Akai AD185X High Definition Set Top Box (Freeview Compatible) reviews

Works fine. No need to select country as England as stated by mighty ape. Maybe this is a new batch and NZ was default country. Sometimes EPG show the whole days programs not just the next 2 hours.

No problems with setting up or tuning, works great, have no problems recommending to others, especially at price.

First off just wanna say that the device works great, and especially for the price it's fantastic, and also a tip for first time users:

If you haven't turned ‘LCN’ off before ‘auto-searching’ the channels, will cause the prefix of channels to start with “80” (basically if you look at the channel number on the display on the Freeview box, it will be “801” for example, instead of “01”), and the order of channels may not be in accordance with that listed on Freeview’s website.

So what you can do is go into the Menu by pressing the ‘Menu’ button on the remote and the first page you see will be ‘Program’, hit the down-arrow button on the remote until you have selected/highlig­hted ‘LCN’, hit the right or left-arrow button until “Off” is displayed, then click the ‘Exit’ button on the remote, next move 2 tabs to the right using the right-arrow on the remote, and you will come to the ‘Channel Search’ page, then simply click the down-arrow button until ‘Auto Search’ is selected/highlig­hted and hit the left or right-arrow button to rerun the search for channels, after it has finished if you still dislike the way the channels are ordered, you can go back to the ‘Program’ page by following the first step above, and then select the ‘Program edit’ option, click the left or right-arrow button on the remote and input the password which is just “00000” (the password can be changed by following the steps shown in the manual), then simply use the button functions shown on the bottom of the page, to organize the channels to your liking. Hope this helped some people, and I know it was long, but hopefully it was worth it. :)

Works fine although ‘ease of use’ was not a high priority for the designer. It is a great set top box for freeview that is also capable of recording a single channel in HD. It is limited to a single tuner and menus are not very intuitive but has the plus of recording to an external USB so that it is simple to transfer to a computer etc. Quality of video is fine, Price is right!

Good tip when using the Timeshift function while watching the rugby if you want to make the onscreen display to disappear hit exit, it will keep on recording. You can use the timeshift function go away for 1/2 hour and then come back and fast forward though all the ads and still finish at the same time.

Simple and easy – works well. The limited EPG doesn't bother me as I only really want to know whats on in next few hours

Very good product in very good price,

Read some reviews that mention changing location but I tried the New Zealand setting and it picked up all the freeview channels guess they must have updated firmware. So for the last few days I have been watching HD freeview in New Plymouth great picture and sound.

Fantastic DH decoder works well I had trouble for a start here in Invercargill but I tracked the problem down to the cable. I replaced with new RG-6 direct from the HD antenna to the box, set it to scan and 11 channels of crystal clear HD TV now. Great price and product thanks Mighty Ape.

I bought this as a replacement for the old vcr, as my tv has freeview built in and I didn't want to buy a decoder just for the vcr or for a dvd/hdd recorder. The epg only shows the next three shows, but it can be programed to record multiple shows manually. There are many comparable pvr decoders that only work with satellite dishes, but this is the only budget pvr unit I know of that works on a terrestrial uhf aerial.

Got an Aerial put on roof by Installer and he tuned TV and Akait in and said it was the first Akai he had seen but it was an awesome little Set top box. Only took 5 mins to find all Stations in Freeview. Well worth the great price offered by MIGHTY APE

Great unit, set to “England” for the country, gets all the NZ freeview channels. I have a 40g laptop HDD plugged in, Awesome. Recorded a documentary for my son and he took HDD to school for the school project, he thinks its cool. Thanks MightyApe

Had a little wait as out of stock at supplier but questions re expected delivery promptly answered by MA. Yet to test reception of HD signal as Freeview Terrestrial not expected in Taranaki until July. However as a PVR it fully recognizes my 1TB NTFS formatted HDD. As well the price is the best around.

I waited a long while for this product, due to supply, but the wait was well worth it. For the money you can not go wrong with this product, Why on earth pay hundreds of dollars for an official product what does the same thing.You can even plug your hard drive or usb stick into it and record and play back tv or watch your own movies, really great deal.Only one downside is that it does not have 7 day epg, but who can grumble at such a price.Im a well happy customer.

Although not a Freeview approved product, this is well worth the money. The remote control appears robust. The unit has a fast text decoder and is easy to operate. It sets up easily and work well.

Performs as per specifications

I bought the freeview box as I have freeveiw built in to my TV but no way to record it. It was simple to install and only required a cheap external hard drive to record on. The recordings are in HD so they play back really sharp. The box will only display the next 3 programs on the EPG, but it does have a timer record option like an old VCR. Considering the alternatives are $500+ then this is the biggest bargin ever.

Bought this wonderful Akai HD set top box for my analog TV. Am using it with an internal aerial and it works even better than I thought I would. All channels crystal clear. Set up as France as recommended on site. Well worth every dollar I paid for it and I have to say what a bargain. Not forgetting the fact that you get extra channels too. A++++++ Love it

All 3 boxes I bought would not work on my system, have used other boxes and devices on my system and have had no problems. Boxes worked well on a different tv though

Have bought a total of three of these so far, the ability to record on a USB disk-drive makes it very very useful. Pity the EPG is only two programs ahead, and that it is not compatible with items recorded on earlier Akai boxes (no sound on the video)

Great unit is much better than a freeview approved one I bought about a year ago easy to tune and use am very plesed with this unit now have two of them

The price and functionality of this product makes it one that you don't want to miss out on – especially with the switch over coming up in the foreseeable future.

You get a device that's small, and stylish, gets a great reception on all channels (depending on the signal in your area) and, probably best of all, lets you record in high definition without having to go out and buy and expensive blu-ray recorder.

The one draw back is the setting up. It's something that will be taken care of shortly, and the friendly people at MightyApe have a work around that will solve the minor problem in the meantime.

All in all this product is going to be your best option if you're looking to go down the freeview path for your continued telly watch when only digital is an option.

One problem I had was tuning it. finally found out that you must tune it to France as your country, it cost me a new aerial but is now working well and the reception is clear. It was well worth the purchase price