Grundig GDT1500

I still feel that a good quality analog picture will wipe the floor with these digital boxes - especially with fast action (football pitches look like pea soup!), but presumably in time these units will get better. This set is certainly on a par with the better units I seen

We've had the Grundig GDT1500 freeview box for over 2 years now. At first it was OK, and had good quality picture and standard software, but with the software updates within the last 6 months, it definitely has the BEST menu system of ALL set top boxes.

Using the TV-G button (for electronic program guide), you can see programs for the next 7 days, preview channels, and with a simple press of the red button you can add a program to the Recorder timer - BRILLIANT.

As I said previously, it can sometimes freeze; but it's OK because when that happens it switches itself off and then back on (to the same channel), and all is OK again.

After owning this Grundig GDT1500 set top box for over a year I can definitely say that it's been well worth the money. It's a stable, well-built piece of equipment that I can't destroy (believe me, I've tried). It even survived 5 months of 10-hour-a-day usage in a steamy, condensating kitchen.

I have it connected to a 28" Grundig television which it matches perfectly. The box itself has RGB out capabilities which really aid the image quality. It also has a seperate SCART connector for your VCR (the SCART connector only outputs composite, but since about 99% of VCRs support only that, it's not a problem).

All in all this was a solid purchase and I would not hesitate to purchase another product from Grundig.

My Grundig GDT1500 Digibox broke after 14 months. A website called satcure.co.uk explains why. It is, apparently, a known fault, and can be overcome at very low cost, provided you know about it before the capacitor blows and blows the chip, thus rendering the equipment irreparable. Please just put in 'Grundig GDT1500' and you will find the site which says 'BEWARE'. This equipment is exclusive to Curry's who know about the fault, because I have told them. Head Office is apparently looking into it now.

USING SCART socket for VCR recording makes picture go dull whilst recording. The recording is also dull.

Any ideas?

Setting up the box was simple and the picture's great off my building's old aerial - having said that, I can see the Crystal Palace transmitter out of my window!

The hardest part was finding somewhere that had this box in stock. Comparing reviews here and elsewhere I knew I wanted this STB as it was rated as good as the new Nokia but was £30 less.

Given my experience so far, friends' comments and reviews here and elsewhere I would recommend this to everyone.

Bought for a ton at Currys. Set itself up a treat. Nice sharp picture. Very satisfied on the whole. My gripes are:

* Software sluggish - Seems to take an age to respond to remote control button presses, and takes several seconds to flick between channels. Obviously there's some number crunching to do, decoding and buffering the MPEG stream before it can display a picture, but when jumping between non-adjacent channels using the Program +/- buttons, there's no need to stop on every one inbetween.

* Software a little buggy - No probs with actually watching telly on it, but have had to reboot (power cycle) several times to make the 'interactive' menus work again. It has succesfully performed over-air downloads 2 or 3 times. Also, had problems re-tuning. Got stuck searching for channels, when about 80% complete (the point in the spectrum where my transmitter is). A hard reset or manual tune seems to get it working again.

* Audio out level seems a bit low. I have to crank my AV amp up high to get the same sound level out, compared to my VCR or DVD player. I can then hear noise in the audio.

* No RF modulator - Would be nice to have it modulate its output onto the RF loopthrough, for distribution around the house, or watching on old TVs with no AV input.

* Built in a plastic case. RFI messes up my cordless phone real nice.

* One nice feature is the picture-in-picture display when looking at interactive menus, but this is spoiled since the TV picture inset disappears as soon as you get down to a menu level that actually has any useful information on it, e.g. 'What's on TV tonight'.

I bought the Grundig GDT1500 DVD player (exclusive to Dixons Group, £99). The first thing I noticed was that there were no cables supplied, only the mains one - that was another £4 for a Scart Lead and A standard RF male to female connector. When connected up, the box does its own setup and I was alerted that there was a live update being broadcast over air. I accepted then the installation started. Within 2 mins the box was fully functional. I am now getting to grips with the way the box works and I must admit that it is very simple to use.

From Dixons for an extra £10 you can buy the "Mouse", this is a small round unit with an IR sensor and channel up and down buttons, this is designed so that the box can be hidden away and then the mouse could sit there neatly on the top of the television.

The remote for the box also has the ability to control a TV and a VCR, the problem is that it only controls Grundig sets and typically my set up is panasonic!

The User manual is simple and very easy to understand.

The software version on the set must be used for various models in other countries, I say this because there are visable options in the menu for "Modem" and "Common Interface" there is also settings to change the RF out but none of the above functions are enabled and the hardware is missing in the GDT 1500

Security is also quite high, you can lock channels with a pin number and there is also an highly detailed Timer function built in!

The rear of the unit is also very generous, there is a standard 8 mains lead input, 2 scarts, aerial in, RF Loop Through and a socket similar to a phone socket for the "Mouse".

If you want one of these boxes I would hurry up, they seem to be selling like hot cakes, I know I got the last one and the delivery had been in about 3 hours! THESE ARE SELLING OUT

the only disadvantage I see is the lack of cables supplied, you do get the batteries though!