I'm not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere else on here or in any catalogues but I was doing my shopping in the local Coles tonight and they were selling MTV digital set-top boxes for $29 ea. It was listed as a clearance price with no mention of what they normally are so I grabbed one. There was still a good 7 or 8 boxes left. Not sure if they're that cheap in every Coles but this was the one at West Lakes Mall here in Adelaide. I haven't hooked it up yet but on the box it says:

MTV Digital Set Top Box (silver)
MSTB767

-Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
-Automatic Program Search
-Channel Favourite List
-Remote Control

Digital TV Tuner (DVB-T)

So?

Why don't you just try it out and tell us all how it performs?

Did you solve your previous problem using an indoor antenna?

Rick

Well I went out today to get an STB to watch the cricket, Dick Smith Powerhouse had none, Harvey Norman had none, JB Hifi had none, another Dick Smith had none, I gave up and went to the supermarket to get some food, they had some there so I bought one, $59. MTV brand, from Coles.

Took a while to get it to work, did the program scan, found some of the stations, and then wouldn't show them.
Did the program scan several times, got different incomplete sets of programs.

It has some kind of manual channel selection process which appeared not to work.

Got very bad reception and the seven and nine channel, it was like the cable TV reception goes when it rains in Belrose ( which is
apparently rain interfering with a satellite downlink ).

Curiously SBS seemed to be the most reliable channel.

Tried another antenna cable and it now works fine, about 17 different stations on the list including ONE which is the one I need.

i bought this stb today and i can find channel 7 so are you guys getin channel 7.......

I bought this product yesterday, however am a technology cretin. Tried to follow the manual but it is all double dutch. Where in hell is the AV out on the set top box - is it what the manual refers to as 'loop out' on the diagram on page 111. I wish it had diagrams of the installation process for dummies like myself and my partner.

Any help would be much appreciated

A 111 page manual for a STB!!!!!

WTF?

The AV out usually refers to the connections on the back of the box that allow you to connect it up to a TV - try using composite (red, White, yellow cables) between the TV and STB. Then turn your TV onto that AV input (eg AV1, AV2 etc). You should then at the very least see the STB menu, from which you can then run through the setup.

The loop out they probably refer to is to have your aerial out of the wall connected to the RF in on the STB, then connect another cable from the RF out to your TV's RF in

Oops, got carried away with the 1's - it certainly isn't a 111 page manual - omg that would be a nightmare. Thanks for the info Mick, I will give it a try and report back.

Cheers

i bought one, returned it the next day because the remote didn't work

Did you exchange or was that enough for you?

I need some major help!

I bought 2 of these units from coles last night and I am having some issues.

My brother installed one in my mothers room which works perfectly and finds all channels whilst the one I have tried to set up in my room won't find channel 10, NBN or One Digital.

My questions are:

1)What GMT should I be searching on? I am on NSW's Central Coast and have tried +10GMT and 0GMT but have the same results.

2)Will the fact that I have my arial cables plugged in to a "Reception Amplifier" give negative results

3)Can anyone suggest anything to fix this problem?

All help appreciated!

GMT is the offset for time. It should be set to +10 if on the east coast.

Sounds like the splitter for your antenna cable or the cabling itself to your oom is losinga lot of signal hence you are not picking up any of the CH 10 stations.

Try setting it up in your mum's room so you know it works and you have reception.

A reception amplifier should boost the signal strength. This is good if you have a weak signal, but is bad if you already have a strong signal. A signal with too much strength is not ideal. Try unplugging the reception amplifier and connecting the aerial cable direct to the STB.

BTW, does the reception amplifier have adjustable gain?

Try the suggestion about swapping the units over. See if they both exhibit the same 'issues' on the same outlet point.


Not good if you you have a weak signal with too many errors.
Just boosting the level (which an amplifier will do) won't help much if there are a lot of digital errors already present.

i got a refund, went to bigw and bought the awa stb262 box for $99

Couldn't help myself. Had to do a quick Google on this unit. These are the first two I saw.

