Technomate TM-5402 HD M3, 1080p Digital Satellite Receiver, DVB-S2 / DVB-S, FTA, USB PVR

Although this is not the cheapest choice, it does what it says it will do, is easy to set up and the HD picture quality is breathtaking. I bought this as an upgrade to my older Technomate that had no HD output, and it recognised the motor settings straight away, making it ready to use within minutes of taking it out of the box. I use the receiver mainly for German TV on 19.2E and UK TV on 28.2E, and the preprogrammed channels have been all I've needed so far. Having said that, the German channels are all over the shop and not stored in fairly logical order as they are on my other sat receiver (Silver Crest).My only gripe is with the manual, although I've still given this receiver 5 stars (would have liked a 4.5 option Amazon!). As someone else said, it doesn't seem to have been changed or improved for years, and is only really comprehensible once you've worked out what it actually means rather than what it says, and have fiddled around for a while getting nowhere. (Maybe it's just me, but I'm fairly technically minded and normally have no problems following intelligent instructions.) For example, I would imagine there is a button on the remote that will take you to your favorites, but I still haven't found it after spending about an hour adding channels from Astra 19.2 East to my favorites list. If you can't go straight to them, what's the point of having them? It'll be there somewhere, just have to find it.Tip: If you can't find what you're looking for on any particular satellite, it might be much higher up the channel list than you expect. For example, German 1st Programme (Das Erste) is 397 on Astra 19.2E, so don't give up if you've started at channel 1 and worked your way upwards! BBC World is up in the 600s if I remember right, as is Sky News on that satellite.

Possibly my favourite purchase on Amazon.This is a great device. It may not be the best or the most well known, but there's a reason why it's liked by many.I've had this for just a little over a year now and it's served me very well. Still is in fact.It's very reliable, and being new to the world of satellite recorders I did a little research and decided to go for this one. It was a reasonable price last year, and it's an even lower price right now. I'm very happy with how it functions.The HD picture is very good, it records as it should, and playback is good too.It's also a nice solid build, not like a piece of plastic.Okay, one or two critcisms. The EPG isn't great. It definitely needs an improvement in that department. It has also crashed on occasion. But only very occasionally.In the long term it has been a very reliable machine which has served me well.I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in purchasing an open satellite recorder. There are online forums with lots of friendly people to help you out if you don't know how to scan for channels or something. But I managed to get things up and running in a relatively short time without too much headache.A very nice device which does what it should, and produces a very good picture in HD, and the quality of the recording is just as good as watching the live programme.I would advise anybody wanting to record TV programmes with this to get a memory stick or hard drive with a fast write speed though. Because you can record more than one channel at a time if on the same transponder, so naturally you will need a drive or stick with a fast write speed.

Technomate TM-5402 HD PVR ready satellite receiverPurchased this box to replace sky , I was aware I would only get free to air channels so no problem with that side of things, the box was a dream to set up with the option to scan just free to air.My only problem is with the EPG the description states 7 day EPG . Now the box itself has the ability to produce a 7 day EPG but lots of broadcasters dont transmit a full EPG, just a now and next program, some dont transmit anything at all, making it difficult to record future programs unless you set the time and channel manually.Other problem again not the boxes fault, it says will record two programs while viewing a third on the same transponder, to those who are not satellite techy this means you can only record for example bbc1 while watching bbc2 it you try to watch itv instead it wont play ball at all, it seems you need the twin tuner version with a double lnb for that sort of functionality.As mentioned these are not faults with the box itself, but perhaps they could be made a bit clearer for those who just want a straight forward set up to mirror a sky type scenario

Absolutely terrible and over complicated unfathomable user interface. I am no stranger to technology but I am still grappling with it. You probably have to be a TV engineer to make this apparatus casually usable, I would have returned it but for the suppliers impossible returns policy. I have so far managed to get and display some programs - with no sound yet - maybe one day soon I will be able to call it friend.Do yourself a favour and buy something elseLATER - with apologies to the supplier. I have completely changed my mind about this device after putting some effort into understanding it and I now rate it higher than my dead Humax It does everything I need from a satellite box - although the interface it still too complicated. A good piece of kit

The receiver offers a super range of input / outpout connections which is great, but unit is being let down by a noisy fan that makes the whole unit vibrate which is not greatThe remote is not straight forward, where such essential keys as EPG being difficult to access as buried among other keyOther than this, solid unit