What Hi-Fi? Verdict
An adequate unit, but too many picture flaws for a better than average rating
Pros
- +
Simple, no-frills way to get digital TV
Cons
- -
Too much picture noise and shimmer
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This diminutive box from Sagem offers a fairly straight, no-frills way of accessing digital channels. At £40 build quality is pretty reasonable, although the remote feels a little cheap and inelegant compared to rival boxes.
Connections are simple enough, with an RF input and output, and two Scart sockets. Set-up is a pleasingly fast affair, and the menus are clear and easy to follow – though not, perhaps, quite as slickly designed as those on rivals such as the Humax F2-FOX-T.
So far, so good, for a set-top box costing just £40. Get it into action, and the Sagem displays all the digital channels with decent contrast and colour rendition.
Noise annoyance
The trouble is, there's more picture noise than we'd like, with both moving edges and still backgrounds susceptible to shimmer.
Footage on Sky Sports News often descends into breakup and noise, and even the mainly reasonable colour balance can look a little overcooked on the most lurid of Freeview's news channels.
Which means that, even at the reasonable price of £40, the Sagem's performance is just average.
