I was really excited about opening the Goodmans Freesat 500GB Recorder and plugging it into my television as it seemed so simple, but first I had to tick two boxes. As it turns out, I’m actually a dinosaur in need of a serious upgrade to HDTV (High Definition TV). AND I need a satellite dish to beam those wonderful channels through space and onto my television screen.

After a lot of asking around, I found that my sister had both a dish and an HD-ready television. Wahey! Remember these two points if you are looking to buy this for your nan, or for your prehistoric mates.
The rest ran like a dream. The layout of the box is a sleek black and fitted in wonderfully with my sisters black plasma TV. There are 5 basic buttons on the front, but all enough to operate the system if your remote falls down the side of your couch.

The setup requires you to plug in two cables that are connected to your satellite dish to the back of the box and although I can’t complain too much, due to the cable having a prong and screw it can be fiddly if done with just your hands. A screw-diver definitely helps for this part. Power on, intro screen and downloading channel list. All things I have seen before in a freeview box. I wanted to get to the fun part and see all those lovely HD channels. Alas, with only two channels in HD (BBC1 and ITV), I was pretty concerned about the ‘140+ HD channels’ promise. The massive amount of HD channels they are advertising could be just referring to the endless supply of DAB radio channels. Or BBC NI, BBC Scotland, BBC W.Anglia etc. that are basically the same channels.

However, I watched a golf match on BBC HD and I’ve got to admit, the standards were high. Never before has the colour of green, green grass gotten me so excited. Or the way the camera followed the little white ball at such a high speed without any pixellation or blurring I have so often seen on HD channels.
While we are on the topic of colour, I wasn't impressed with the on-screen menu. With a black background and garish yellow font, my sister and I were, at times, squinting to read it. I like to run through the channel listings at a freakishly fast pace when watching Sky, and can read everything as though I was Rain Man. But even at a slow pace the colour scheme for the Goodmans Freesat Receiver was just a bit painful. The fan was also quite noisy, similar to an overheating laptop, so if someone is sleeping and you have the volume low there is still a distracting hummmmm.

But with every insult comes a compliment and having a built in TV guide for the next 7 days is pretty cool, especially if I want to set up my recordings in advance. The record function is probably the one and only unique selling point of this product and is probably what gives it the £270 price tag. I recorded one programme and watched another, and the quality was still top-notch. I also put a series record on Eastenders and it behaved well. With its 500gb hard drive (6 times larger than Sky+HD) I could probably record over a year’s worth of Eastenders without ever deleting an episode. That's a lot of Pat Butcher.

The only thing that really bugs me is that, for the price, I am still not convinced if it is worth it. I understand it saves on monthly subscription costs from other satellite providers but I don’t understand how one is expected to have a satellite dish in place if they aren’t already owners of a Sky/Virgin satellite package. And those that are subscribed to Sky or Virgin are definitely not going to be swayed by the limited channels you get with Freesat, even if it is free.

Freeview boxes are cheaper and are now making a recording function, AND offer Top-up channels for an extra small fee (meaning you at least have the choice of  adding a few more channels when you feel like it)
Although the box is lightweight and compact, weighing around 2/3rds of a Sky box, you still can’t just take it to someone’s house as they need a dish.
Last but not least, the most annoying thing to me is when a remote control is designed badly. The channel up, channel down buttons are right at the bottom of the remote. Practically speaking, this is not comfortable at all. The weight at the top of the remote means that you have a hard time controlling the buttons without the thing toppling forward. After a while, your thumb aches like mad.
So… excuse the pun… but a big thumbs down for that one!

All in all, taking into consideration the price and what you get for that I would give it a 5/10.

RRP: 500MB - £279.99 (320MB - £259). For more information see www.goodmansdigital.co.uk