Wharfedale: DV832B

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Your responses

Abby, Leeds on April 30th, 2009
Have had the same probs with audio cutting out but last night the box literally blew up, there was smoke billowing out and everything. I've had it 2 years and Argos refused to do anything for me. They state they've had none of them returned for the same reason so I'm going to try and do something via Wharfedale website as it's obviously a health and safety risk. It was just fortunate I was there at the time & could unplug it.

Andy, Manchester on December 14th, 2008
second time lucky with one of these. got one summer 07 and it packed in before long, got another because i couldnt be bothered looking for anything else elsewhere and argos had nothing else i liked for less than twice the price so i got another, asked them to check the software, they looked confused and showed me the box, the software was the newer version so i accepted it. its soldiered on nicely, its not the prettiest box in the world (although the channel number display is cool in my opinion), the epg has messed up a bit, and sometimes the sound doesnt come on when you change channels, but i gave £25-ish for it 15 months ago (it was 23 or 28 i forget which) and its outlasted its warranty which i wasnt expecting

Mike Thomson, Hants on September 11th, 2008
Mine blew a fuse and died within two years. The Sale of Goods Act allows you 6 years to find a manufacturing defect but (i) I couldn't find the receipt and (ii) shop assistants NEVER seem to know about consumer legislation. Even while the unit was alive it would lose little chunks of audio, or sometimes fail to respond to the remote control. I wouldn't buy one of these again - or indeed anything by Wharfedale.

JP, Kettering on August 10th, 2008
A brilliant piece of kit I thought, at first. Quick and easy to setup and use. Then I started noticing the audio cuttin gout - seems to happen every 22-25 minutes, for 1-5 seconds. That soon gets very frustrating, especially when dialogue is involved, in complex storylines. Now, recently, there have been signal problems, and it's getting more frequent. The signal can and does fail frequently, sometimes for 6 or more seconds. It used to happen a few times an hour, but now it seems to happen every couple of minutes. I don't think it's the transmitter, as the signal is fine if you watch it on the menu screen (as a little box in the corner.)

Ken, Derbyshire on April 22nd, 2008
Good quality picture & easy to set up & use. Unfortunatley the sound drops out on a regular basis. Technical advice was to reset the box, made no difference. Changed the box for another, exactly the same poblem, advised to try a different manufacturer no problems with a Tvonics box. Manufacturers know there is a problem with this model, just hope people will accept this as normal.

Alex, Leeds on January 16th, 2008
Available from ebuyer UK at £10.99 inc VAT.. super saver delivery took me to £16 delivered - so not bad price at all. We're aiming to use it for an old tv in the bedroom with a small old aerial - I'll report my findings here, and whether or not we'll have to get a new aerial. Have seen the maplin aerial L29BB (with gain amp to 20dB) strongly reccommended on the net, so might get that if signal is sub-par.

Mikey, London on January 10th, 2008
I have had this 12 months and recommend it. No problems whatsoever. Bit cluncky & retro looking, but reliable.

Andy, Bristol on December 24th, 2007
Purchased this box a week ago and it is very good value and works well. However it suffers from the dreaded sound dropouts (every few minutes) mentioned in other reviews, which makes it virtually unusable. It should have been a 5 but I'll have to give it a 2 on account of the dropouts.

David Bate, Cheltenham on December 3rd, 2007
Bought a MICO box 11 months ago which proved to be un-reliable and finally packed up, giving a no-signal warning last week which could not be overcome. Fortunately Richer Sounds refunded the 20GBP cost with no quibble but could not supply much as a replacement. Went on-line to the Argos website which, unlike their catalogue, gives full spec. details of the various freeview boxes they stock, and selected the DV832B which I bought from the local store at the new price of 24.95 GBP. This is something of a bargain, the unit looks neat and I like the time display in standby mode, but wish the display LEDs were blue or green for easier reading - a minor point! I agree with most of the other comments about ease of set-up, picture and sound quality and recording features. I would have liked a button on the neat remote control to swap between the current and last programme selection but for the cost this is a very cheap way to get into freeview. Judging by the signal strength indicator it seems to be more signal-sensitive than the junk MICO box that, fortunately, packed up within the guarantee period! My recommendation - buy it tomorrow - great value.

