great item but foreign plug and french instructions

This item is ok i guess but what i really want to know is why do suppliers never check to see if they are compatable for use within the UK mine came with a foreign 2 pin plug and french instructions. really dissapointed

Timer Recordings Failure, Shoddy Construction.

This unit has flimsy physical construction. This would be forgiveable if the electronics performed well, but frequently when set to do a Timer Recording the unit will switch on and off at the correct time and select the correct channel but then produce a black (not blank but black) picture signal. Result can be a recording on an attached DVD Recorder that is say 30 minutes of black screen. The recorder will record this black signal as if it was a normal picture, so any safety facility on a recorder such as"No Signal - Recording Paused" will not occur as it is receiving the black TV screen signal.

Like so much of Philips equipment nowdays - could be excellent but fails to deliver. Interestingly Philips recently sold their Set Top Box buisness to Pace. With that and other sales of divisions I wonder if they are slowly exiting consumer electronics. With product quality like this they should - fast. And that is a shame as they did invent things like CD and DVD.

Avoid unless you want a useless piece of kit !

Philips make some very fine products unfortunately this is not one of them. The first things you will notice are the buttons on the remote are tiny, so its like using a mobile phone as a remote control. Very annoying and you need to point it very straight to the box or its doesn't work.

The quality of the picture is poor if you have a modern T.V. I found it looked blocky compared to that of my integrated digital TV when it wasn't using the digibox.

The worst was yet to come, four weeks into using the box (bought brand new). The box turned itself off, when I unplugged and turned back on a software update screen appeared. I allowed it to search for software which it did not find, but then you couldn't get off the screen and back to the normal menu. I phoned Philips helpline who couldn't explain this, only saying to restore to factory settings you had to get to the main menu (which was now impossible after several unplugs and switch back ons). The only thing possible was the software update screen and a constant standby status.

I would avoid as there are many other better models than this one.