Fusion: FRT101

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Comments (5)

Rob, Cheshire on December 16th, 2004
Just bought a FRT101 with Rewind TV capabilty. I bought the original version when it first came out and it was of apalling quality, crashing all the time but I liked the concept of the proprietary7 day EPG available well before the the Freeview version. After a couple of weeks struggling with the old one I got my money back and bought the Sony instead. The new version with Rewind TV provides RF passthru (no modulation), two SCART sockets and stereo phono out sockets. The remote control is as bad as the original, a plastic toy in a cracker is better quality, it is very directional in use. The box itself had no problems picking up all the channels and immediately populated the now/next information. The 7 day EPG gets populated overnight via a transmission on 704 (4TV Interactive) however if the box is powercycled this information is lost and you have to wait until the following night. The Rewind option can be switched off (default) or on through the menus. Once switched on you can rewind in 5 second increments by pressing left arrow on the remote. Pressing right arrow returns you directly to the live broadcast. Apart from one occasion this worked fine. The 7 Day EPG shows either whats on all the channels and as you move the cursor over each line it expands the details or per channel in which case it lists what programs are on the channel. There is no grid view as with other EPG's and a watery background makes viewing difficult at a distance. When the EPG or the setup menus are on the sound is muted which is annoying. The final comment I will make, and you guessed it, it isn't positive. The speed of interactive content is so slow you think you didn't press the button. Press RED on BBC1 and you wait 10 seconds for a BBCi DOG to appear at the bottom of the screen and a further 10-20 seconds before the menu appears. This seems to be the case with all other interactive services such as Teletext or YooPlay. It currently isn't connected to the best TV I own but compared to when a Netgem iPlayer is connected the picture quality is poor aswell. I would give it 4 out of 10.

sonicshadow, Renfrew on July 10th, 2005
Cheap, plastic remote. Slow on digital text. Can handle big brother interactive. Sometimes squashes picture into centre of screen, basically rubbish.

Daniel, Barnstaple on November 10th, 2005
just brought the box six weeks later its still o.k with the EPG 7 day guide working great and the rewind feature but slow on teletext and interactive on all channels including radio but i will give it 5 out of 10

Steve, Lisburn on April 1st, 2006
Remote looks like it was designed for a five year old by a five year old. On screen displays are ugly and confusing. Rewind TV? for what like 90 seconds? Also, program info menus dissapear automatically after so many seconds without giving you time to read them.

Basil, Dudley Port on June 1st, 2006
The FRT100 has a lot to be desired!!!!