Bush: DFTA11

Dave L., on March 9th, 2011
Bought the bush dftat few years ago, was fine. But now, tried to resurrect it and completely dead. Checked fuse obviously, its fine. Any ideas on getting it going again?

Anon, on July 8th, 2010
I have had this set top box for over 4 years now and have never had a problem with it and considering have moved house every year since buying it (for apporx £20) I can't complain. It picks up all the channels and provides a good image. Easy to set up and tune so five out of five. It seems that people tend to write these reviews if they have had a bad experience, generally if your content with the product then you just use it and doon't both with this....thought I'd put in a good word while I looked into buying another for our other TV.

PolarCityBlues, Cheshire, on February 19th, 2009
Had one of these perhaps 18 months ago. Don't watch much TV so this is perhaps why it's lasted this long, reading other comments. We found a need to pull the plug once in a while because the system hung in stand-by mode and wouldn't answer to the remote. It's now permanently in this condition. The remote is still transmitting (IR monitoring gear shows me that) but the DFTA11 isn't responding. Previously I had to pull the plug on the thing and give the traditional 'count to 10'. Today I had a 'count to something over 21600' before powering up, but still no luck. I'd put the intermittent sound down to lower signal as digital TV is still on test; perhaps I'm mistaken and it's just a rubbish piece of kit. After all, it's had very little use since we bought it.

d.banks, North Tyneside, on February 21st, 2008
The Bush Digital Terrestrial Receiver – DFTA 11/A ( Freeview box) I have to say that this is one of the worst pieces of electrical equipment that I have ever come across in my 64 years! In September 2005, in moving house to an area which did not have cable TV, It was suggested that I bought a “set top box” in order to watch the channels on “Freeview”. I bough two of the above boxes, one for each of my TVs. After eleven months one of the boxes ( let’s call it box 1 ) stopped working. As it had a 12 month warranty, I sent it back and got a replacement ( let’s call this box 3) . After 13 months the second box which I originally bought (box2) stopped working but it was now out of warranty and the supplier did not want to know. I replaced it with a Philips model. Yesterday the replacement box (box3) exploded in quite a spectacular manner with a significant amount of smoke issuing forth ! Thank goodness I was actually in the room at the time. ( This box was actually in the bedroom and only used for , at most, two hours a day). “NO Mr. BUSH- it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!”

Robert, Ayrshire, on February 10th, 2008
Had this box for 16 Months, never had any problems, got the occasional no signal error, but this was to do with my aeriel connection, and not the box itself - althought it never displays the full date if its a Wednesday.... this may be down to the freeview epg tho :-). I paid £30 for mine from Tesco. Its now with my parents, as i have BT Vision, and no need for this one anymore.. Still working as far as i now

Andy, Scotland, on January 29th, 2008
If you don't want the HDD . that freeview box is best for you .easy setup, picture & signal is good. i buy from ebay just £13incl P&P. good working no problem. overall best buy!

John, N.Ireland, on January 2nd, 2008
I've used one of these boxes via Scart - no problems. I have just moved it to an old portable that doesn't do scart and can't see anything on-screen. A connected VCR can't pick up the box either, though connecting Aerial > Bush > VCR > TV still lets Analogue TV through. Is it: a - stupidity on my part and something obvious b - the box only sends out a picture via scart? Any ideas?

Graham, Camberley, on October 25th, 2007
This box has been withdrawn from manufacture so you won't be able to get hold of any new ones now. Just as well. I had no end of problems with mine before I took it back to Curry's and got my money back. The sound would cut out every 10 or so minutes and the audio gradually slipped with reference to the pictures and could only be realigned by switching channels back and forwards. When it performed it worked OK but that's about the best you can say about it.

Lee, Northamptonshire, on September 2nd, 2007
Got the Bush DFTA 11 from Tesco about 6 weeks after my old Alba box died ( yes I now know they are one & the same company ) Easy to set up, very good signal ( full on the MUX 1, B, C & D channels ) using a Maplin 52 element wideband aerial that's in the loft. About 1/3 signal level on the lower powered MUX 2 & A channels. A great easy to use box for the low price, I may get something higher spec like a recorder with built in freeview when this box dies, cracking bit of kit for the money. If you want a good cheap freeview box then this one is worth a look.

teaorcoffee, Essex, on August 28th, 2007
I must say I am disappointed with this box. Sadly like most other models there are controls on the box itself. So you are stuffed if you lose the remote. I didn't think this would be too much of a problem until I discovered that the box 'hangs' if left in "off" position (i.e. standby) for a long time. It does not respond to the remote at all. An on/off switch would have been helpful. I have therefore had to get an extention lead to get access to the plug to turn it off. A further problem is that it decides to switch to black-and-white mode for no apparent reason. And there's nothig you can do to get the colour back except wait and hope. I have seen more user-friendly on-screen displays but I could live with that if the thing worked properly. To cap it all, the manufacturer's website has no effective opportunity to get support. It is such an unfriendly website. When I did manage to get in touch with them, they ignored me. It is a poor piece of equipment with even poorer customer support. In short, a waste of money.