April 24th, 2009
Pros: it has a pretty blue box
Cons: buttons only work occasionally, menu doesn't work all the time, 1-300 helpline is useless, doesn't find any channels apart from sbs

Overall: this set-top box is crap. the instructions aren't user friendly and with the remote not working and the menu not coming up you cant do anything. tried different things and the best i could get was sbs, thats it.


April 23rd, 2009
Pros: NONE what so ever
Cons: Does not pick up any channel on auto scan. The manual is useless. DON'T ever buy AWA, i will not make this mistake again. The customer people are CLUELESS!!!! Wasted my money and very disappointed. Big W should not sell such rubbish.
Overall: Save your money!!!!!! and tell Big W to stop selling AWA. I am tried everything under the sun to try and get this thing to work. Just can't because it is rubbish. The Telefix are obsolutely no use as they tell me that the product is rubbish too.

Hopefully these reviews don't reflect everyone's experience.

But you've got to wonder sometimes...
The difference between this and something which has had good reviews (and performs very well) is about $50.

Coles Mtv Sd Stb $29!
I was a bit sceptical considering the price but decided I didn't have much to lose.
I used the setup wizard and the unit worked first time finding all the free to air stations. I found the unit and remote easy to use and was able to disable the duplicated and unwanted chanels without any hassle. My family has been using it for a week now without any problems, only time will tell how reliable it proves to be. I am going to see if I can get another unit to hook up to my parents TV.

Thanx to Diesel's comments we finally managed to set up the stb, and went through the start up wizard. Everything worked except ch7, however we re-ran auto set up and managed to get all available stations to work. My husband is enjoying being able to watch the cricket.

We haven't played around with the other functions yet, but will do so before too long.

So far I am satisfied with the unit - though the remote control feels really flimsy and I have my doubts about its possible longevity.

I still have a lot to learn about stb's and don't really know what the difference is between sd stb's & hd stb's - I am assuming the hd stb's give an even better picture & sound quality, but do they give extra stations at this time? If so I will get an hd stb for the lounge and move the sd stb to the bedroom tv until I can afford to upgrade that one as well.

Yes Annie, a HD STB provides better picture and sound - Dolby Digital 5.1 when broadcast. You need a TV with enough resolution (eg HD or Full HD) to see the difference, and a HT surround sound setup for the better sound to hear the difference. There are HD channels that you cannot recieve on a SD STB, but for the most part they are simulcast on SD channels as well so you are not really missing alot - yet.

A twin tuner PVR (an STB with a hard drive for recording to) like the Toppy 5010 (SD) or for HD - TiVo, Beyonwiz or Panasonic DVD recorders are a very good option and will change the way you watch TV. These would be my recommendation for your next box

I can't find channel 7 by auto scan.

with manual scan, channel 7 can display sometimes, but the unit doesn't remember the setting.So it will lost it next time.

what is channel 7's frequency?

Where are you located?

Have a look here - http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib100059/tv_8.pdf

Here are some of the main metro ones.


Sydney main North Shore.
SEVEN VHF 6 Hor 177.5 MHz Ch7/10 Tower 192-196 Hampden Road ARTARMON
And those at Kings Cross and North Head.
SEVEN UHF 48 Hor 669.5 MHz Elan Building Victoria St KINGS CROSS and North Head[/i


Melbourne Main Broadcast Site
[i]HSV VHF 6 Hor 177.5 MHz HSV-7 Tower Eyre Road MT DANDENONG
Re-transmission site
HSV UHF 63 Vert 774.5 Como Centre, Lvl 22 N-E cnr 620 Chapel St, SOUTH YARRA[/i]


Adelaide main transmitters at Summit Road, Crafers (Mount Lofty).
SAS VHF 6 Hor 177.5 MHz Channel 7/10 Site 115 Summit Road CRAFERS
Repeater transmitters at Adelaide Foothills (King William St, Adelaide).
(Directional towards the foothills)
SAS UHF 57 Hor 732.5 MHz 25 Grenfell Street ADELAIDE

Thanks.

I use a cheap spliter to split the incoming signal one to TV, and one to SD box. When connect the SD box directly to the incoming socket, ch 7 is easyly picked up.

So I think if you have difficulty to find ch 7, try to connect the box directly to the incoming signal. It's the problem of the spliter not the SD box.