August DVB500 review - Android-powered Freeview HD

The August DVB500 is, on paper, an interesting device as it brings both Android and a Freeview HD tuner to your television. For anyone wanting to add both to an older television, it’s a compelling prospect. Especially when you consider its low price.

Android and televisions isn’t exactly a new union. There have been other Android-based media streamers and set-top boxes in the past that brought the operating system to the big screen, including the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield TV. That’s also ignoring certain smart televisions that have Android built-in. These of course run the Android TV operating system, a specially modified version that is easier to navigate and operate from a remote control on a larger interface.

However, the DVB500’s immediate limitation is the fact that it runs Android 4.4.2, not only an older version of Android, but one that’s not particularly well suited to a television, or for navigation through a remote control, but we’ll come to this later.

Design and Freeview

The box itself is pleasingly well-designed as far as set-top boxes go and especially considering its low price. It's glossy black with nicely rounded, pebble-esque edges. It’s inconspicuous and won’t take up much space. There’s just a solitary blue indicator LED on its front, so it won’t prove too distracting, either.

On its rear you have HDMI and composite outputs for connecting to your television and optical S/PDIF for audio. You also have an Ethernet jack for a wired network connection as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 built in. To make use of the Freeview HD tuner, there is a coaxial RF input connection as well as an output. There are also three USB ports on the side and a MicroSD slot for adding storage.

These can be used to record television. As there’s only one tuner, you can only record the programme you’re currently watching, however, which will limit its functionality. It’s not a particular elegant recording method, either, as you need to manually set an amount of time to record, rather than choosing to record a certain programme and having the time set automatically.

Recordings are saved to external storage in a .ts container and can be easily coopied to other devices. Annoyingly, file names are just the channel name and date, rather than programme name, which will make it difficult to find the right recording if you record a lot. The EPG while watching Freeview is also incredibly sparse and plain with programme descriptions often abruptly cut short.

Android

The main menu isn’t much better designed, with unattractive icons. Initially it was also sluggish to navigate, not helped by the remote control’s mushy buttons that occasionally lead to double inputs being registered, meaning I kept overshooting the menu item I was aiming for. A firmware upgrade, available from the August website, managed to improve menu performance slightly. It was smoother although occasional stutters were still evident.

The remote control is light and flimsy and overly-complicated. Buttons have different functionalities depending if you’re watching Live TV or in the menus and some functions aren’t obvious. Pressing the left or right navigation buttons brings up the EPG programme description, while up and down take the action of programme up and down, for example. The IR receiver wasn’t particularly great either, meaning the remote had to be pointed accurately at the box for inputs to be registered.

You have access to the Google Play Store, but many apps don’t work well with remote controls because they’re looking for a touch input. As such there’s no visual indicator for menu items or the menu icon highlights will randomly disappear. To get round this, you can bring up an onscreen mouse by holding down a button on the remote control. You can then use the navigation button to move the mouse around. This process works, but it's cumbersome as the cursor moves so slowly across your television and you need to contend with the poor IR receiver on the box. With the pre-installed Netflix app, the cursor is the only way to make a selection, so you need to combine moving the cursor and using the 'slide' buttons to move around the catalogue.

Other apps, such as YouTube do at least work without the need to use the mouse function. Kodi also comes pre-installed but is listed under its old name, XBMC, in the menu. As it runs Android, you can install other catch-up TV services, and BBC iPlayer worked fine but again required the use of the on-screen cursor to make selections.

The Android element of the DVB500 is an exercise in frustration. The box would also crash completely, requiring the power cable be removed. Other strange bugs included a loss of sound during Live TV viewing until a reset was performed.

You’re also meant to be able to use the DVB500 as a Miracast receiver to mirror a display from a compatible computer, tablet or smartphone but I could never get it to work, even though using the test television’s built-in Miracast receiver worked without a hitch. Using the DVB500 to access network content over DLNA worked at least.

Conclusion

In the end, using the August DVB500 proves frustrating. As a basic Freeview HD box, it works but even the basic functions such as recording aren’t handled particularly well and you’ll still need to factor in the added cost of adding some storage. The Android element feels very disjointed and having to jump between control methods isn't deal. If you're looking for a simple-to-use set-top box for the family, for example, they'll find it immensely confusing.

While the August DVB500 is inexpensive, you’re better off spending more as it feels like a false economy. You’re much better off buying a cheap and basic Freeview HD box with recording, you can pick one up for around £100 if you shop about, and using a separate media streamer, such as the £35 Amazon Fire TV Stick or the £15 Sky Now TV, if you want basic smart television functionality.