Set-top boxes have been flying off the shelves including many that are PC compatible, but what about those of us that want to watch DTT while on the move? That's where the Aevoe Mobix comes in. The disc shaped DVB-T receiver measures just 80mm in diameter and has a folding USB connector which sits flush into the the bottom of the unit. This the acts as the main data connection to the host PC or laptop  and supports both USB 1.1 and 2.0.

Opening the rather striking X shaped box you are first struck by the size of the Mobix which really is quite small when you consider it's a Freeview box! The package contains a USB lead and the external DevilRay™ antenna which plugs to the main unit. There is also a small CD with the Mobix software client and the drivers for the USB receiver. The install process is quick and painless with clear on screen instructions resulting in the application being ready to run, after connecting your Mobix via the USB slot on the PC the first job is to scan for the Freeview signal.

At first we thought we'd got a faulty unit as the scan which works through all the UK frequencies returned no channels at all. We decided to get a better vantage point than just having the antenna sat on the desk and dangled it out of the office window, this brought instant results with the Mobix client showing a full list of 33 TV channels. The on screen window can be resized to show the video full screen or minimized to a rather cool looking window with the Mobix control panel below, the panel looks a little like a remote control with a numeric keypad and a large signal strength meter.

The Freeview channels are all put into numerical slots which can be selected by the numeric pad on the screen or by the keyboard, strangely this order does not seem to match the Freeview channel number and can be manually set in the applications settings tab. A rather stunning feature is the channel preview "channel surf" where the tuner skips between each channel and plays a short section then freezing the video in a 4 x 4 matrix until all the thumbnails are full, you can click on them to switch to that channel.

Video quality is rather dependant on having a good strong signal, in these conditions we found the picture to be as clean as one would expect for a DTT transmission, there were no additional artefacts and the Aevoe Mobix did an excellent job of decoding the DVB signal producing a vibrant and clean image. Audio quality when we used a decent set of headphones was also impressive, there was no electrical noise or hiss just the Freeview audio as broadcast, which on some of the radio stations is very good, better than MP3 but less than CD quality.

Hooking a DTT receiver to a PC is not something new and companies like Hauppauge have been doing it for some time, one of the main benefits is that you can use the hard disk of the PC as a PVR. The Mobix uses this feature to full effect with both manual and timed recordings, you can select where you want recordings to be saved and also the quality level, plus there is a Sky+ style feature where you can set the hard disk to record the last XX of the channel you are watching. The EPG is sucked down over the air into the Mobix client and this can then be used to mark up programmes to be recorded automatically.

The recordings are kept in a folder you nominate with a filename that makes some sense of when it was recorded, however you'll need to use an application like windows media player to view the captured files. Setting the record quality to DVD does make for very large files but they look as good as the original stream.

Overall the Mobix system is feature packed and of high quality while retaining the size that makes it truly portable, however we do have to explain how long it took us to complete our review. The first day was spent getting any signal, having failed to get any lock while in the office we ventured outdoors using the inbuilt antenna on the main unit and briefly gained a signal. Using the DevilRay antenna things improved and we were able to leave the laptop in the warm with the antenna suspended outside the window, this enabled us to finally perform tests.

During the review period we were contacted by Aevoe who had started to get reports that the lower DTT signal strength in the UK was causing some reception issues. This rang true when we tried the set-up much closer to the Crystal palace transmitter and were able to watch TV fine with the antenna, indoors!

They are due to provide an enhanced indoor antenna to resolve these issues experience particularly in the UK, we'll have to reserve judgement on the Mobix's reception performance until we can test with this new antenna. Hopefully this improved Aerial will enable the unit to match it's excellent design and feature list making it a strong recommendation.

Published - 26/11/2005

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