Sagem DTR94500S HD Freesat+ DVR

But there’s little to tempt the dedicated satellite tinkerer – this really is a unit designed for Freesat and not much else. You can tune in other channels on the Astra satellite cluster by entering all their details manually, but that’s it – no support for other satellites or Diseq is provided.

The main menu appears as a strip on the left

When you do add non-Freesat channels, they’re allocated a number. However, you can’t enter that number to go to the channel, you need to scroll through the list, or use P+/P- to reach it. Nor can you do an instant recording of such channels, or, as far as we can see, set the name of a timed recording from them.

Another concern was some occasional graphical glitches in the library list, which may point to firmware issues.

With the USB port not yet functional, the only other connectivity option is Ethernet, and that too is not yet used, though an update to enable BBC iPlayer should be along shortly, as the service is rolled out to more devices.

Verdict

Sagem’s Freesat recorder does the job, and the large hard disk means that there’s plenty of space for HD recordings. But the case, remote and front panel display don’t exude quality, and we felt the EPG isn’t as well laid out as some other Freesat boxes. The lack of automatic prompts to record HD versions of SD shows is also an annoying omission, as is a digital optical output. ®

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