Philips DTR-210 review

A great solution at a great price, but it fails to deliver the last ounce of performance Tested at £40.00

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

A great solution at a great price, but it fails to deliver the last ounce of performance

Pros

  • +

    Small enough to tuck away (almost) out of sight

Cons

  • -

    A touch of picture noise and motion blur

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The Philips is so light that we initially thought the box in which it was delivered was empty. But there's sensible thinking behind the lightweight and compact dimensions. There are very few solutions we've seen that allow you to discreetly add Freeview to large, wall-mounted flat-panel screens, but we think this could be the one, with a few tweaks.

Small enough to (almost) hide
Provided you can keep it in line of sight with the remote, the small box can be almost hidden away: and standing just over 3cm tall and around 25cm wide, it's hardly obtrusive.

The performance, too, is generally positive. Sure, there's a touch of on-screen noise, motion tracking isn't quite perfect and the colours can, on occasion, be a little washed out. But detail levels are very good, coping admirably with even the darkest of scenes, and the picture holds up well even on large screens. Its coaxial digital output will even feed Dolby 5.1 Surround to a multichannel amplifier.

This is a reasonable enough all-round solution. Whether you hide it away or display it on a rack under the TV, the DTR-210 performs well, looks good, and is sensibly priced.

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