BT (Netgem) iplayer+

We have owned the BT (Netgem) iplayer+ for a year now and are really happy with it. Having been a viewer of terrestrial digital since OnDigital in 1999, using a Nokia and a Pioneer box, plus relatives have used PACE, Ferguson, Daewoo & other brand boxes. The iPlayer+ stands head and shoulders above them all.

Buying the box wasn't a great experience. It was out of stock on the BT Shop website, so I asked to be emailed when it was available again. I checked back approx 1 week later: it was in stock, but I had no email (this arrived a few weeks later). The price was 1p under the threshold for free delivery, so I decided to buy a USB cable at the same time. This caused annoying delivery problems, which I won't bore you with, but in fairness to BT, after I pointed out how stupid their shop was, they refunded me £5. To avoid the same problem we had, I would suggest you buy a box & keyboard bundle (and get free delivery).

Aesthetically, I find the box pleasing on the eye and it's compact. The ergonomics of the remote are well designed too, although to minimize buttons there is no separate button for subtitles or widescreen (you have to switch info on, then use a coloured button). There is no channel number display and personally I find this current vogue in AV equipment annoying, as it means we have to switch the TV on if we want to record using a VCR.

The box was very easy to initially set up as a basic Freeview box, and we were watching digital TV within minutes of switching the power on. Be warned, Top-Up TV didn't work for us for about 1 week until we were advised that we needed to contact TUTV and tell them we had changed box (apparently you need a different signal/code for different boxes). Whilst trying to sort out the problem, we used the diagnostics feature, which determined that the software was out of date. As we didn't have broadband at the time, the diagnostics & software update occurred over the telephone line. This failed once after about 15 minutes and the successful process took about 20 minutes, so best you do this at off-peak.

Slightly more time consuming was setting up the multimedia functions, but again everything was logical. One of the selling points for us was the ability to have caller display on your TV screen. This is very useful (especially just after our baby was born), although the details appear on the TV screen before our phones actually start ringing. You need to activate Caller ID with BT, and they may charge for the service (dependent on your price plan). You can send / receive SMS, but (a) SMS from a BT landline don't seem to arrive as quickly, if at all, and (b) it wasn't obvious in the manual that when the amber LED is permanently lit, that an SMS was waiting in the inbox.

In fact, the manual in the box was very basic. Further literature is available on the support website (www.iplayer.co.uk), including a more comprehensive manual in PDF format. Support from the manufacturer, Netgem, is either via the website or through a telephone line where you leave a message. We've only contacted them twice, the support was adequate, not fantastic. Top-Up TV set-up aside, we had to contact Netgem during the World Cup, as the interactive service didn't work properly (picture disappeared when Radio 5-Live commentary chosen). BBC technical support suggested it was a problem with the box settings / software. Netgem weren't clear in their advice, so we did nothing. Since then we've used the interactive and it works again which makes us think it was a BBC problem.

The EPG is very clear - default option is showing all the channels simultaneously, but you can view all programmes for a channel. The EPG makes setting the box for recording to a VCR / DVD much easier than on my Nokia / Pioneer, and makes sure you can't accidentally change the channel / settings. However, a big criticism is that unless you want to record the whole of a programme, it won't let you choose it, i.e. if there is a programme to record between 8pm-9pm, and then between 9pm-10pm, if you want to record the first programme until 9.02pm to make sure you don't miss the end, it won't allow you to record from 9.03pm onwards: you have to swap over at 9pm.

Before buying the box, I read a customer review complaining of the delay between using the remote and the box changing channel. I appreciate that point of view, but I'm glad there is a delay, as the radio channels are in the 700 & 800 range, if there wasn't, I'd be forever going onto BBC3 (7) or CBBC (70) every time I wanted Five-Live (705).

