Echostar: T-101

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Your responses

M Gardiner, Surrey on November 7th, 2008
This box is affected by the recent transmission changes and similarly to other poster, cannot allocate the correct channel numbers for BBC1, 2 and other channels and channel data... Everyone is washing their hands of the responsibility and it has been featured on BBC Watchdog. It was a so so box anyway, but steer clear of this company and its products...

Andrew on September 16th, 2008
Following changes to Freeview network the main channels BBC1 /2 ITV 1/2/3 etc end up on channels 800 and odd. Time for the bin!

Dirk Knight on August 28th, 2006
Very slow and always crashes/freezes on top up channels. Tuner not very strong as most of the services I could not receive with it, I receive with ease on my sagem t68

Darren Sprudd on April 19th, 2006
Got mine in june last year for 39 pounds in Woolworths and it went well on the first setup then I had a few problems like it keeps crashing and I have to take the plug out of the socket and put it back in. EPG is good as mine has an 8 day feature as it is in the latest update.

Alex, Dollar on April 12th, 2006
i think this box is great. it is much better than the Bush STB downstairs.

NickB, Redcar on April 9th, 2006
I got one of these from Woolies for £40 last summer and have found it to be very reliable. It can easily receive all available channels from a standard 10 element aerial in the loft in this rather poor reception area. The picture is sharp and break-up seldom occurs - can't comment on the sound as I don't have a stereo TV! I move it around the house a lot and it doesn't suffer problems due to frequent disconnection/reconnection of power. My only gripe is that sometimes the EPG says 'no information' for some channels, although this may not be the fault of the box.

Richard, Ayr on March 24th, 2006
I get occasional picture blackouts, but too few to make much of a fuss about. A good sturdy box and the unit sensitivity seems to be one of the best in the industry according to what I have read on the web. Signal strength with a standard loft aerial is 7 for most of the channels, 6 on some and 5 on others, and even at 5 there is zero blocky interference. I've had this as a second unit for over a year now and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a simple to use set-top box.

P_Man, London on March 24th, 2006
I bought this unit based on the good reviews on the internet, and came to the following conclusion. The T101 is unreliable. Hangs a lot, and shuts itself off. Unit says that it is upgradable, but yet to see it on any of the engineering schedules. AVOID THIS PRODUCT!!!! or any other echostar products.

Ryan, Rotherham on February 16th, 2006
I've had this box six months now and I'm getting picture blackouts all the time, luckily it's still in warranty, I'd avoid it.

Fudge, Birmingham UK on February 1st, 2006
This was my first Freeview box over a year ago and I was amazed that it could get all muxes from an indoor aerial. Reliability seems very variable, as I bought three, one for me and two for others and mine is the only one which has problems waking from standby. It also has picture blackouts, though the sound continues. Signal strength is 8-9 on all muxes. Interactive is rather slow and no ability to edit the channel list. I recently bought a Digilogic from Tesco for my main TV and definitely prefer it to the Echostar, faster and more customisable channel list.

SF, Westgate On Sea on January 20th, 2006
Have to say this is a good freeview box if you like to put reminders on for programmes, most of the newer freeview ones only show you now and next on the screen for the day without going into a 7 day view (and even these are a bit haphazard) but this is good as you can view programmes for same day and set reminders for the whole day.

Ken, Uxbridge on January 7th, 2006
Aziz, I have the same box just out of warranty !!!! that now has identical symptoms. I have several of these boxes so I have tried different cables, remotes, etc. It is defiinitely the box. I tried the help desk but they just tell you to unplug, wait, retune, and all will be well (NOT). I also have another box that has intermittently distorted sound on a perfect picture on signal strength 8. Anyone else experienced this ?

Aziz, London on January 4th, 2006
I bought this but after a couple of days when I turned it on it woudn't come out of standby. It took around a dozen tries to get it back. But now it doesn't come out of standby mode AT ALL regerdless of how many times I turn it off and on at the mains. Anyone know how to solve?

Martin, Ashford, Kent on December 11th, 2005
Excellent value for money, £35 from Woolworths although I had to ask for it as they are not on display. Full 8 day EPG and twin scarts. Good reception 30 miles from transmitter and a loft aerial! Only minor gripe is some of the onscreen display can be a bit hard to read as it's grey text on a dark background. However, sound and picture excellent.

