Switching from analogue to digital television offers a wider choice of channels along with the handy ability to record a programme on to a recorder box with a hard drive. There are several routes to digital TV. These include signing up for satellite, cable, or a broadband TV service such as BT’s Vision and Tiscali TV (formerly HomeChoice). But the cheapest and so far most popular path for UK viewers is Freeview, the free-to-air terrestrial service. It now feeds the main TV set of 8.4m UK households – a third of the nation’s homes – according to Ofcom, the government regulator.

If you subscribe to satellite, cable or broadband TV, a digital box for receiving and maybe recording comes as part of the package. But if you plan to take the terrestrial route, read on. InGear has tested six Freeview boxes to help you separate the Hollywood lovelies from the Dlist soap stars. We’ve also included two boxes that can receive the new Setanta Sports service.

A word of warning: just because you’ve bought a good quality Freeview box doesn’t mean you’ll receive a good signal. Coverage is patchy and will be until digital switchover (DSO) is complete in 2012. The DigitalUK website (www.digitaluk.co.uk) is supposed to tell you whether your postcode is in a good reception area. But we’ve had complaints that even in areas designated “good reception” there are blackspots where you don’t get a signal at all; and of course the quality of your aerial and cabling counts. The only way to be sure is to test a box at home, so buy on approval if you can. Read our full guide to DSO at tinyurl.com/3xf2x2.

Three of the boxes we tested are just receivers for supplying a digital signal to your set; the other three (by TVonics, Thomson and Daewoo) can record as well. These recording machines are known as PVRs – see InGear’s guide at tinyurl/com/3cjn76. Newer PVRs are branded as Freeview Playback machines and come with the ability to pause live action, performing such tricks as replaying the start of a recorded broadcast before the box has finished capturing the end. In autumn, all Freeview Playback boxes will be automatically upgraded over the air to gain new features including an ability to capture an entire series with one button press.

Each of the three recorders under review contain two tuners, so can show one channel while another is recorded. Earlier PVRs would emit more fan noise than a garden leaf-blower but this has largely been resolved. Each of the three were far quieter than recorder boxes of, say, 18 months ago.

The six boxes differed considerably in the design of their on-screen menus and how easily their electronic programme guides (EPG) were to navigate. Apart from the Sagem, all have at least a seven-day EPG, but while it was easy to check information on what was currently showing or the next programme, it was often trickier to find what lay a week ahead. The Philips was the most complex, the TVonics was the simplest. Nevertheless, all were less sluggish than older Freeview boxes.

The best picture quality was delivered by models with tuners made by big-name TV brands, namely the Philips box and the TVonics recorder manufactured by Sony. The Daewoo recorder and the diddy Bush gadget were close behind but their images were slightly softer with marginally less detail. The Sagem was the worst, albeit still better than many cheap “supermarket specials”.

Football fans can finally enjoy some live exclusive Premiership matches (plus other premium content) on Freeview by signing up for the Setanta Sports service. But in addition to paying £10 a month, you may also need a Freeview box with a slot for a TopUp TV card. These cards descramble paid-for TV content broadcast over Freeview. Of the boxes reviewed here, only the Thomson recorder and the Setanta-branded receiver (made by Sagem) will accept these cards. Televisions with a built-in Freeview tuner will probably work with a £30 adaptor known as a Cam (conditional access module) instead of an external set-top box. This widget will also accept a Freeview decoder card, such as Setanta’s, and it plugs into an obscure slot found on most digital televisions.

JARGON BUSTER

Broadband TV Services that supply programmes to your home television screen using an ADSL broadband connection

DSO (digital switchover). Process of switching off the current analogue TV transmitters, which will allow a higher strength digital signal

EPG (electronic programme guide) On-screen listings; triggers recording of booked programme

Hard drive/hard disk Tape-free method of recording and storing TV programmes

Scart Old-fashioned analogue cables still employed by most Freeview boxes. Exposes fewer picture flaws than HDMI digital cables

Timeshift Term often used to describe recording live transmissions to view later, as opposed to archiving onto DVD. Really means using a hard drive to “pause” or “rewind” a live broadcast

Research supplied by What Satellite and Digital TV magazine Reviews by David Phelan Prices include Vat & delivery

