). The on-screen display menus make it easy to configure your box the way you like it.

Features

The box itself is packed with features. Mine was the BT Iplayer, meaning that although it was manufactured by Netgem, it was BT-branded and came with different features, such as on-screen caller ID when plugged into your phone line, at the expense of a Top-Up TV slot (which wasn’t a problem as I wouldn’t waste my money on Topup TV anyway). Other than that the boxes were nearly identical, and thanks to a subsequent software upgrade (downloaded through the box’s built-in modem) I now have a Topup TV-capable “Iplayer+” (complete with 7-day EPG) anyway.

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Hello all and welcome to my new blog. Once the design is finalised I will be uploading guides, reviews, ideas and problem solving / ‘how-to’ posts based on my daily struggle with the beast that is technology. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, in particular with a view to recording the problems I’ve had with particular devices and/or programs so that others may find the solutions without resorting to pulling their hair out like I often have.

The topics covered will largely be computer related (hardware and software) including compatability issues, dodgy hardware/software, wired and wireless networking etc. I may also touch briefly on UK Digital Terrestrial Television (ie Freeview) and, well, anything else that I determine worthy of comment.

In fact I’ve already written one or two little guides that I plan to post in the next few days. I just hope they will prove useful to someone.