Ryan, Rotherham on November 7th, 2005
Too harsh in my last posting, have tried out the Goodmans GDB6 and the channel changing is slower, plus the EPG only give the name of the programme, the Echostar gives info about the programme too. The only real downside is that you can't create favourites and it's slow with text.

Ryan, Rotherham on October 21st, 2005
I bought this box to replace my on-digital Pace 735 but went back to using the old box because this one wasn't as good. The picture is poor, the EPG is slow and frustrating, it freezes fairly often and the 16:9 aspect doesn't fill the whole screen. The now and next is slower than the 5 year old Pace and channel changing is no quicer either because you have to press two buttons instead of one so I'm still looking for a new freeview box.

Mark Heaton, Chesterfield on September 24th, 2005
I have tried many freeview boxes and most of them have been were took back to the shop because of how rubbish they were. I then get this box and it has been perfect, no porblems at all. also great value for the price

R J, Oxford, UK on September 17th, 2005
I have an Echostar which I got about 14 months ago - I have also noticed the problems with Teletext although these have ironed out lately following a couple of returns. I have a similar problem with subtitles, in particular on C4 and E4 in which the box can suddenly crash and then reload -= anyone else find this?

Tony, Newcastle Upon Tyne on September 12th, 2005
I got my Echostar in August last year, to replace my flawed Daewoo one. Picture quality's fine, and, for the most part, the reception is fine, although it does break up here and there, possibly because of my aerial, though. However, as the last guy said, it struggles to load Teletext and, for me sometimes, BBCi. Also, the remote sometimes fails to work, leaving the box to switch itself off after a few seconds of this, then back on again. The only remedy is to unplug it, then plug it back in again. All in all adecent adapter, but not without its faults. No set top box is THAT perfect!

Richard, Bedford on September 6th, 2005
echostar T-101 FTA. I bought one of the early boxes. Very good reception via Sandy Heath on all MUX's. Useless on TELETEXT chs 09 and 50. loads 09 ok then fails after two or so pages. Fails to load ch 50. BBC i is fine. Can anyone help? Apart from these faults, box has never crashed at all. Hope to hear.

Alex, Dollar on August 27th, 2005
Bought the box 5 months ago and think it is excelent. I get perfect reception of every channel. It was well worth £40!

Steve, London on August 11th, 2005
I bought this box on the strength of the reviews here and was lucky to find one of these at Woolworths Camden Town in London.(£40 and three left as of 10/8/05) I can confirm the picture is very good from an average signal and the 8 day EPG a feature added to the last few produced. The overall performance is much better than my old Philips Ondigital box but not quite as sharp as my Thomson Sky digibox. You cannot edit the channels in the order you want and there's no 'favourites' feature but these are minor gripes that you will get used doing without. This box is worth hunting for, new or more likely second hand now and much better than other makes at the same price range.

andec on July 6th, 2005
Davies N.Wales - try unplugging your box then plugging it back in again. I had the same problem with mine but doing this solved it. Hope it works for you too!

Davies, N. Wales on June 20th, 2005
Been very happy with the Echostar T-101. Bought it for Xmas 2004. Just updated with E4 by reinstalling the system - only now we don't get any information! We did before. If we pressed 'guide' it came up with all the programmes, but now it doesn't. Anyone have any ideas?

Dom EY on June 9th, 2005
I bought me freeview EchoStar T101-FTA from Argos for £54.99 on 02/05/2004 @ 15:13 (i know this because im looking at it right now) This box has performed almost flawlessly for just other a year... now im beginning to wonder why they say 12 months not 18.. I seem to watch C4 more than any other channel and this seems to be the reason for the 3-4 crashes in the space of 30 mins... i have no idea why this is happening (not very techie with UHF etc) ive read on some forums about the MUX or summat like that from C4 and the rest that have a very naughty signal the echostar doesnt like.. apart from this its mint... just bought 2 freeview boxes today also Ferguson FDT-500 and a Strong SRT-5000T (which isnt listed) ferguson is quite dark (i'll have to change me brightness) and its using a thompson remote (few buttons dont work) Strong seems ok... but i havent got a remote for it :( and the 200000 in 1 doesnt seem to be very good either..

