OAKCASTLE SB200 HD Satellite Freesat TV Box | USB Recorder Function | YouTube & Weather App | Internet, SCART & HDMI Connectivity |

very surprised a very small box, that does a lot, a have a spare skyuk zone2 dish set up to pick free euro tv up from around europe etc, i can adjust it to get a few satellites ASTRA1 German TV 19.2E, - ASTRA2 UK TV 28.2E, - HOTBIRD 13.0E ITALIAN/ MID EAST TV, - I Can also get 23.5E + 16.0E Satellites, I've tuned this oakcastle box no problems getting Astra1, Astra2, Hotbird13, I'll try the other satellites over the weekend, the menu is a bit quirky but all channels come in strong and a good signal sound and picture, the EPG is now and next afaik, the youtube app on the box works. Ive uploaded a few pics of the menu the box etc,

*UPDATE June 2024: the box has completely stopped working, after a week or so of intermittent shutdowns and picture distortion. Really, no redeeming features at all!*I feel mean giving this a lower rating, after all I bought it because it was cheap - but now wish I'd spent more and got a model that's simpler to set up.First, the number of things you need to do to use this to view TV channels is off-putting. Second, figuring out that you need to do all those things, and how to do them takes time. I only figured it out after reading other reviews online.The on-screen menus are not intuitive. I found my way through via trial&error. You need to select each individual satellite from the list of available satellites, then scan each one separately to install the channels it carries. These are usually a mix of various different language channels. Having scanned the satellites, you end up with a very long list of installed channels, many of which are duplicated and in no particular order.After spending some time working through my channel list deleting unwanted channels, I am left with an unsatisfactory list of channels in a random order. It may be possible to rework them into a different order, but I have spent more than enough time on this already. I just wanted the usual Free Sat selection of channels, but after lots of work I have only an incomplete selection - and some are not the correct region.My advice: pay more and get a more user-friendly unit.

The first thing to say about the SB200 is it's small which would make it ideal for mounting on the back of a TV were it not for the fact that the remote is infrared so needs line of sight to work.Setting up isn't particularly easy.It has an auto setup function that lists the most common satellites, however, I found that for Astra 28.2 I needed to manually add some frequencies to find all available channels. Once I'd done that though it dutily found all channels on Astra 2 and I also found that it picked up Astra 1 on a 60cm dish without moving it.The TV guide is a more of a now and next, or at least it is when tuned to Astra, so setting it to record in advance isn't really possible but it may be different on other satellites. That said, there's so many streaming servives out there that I can't really think why I'd want to record anything.Operationally the picture quality is good. You can select a range of resolutions up to 1080p as well as the refresh rate. Zapping is marginally slow and there's a second or so where the audio is out of sync on channel change, but it really is just a second.I found that I couldn't update the box. Whether that's because the prefilled credentials are wrong, the website doesn't exist or the box is already up to date I can't really say. I just got an update failed message.Neither could I find any way to update manually on the Oakcastle website.The manual is in English and pretty straightforward to follow, but lacks some information needed to manually setup the box. Playing around in the menus will get you where you need to be but I'd suggest you'd need at least a basic knowledge of satellite frequencies or good old Google to find a list.As for duplicate channels; yes there are lots because there are lots on the satellite and most are regional variations. You can reorder, edit and delete channels manually, which you would need to do on any box that isn't an official Freesat or sky box.All in all, for the money, this is a great piece of kit if you're happy to spend a bit of time setting it up. If the thought of that phases you then pay the extra for an official Freesat box.

Worked fine for 10 months then suddenly all BBC channels started showing as discontinued. I assumed it was because they had switched to HD but only one BBC channel (BBC 1 South HD) showed up as available ... the rest are old now defunct SD channels.Tried to update firmware but just get "Software Upgrade Error". So contacted support which is now Majority not Oakcastle. They were very responsive & helpfull. They sent an update to the firmware which installed fine.Still had the BBC HD channel issue though but I discovered there's now a "Blind Search" rather than default which is done by selecting the Astra satellites manually. This found all the hidden BBC HD channels. So I'm concluding this is a problem with the satellite's directory listing (either in the box or even the satellite itself).

I've had an old sky dish on my flat and have been interest in Freesat but never wanted to pay £50+ to see if it would give me more channels (I live in a remote area). This little beauty raised my Freeview channel count of about 10 to well over 100 (I've not yet counted them all) . And, I get the HD channels! Easy to use. I've not yet tried the PVR capability but can totally recommend this!! Don't expect a posh remote but the one supplied does everything it needs to.