Philips free-to-air set-top boxes among Product of the Year Awards at Mediacast 2004

Philips has announced that its DTR 1000 and DTR 1500 digital terrestrial set-top boxes have been awarded third place for a prestigious Product of the Year Award 2004 in the UK.
The award category is for the Best Terrestrial DTV Technology, one of 16 categories recognizing technological and product marketing excellence in the cable, satellite, broadcast and video-over-telecoms industry sectors.
Organised by Cable & Satellite International magazine and hosted at Mediacast, one of Europe's most important cable, satellite and digital TV exhibitions, the awards are unique in Europe due to their comprehensive focus. This year more than 160 entries were received. They were judged by an independent panel of 14 industry experts.
The key feature of the DTR 1000 and DTR 1500 set-top boxes on which the award entry was based is their earlier award-winning 'Pulse Killer Chip'. This suppresses RF interference such as that caused by tramcars, electric trains, poor car ignition and electrical appliances. If not suppressed, such interference is a common cause of picture distortion with terrestrial TV reception. The common platform of the two set-top boxes was designed to address the highly competitive free-to-air terrestrial set-top box market in Europe.
Launched in the UK in September last year for access to Freeview channels, the DTR 1500 has received considerable press coverage in both trade and consumer media. This included comparisons with receivers from other manufacturers, where it scored high on number and quality of features with very favourable price/performance. It was rated number one set-top box in the UK in January by the independent German consumer research association Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK). It also received the coveted T3 Gold Award in November 2003.
Key features of the Philips DTR 1000 and DTR 1500 set-top boxes include advanced Electronic Program Guide (EPG), automatic installation, timer and reminder alarms, and fast channel scan (less than 90 seconds) and fast Zapp (typically one second) - both enabled by the Pulse Killer Chip. