Digital TV Boxes - reviews and price comparison

Why digital television?

Digital television gives you a better picture than the analogue broadcast. There is also a wider range of free channels and furthermore a digital programme guide where you can get more information about the broadcast programmes directly on your television.

Terrestrial TV - switchover to Digital TV

Types

There are different ways to receive digital TV and three corresponding types of digital boxes.

• Terrestrial broadcast – "ordinary TV" – where you just need an antenna to be able to watch TV and where the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting now is being carried out.
• Satellite, you use a satellite dish to receive the digital signals.

Card reader

Some of the more simple models of digital boxes can only give you access to watch the free, non-subscription channels. If you want to be able to watch the subscription channels, the digital box needs to have a card reader for the operator’s smart card.

Sound

A big advantage with digital television is the superior sound and picture. The speakers on the TV can of course be used, but to make better use of the quality in sound you can lead the it to an ordinary stereo amplifier by buying a specific scart cable/adapter.

Some digital boxes also support Dolby Digital and have a specific connection for this, which enables you to connect the digital box to a home cinema-receiver for surround sound. That gives an even better sound experience for movies and other broadcasts with surround sound.

Connections

You can connect your digital box to your TV in a few different ways. The most common way is to use a scart connection.
Some digital boxes can also be connected through the TV’s/VCR’s RF/antenna-connection if the TV doesn’t have a scart connection.

SCART	RF/antenna

The digital box can also be connected to an additional TV set, VCR and more via the scart connection. The number of devices you want to connect decides how many scart connections the digital box needs.

Some models of digital boxes also have an HDMI input. HDMI is a digital technology for high picture quality.
If your TV only has an S-video connection you can buy a Scart-S-video-adapter or a digital box with S-video connection.

HDMI	S-video

Rating/awards

On testwinner.co.uk all the different ratings given by expert testers have been translated into a percentage from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum rating.
The average rating for a product can indicate different things. A low average rating is a warning that the product maybe won't live up the expectations created by the ads for the product. A high rating often means that the product has great features and works well. The more tests of the product the better accuracy in the average rating.

The amount of test wins/awards shows how many times the product has been named winner or been selected "Editor's Choice", "Best Buy" or received similar positive awards in tests. An award means that the product stands out from the competition in one way or another. It can be by giving value for money or by being innovative, or simply by just filling its purpose in a really good way.