Harry Kerr, Northern Ireland on October 15th, 2007
Great machine......I had a Sagem: ITD58.....which is a bundle of rubbish, all it could do was pixelate and it had only one scart connection and a massive transformer plug (whatever that was about..haven't a clue!!!) The Wharfedale, worked straight out of the box and doesn't pixelate and holds onto channels. It has a Favourites feature which I like very much. It has two scart connections and a normal plug. I got it from Argus for £24.99. Excellent machine. Hope I get my money back for the Sagem and if I do, I will buy another Wharfedale for another TV in the house. Great Product. Thanks for all the great reviews on this machine.......I'm glad I purchased it

Alan, Edinburgh on October 14th, 2007
My Wharfedale DV832B died the other day. Just went cold and wouldn't do anything. R.I.P. just short of its second birthday. Well, reading these reviews, that often seems to be the case, no matter what the make. So, having read all the reviews again I reckoned this box was still the best value in terms of features versus price, so I went to Argos and got another one. It was £5 cheaper than last time. Now I've used this new box for a bit I can report that there are a small number of differences to the previous version, mostly for the better. Firstly, the remote. Previously, this would frequently transmit the wrong commands giving a good deal of irritation. Other reviewers in this column have also remarked on this, and I have a Goodmans unit with the same remote which suffers similarly. Clearly this was a mechanical problem, something to do with the texture of the rubber buttons being wrong. This has now been fixed. The remote feels snappy and positive and does the job properly. Great. The user interface software is also different. It is now identical, as far as I can see, to that in my old Goodmans GDB4. According to the box label (and the information screen) it is version 1.5, whereas the dead one has a label saying that it was 1.7. It did have a couple of upgrades, but as it's now dead I can no longer ask it what version it got to. This 'downgrade' is probably for the better in useability terms, and it also loads the programme information more quickly. The receiver part of box seems to be more sensitive, giving a better signal level indication, and it is perhaps less sensitive to impulse interference. It also runs noticeably cooler. Well, all these improvements in just two years. But, it still has that dammed stupid pointless big bright red display on the front! Fortunately, silver sticky-tape covers that up.

Sam Northallerton on October 6th, 2007
£24,99 from Argos and does just what it says on the tin. Set itself up in minutes with no help from me - good picture, good sound despite being in a poor signal area- user friendly remote control. It won't win any beauty contests but tucked away on top of the DVD its not going to offend anyone. Only time will tell if its more reliable than its predecessor, a good looking but decidely temperamental Panasonic but so far definetly reccomended

Jmeadows, South West on July 10th, 2007
Just bought this from Argos at the reduced price of £24.99. Picked this one up because reviews sound okay, but what we found is it's almost identical to Tescos Digilogic Freeview. The front has changed, now has a clock, but everything else is the same, the remote is identical. Picked up the Wharfdale as they used to be a good name, we were replacing the Digilogic which has just refused to switch on had it less than two years. Time will tell if this lasts any better.

BarginMan, Bristol on June 15th, 2007
The "Wharfedale DV832B" Set Top Box is now only £24.99 from Argos as a "Special Offer"... ( You can't go wrong at that price, now can you ! ) ... A Bargin for sure !!!. Plug it in and away you go... Does what it say's on the tin.

Warren from Liverpool on June 12th, 2007
Just bought the Wharfedale DV832B for £24.99 from Argos. (Used vouchers as well so essentially got it for free :D) As this is my first box, had no expectations but after setup and installation - I'm so impressed!! Excellent PQ, Sound, the menu is great, digital text is awesome! Well i'm coming from just the basic five channels so I guess anything would have impressed me.

Robert, Glasgow on June 9th, 2007
Bought this box two months ago from Argos, which now takes my collection of set-top boxes to three. My other two boxes have to be re-booted all the time and the remote on the Bush never works. Having read the reviews here I decided to go for the Wharfdale DV832B and it is excellent, working without any problems since day one. In fact I have decided to replace the others with the DV832B in the near future. Great price and great performance.

Brian. N. London on May 26th, 2007
I agree with the comments raised about this STB great picture and channel changing, one BIG problem I have is connecting it to a VCR to record from STB, connecting SCARTS & RF leads as per manual is fine, picture great on TV, turn on VCR (inserting tape) picture goes and STB displays AU, TV has blank blue screen, any ideas? what could be wrong? no variation of SCARTs etc. seems to work!! HELP!!

Louis, London on May 18th, 2007
One oddity of the timer on the Wharfedale DV832B Set Top Box I have found is that when set through midnight, eg 11:00pm to 1:00am, it starts at 11:00pm OK, but does not switch to standby at 1:00am, so that a second timer setting is ignored. Timer settings within one day work OK. I am wondering if it does not switch the date one day forward at midnight, and so it is waiting for 1:00am on the previous day. Its odd! Has anyone else experienced this, and/or have any other explanation or solution?