Paul, Coulsdon, on July 26th, 2007
Have had two of these dreadful boxes - both power supplies failed after about 15 months and the boxes themselves after about 18 months. Never again!

K. @ Finsbury Park, London, on July 19th, 2007
After checking throughtout the internet's reviews for the digital box with low budget (<35) and not via internet transaction (like ebay), Bush DFTA11 is the one that I choose. The reasons are (1) one SCART lead included (2) support both Now&Next and 7days (3) size is not too big (but also not small as other brands). After testing for two days, it supports both EPGs as mentioned by just adjusting in the main menu (I wonder why others have complained that it doesn't). All TV programs can be seen through the Guide button or Menu button. TV screen sizes are interchangeable (4:3 and widescreen 16:9, some channels have another size between these). However, since I still use a cheap indoor aerial (just a circled wire come with TV), I get different sets of channels for the First Time setup for each time I adjust my aerial from one position to another (Yes, you can easily reset all of your channels by pressing a few buttons within 5 minutes). Sometimes I've got the set of BBCs (BBC1,2,3,CBBC,etc.), E4+1, film4, Skys (Three,SportNews,News), but sometimes I've got the itv2 with a few channels. Note that either of these also come up with a number of digital radio stations. Unfortunately, with my aerial, some of standard TV channels have been missing (i.e., five, itv, channel 4). I think I should buy one proper aerial soon. Pros: Cheap with SCART lead included, Stylish box with standard size (about 23.0 x 15.5 x 3.5 cm; though not compact compared to some of the others), Remote is not too big (17.5 x 4.0 x 2.0 cm) and doesn't have a number of useless buttons (i.e. every button is useful). Just for your information, the theme for Main Menu and Guide is in light blue colour which makes it looks like futuristic digital TV. Con: Just sometimes, a bit delay when changing channel or turn on/off (the former could be due to my cheap aerial).

Z London, on June 17th, 2007
The Bush DFTA11 is cheap from Makro at £22 + included SCART, has digital subtitles, interactive TV, super easy to set up, silent operation, most important fantastic picture quality and I get all channels (but I live in London), silent operation good for a bedroom. Negative points - no HDMI, stays warm when on standby, large red LED light when on standby is annoying in a bedroom, menu system is not as easy as my sky box e.g. can setup auto-switch timers if you are recording without physically being there but a bit time consuming.

Patrick, Cambridge, on May 7th, 2007
I have just installed this with my LG TV and Philips DVD/Video. All works fine, except that there's absolutely NO SOUND. A review of the Digilogic DSTB1000 (identical to the Bush)said 'Don't buy Digilogic if you already have Philips DVD equipment! Could that be my problem? Or is there something simple that I've missed?

Cambs, on February 6th, 2007
All seemed well at first. Very easy to set up and use and worked pretty well. Then the signal got very bad in my region and the picture was terrible, meaning I had to watch normal TV. Then the remote control packed in and refused to work at all, so couldn’t turn it on. I'll go for the more expensive option next time.

Shelly, Cardiff, on November 29th, 2006
My cable box is playing up and I can't get cable upstairs either so I bought the DFTA11 as an alternative (apparently my kids can't live with only 4 channels!!!)Setup seemed easy enough eccept I don't have an outside arial only cabletel so it wouldn't work. I had to get the arial from my sons portable to plug in and now it's ok.

George in Carshalton, on November 25th, 2006
I have now had this box for 3 months and I am still very happy with it! The EPG only supports a now and next with the picture mixed in but does have a 7 day EPG no problems so far. I reccomend this box to anyone.

Annie, Leicester, on November 13th, 2006
Bought a Bush DFTA11 last week on recommendation of Curry's sales assistant who said it was as good as a more expensive different brand model I was going to buy but which was out of stock. Can't receive BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 or BBC24 News (despite neighbours being able to do so) unless I unplug aerial from STB and insert in TV, thus losing all box settings. Quality of other channels is very good. I have reinstalled it several times - no joy. Customer service is appalling. There is no contact address for BUSH on the packaging or on any of the leaflets that came with the product, just 0870 helpline number. Phoned this many times,frequently go engaged tone and four times was told was being transferred to customer services rep then line went dead - of course I have had to pay for these dead calls. Finally got through to the 'music' and repetitive 'we're sorry for the delay' messages etc. Gave up after 20 minutes - no fun in throwing more money to the winds. Googled for Bush customer contact information - nothing available except 0870 number provided by BBC. I wish I hadn't bought this product - in future I shall check that full contact information is provided with any item I buy, whatever the make.

Caroline, Surrey, on September 13th, 2006
I have had one for six weeks, it worked fine at first but has recently started to freeze and block. I have tried swithcing it off at the mains and also reinstalled a cuople of times but it is no better. On the plus side, it is easy to set up and use.