Roadstar DVB2012T - TechRadar UK

With accessories galore, this tiny Freeview box threatens to refute allegations that Roadstar is a dyed-in-the-wool budget brand.

As well as a Scart lead, the company has included a 12V cigarette lighter charger for running it from a car and, more usefully, a digital signal booster that stretches about two metres from the box.

Despite its name, we’re not sure why anyone would want to take this Roadstar for a drive, but its diminutive size is welcome nonetheless. The hefty indoor aerial should be handy for use in caravans or rooms that don’t have access to a rooftop aerial. Except that ours didn’t work.

Extended to its full range in a room with patchy Freeview TV reception, it failed to pick-up any signal. We had to resort to another brand of indoor antenna to guarantee a signal for this review.

Its clean fascia contains just a few subdued logos and a remote sensor, it weighs almost nothing and has enough features of its own to leave us impressed.

While small, the rear of the box packs some punch. A lone RGB-enabled Scart guarantees decent quality pictures and its electrical digital audio output makes an unexpected appearance, given its low price, and it will facilitate the routing of sound through a home cinema amplifier.

Performance

Switch on the DVB2012T and an automatic tuning wizard kicks off, completing a full roster of Freeview TV and radio channels.

The well laid-out and responsive black remote is only credit card-sized, but still manages to feature commands that toggle between TV and radio, activate subtitles, tinker with the picture size and select the electronic programme guide, although the latter button is not nearly prominent enough.

There’s even an option to set the EPG to display programmes on a particular channel in a simple list, a timeline showing what’s on a number of channels at any one time, or a simple Now and Next menu. The attractive EPG can also be used to programme up to five timers if the Scart is attached to a VHS or DVD recorder.

Reminders can be set for each programme, information and exact transmission times inspected, or schedules scrolled though for the following eight days. Again, the process is simple, due to the well designed remote control.

Happily, menus work while the current programme plays underneath, although it is blanked out: there’s no floating or see-through window.

Crucially for a digibox positioned at the affordable end of the market, the DVB2012T is equipped with a RGB Scart, so it delivers very clean images. With admirable stability and a colour palette on the realistic side of vivid, we have to say that we’re impressed by the DVB2012T.

Despite some minor setbacks, the it leaves our labs with its reputation enhanced, especially as it is available online for only £29.99