Sagem PVR6240T

Loved this box to start with. Then have gradualy fallen out of love and want a divorce. Stupid french piece of s**t. The time it takes to do a series record takes longer and longer. The usb port isn't as great as you can really only take off and put on stuff the box itself has recorded. It keeps on failing to record series. We'll get the first 2 or 3 and then find the recording list empty. Sometimes it will not let me record on E4+1 and instead insist on record E4 at a time when I want to record something else. The processor on it is rubbish and I think lets it down. The edit feature on the recording is clunky and not easy to use. The recording list is not as intuative as it could be.

Avoid this hunk of junk.

All was good with my Sagem PVR6240T up until a few weeks ago when it started to display on a daily basis that new channels had been detected on the flow. I ran the channel search a few times then went away for a weekend and when i came back i found i had lost the bbc channels. After the usual test of trying it in another room where my other box worked i phoned Sagem. The lady asked me what version of software i was running and i told her 4.5.5. She said that I had not accepted the software broadcast from July to make it into version 7 or 8 and as a result it will not get these channels back until i get this software download. She did say that they probably would run it again as they have been having lots of calls and directed me to www.dtg.org.uk where they keep a schedule of what software update is being run by what manufacturer. I'm annoyed as it cost me £120 and I rely on it to record. I 'm also annoyed that they choose to run a download for one week only in mid july when people were having holidays and i actually was only absent because it was birthday week!! In the meantime I have added the dtg web site to my favourites to look every few days to see if there may be another software download and I plan to call Sagem again. I can't take it back to Argos where I bought it as its now out of warranty but I cant afford to get another so it's just wait and see.

Sagem PVR6240T review - About a fortnight ago a message appeared on my TV screen asking if I wanted to update the software. Unfortunately, a friend was watching it at the time and somehow managed to press the wrong button and the message disappeared! OK I thought, it will come back when I turn the box off and then on again like they usually do on these set top boxes, but no! I tried everything and eventually had to rescan for new channels because some of the main ones had disappeared, but I couldn't retrieve them! I tried another room in the house which has a separate aerial but still nothing!

I contacted the helpline for Tesco Electricals (where I had bought the box) and they tried to talk me through installing new software updates but unlike most boxes, this had no button to do this manually! The helpline operator decided that the box had malfunctioned and told me to take it back to Tesco for a replacement which I did!

The new box was exactly the same! Most of the BBC channels were missing! I then phoned the hotline number supplied on the box DEAD! I went online and managed to get a phone number for Customer Services at Sagem. When I phoned it, I was made aware of how much contempt this company had for me for it's customer! The software update had been streamed with the broadcasts for ONE WEEK and was not going to be sent again! My Set Top Digital Freeview Recorder which was less than 7 months old was useless as without the update which, they were not prepared to broadcast again, it would NEVER work properly again!!! Their advice was to go out and BUY a replacement!

Sagem think a WEEK was long enough for ALL their customers who had bought this product to have downloaded the update (I pointed out that it was the main holiday period and some people would have been away whilst the update was broadcast but was told there was nothing they can do)

The frightening thing is, this Model of Set Top Box is STILL on sale! I have see them on internet sites for £124.99 and up until Tesco took mine back (bless them!) and refunded my money, There were still some on sale in my local store! (They were taken off as soon as I explained the reason for the malfunction!)