Just bought a Teac HDB842 set top box from Harvey Norman for $125.
Tried it in Hamilton where it performed flawlessly and then back in Portland where it did just as well.
The unit has a comprehensive back panel with HDMI, Component, Composite, SVideo, Optical digital audio and Stereo audio.
The remote and the on-screen interface are simple, uncluttered and intuitive. Full marks.
Visual and Audio quality are excellent,
Installation and auto scan were an absolute doddle.
The unit runs cool.
Font panel provides channel number readout and the essential controls.
Favourite channels facility is simple and effective.
Changing channels is practically instant.
The only slight flaw I can find is that the remote is very directional so you must aim it accurately, but if you do it works fine.

So far, damn nearly perfect.
What more do you want?

Hi,
Just thinking of buying one of these this weekend. It will be our first. What do you think of the Hi Def channels? Can you have the HDMI connection to a 1080 display whilst simultaneously connecting the component outputs to an older type CRT TV?

Didn't try simultaneous HDMI and component. I guess you'll have to make the experiment.

I think I'll give this box a try, its cheap and all I want at this point is a unit that works.

Any more feedback?

BTW there is a firmware update available for it:
http://www.teac.com.au/pages/hdb842softwareupgradever161008

Well I bought it for $125, works a treat. One issue I am having is that on Prime it tells me the service list has changed, after giving the ok to update, it asks me again. Only happens on Prime.

How did you guys get it for $125? I rang my local HN and their price was $139.

Got my unit at JB, no haggle.

At JB HiFi's Southland store in Melbourne, it was listed as $146. We bought a few other home entertainment bits so they brought it down - to $125. Amusingly, that's price matching your Harvey Norman, which they would do on request anyway. Where abouts is the HN you bought yours at?

1. The remote is definitely a pain in the posterior. 'Very directional' is a wee bit of an understatement.

2. Installing the firmware update was a problem. I had turned it on previously so it'd already collected all the channels. Upon turning the STB on with the firmware (on USB) plugged in, it prompts to hit OK on the remote to upgrade. However, OK would bring up a channel list, making the upgrade prompt disappear.

I had to reset the STB to factory settings while leaving the USB in for the prompt to respond correctly and upgrade the firmware. I'm not sure, but I think the remote has performed a little better since.

3. A bigger concern to me is how very dark the black point is. Is digital television made for brighter tvs or something? Programs that look perfectly fine by tv antenna are incredibly black on the box. I watched a movie last night with many dark scenes - Inside Man - and I could barely see anything. (Saw Conspiracy Theory the next day, same problem in dark scenes). My TV is a Philips 27" CRT (flat screen, not flat box) and performs fine with analogue reception.

Channel switching is otherwise quick, everything else about it is easy and clear.

The Teac HDB842 has now started crashing. Digital tv hangs, drops out and falls back to the tv's default blank AV screen and the remote and all buttons on the box do not respond.

I have to turn it off and back on again before it works.

I will continue to test it today and return it to JB HiFi if it happens again. I prefer brighter analogue reception - this might be crisper, but that doesn't help me if I can't see anything for all the black. <.<

I'm trying to use a 16Gig Sandisk USB flash drive to install the new firmware, but it continues to give me a 'file system error'. It does say some USB sticks wont work, but I cant imagine why, memory is memory right? I have it formatted to HTFS, will FAT32 solve it?

Update, yes formatting to FAT32 solves the issue.

Returned and replaced the model and remote. It does seem as if upgrading the firmware helps the remotes to respond better, but I'm concerned that the crashes/freezes were caused by the firmware upgrade.

It'd be great if those of you who've upgraded your firmware could confirm whether you've had any troubles since. I'll leave mine alone for now, see if the crashes still happen.

Is anyone else running it to the TV on a basic single video cable, rather than component or HDMI? I'm trying to work out if that could be why everything is so BLACK. JB HiFi store people tell me the set top box can't be the cause, but I keep isolating it as the only one. The raw TEAC screen before anything loads, compared to the regular AV screen, is very, very dark.