Filip, London on April 23rd, 2007
Nice box! It'll receive remote signal from 5m away even at a dodgy angle. Issues are that the remote has exhausted itself (maybe the batteries?), when you press a button (for instance 1), it goes to channel 7 or something random. Also, it takes a while to load when you turn it on - it freezes for 5 seconds approximately.

Henry, London on March 3rd, 2007
After my Thompson DTI1000 warhorse died, I bought a Philips from Argos for about £60; and what a load of rubbish! This is much, much better, although I too get the odd silence from time to time - perhaps this is how it deals with a drop in signal, as there are very few occasions when I see any pixilation. Only other down side is the EPG: a delay in pulling up the channel info; loss of sound when in the 7 day screen; and inability to set the time from a selected program.

Stephen, Burnley on March 2nd, 2007
Bought one today after my Ferguson FDT500 bit the dust after almost 3 years service. Easy to set up in under 15 minutes. The manual is simple and easy to follow and the box works a treat with excellent picture and sound quality - no clicks and burps like I had with the old unit and a much improved menu and EPG. Only downside is the large red display. As this is set up in the bedroom I'll need to come up with a solution to hide it at night. Any ideas? Only had it for a day but I'm very pleased with it so far. Well worth £35 of anyone's money. A bargain, just sort out the display guys!

Mike, Cardiff on February 17th, 2007
Sadly on Thursday the 15th of February my wharfy died of a power surge, After giving me 16 months of loyal service, Oh well back to Argos to buy another wharfy this time with a mains power surge adapter.

D Jean Tomlinson, London on February 16th, 2007
I brought one of these digital boxes and followed the instructions to set it up. I also bought a second SCART cable for half price, all from Argos a few weeks ago, when they were back in stock. I plugged the video into the box as well. After automatic installation I found that I do not have most of the extra TV channels I wanted, such as BBC3 ITV 2 and 3, more 4 or QVC. I only have BBC4 and BBC Parliament, and other channels such as music ones. I could no longer use the video to record terrestrial TV, and can only watch it on TV not with the digital box on like my friend can. I live in a block of flats and have routed it via the video so I can video terrestrial TV again. So I am not impressed. I need to investigate why it doesn’t work as it should.

Terry Lee, Hampshire on February 16th, 2007
Bought this box from Argos. It seems to work fine. Had to replace my Goodmans GDB 2 as the demodulator has just died. The box kept freezing and having to be reset despite the SW updates. My Wharfedale has Version 2.1 SW which is not the latest but I will not update until if gives me any problems. So far so good. The only issue is the the remote is a bit cheap and nastly. I have found that the old Goodmans one works so this is a bonus.

mike, cardiff, on February 10th, 2007
I bought my wharfedale dv832b in september 2005 and I can say I have never had any problems with this box, Well worth the money from ARGOS.

Matthew, Wovlerhampton on January 13th, 2007
not a bad box but my box crashs a lot when i am on the digital text apart from that its ok. had it 6 months

Dick Dalton, West Yorkshire BD11 on January 3rd, 2007
Bought one of the new models as a gift - the (2) version. Different hardware and software but better performance - sorry Chris in Halifax but I’ve had both and the Mk2 is better, though theres not a lot in it. Theres a better 'guide' on the new version - the now/next is much quicker and includes sound too so you can cruise and watch at the same time. Drawing of the highlighted subject in BBC text is noticeably slower, though not so it impacts ones ability to read text. All comments are related to reception in a very strong signal area (we can see Emley Moor mast), no aerial changes, worked perfectly even with an ancient set top aerial, found all the channels and hasn’t hung yet (but only in use for a few days).

Mike from Oldham lancashire on December 29th, 2006
Its me again folks, my box is still satisfactory apart from still getting the sound dropouts now and again, still don’t know for sure what’s causing it, let me know if you know please, cracking picture and sound, I would advise some people who are having trouble with the SCART connections to type in connection wizard in Google and click on Digital TV Group put in how many SCARTs you’ve got on the back of your TV, DVD player, etc, etc, press the button and it shows you how to wire it all up dead easily you can also print it off for future reference, its really a mint site and I think vie done all the families over Christmas, any way ill keep in touch and tell you how my box is doing in 2007.