FAMILY VIEWING

TVonics DVR-FP250 – typically £220, or £190 from www.tvonics.com

Neat, simple and top quality

You may not have heard of TVonics, but it was founded by former Sony engineers and the well designed boxes are built by the Japanese giant. The black-aluminium finish of this tiny, unobtrusive recorder is classy and the box can bag 125hr of digital television on a 250GB hard drive. It was a doddle to set up and operate. The menus were clear and responsive, the remote control felt classy and picture quality was top notch. The maker boasts of low power consumption when it’s on standby. The TVonics cannot record two channels at once, nor organise a list of favourite channels, and the digital-audio output requires an adaptor (not supplied). Nevertheless, this is a superb box.

SPARE-ROOM FRIEND

Daewoo DSD9503T – typically £170, or £130 from www.amazon.co.uk

Keenly priced and feature-rich but soft picture

This Daewoo is a fine-value VCR replacement and roughly the same size. Unlike the TVonics it can record two programmes simultaneously (both boxes enable you to watch a second show as you record the first). The Daewoo’s 160GB hard drive houses 80hr of digital TV and its remote control is a cut above the norm, with a dedicated button for pausing live TV. Neat features include picture-in-picture, for keeping an eye on another channel. The menus proved easy to navigate despite a garish red-and-white colour scheme. Images were decent even on a 50in screen – the mark of a solid digital tuner – albeit a touch soft and less detailed than some.

ON-DEMAND PRETENDER

Thomson TopUp TV+ (DT16300-16) – typically £100 from www.argos.co.uk

Recorder with ‘on-demand’ features

This is the hardware element of a Freeview subscription package called TopUp TV. However, the box can be purchased separately and works as a standalone PVR. The 160GB hard drive records 120hr and offers a 14-day EPG. Paying £10 a month unlocks 18 extra channels including MTV and Bloomberg. Up to 100hr of shows from selected channels can be downloaded to the box each night, which may then be viewed at your leisure for seven days, and these looked sharper than Freeview broadcasts. You can also sign up for a movie package or Setanta Sports. The box was serviceable with neat features, such as series link. The picture had slight blockiness, but a far graver problem was the dearth of premium material.

SPACE SAVER

Bush iDaptor – typically £59, or £40 from www.argos.co.uk

Diddy no-frills Freeview box with decent picture

If there’s no room under that television in the kids’ bedroom for a set-top box, the tiny iDaptor is an ingenious solution. This wee widget is a Freeview tuner with a Scart socket built into its casing and it’s the size of a pack of cards. Plug one into a set’s Scart socket, tune it in, and hey presto, digital telly. The only other component is a tiny infrared receiver that must be perched discreetly near to the TV so the iDaptor’s remote can control it. Picture quality was almost as good as the best boxes on test. The menus were responsive and fairly straightforward too.

TASTY STARTER

Philips DTR210 – typically £40, or £30 from www.tesco.com

Straightforward receiver with solid quality

If it’s time to digitise that ancient kitchen television, don’t be tempted by the noname supermarket specials. This Philips is the ideal bog-standard Freeview box. It’s barely bigger than a VHS cassette, swift to set up and despite a modest price tag it delivered as solid a picture as any other Freeview box. Unlike the Bush, it has a spare Scart socket to connect to a VCR or DVD recorder and also a digital audio output. The menus were unnecessarily complicated, though, and its seven-day EPG showed only the next two hours per channel, so you must do further button pressing to see forthcoming shows, which made planning ahead arduous. Not exactly a looker, either.

SPORTING CHANCE

Setanta Sports Ready Set-top box – typically £50, or £49 from www.argos.co.uk

Basic box offering extra channels

This is actually a Sagem ITD68 Freeview receiver box with a descrambling card slot and a month’s subscription to the Setanta Sports service, which is £10 a month thereafter. It’s a compelling way for sports fans to increase channel choice without signing up for satellite, cable or BT Vision. The small plasticky box proved simple to set up but the menus were a frightening shade of blue and the picture quality was softer and less clean than any other model on test. The EPG showed only the current and next programmes, not seven days ahead, which made it hard to plan viewing. Activating the bundled Setanta Sports card involved calling an 0870 number and quoting financial details to a recorded service with laboured instructions.