New USB Freeview recorder unveiled

Digital Vision has unveiled its new GiGo Digital Freeview Recorder, which is billed as the first ever USB stick-based recorder to hit the market.

The product is a standard single tuner digital terrestrial receiver with access to the EPG, but without an in-built hard drive.

Instead, the box has three USB ports on the front that enable owners to record programmes in MPEG-2 format to any storage device that is plugged in. This also means that users are able to record on one channel, while viewing programmes previously saved on the USB sticks.

An hour of programming takes up around 2GB, with file names and synopsis information being drawn from the EPG.

The GiGo can be used for playback or the files can be viewed on any other device that is able to support MPEG-2 format, including handhelds.

Digital Vision head of retail sales Rob Musk told Pocket-Lint that the GiGo offers a "simple and affordable approach".

He added: "We've connected a 500GB hard drive [to the device] with no problems. You'll then be able to archive to your PC to watch on the move."

Musk also said that the company may introduce a future set-top-box that offers MPEG-4 recording.