And yup, the USB has to be FAT or FAT32 to work.

Anyone else repeatedly getting messages that say the service list has changed? I hit OK, apparently does nothing, searched again for all channels, get the message again...

Edit: Heh. Turns out that if you don't upgrade the firmware, you repeatedly get 'the service list has changed' message... and if you upgrade the firmware, you may have the troubles I did above.

Hi, We have just purchased this unit and the 1st thing I noticed was how dark the picture was. We are also using the composite cables, but I will be investigating it further when I can hitch it up to the projector via HDMI. We have an older Sony CRT TV connected at the moment and it has always given a clear, bright picture so definitely something odd.

Thanks, 709er! It helps immensely to know it's not just me - especially when it comes to getting a refund vs being told to buy better cables.

If anyone can recommend a better STB inside of the $250 mark, I'd love to hear it.

Edit: Have now had it refunded in full by Southland JB HiFi, so I've appreciated their service and will shop there again in the future. Stated problems being darker blackpoint (or whatever the technical term is), super-directionally-fussy remote, and crashes on firmware upgrades.

I'm getting stuttering on a few stations, especially 7 since the upgrade. Reception bar shows all bar two coloured.

I bought a HDB842 before Christmas, had it ready for when we cancelled the Foxtel.

Tested it when I just bought it, seemed fine then. I'll find out how it goes tonight...

The incessant "service list" problem disappeared after a fw upgrade. USB stick was formatted on fat32 and pushed into the slot 1 sec after turning on power. My connection is through hdmi, and haven't had problems with "blackpoint" as was described by "Scribblette".

Remote is still "wearing blinkers" and probably worse after fw upgrade. Unit runs fairly hot, perhaps contributed to in no small part by the bloodee heatwave ravaging adelaide now.

At 126 (JB hifi Modbury) I guess it was ok. Pooraka Goodguys wanted 180 for a topfield or nextwave.

And by the way, the 842 has not frozen on me as did its older sibling the 840 (twice a day for the past one year, if I might add).

a few more observations:

pros

(1) my old 840 freezes when switching between hdmi inputs. ( hdmi1 for stb and hdmi2 for dvd). The 842 doesn't (thus far).

(2) picture quality of 842 definitely superior. enhanced contrast, richer colours and picture crispness.

(3) much less intereference from light switches (as compared to 840)


cons

(1) cannot adjust how long info bar remains on screen. very irritating.

(2) favourites list not retained once you go on stanby. doesn't matter which fovourite list you were on, it always reverts to 'All Channels' once you hit standby.

(3) no teletext.

(4) no time display on unit on standby mode.

(5) remote is very finnicky (as described in my previous post).

conclusion:
as compared to the 840, the 842 has better compatibility, picture quality and price, but misses out on some inportant features thus making it less user-friendly.

Set up the HDB842 yesterday.

Seems alright, except for the remote (as mentioned in most posts so far) and the fact that it doesn't remember that you want the favourites list once you switch it off and back on again. Definitely runs hot, even here in Sydney.

I prefer the HDB840 over the 842. At least it's not as bad as the pile of rubbish that was the HDB841!

I upgraded the firmware today and noe I can manually load channels that won't load via the autoscan.

I am @ Penrith and we get Sydney and Illawarra (not Wollongong).
SBS ch 54 loads with auto but chs 51, 36,37, 38 and Sydney 35 have to be loaded manually. - Why?

All have plenty of signal except 51 & 54, but reception is fine.

Also on my PC ch 35 has 9 sub chs but on HDB842 only 3. This is also case with 2 sydney channels where less sub chs are picked up. - why?

Lastly - what is the Nokia Network with 11 chs?

Cheers
Allan

PS re the controller. the led transmitter is not level it is on a down angle, so you actually have to aim slightly above the unit and pretty much directly at it as mentioned by others.