Graham, Sussex on December 22nd, 2006
Box constantly locks up and refuses to change channel and have to unplug it from the mains to reset it. Wouldn't recommend it and thinking of "retiring" this to the spare room and splashing out on something more reliable. Cheap to buy and it shows

Mike, Oldham. on December 14th, 2006
Bought one from ARGOS a week ago, absolutely minted with it its great just make sure you set the TV out in the configuration settings correctly i didn’t and the colours seemed washed out it should be on RGB, if its not right try CVBS, but mine was right once I had put it on RGB, my trouble is i don’t read instructions till after I’ve messed things up, the only thing that happens now and again, for a few seconds only is the sound goes of for a few seconds every so often if anyone can advise on that I would be grateful, but I have spent 3 months reading reviews and thanks to digital spy I’ve eventually got one, ill keep you informed how it goes, from time to time PEPES let me know about sound problem mentioned above, Thanks hope this is helpful.

monkeyboy of alabama on December 13th, 2006
after swapping the dv832b for the dv83n(2)realized the dv832b was rubbish, always losing sound at most important times always crashing, if 832b was a 3out of 5 the 832n(2)is a five out of five

Iain, Wakefield on December 12th, 2006
Had my box for several months now. I get occasional sound dropouts but I think this is due to being close to busy road. Also since software update, box channel changes and menu selections take longer and longer to be carried out. Eventually I have to switch the box off from the power and normality is restored, however the timer settings are lost and I have to re-enter them. I bit of a pain.

Rob, Bicester, December 2006 on December 5th, 2006
Purchased from Argos two months ago £29.99. Excellent picture and sound quality. Clock runs up to 40 seconds slow. TV listings and text will often not download. The box radiates a high level of RF interference which shows as patterning on VCR replays. Cheap and cheerful but does the job. Wharfedale customer services are non-existent.

Ken Hull on November 28th, 2006
Excellent value for money. Easy to set up, good features. Bargain price. Buy it!

Mike, Cheshire on November 20th, 2006
I bought one from Argos and they are now £29.99. It works great for me when watching the TV channels. It would be good to know how to record to a VCR from it though. the manual says when it is on standby, the VCR is supposed to work straight from the TV but that doesn't work for recording, only playback. I have tried to use auto-tune on the VCR to set it to pick up the set top box but that didn't get me anywhere.

Baz, West Yorks on November 1st, 2006
Best £60 Ive spent (two boxes). Easy set up, good picture. OK so the time displays resets at 7am and you cant switch from favourite mode quickly but it does what it says on the tin

Dazza, Lincolnshire on October 23rd, 2006
Had this box about a year now, have been quite pleased with it up til recently. Whilst it's been a vast improvement on my old Daewoo DS608P which eventually died a horrible death last summer, I can't say I've been too impressed since the latest software update. I installed it in July to little noticeable effect, but this month have been experiencing incredibly sluggish channel changes and menu functions, which are becoming mildly infuriating, taking anything up to 15 seconds for anything to happen! Having said that, I can't fault the reception and picture it gives, so I hope it's just a passing phase...

Chris, Halifax on October 17th, 2006
Congratulations to you lucky people who bought the original model. Unfortunately, like the Goodmans DVB3 the new DV832BN has had a major software (and presumably hardware) update. And, like the DVB3, the result is a pile of junk which is only fit for the bin. If you can find the older model you should probably go for it, but steer well clear of the latest version.

Dave, Worthing on October 9th, 2006
This is a fabulous little box. Bought for £30 from Argos last month (September 06) it really is a bargain. I’m not in a particularly strong signal area but it picks up everything and puts out a very steady picture. If you have an RGB capable scart on your TV then the picture quality is outstanding, especially when compared to the analogue signal. I had a few sound dropouts but noticed that when using the L/R audio out through my AV amplifier the sound was steady, so I replaced the scart cable and the sound from the TV has been steady since. The Now/Next and 7-day guide work very well, the channel change is fast and the remote is simple and sturdy. All in all a great package for the price.

Paul, York on October 5th, 2006
All comments I make are relative to the two other boxes I've had/encountered regularly. They are a cheap sagem, ancient goodmans and a Digihome 915. It has the same remote, same interface as two of the other boxes. EPG is faster, channel change is faster, so is interactive. It has never pixelated. Never crashed. Never overheated. Better picture. Sadly I cannot say the same of the other boxes. This was £5 more than the others. The only bad points about this box are that it is slightly more bulky than the others and that you cannot change the channel numbers, but this is the software interface, not wharfedale's fault. I would recommend this box and intend to buy another one for someone at Christmas.