Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder

 Brand Samsung | Model: SMT-S7800

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Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder

1.0 out of 5 stars Unreliable, 13 Feb 2013

By 

Steve Smith "steved585" (Sussex, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

I know someone who tried two of these and took them both back. Silly me, thinking he was just unlucky I went ahead and got one - well it is voted best Freesat+ box two years running by What Hi Fi magazine after all...

Quite easy to use, had trouble tuning it at first but once that sorted was ok for while, then the problems started.

1. It Freezes/locks up - will not respond to the remote control. Only solution is to (yes, you've guessed it!) turn it off and on again. Of course if it does this while recording you have lost your programme.

2. Recording settings disappear and reappear: Programmes that you have set to record just disppear of their own accord and sometimes reappear - you never can be 100% sure if it is going to record a programme or not.

3. EPG unreliable: Scroll forward a day or two or even later the same day and it sometimes cant find any tv programmes - even some channels disappear altogther.

In short this unit is unreliable and therefore not fit for purpose. That's what I've told a the big electrical chain store that I bought it from (lets just say they like Indian food). They however after me having had it less than two months refuse to refund my money and insist on sending off for 'repair' - I dont hold out much hope.
The 'repair' will probably involve someone conecting it to a computer and running a few tests and then declaring there's nothing wrong with it...

If you do buy one of these then make sure you can get a refund when it goes wrong but my advice is still well clear.

1.0 out of 5 stars Rubbish!, 10 Feb 2013

By 

Cath - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

I bought this thinking 'it cant be that bad, the reviews must just be from people who've been unlucky'.
But....
It didn't work properly at all. Didn't record when set to. Lost programmes when it did eventually record them, stopped recording half way through.
Menu design was really good, liked the small screen in the corner.
Had high expectations because of the make of this product however, I sent it back, wishing I'd believed the bad reviews in the first place.
My advice? Spend a bit more and get one that works.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Freesat box, 3 Feb 2013

By 

Mr. D. J. Linnell "francophile" (Northampton, England) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

This offering from Samsung is easy to use in a nice compact box that matches other home entertainment equipment and is the usual high quality,

5.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says on the box!, 29 Jan 2013

By 

D. BURNS (UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

This item gives you all the free-to-air satellite channels, including the HD ones. It's simple to set up and use, is of good quality and does the job just fine.

5.0 out of 5 stars Got Much better, 27 Jan 2013

By 

M. J. Wishart (Salisbury England) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

Had problems with more than one Humax, decided to buy the samsung, brilliant performance compared to the Humax, as the months went by the Library would vanish, it needed a reboot to get it back, it became a chore at least once a week. I phoned the sagem help line and was connected to a very patient irishman, he took 20+ minutes talking me through the problem and taking me to the la download for the unit, I downloaded to a memory stick, put it into the unit, there is a cute little usb socket hidden away on the front, downloaded the update and everything has been fine since then.

1.0 out of 5 stars Library wiped several times, 23 Jan 2013

By 

gleedy 123 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

The library regularly wipes itself and the recommended factory reset does not help. Only saves a few recordings and now the tv guide does not go further than 24 hours. A waste of money if you can't rely on it to record. You only have to type the product into a search engine to find so many other dissatisfied customers and all of the suggested solutions are short lived. DO NOT buy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Freesat recorder with a lot of nice touches., 18 Jan 2013

By 

Roliat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

I bought the Freesat recoder as a replacement for Sky+ which we cancelled having only spent 2 hours a week watching free channels anyway..which we used to record via the SKY+ box. The Samsung box is much faster in changing channels and setting up a recording for series link, and feels more intuitive than the Sky box did. The quality of playback also blows the Sky box out of the water. We have a Sony 40inch tv and can use the samsung remote to control it too which is great. It will control pretty much all brands of TV's
Recorded programmes record as expected and playback is great quality. The recoded programmes if in series link automatically go into a folder and moving programmes to your own folders is also easy. SKY+ never did this...just gave you a long list of recorded programmes.

We've had this for 3 weeks now and had no problems. Not needed to update the firmware as it seems to be upto date.

If you have a SKY+ box and don't use it much I'd hightly recommend the Samsung recorder...it'll save you money in the long run.

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad advert for samsung, 18 Jan 2013

By 

hemjay - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

This product is a bad advert for samsung, it's the first product of theirs I have purchased and it will be the last.

Library disappears, do the reset and enter all timer events. Few weeks later library disappears, etc, etc ,etc.

Timer events go missing, series link does not always work though these got better when latest software downloaded. However, the recording / timeshift of what your watching does not work now.

Looking for a replacement that works.

4.0 out of 5 stars so far: will update, 11 Jan 2013

By 

Zentao - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

Machine P D Good Even us wrinkly's can work it.
One snag - undergoing my scrutiny- timed recordings frequently fail. On telephoning company I got a rather cocky person that said it was the fault of the TV companies not sending the signal out on time. Nothing they could do about it!
got to be a failing: Sagemcom Freeview allows for adding extra time to cover such things -as standard!

Mostly record off free view :also purchased through Amazon.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Product, 7 Jan 2013

By 

Adam Hicks - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SMT-S7800 500GB Freesat HD TV Recorder (Electronics)

I have been using this for approximately a month and have had no problems whatsoever. Very simple to operate, intuitive and good value for money.

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