Conventional wisdom says that the best way to receive digital terrestrial TV is via a rooftop (or, second best, a loft) aerial. Portable set top aerials are barely suitable for this purporse and, even if you can pick up channels, at best it's only a couple. It comes as some surprise then to see a set top aerial bundled with the Digipal 1. Both the aerial (the Digitenne-1) and Digipal 1 were actually made for the German DTT market (Technisat is a German company). The Digipal 1 also comes in a featching shade of silver and can be bought
minus the aerial for a few pounds less.

Indeed, the Digipal 1 is resolutely a 'bedroom-friendly' Freeview adapter with its concealably small size. A single RGB Scart on the rear is kept company by a UHF loopthrough (a modulator is included for non Scart-equipped TVs). Continuing the portable theme the Digipal 1 also has a 12V power supply which makes it ideal for caravan use. The remote is functional and blocky but is nonetheless responsive and pretty well organised.

Once the automatic tuning is concluded there are myriad channel sorting options. Channels can be divided into TV and radio and a favourites list set up, and you can even choose to browse by provider (i.e BBC, Flextech etc) and switch between free and pay-TV scrambled channels (though none exist at present of course). While the menus are basic, relying largely on the coloured remote keys for navigation, they conceal plenty of options. You can set aspect ratio, configure a UHF channel for the modulator, manually tune channels and check signal strength.

The programme info banner is a quarter screen affair showing information on the current channel and technical info such as aspect ratio. Jabbing the EPG button brings up full screen now-and-next info for the current channel with
a further press displaying sysposes where available. Here you'll also find a useful record feature which allows you to schedule timed recordings in conjunction the VCR justby highlighting the programme you want and pressing the yellow button on the remote (there's also a manaul timer option).

Picture quality is very good on the Digipal even with a weak signal there's little artefacting and everything remains sharp and (bar David Dickenson's trademark orangey hue) natural looking.

The Digipal 1 proves to be a highly configurable adapter and one of the most portable we've come across.

Published October 2003, What Satellite & Digital TV