How many freeview boxes have died on you so far?

[barkmonster]

I had number 2 die on me on Saturday, it literally blew up when I turned on my gangway, glad I had a surge protector.

The one before that just kept turning itself off eventually after starting to "warm up" instead just turning on as it was supposed to.

The most recent one I bought is now showing problems where it looses the favourites list every time you turn it off so I have to flick past all those worthless shopping channels instead of just leaving them out all together.

I think they're designed to break so you'll give up eventually and replace all your TVs with digital LCDs and It's really frustrating going back to analogue, even if it's only in 1 room now I'm used to it.

The digital switch over is happening in the North of England later this year and actual "TV" by the BBC gets really poor reception from BBC1 - BBC3 where I live and there's probably about 2 hours of television a week I'm missing out on for that but still have to pay for in a way.

I can watch Dexter on ITV4, Supernatural on ITV2, Smallville, My Name is Earl, re-runs of Scrubs and have the pleasure of turning over to literally any other channel when re-runs of Friends come on E4 and all those channels have nearly 20 minutes of adverts to pay for each show.

I only hope the BBC at least try and pick up "Dollhouse" when it's available in the UK, that's assuming the same thing doesn't happen to it as happened to firefly. An Eliza Dushku you can program to be "anything" you tell her to be could prove to be a very good series

 

[DJ567]

never had 1 die on my out of 5, and another 3 tvs with digital tuners work perfectly, even had an on digital (remember them) box for ages worked fine

I do remember seeing something on watchdog tho about a certain company that made the chips for various brands doing a god awful job of it meaning loads of them break within a few years

as for american tv shows, its best to skip em and wait for the dvd box sets, that way u dont have to worry about what channel they're on, what time they're on, and if they're crap or get cancelled after 3 shows u dont even have to bother (day break)... firefly i loved watched whole thing on dvd never on tv

 

[0098386]

Not sure, we've had about 5 in the past. One is tempermental and probably won't last long (been saying that for a year though). We chucked one out just because it was one of the earliest models and the interface was terrible and slow.

Only our kitchen and one bedroom TV need a freeview box though. Everything else has it built in.

 

[robbieduncan]

At least 3 before I switched over to EyeTV and a G4 Mac Mini a few years back. Unsurprisingly the Mac based solution has been rock solid...

 

[OllyW]

I've had 2 freeview tuners and 3 freeview PVR boxes and haven't had any failures so far.

My cable box did expire after about 5 years but I haven't had no bother with it's replacement.

 

[remmy]

1 out of 2

Although the first one then came back to life when connected to s different TV Both sometimes have lousy reception, analogue although sometimes poor at least there was some picture.

 

[joelovesapple]

We are now on our third. First one just gave up the ghost for no reason (mind you we were given it as the previous owner had a newer one). Then all of a sudden at Christmas 2008 the second one we had just blew up after my dad configured it. It really was quite scary. I think it will be one of those things we will remember every Christmas from now on.

 

[schizoidwoman]

We're still on our first (and it's old!) but I don't think it blowing up could do anything to make the reception any worse than it already is. Nothing improves it, it just laughs in the face of all our efforts!

 

[peskaa]

Zero.

My only issue is with a Sony box which no longer has a working EPG as it is so old - it'll work for a few days after a reset, then no longer operate. The one built into the TV (not used mind!) still works, and the Sony PVR/DVD Recorder works perfectly fine.

 

[barkmonster]

At least 3 before I switched over to EyeTV and a G4 Mac Mini a few years back. Unsurprisingly the Mac based solution has been rock solid...

I was considering exactly the same thing eventually with either a Mac Mini or a 20" iMac because I need a cheap way to move from PowerPC to Intel and it would be a perfect set up for my bedroom once I replace it with a Mac Pro WAY in the future.

I'm more than a little jeolous of the people who've found an intel Mac Mini for $300 on eBay and got a nice little entry level system out of it.

In the UK they seem to go for nearly the same retail as a new one and it would be the quickest way of me moving up.

It's only about £60 for enough RAM to max it out and a faster Core 2 Quad to put in it if I could find one for the equivelent in £ (probably about £200 I'm guessing). Of course, I need a new job first but planning ahead gives you something to aim for!