Home > Consumer Reviews > Bush DFTA1001 Idaptor DVB-T Scart Freeview Receiver

I've had one of these since January and it served me quite well until roughly 2-3 months ago when it packed in...

It's a great idea to keep the Freeview receiver compact and tidy to the back of your TV set, with an IR receiver LED that can be plugged in and placed on top of your TV. You get a small adhesive stript to stick this to your telly, which is needed as the IR bauble is light and never wants to stay were you've positioned it. Setup is quick and effortless. The menus are understandable and easy to navigate.

One minor niggle is that you cannot turn off the automatic messages to search for software updates at 3am, meaning that this isn't the ideal product if you're likely to be recording lots of early morning programming.

The major problem is that the unit itself gets really hot, and if in constant use it will eventually become too hot and increase the likelihood of malfunction. Sometimes the unit simply will not respond to any remote input, sometimes even reacting after a delay of over a minute! The unit itself does not have anything to assist hardware failures, such as a reset button on the casing. This mean that if the IR unit packs in or you lose/misplace the remote, the unit is useless.

Overall this product, whilst a great concept for a tidy Freeview solution that won't cost too much, is let down by a poor build quality.

Apart from the thing buzzing like a jar full of angry wasps which unless you are watching The Swarm is a major irritant, the box gets extremely hot after a while.

After a few months the box gave up the ghost.

I'm a regular consumer of electronic goods and most items last a good few years. If you review this product on the internet you will find a large number of bad reviews. I don't think I've ever been angry enough to give a poor report until now.

This product is simply not fit for purpose and I am amazed it is still stocked by retailers.

Avoid at all costs.

I'll say it again just in case you are thinking of buying it: avoid, avoid, avoid.

This product is dire.
Even with a maximum signal strength indication the picture freezes, the remote control occasionally works provided your within 3 feet (with new batteries).
No good as a door stop and has so been binned.
Crap.

This product is easy to install, just fit into the scart socket, connect the aerial and away you go, perfect. However, i found that after being plugged in for more than 12 hours the product became quite hot and the picture began to freeze. I've since given up trying to use it and have resorted to a proper set top box instead which is more reliable. It's ok as a tester to see if you can receive freeview in your area but not as a long term option.

I recently acquired one of these as a gift. It is a good idea having something small that plugs straight into the scart socket on the back of the telly. Unfortunately there are one or two things about its software that let it down.
Firstly the inability of the unit to automatically adapt to different size formats. This has to be done manually, a fact which doesn't apply to the other 2 freeview boxes I own. Useless for recording a selection of different programs on different channels unless you can put up with tall slim images or the opposite.
Then there's the inability to turn off the automatic update feature rendering it useless for recording programs that appear at 3 am.
Also the unit does not have UHF loop through so if you want to retain the analogue capability of your telly you will need an aerial splitter.
This unit is well overpriced for it's capabilities so unless space is a serious issue there are other far more capable units for less money.