Sagem ITD602

Since the latest update to Freeview transmissions this box no longer works. Sagem do not have a solution, this was their comment on 25 Sept 08 "Sagem has discontinued the ITD 6XX many years ago. Unfortunately there is no FW update for this box. The reason for the constant auto tuning is due to

Freeview constantly streaming new engineering data OTA"

I have 3 and they are now only fit for the bin.

Bought the Sagem ITD602 because it was one of the few with an RGB SCART loop through allowing DVDs to be seen in better quality on my one SCART TV. This works well.

The receiver is quite sensitive and has been used in areas of known weak signal level.

Unfortunately recently (late 2005) the changes to the Freeview platform with many extra channels and interactive services has brought the ITD602 to its knees. It crashes and goes through continuous reboot cycles when BBC 1 news is on in the evening if you are trying to watch any of the channels in the BBC multiplex. It is so bad you can't even select another channel until the news has finished.

Sagem were contacted about this but were completely uninterested in resolving this though they acknowledged that they had received other similar complaints. They say they will not be bringing out a software upgrade for this receiver.

It may be worth noting that Sagem appear to be the only manufacturer that use a premium rate phone number for you to contact their customer service.

After being sick of only having 5 channels I thought of getting satellite, but then was told I couldn't have a dish (rented property/short contract) and cable was far more expensive. I didn't want any extra movie or sports channels. Was put off initially by being told that you couldn't use an internal aerial because of weak transmitting signal.

After checking the freeview website (www.freeview.co.uk) with my postcode to ensure coverage I set about selecting the right DVB receiver.

I read through all the reviews here and on other sites and very much wanted to obtain the Sagem ITD612. So when I was in Asda's an hour ago I saw a Sagem DVB (the last one in the store - the box was slightly battered, but it was complete) I grabbed it with both hands and ran to the checkout!(Also available at Amazon)

There isn't much in the way of markings on the outer box so when I opened it up I found it to be a 602 model.

Holding my breath I plugged in the unit (loads of electric static off the box!). Now my regular analogue signal is pretty poor. I live in a first floor flat near Hanger Lane and even using an internal Labgear aerial with a One-for-All Dual Loop aerial booster set at full 38db boost I still get ghosting to the left of the screen, good or bad weather.

It only took about 5 minutes to auto tune and I instantly received 26 full broadcast channels at MPEG II quality picture and Stereo sounds and 4 text services and at least 19 digital radio channels (not DAB). No ghosting, no interruption to signal, full RGB out. Not bad for £59!

The unit looking at you measures in at 7x25x20cm approximately in size and silver in colour, not as pretty as other units that I've seen with front panel display (unlike the 612 model). Even though this was the 602 model it still contained x2 scart sockets even though it lacked the extra audio connections and of course RF in/out I have seen a number of DVB units with only x1 scart at a much higher price.

After seeing how good the picture/sound quality was with a aerial booster I disconnected the unit and only left the internal aerial insitu. To cut a long story short there was no picture/sound output and all was left was a Sagem message for you to check the aerial.

TIP: So a word of warning if you're using an internal aerial use a booster. Argos is selling a booster specifically for DVB units. The other trick you can try and do is to use 2 or more boosters back to back, which has been reported to be able to pick up a signal by others in poor reception areas.

There seems to be a slight problem with the subtitle display. You could sometimes loss half the text horizontally along the lowest part of the text (only happened once so far) and the initial text display is painfully slow at 5-7 seconds, but after that the subtitles came on cue with different colours denoting who was talking which is quite nice.

Although initially I thought the teletext channel was faulty. It can take as little as 3 or as much as 20 seconds to get the "homepage" to display and once in you can jump from page to page within seconds and unlike analogue text you don't have to worry "holding" a page and then missing the next one and the text is displayed in a pleasant "Arial" font

The digital stereo is fast to access, is clear and crackle free. Inputting the channel can access this by the radio screen saver or direct channel input. You need to know that this is NOT DAB, but digital stereo radio via your set top box.

To record you must set the video to AV/00 or AUX channel, switch the "TV/VCR" onto "VCR"and you must keep the channel on that you wish to record and remember that any OSD will be captured on tape as well, just like satellite.

Conclusion

This is a great little unit for the price. Remember there is no cost after buying the initial unit and you get a far superior picture quality and twin scart sockets for easy connectivity. For myself I am satisfied with this unit and will not be taking it back. For a few pounds more you can obtain audio out (Thompson DTI1000 £89.99 @ Argos/Richer Sounds) and even DAB (Goodmans GDB5DAB £99.99 @ Argos), but even so anyone starting out in DVB should consider upgrading to this set top unit and DON'T FORGET to invest in a signal booster if your using an internal aerial, in fact just get one anyway for when the weather is bad which might affect the signal.