Bought yesterday from HN. Picture is fantastic but sound drops of after few minutes without touching anything, any buttons on remote.

Only restart of the machine give me the sound back. Connected to Sony Bravia V-series via HDMI.

My previous receiver went dead - no signal. The new one has a strong signal.

Help! TIA

I just bought the TEACHD842 from The Good Guys for $99 and I love it but for one problem.
I have Austar, Video,and DVD as well as the HD Box. It installed great using the HDMI setup but when we change to the Austar Channel
and switch back to HD we get a brilliant picture but no sound. If I do a factory Reset and retune the channels we get picture and sound no problems.

Can someone tell me if it is something I have done when installing the cables.

I have the HDMI cable from the TV to HD Box and the Aerial into the wall plus cable from Video to HD Box. Do I need to put a cable from the Austar Box
to the HD Box.

I have so many cables at the back of the TV I am not came to move anything in case I muck the whole lot up.

If I take photos of the back of my TV can someone tell me where the cables go. Senior who is going crazy trying to unravel the mind blowing cable mix.
Grrr!!!!!!

Thanks for any help.

New old fella to this interesting site, which is mostly over my head.

Can anyone help please.

I had a dish installed and yesterday had Foxtel, analogue and HDTV - all good.
Except, today with our Teac SDB450 top box I decided to auto search to reveiw channels etc.
HD channels all gone from the moment I went auto search.
I set the box to default as an attempt - no go
I tried doing a manual with the correct frequency and - no go

Connections seem to by fine.

What dumb thing have I done?

Cheers

Mike

Hello

Today I bought it and one of my greatest regret this box sucks big time. DON'T BUY IT !

One of most woeful...

subtitle look bad too small text and full black bar it was ugly....remote not really good...ugh

820 was far superior....

i know I can upgrade firmware but already lost interesting...this box 842 is so buggy !

SHAME ON YOU TEAC !

I agree. Mine is being returned as unfit for purpose one day after purchase.

It cant pickup channels every other STB I have used has been able to. No point going any further.

5 months down the track and the unit is still working fine except it crashes from time to time, especially if I am channel surfing.
Just need to reboot by turning it off and on at the rear of the unit.
This is not a unit killer, but it's not good either. I guess it is a software issue so I should upgrade the bios. perhaps I will.

I'll post again when I have done that.

You are brave to keep TEAC HDB842... I have move on long time ago....You better off with other brand the better and U will be happy...

Well I haven't given up on the unit yet, after all, your other choices for $130 are less desirable, but I'm starting to lose faith.

I downloaded the latest patch and installed it, no worries. http://www.teac.com.au/pages/hdb842softwareupgradever161108
The unit hasn't crashed since, but now the output volume has been attenuated by 6dB!!! WTF??? What idiot would program that in?

Again, this is not a throw it out bug, because I can simply turn up the volume, but it's a bit annoying, not least because it's completely unnecessary. Despite what some posters have said, this is fundamentally a sound unit, offering a cool running, intuitive interface, comprehensive connections and quality output at a good price. It's a pity that some dumbo programmer has put his idiot spanner in the works.

I've sent TEAC support a letter on the subject, standby for further information.

Hello
I have just bought a TEAC HDB841 Set Top Box - it works fine but the book says it has a time display when in the Standby mode - mine did not. I took it back to the shop and they just gave me another one - did not have one on display to test with!
The second box does not have a time display either in Standby mode. I rang TEAC and they said to do a Factory default and it will work. This I did (using PW of 0000 not 1234 as instructed in the user book!!). Still does not work!

Does anyone have one of these models (HDB841) with a working time display?

Thanks

I have the TEAC HDB841 and overall it seems to work okay. But there's definately no time display in standby mode. Your right, it does say in the manual that the time should be displayed in standby mode, but the only thing displayed on the front panel is the on/off (standby) light. Actually I must have skipped over that part when I was setting mine up, because I didn't realise that the time should be displayed until I read your post. Cheers.

