Alba: STBX3

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Comments (20)

Nigel, Derbyshire on June 5th, 2005
nice little compact stb scans for new channel really quick for the price its money well spent

Ken, Stoke on Trent on June 6th, 2005
can't fault it, great little gadget

Bumpkin, Herefordshire on June 6th, 2005
Not bad as I got it new from eBay at far less than retail. Compact and neat but favourites list isn't worth bothering with, deleted unwanted channels instead but full population when rescanning for E4 meant I had to do it again. DVD/VCR pass though requires a button press on the remote rather than happening automatically, unit has to be on to do this but once set you can turn it to standby. As a 2nd STB it's not bad.

Nigel, Cheshire on June 30th, 2005
Seemed like a nice unit but had to return. Not compatible with Toshiba TVs as the remote control units use the same frequency, a known problem by Alba which is not well known to the public.

Phil, Hampshire on July 9th, 2005
Got this box new for £30 has a really strong tuner,picture pause ,seperate tv and radio,2 scart sockets ,rf loop, co ax connection ,channel buttons on box, can't renumber channels,favourites is rubbish to use ,simple to use remote,no digital text.but has now and next,i thought i got a bargain,smart looking box. thing packed up after 4 weeks enough said.hope you have better luck if you buy.

Mel, Nothants on July 22nd, 2005
All main channels work fine with this box. However, we cannot get a picture on BBC Parliament - sound only - and picture breakup on Sky News/Sports. The Sky channel problems are definetly because we live in a poor reception area. Alba say our BBC Parliament problem is also a reception problem!?! Could someone else confirm this please? Are you getting a BBC Parliament picture? Cheers Mel

Glyn, Nottingham on August 15th, 2005
I thought it was a great buy until it lost the scanned channels. I tried everything to re-scan for channels but it found nothing. I put it away for some time and thought I'd try it again, plugged up and scanned and it found more channels thasn it did before. Half an hour later it lost them and no chance of finding them again. I am discusted with the stbx3 and will return it.

Laura, Grimsby on August 23rd, 2005
All channels are absolutely perfect on stb. Including BBC parliament. The only thing I would critisize it for was the fact that it freezes, no picture comes up (sometimes), no sound but picture. Has anyone had those same problems? Another thing is that 4tv interactive doesn't come up, is the the area that I'm in, or is the stb I've got? Apart from that I couldn't agree better that it truly is a gem.

Michael, South Yorkshire on August 28th, 2005
the box overheated when it was used from new. now sound has packed in, never been happy with this box will not buy ALBA ever again. Wife lost receipt or we would have returned it.

Bill, Wigan on September 14th, 2005
I have had this for months and have had no problems. For the money it is excellent.

Cliff, Swindon on October 12th, 2005
I've had the same problem as a lot of people on here. Worked for about half a day then packed up and lost all channels and can't find any. Seems this is a common problem. Leave well alone!

Peter, Maldon, Essex on October 20th, 2005
Shame I did not read your reviews before getting this from Amazon, it does not work with Toshiba televisions (as mentioned by Nigel from Northants). Fortunately the refund from Amazon was painless but Alba needs to get honest with their marketing data to avoid frustated customer's who will not use their products in future.

John, Derby on November 9th, 2005
Interesing what Mel said in July. My STBX3 will receive sound on BBC Parliament OK but no picture. This is at signal levels of 70%. All other channels are fine but I notice that re: reception, my box tunes BBC Parliament to Channel 85 and not 45 as is widely advertised. My previous box (not an Alba) was fine on both channel 45 and picture. Does anyone have any more ideas? Otherwise, generally this little box is excellent VFM.

Alex, Newcastle on November 20th, 2005
Had this box for 6 months. As others have said, the favourites list is tedious to use. As soon as you press the 'TV/Radio' button, it overwrites some of the TV channels with radio ones, forcing you to re-scan to get them back! Most annoying. And I don't get a picture on BBC Parliament with a 72% signal.

James, Northants on November 20th, 2005
It has been a clean pain from start to finish. The biggest problem really is not knowing when a box is faulty or not, so you have to hang onto it warts and all. When you dont get a picture for days on one channel or its always jumping you have to ask yourself, is it a transmitter problem? Or a problem with the box? Problems so far include losing stations won't always respond to remote control stops responding altogether epg can be days behind interferes with terrestial tv stations on tv and video freezes often so has to be unplugged and left for an hour or two. Recently I get jumping pictiures when adverts start or finish on some station. Will never buy another Alba.

Simon Eade, Blackpool on December 31st, 2005
From new, problems with sound cutting out. Picture ouput quality was pretty poor (a lot of ghosting), even with RGB Scart. Returned to the shop, you get what you pay for i suppose.

Safiya, Gloucester on February 10th, 2006
I bought this box just before Christmas and it's okay. I can't get all the channels that I used to with my old box which unfortunately broke. The only criticisms are that sometimes the remote refuses to work and that I sometimes have to unplug it to get it to work after I leave it on standby.

Gez, E Mids on April 19th, 2006
This has now been replaced by the STB2NS @ Argos, but mine has given good service, as I'm not in an official FreeView area the fact that it can resolve a stable (on the most part) picture while claiming 0% signal-strength(!) with 35% or over quality. If the STB2NS does as well might be one to go for in low signal areas.

Damian, Sheffield on May 31st, 2006
Picked the STB2NS up along with a dvd player as part of a package from makro April 2006. Prodouct ok so far, however the remote has packed in and with no manual way of opperating the product once the remote is u/s. Now in the hands of ALBA customer support lets see if it all comes good! Wait Out

simon london on October 15th, 2006
worked ok for a week then packed up