Bush Idaptor Freeview Adaptor
Published by Budda October 9th, 2005 in Gadgets, Visual, Digital TV, Freeview, Reviews.
As analogue signal turn off draws that little bit closer its good to see more Freeview digital kit being released. This latest one from Bush shows how small you can get for people who don’t like the idea of yet another box hanging around their TV set.
We mentioned the new Bush Idaptor a few weeks back, and now I have one in my hands for review.
The package contains:
- Bush IDaptor Scart device (DFTA1000)
- Scart extender lead
- Infrared sensor & lead
- Slim infrared remote control
- Mains power supply
- User guide
This review is based on the 4.14 firmware for the Idaptor.
Installation
I found the Idaptor was unable to connect directly to the back of my busy TV set due to it’s slightly bulkier width. The neighbouring scart plugs stopped it for sitting neatly in the socket. Due to this I needed to use the SCART extender cable provided.
For portable TV sets with only a single SCART input this would work nicely as a direct plug-in. However, there is no SCART pas-thru, so the Idaptor should be plugged in to the end of a SCART daisy chain if needed.
The infrared module comes complete with a sticky pad to allow attachment to a suitable location near your TV. It’s a small black bulb like device with a red LED when in standby, changing to a green colour when powered on.
When the device is first turned on your are walked through a “First Time Installation” process. The user interface is clean and simple.
The channel searching has come on a long way from my previous Pioneer box from the Ondigital days. As well as being quick, it provides details of what transmitter is providing what channels.
My area has a dubious Freeview digital signal due to a large nearby obstruction. This caused a lot of the channels to appear in the 800+ channel range on the Idaptor, and also seemed to suffer from signal break up more often than with my Pioneer box. According to the manual the Idaptor contains “Excellent quality monitoring to avoid video and audio artefects if to weak signal” (their words). I’m not so such about the (most) Excellent quality monitoring from real world testing!
Although I was suffering from a lot of picture break-up on channels I never had a problem with previously, the IDaptor still claimed to have full signal strength when viewing the channels information bar by pressing the ‘i’ button on the remote.
Usage
Picture quality is great, and the Idaptor provides RGB output as standard. Picture ratio switching is quick as you zip through the available channels.
The slim remote control (comparable to the size of the iPod Nano) looks fine and works well in the hand. It’s nothing to look at, but is well laid out for its purpose.
The digital text service is impressively nippy and does a good job rendering the pages quickly. I can actually consider using the service now!
EPG
The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) support in the Idaptor shows 5 channels at a time along with the current and next TV show. Scrolling up and down moves through your TV channel list. Left and right move between the Now and Next show names listed. As you highlight the show it gives a brief ocerview of it in the upper part of the screen.
If you notice a TV show you’re interested in you can set a reminder for it. There’s space for 5 reminders, and you can view them as a list in the Menu->Timers section. However I found it was very easy to loose a reminder, by moving around using the arrow keys, without any confirmation.
Whilst viewing the EPG, hitting the blue button provides a ‘Schedule’ view of each channel. The blue and yellow keys allow you to change day, whilst the red and green keys hange the time of day. For some reason it would only show up to 4 shows per screen, and you needed to use the green key to move to the next time slot to view further shows - rather than just scrolling down through them.
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Great little unit from Bush.Excellent picture quality.One problem .Its On/Off function switches my Digifusion FVRT150 on.Bush & Digifusion say theres no way to alter their On/Off IR codes.Any ideas?
I’ve had alot of trouble with this.
On initial installation it failed to pick up half of the available channels and what if did pick up suffered from massive disturbance.
After countless retunings I added a signal booster, which helped it pick up all the channels, but disturbance was still always a problem almost all of the time.
I ran a control test with the same set up but a different set-top box in the same location with no problems.
I could take it back and ask for a replacement, but I’ll probably try a different brand.
I have had a Bush unit recently given to me. I plugged it into the rear of our portable TV. During the Update process it seemed to work well. However, the TV picture went blank immediately after the update, and the unit hasn’t worked since. Power-down does not reset the box or the sensor, which remains green all the time. I bought a new battery, but no change. A colleague of mine had a problem with another make of set top box when he updated the Freeview contents. The update also included a bad firmware installation. Is this happening to owners of the Bush unit. If so, how can we reset the box to make it work properly. I live in Brighton, which is notorious for bad reception. However, our Goodmans STB works fine. Comments would be welcome.
Hi Brian, I have the same problem with my sisters unit have tried everthing, new batteries, power down, it use to work fine until the battery went in the remote bought 3 new batteries thinkng I had been given a couple of duds but still no luck. cant reset the unit as theres no reset button, poxy thing throw in draw out of the way. cant work it out. manual not a lot of help Bush dont answer emails tec phone depatmant useless spent a fortue on the phone with them. If anyone knowns how the heck to reset this unit please post reply.
If the Bush adapter freezes try switching the PSU off & on again.Usually solves the problem.