Ski, London on March 24th, 2005
Had the box for four months now... as my first receiver it works fine (shame there's no line-out but I rigged a cable to take the audio from the scart). It has now developed an irritating (but not serious) fault that if you've had the box on earlier in the day and switched off the unit totally, it's hard to get the box to come out of standby when switched back on again. You have to switch the box on and off (and with the remote too) until eventually it decided to take itself out of standby. The digital teletext is inferiour to to analogue IMO, half the pages you want are missing from the digital service. This box sometimes takes a while to get the digital text to display. And it's irritating that unlike with analogue where you can have it all fullscreen and "mix" the text and picture underneath, it usually shrinks the picture and digital teletext into the same frame, so you can't see either very well. Pointless for people with difficult eyesight. It would have been nice to see the audo data rates of the audio channels when you change to that channel.

Mike in Cardiff on March 9th, 2005
Great little box. Just bought it today at woolworths for just under £40. Works on indoor aerial. Perfect picture.

Florence, London on March 3rd, 2005
Please help! I don't know what you are all talking about when you say EPG... so I don't know if you have the same box as mine but I do not get all the channels and it does auto-tunning. I don't think I can do a manual tunning... Or can I? How? Thank you for your help.

Jamie Loveday, Cleethorpes on February 24th, 2005
Excellent box, got the 101+ from woolworths with 8 day EPG. Clear menus, the interective works a treat and even the subtitles are good. Can't fault it, might even go and get another one just in case.

Jim Goodrood, Doncaster on February 11th, 2005
I have the one with EPG, cant fault it, used it at home and in the caravan, woolworths 40 quid, hope that was the old model ! Over the air updates ? i havent come across any yet, but hey you dont need them Go get one much better than the old philips i have.

Will, London on January 17th, 2005
Easy to use menu system and a decent sized remote control. However, I am constantly having to hard power reset this box as it seems to go into standby over night and then can not be switched on with the remote.

CS, South Yorkshire on December 31st, 2004
I bought this box after reading various reviews via the web. I already had a Goodmans GB4 set top box however, the reception was rather poor and I could only receive a handful of channels despite having a decent aerial and living in a freeview reception area. I decided to give the Echostar a go (even though I'd never heard of it) as it's reported as being 'very sensitive' and good in areas where the signal is weak...hey presto! Really easy to set up, the picture is very high quality and everything works as described plus, I can now receive all freeview channels! So, if you have trouble receiving freeview buy one of these, a steal at £40 from Woolworths!

hal on December 19th, 2004
Just picked one of these up from Woolworths for 40 quid. Very simple setup and great picture quality compared to our old Nokia ONdigital box. Controls, menus and channel switching are fast and precise. Finally, the 7 day EPG is brilliant - fast, easy to use and incredibly useful. The reminder feature that lets to set programmes to be reminded of works a treat; you choose a programme on the EPG, hit the green button, then when the programme is about to start, a reminder appears on the screen allowing you to switch the the channel the programme is showing on. Great stuff and a bargain at only 40 quid.

Richard - London on November 9th, 2004
This is a great STB.It works well and since I found out how to access the manual tuning and signal strength meter( via the tuning page-the one which says - "tune - yes/no" -type 17052002), all channels are available.No EPG yet but I understand that they are working on new software which includes multiple days EPG and other updated features. This is expected to be ready later this year.I am very satisfied with this set top box.

Ian, Leicester on November 4th, 2004
Ideal box to take around with you. I use it in my bedroom and take it down the caravan. Oh and its CHEAP!

stewart legg...uk... on October 25th, 2004
a good box,very small!!! handy when you live in a caravan!!!! good picture,easy to use......

AlexB on October 23rd, 2004
Works well for me too, even though I'm only using a puny aerial. One oddity is that manual tuning and signal strength meter are hidden; to get them type 17052002 on the tuning page. I've never had to use manual tuning, but I had great difficulty pointing the aerial in the right direction until I heard about how to get the signal strength meter, which makes it pretty easy.

Laurie Kitson, Hawick on October 17th, 2004
I bought this box early this year and has been great, although there is no 7day EPG yet. The picture is great, has an easy to use remote and simple menus. A great buy for first-time freeview viewers.

JohnF on October 15th, 2004
My echostar has performed remarkably well on all muliplexes except A which means I cannot get Channel 5 or ABC1. My transmitter is Crystal palace about 20km away on a bearing of 171 degrees and line of sight appears good. I know that Echostar had problems with Disney in the USA I wonder if that has translated to the UK ?

netuoisogni on October 5th, 2004
Good cheap stable box. No EPG as yet but twin scarts, timers and very good tuner. Everything has always worked perfectly with great picture and sound. There is however in my eyes one major defect no volume or mute buttons on its weird remote which has two little feet. All in all highly recommended especially when compared to what else you get for the price.