Finally, Internet access & other IT peripherals. The Internet browser is handy for looking something up basic if you don't want to boot up a PC, but it is in no way a viable alternative to a PC for continuous browsing. Selecting a hyperlink is too unwieldy and too many websites will not work fully / at all. It is not worth trying to use the basic remote, you need the keyboard. As above, I would recommend that you buy it as part of a package, but I managed to get one off eBay. I am a competent computer user but no expert, yet I managed to hook the box to our router and fix the settings with no problems. The downside is that there is a limited range of peripherals that can be used. Again using eBay I obtained a reasonably priced compatible USB-Ethernet adaptor, but the lack of ability to add drivers for further plug-ins / hardware (such as our printer) is annoying. Looking at photos using a USB stick works well and a USB 2.0 hub (so you can do this without disconnecting the broadband) also worked without a glitch.

When looking for peripherals on the eBay, I came across people selling their iPlayers because they bought PVR's / DVD with built in Freeview tuners. I don't understand this. When we get one, we'll be keeping the iPlayer+ to watch the channels we aren't recording.

The BT (Netgem) iplayer+ Freeview box is supposed to be a better incarnation of the old ITV digital box {also made by NetGem}. Well it has some new additional features, but many of the basics are either inferior or not available at all anymore. For a start the instruction manual is not supplied with the unit, it has to be downloaded online, which may be a problem for the customers, who like me, are buying it for the TV internet functions, and therefore do not possess a PC. The manual itself is nowhere near as comprehensive or user friendly as the old ITV digital one, and there appears to be no similar manual explaining the remote keyboard functions. Also, although it is advertised as being compatible with broadband, once again this is only true if you already have a PC, which makes the iplayer internet capabilities a bit redundant!!! The so called support service is a total joke, and you can't call them direct, you have to leave a message in the hope that they'll get back to you sometime. They won't call you back on a mobile, so of course you should be willing to take a day, or days off work, and sit by your home phone waiting for them to call! When they do they cheerily inform you that they don't earn anything from the help service, so really it's a big favour that you should be grateful for I suppose! Emails are replied to after several days, and offer very little advice beyond saying "it's in the manual....", er, no it isn't!!!, if it was, I wouldn't be emailing you would I? The ability to play Mpegs is very limited, and anything lasting more than about 5 seconds and the whole thing jams up. You can't play Avis, but the ITV digital box could, ditto being able to add URL links to outgoing emails, as many popular websites are too much for the browser to handle without crashing or failing to give full access, e.g. BT.com, Friends Reunited, and some Yahoo services etc,. The Freeview side of things is not much good either. I still haven't found a simple way to get my video recorder to record the iplayer channels via the RF cable!!

I recently stumbled acrross a MVP/PVR bit of kit which I had never previously heard of, and thought everybody here should be aware of.

It is the Netgem iplayer, also branded as BT iplayer+.

In its very basic form ,it's a Digibox for viewing Digital TV.

The 7 day guide is very good. (EPG - Electronic Programmes Guide).

An adapater, which is extra, called the Phantom PVR, integrates with the EPG, and will automatically set a device to record from the Iplayer+. This could be a VCR, DVD recorder etc.

That said however, it is much, much more.

It can be plugged into the telephone line. With that, presuming caller ID is enabled (which is free now from BT ! woohoo!), whenever somebody calls you it will display the number and name, of the person calling, on screen. You can also use it to send SMS text to landline or mobile phones.

It links directly to the internet for viewing web pages, and is enhanced with an optional keyboard. You can also send emails either with an existing account, or an iplayer+ account.

It comes with a USB socket, and with that you can plug ethernet adapters and WIFI adapters into it! You can also forget about the dial-up internet speeds and cost, and plug it into a home network for broadband!

Now it may have started to wet your appetite, but it's got more....

PC Connection!! via the ethernet adapter.

You can view images, music and even some video, although video does have very limited support at present. You can even use the USB socket to plug in a memory stick and view images, web pages, etc... directly from the memory stick.

I personally have only had it a few days, but already it appears to be a very polished product. The user guide only consits of a quick start card, but it is enough. The best bit is the price - at £90! it's fantastic! OK, so the ethernet adapter is £9, the keyboard £30 and the Phantom around another £30 but each are optional.

It doesn't have a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and is unable to load flash websites, also the supported device list is limited for the USB socket. (Any USB stick appears to work).

Unfortunately it is not currently in any shops. Why? I don't know. It can be bought from www.bt.com/shop or from www.iplayer.com