Got one of these from JB about three months or so ago.

Rather disappointed with it, thinking of returning it.

It consistently just freezes or completely drops out leaving me with a black screen, where i then have to reset it via the back of the unit. The EPG is quite poor and the remote can be a bit of a pain at times! On the other hand though, it does put out a great quality picture.

Downloaded and installed the firmware upgrade, but i'm still experiencing the same problems.

Just wondering if anyone has info on the Teac HDB843? I understand they are a new model, perhaps (hopefully) an improvement on the HDB842.......

Cheers.

There is some technical on the TEAC website:
http://www.teac.com.au/product/3/597

Not much but it is something basic at least.

Hi,

I just bought one the other day and yep there is no time display on the front panel. I also tried the reset password thing and it did nothing.

Just a question for anyone using this HDB841 unit, when you watch normal analogue tv channels do you get any interference on the picture at all?

As the only way I found to be able to watch an old analog station crystal clear was to actually switch off the unit at the back or at the wall.

If the unit is in standby mode the interference is pretty bad, and when it's actually turned on, it's a bit clearer but there's still some interference in the picture.


Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

I purchased 2 x Teac Set top boxes 4 years ago and had nothing but problems. I could not bring myself to giving them to anyone, and disposed of them. Teac in a AV is like:-

• Purina pet care (use Advantix or Frontline)
• Sausages from Coles/Woolworths (No comparison to a butcher)
• Copoers Home brew (no comparison to the Black label Coopers from a home brew store)

I used to work in AV, and I would not sell a Teac product, however I did buy one being a dedicated playback VCR (@1991). You had to know the product, if you would recommend it. Given my above costly experience with Teac, (and the shite Purina/Coopers), I would never purchase/reccomend them again.

Hi. I'm a newbie, so not too sure about how to post, but hope someone may be able to help. I have a Samsung Combo VCR/DVD recorder, model VR 320 and an LG 32LG60FD TV set. I was thinking of buying a HD set top box to connect before the Samsung so that I may be able to record TV shows in HD. I have been given differing opinions on whether this will work or not. eg JB Hi-Fi says it won't work. It will give all the indications of recording but playback will be blank. Anothe r retailer says it will work OK. Can anyone help? I've probably posted this in the wrong place, but was unable to post a new topic.

Thanks if anyone can help anyway.

My HDB841 doesn't display time on the front panel if it's been turned off (put in Standby) using the remote control or the button on the front panel. The Timer Switch On function won't work in these cases, either.

However it does display the time, and Timer Switch On works, if it's put into Standby using Timer Switch Off. So to arrange to have the HDB841 turn itself on at 2300h for the cricket, I enter two Timer events: the On at 2300; and an Off in a couple of minutes from now.

Perhaps the manual was written for a different firmware version? Can't find any updates at www.teac.com.au though....

Welcome to the Forum tauada.

Your DVD Recorder will only have analogue (SD) input connections at best, so you will only get to record in downscaled SD quality, not HD. If you want HD, get a HD PVR or Panasonic XW Series DVDRs.
Having said that, a HD STB will allow you to recieve the HD channels and you can record them (as well as the SD channels) on your DVDR, but in SD quality, which is still pretty good. Make sure you use the Svideo inputs, not Composite, as Svideo will give you a better PQ

OK, thanks very much for your advice.

Cheers

Hi all

I am a new user in forum with what seems an old problem.

Out of the blue my TEAC HDB841 started 'acting up' with picture loss and scramble.

I changed the battery on the remote which some members in this forum have commented n re directionality and then a few days later NO PIC but audio!!

My LG slim (on screen) says does not support HD

??


Confused after 2 years of nil issues ??

How is it connected to trhe LG TV?

Have you tried other connections eg composite to see if it still does output something?

Found the answer!

Going cheap atm, but yI've been scared off by this thread!

Greys Auction