ManhattanSX Freesat HD Box, Black

Used abroad, easy to set up, decent range of channels, spot on for the money

Excellent freeview box, very small and compact, connects to internet via wifi for updates but doesn't have access to apps which to be honest didn't really bother me, very easy installation and picked up channels very fast on initial set up, good picture on all as well, for the money you cant go wrong

I recently moved to a property with a Freesat sattelite dish, so I wanted an inexpensive Freesat box. This box was simplicity itself to connect & set up. The device takes a little while to boot up when you first turn it on, but I have now set it up to be permanently on (no standby), so there is no delay when I turn on my TV.The scan was very quick, and it found 184 channels. The user interface is intuitive & easy to use, and the EPG works well. The remote control is a little small compared to my TV & HD recorder remotes, but it works fine, providing you point it directly at the box.The box has an F-connector input for your LNB lead, an HDMI output for your TV, and a small jack connector for the supplied A/V cable. This cable terminates in 3 phono plugs (L & R audio, and yellow composite video). These can be plugged directly into the inputs of your device, or into the supplied phono-to-SCART converter. I used the SCART converter to plug into my HD/DVD recorder. Unfortunately, while the picture quality from the HDMI output to the TV is excellent, the A/V output is very poor! The picture is blurry and produces poor quality recordings. I'm not sure why this is, but I have knocked a star off for this reason.I can recommend this little Freesat box for straightforward viewing using the HDMI output, but unfortunately the Composite video output image quality is very poor. I don't know if this is a problem with my own box, or a general problem with this product, but it was bad enough for me to knock a star off in my review.

Great picture easy to set up. I changed from Sky Q so had to get engineer to change LBN

Great piece of kit, simple to use with very user friendly Home Screen page and remote. The picture quality is very, good as is the sound quality. It also offers a good selection of additional apps and on demand service. A simple cost effective alternative to subscription services.

This was recommended by the engineer that replaced my free sat dish. A Great piece of kit, had all the extras, highly recommend.The support was good when I had problem during installation as my hi fi was not good at time of installations I skipped but it is now connected.

Only had it for twenty minutes. it’s up and running smoothly already. This little unit is a very capable product. Tv guide ( EPG) is very responsive and a joy to navigate. Picture quality is superb and sound is good too. Only gripe is that the feet allow the box to easily move, nearly all products are the same so not unique to thie little freesat box, and the trusty blu tac solved that one. Very good value indeed. Buy with confidence.

Positives:- as stated, this box has a beautiful 8 day tv guide, is easy to install and use & has good picture and sound. It also works in the middle of rural France with a bog standard satdish & lnb (8 day epg works but playback functions only work in the uk). You need to put a uk postcode in from the start so that it will give you regional progs - it accepted the one I used even though I am not in the uk. Negatives: the box is limited: Firstly, the usb port is only for updates - you CANNOT RECORD progs and this is not made clear in their info. Also, it only searches Astra for Freesat channels & the epg only works for those channels. I only got 76 channels at my home in France, rather than hundreds that I am used to. It did not automatically find Drama+1 and Yesterday+1 - I had to search for those channels but they are not recognised for the epg! I cannot find an option to search for other satellites so it must be limited to Astra only. Also, with my previous boxes I was able to put the channels in my own preferred order, but this one only allows you to have favourite channels and you cannot move them into any another order - which I find annoying.My personal opinion:- This box would be great if it enabled recording onto a usb or external hd, but the fact that it does not record is a big let down for me. The fact that I am used to having access to several satellites means the Freesat channel limitations and options has put me off buying another 'Freesat only' box.