Product Description

This AUGUST USB Freeview HDTV Receiver is a "magic wand" as it can turn your laptop or desktop computer to a high definition personal multimedia centre that allows you to watch over 40 free digital channels, listen to over 20 digital radio stations, record your favourite TV programmes on your hard drive or burn it onto a DVD.

It comes with a professional and user friendly software interface, mini antenna and remote control. All you need to do is to plug the device into a USB port of your computer, insert the CD and install the software by following the instructions. Your computer will start working immediately for you as a portable TV and recorder. You can watch TV programmes live or record onto your hard drive to watch later.

An indoor antenna is provided to watch Freeview in the areas where the signal is strong, an amplified antenna may improve reception and a rooftop aerial should be used in some regions. An aerial adaptor is also provided for you to connect this device to your roof top aerial.

Please note that there may be difficulty to receive freeview TV signal by the included portable antenna in some areas where the signal is not sufficiently strong. This is due to that the freeview service (www.freeview.co.uk) in the UK does not fully support portable TV antenna at present. The reception will be improving along with the progress of Digital Switchover Program(http://www.digitaluk.co.uk). A signal amplifier or booster may improve reception capability in regions where the signal is marginally strong. (please note that reception capability may also be affected by various factors such as proximity to freeview TV/digital radio transmitters, tall building structures, thick walls, ceilings and etc.). A rooftop TV aerial may be required to watch freeview channels in regions where the signal is insufficient for a portable antenna.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27359 in Consumer Electronics
• Colour: Rubber black finish
• Brand: August
• Model: DVB-T201-B
• Released on: 2008-07-15

Features

• USB 2.0 digital TV receiver, watch over 30 channels Freeview digital TV on your PC or laptop.
• Plug & play, powered by USB port, dimension: 86x27x14mm, weight: 23g, Black rubber finish
• Universal and regional channel scan, real-time and schedule recording
• Support playback of DVD disks, support HDTV reception
• System Requirements: ·Windows XP, 2000 or Vista· CPU 800 MHz or more · Memory 256 MB or higher · VGA 8 MB RAM · Sound card

What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision
4 Stars...very good pictures and sound, easy to use, an intuitive recorder

What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision
4 Stars...very good pictures and sound, easy to use, an intuitive recorder

Manufacturer's Description
August USB Freeview TV Receiver is a "magic wand", it turns your PC or laptop to a high definition personal multimedia centre which allows you to watch over 30 free digital channels, listen to over 20 digital radio stations, record your favourite TV programs on a hard drive or burn it onto a disk.

It comes with a professional and user friendly software interface, mini antenna and remote control. All you need to do is to plug the device into a USB port of the computer, insert the CD and install the software by following the instructions. Your computer will start working immediately as a TV and recorder. You can watch TV programs live or record onto the hard drive to watch later.

A mini antenna is provided for watching Freeview where the signal is very strong, an amplified antenna may improve reception and a rooftop aerial should be used in some regions. An aerial adapter is also provided for connecting the device with a rooftop aerial where the signal is not sufficient for the mini antenna included.

Please note that there may be difficulty to receive Freeview TV using the mini antenna in some areas. This is due to that the Freeview (www.freeview.co.uk) service in the UK is yet fully operating. The reception will be improving along with the progress of Digital Switchover Program (www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk). A signal amplifier or booster may improve reception capability in regions where the signal is marginally strong. Reception capability may also be affected by various factors such as proximity to Freeview TV/digital radio transmitters, tall building structures, thick walls, ceilings and etc.

Customer Reviews

Pretty good, depending on ....
August PC/Laptop USB Freeview/HDTV Receiver - Black (Star Winner from 'What Hi-Fi', 'What Video' & 'Active Home' Magazines) - Vista Compatible

Brought this as a gift for my father and tested it out before I gave it to him. I tested the device in two locations with two different aerials and the results were very variable.

Tested at work with supplied aerial, 3rd floor near a window. I could not receive any channnel's at all, very disappointing. Tested at home, again with the supplied aerial. This time I got 9 channels but some were the radio stations.

When I plugged this into my household aerial however the results were much better. Device found 66 channels, all the major TV stations and with excellent picture quality.

The supplied software seems ok, it has an EPG and allows you to record TV straight to MPEG 2 files. It did slow down a bit on my work windows XP machine but that could have been down to the PC itself (quite an old model).

Although I only did a few quick tests of this thing I was overall quite impressed. The only problems I had came from using the supplied aerial. I would probably advice anyone to through it out straight away. Investing a further £10 in a better quality portable aerial would be a very wise investment.

Great price, great device
First of all, the supplied antenna was no use at all, but no surprises there. I got no channels using that, when I used the adapter and plugged it into my main antenna however, I got 70 services. The picture quality wasn't quite a match for my TV, but it wasn't a million miles away.

Secondly, the supplied software isn't particuarly inspiring. It gets the job done but in a rough around the edges kind of way. If your a Vista user I strongly recommend using Windows Media Centre instead; you can't use the supplied remote but the picture quality and EPG are far superior.

Overall, a great bit of kit for the price, highly recommended.

Amazing kit
This is an amazing device and I really love it. It is very impressive that such a tiny device can turn a laptop to a digital TV and recorder. Very easy to set up, simply install the driver and Blaze player, then scan for channels, it is a shame I can not get any channels use the small antenna provided where I live, although I am prepared for it after reading other people's review, but no problem to get channels with my roof top aerial. The remote is very handy and gives me more freedom to control the programs.

The only annoy thing is that the Blaze player keeps asking me to register when I have already done it. Contacted the August technical team and have been told I need to run the Blaze as administrator because I am using Vista and then register again. After that everything seems fine.

Over all, very happy about this item, excellent value for money.