Rating: - Easy Peasy
As soon as I arrived home, I got this out of the box and was waching digital TV within minutes. Its very easy to set up, and once it is, the menus are simple to use.

It isn't the greatest looking digital box around, and back where the plugs are connected is a bit 'flimsy' and cheap. Saying that though, its quite small, so you don't have to have it staring at you.

I've had a couple of incidents where its frozen, or the sound has gone fuzzy, but I presume (and hope) that thats just to do with reception and not the box itself.

Overall: Cheap and cheerful, but good for beginners.

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Rating: - Simple to use, but high quality leads may be required
This set-top box is simple to install and use, and came with one SCART lead. In my case, however, several channels were not viewable using standard-quality RF leads and SCART leads (apparently a common problem with all Freeview boxes, not just Sagem's). I had to buy leads with gold plated connectors and well shielded cable (and ferrite cores in the case of the RF leads). Then all channels were fine. The most critical lead is the RF lead from the aerial wall-socket to the set-top box. Also, keep all leads as short as possible and as separated as possible.

Two other points to note with this unit: After I installed high quality leads, the channels that were previously not viewable could still not be viewed even after I performed a complete auto tune of the unit. I had to use the Reset function to put the Sagem back to its factory default state and then perform another auto tune before all channels were viewable. Secondly, very occasionally the Sagem switches off and on of its own accord, displays the Sagem 'splash screen' and then carries on as normal (and, no, it's not someone pressing the OFF button on the remote by mistake).

Overall, I'm pleased with the unit and can recommend it. However, if you are new to Freeview, note that the quality of the leads can be the difference between a poor quality image - or no image at all - and excellent quality. My aerial is properly alligned and I live in an area that can receive Freeview digital broadcasts, but I still had to use top quality leads. With these, the images on all channels are excellent using the Sagem.

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Rating: - Disappointing
I have to say that buying this was a real mistake. As one reviewer has mentioned, the "loop-through" analog signal gets degraded to the point of being unusable. That means that you can't watch analog tv any more. I assumed it was a fault with my box, so I got it swapped for another which had identical problems.

I also found it impossible to get a decent 4:3 picture. (Generally live) broadcasts which have any top/bottom blackspace get auto-zoomed to fill the screen height, meaning you lose the left and right hand extremes of the picture. I could not find a satisfactory setting for adjusting this.

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Rating: - Cheap & Cheerful
I chose this as a cheap way to find out if freeview is worth it. It looks cheap & nasty but set-up was simple & it seems to work fine. Picture & sound quality are the same as analogue (probably limited by my cheap TV) but its nice to get real widescreen. The electronic program guide is VERY basic, you'll still have to buy the Radio Times! When comparing with other suppliers check it's the same model, this is the IDT 602 which seems to be the most basic. The 612 & 603 have more features I think.

So is Freeview worth it? I don't know, loads of channels but mostly rubbish or not on all day. I'll have to play with it a bit longer.

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Rating: - Better than Ferguson
This box is great for a cheap freeview box. The on-board software (menus etc) seems to be of a higher quality, both in features and speed, than that of the other freeview box I have used - a Ferguson box FDT2000 (which I am told is very similar to a number of manufacturers with similar model numbers eg. Grundig GDT1500 or Thomson DT1000). Teletext / BBCi loads and runs quickly, and the radio channels have their own screen resembling an old-fashioned radio tuner - which is a nice touch. The remote control is marginally less styled after a fisher-price toy than the Ferguson too. Importantly for me, the volume control works on this unit, whereas it doesn't seem to on the Ferguson units. It even controls the volume of the pass-thru scart for when I'm watching DVDs. All in all, for this price, a solid buy.