Alba: STB2NS

HPC, London, on September 7th, 2006
Not worth 1p let alone £299.99. Just like Mike Evans I've also persevered with this for months. Utter rubbish. Locks up frequently, remote initially intermittant, now packed up completely. Box worked for a couple of months but had to power off and power on far too often on lock up. Will now throw it in the bin and pay double for something better.

Allan, Christchurch, on July 25th, 2006
The Alba box looks very nice and works well some of the time. I use mine exclusively for front-ending a DVD recorder for timer recordings. Sometimes, half way through a recording the screen goes black and the sound continues. After the recording has finished (with 50% of the picture missing) the remote has no effect, neither do the buttons on the box work either, until the box is unplugged from the mains and replugged. I'm afraid this is not acceptable and it's going back to the supplier very soon.

S. Davies, Carmarthen, on June 27th, 2006
You pay for what you get, its cheap so i dont expect bundles of features, it does the job and does it ok. It has crashed on a few occasions and once in a blue moon switches itself off. I have seen far better out there for a little more cash, but if i spent £50 plus i would expect far more.

Mike Evans, on June 17th, 2006
I've persevered with this for months now. Just plain rubbish. Locks up frequently, black screens if you stay on a subscription site for more than a second, audio disappears without warning, causes my DVD player case to become +110V, need to unplug it and retune every other time you use it, blocky picture, remote control, channel and power buttons on the thing lock up. Just far too irritating. Spend an extra fiver and get something else. Anything else.

Mark Quinton, Ipswich, on May 31st, 2006
After paying £30 from a high street supermarket I had the box up and running withint as many minutes of stepping through the door. The unit is a very nice looking box with solid buttons on the front and small enough to perch on top of the DVD player inconspicuously. After the initial setup and auto tune all the expected channels were received (90% coverage where I live) and I was very happy with the menu system. The menu system is identical to that used in several Daewoo TV's incorporating Freeview. However, after watching the England game last night when it came to half time I couldn't get the TV to respond to any presses of the remote control. The box itself will change channels and work correctly and upon switching it off the TV will then allow me to alter volume etc but when the box is on again it doesn't. After switching the box off at the mains and retuning etc it works fine but again after 20 minutes or so of sitting idle on the same channel it prevents the tv remote from functioning. Will be taken back and trying another budget box from elsewhere which is a shame as its easily the nicest looking box in this budget.

Matthew M, Shropshire, UK, on May 27th, 2006
I bought the box today from Argos and I have been using it all afternoon. The dinky little box is rock solid, allbeit getting a bit warm, but what electrical device doesn't these days? However, if you make sure that the vents are not covered, the box sould be fine. Using a decent £20 aerial and proper, sheilded cables - just like it always should have been - I can get alot of channels, sone 50+, even though I am about 20 miles from my transmitter. The only negative I can think of is that there is no card slot - so no TopUp TV. However, nether the catalogue nor the retail box said it did, so no stars lost there. All in all, for £30, it is a great buy, and I would easily recommend it.

Geoff Richardson, Bristol, on May 6th, 2006
Sounds all very similar to the STB2; remote works only intermitently, if at all. Also had problems with picture breakup