Page 1 of Cheap NetGem iPlayer - Freeview Set Top Box £49.99 + VAT ( including wireless keyboard)

Makro are selling the NetGem i-Player for £49.99 + VAT ( including a free wireless keyboard -latest model - Black )

Although not meant to be on sale till Wednesday, I popped into my local Makro this evening, and they had loads for sale, so I bought one.

It`s an excellent piece of kit and can be used to access the web and send/receive emails etc. It has a USB connection and can be connected to broadband,MP3 player plus others. Also has a PayTV card reader and therefore is compatible with www.topuptv.co.uk

http://www.netgem.com/

Not a bad price considering they`re usually £130 + an additional £30 for the keyboard although NetGem themselves have a special online offer of a free keyboard if you pay the £130 for the set top box.

This item was edited on Monday, 15th March 2004, 22:59

not so fast on the compatible with topuptv! I bought my girlfried one of these for xmas and have been watching the situation with topuptv, I think you need a CAM as there is no card slot on this player, these cost around £70, if anybody is thinking of getting one of these for additional TV services I wouldn`t recommend it, that said, I was impressed with the internet access adn at that price it is a real bargain!

Buy the BT version of this box which has caller display on your TV for £64.50 inc vat here

Thanks whoever started this, I rang a couple of local makro`s this morning, enfield has 400 of them, charlton had at least one pallet. SO on the train to Charlton at lunchtime, first they wouldn`t let me in, this Makro thing is a card-holders only cash and carry! anyway, bit of a moan cos i called and they said "come on down" and i got issued with a day pass on the spot!. Hurrah. Found the pallet, and bought one, on the grounds that it was easier to do that and take it back if it doesn`t do what want. And what i want is; This thing has UBS out. I`ve noticed that movies etc on TV via our existing digibox are a million times better quality than even pre-bought videos. Can I USB-USB this to my PC, and get "digital- video-out" from the Netgem, which I could then record onto the PC`s Hard-drive, and later burn to VCD/DVD? any thoughts anyone please? thanks

Did you get the separate box containing the keyboard? I bombed down to Enfield myself this morning, and had to hunt around for them - I guess `cos they don`t have them "officially" on sale yet. A quick plug in shows it to be a nice looking bit of kit - I`m now hunting down a USB to RJ45 adapter so I can plug it into my home network. I`m going to stick to the ones officially mentioned on the Netgem site, as I believe some don`t work.

Box comes with scart lead, pass through coax aerial lead, batteries for remote etc - well done Netgem.

Re topuptv - quote from Netgem FAQ:

"07- Will I be able to get any future pay TV channels?
Yes. i-Player has a Common Interface slot (DVB-CI) where you will be able to insert any future pay TV cards from any digital terrestrial broadcaster using this technology."

...so what is the difference between the DVB-CI and the CAM slot? Must admit with the current topuptv lineup, I`m not that bothered anyway...

There is a whisper that BT will be floggin the CAM for the BT i-player at the end of March early April @ £15 - £25, and dont forget there is a firmware update for the BT version!


BT or Netgem digiboxes are probably the best STB on the market!


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got it home last nite and set it up, good menu`s, internet setup went v easy, but...... it scanned and scanned, and i tried manually, but got no TV channels! we are in a marginal area, but have an existing sagem box which picks up about 15 of the 30-odd channels which should be available. are these iplayer receivers weaker than others? is it likely that i just got a duff box (on manual, it got to 38% signal strength on some channels, but only ever 5% quality, and never showed a picture or had sound. i don`t think i should need to get a new aerial if the sagem works ok with the existing one. any thoughts?

separately, my PC has an infrared mouse, i held the keyboard in front of it and hit random keys, the green indicator light on the mouse-dedicated receiver flashed, which normally indicates that it is receiving something, but no commands received by the PC that i could tell, anyone know if i can get hardware or software to allow the keyboard to be used on the PC?

thanks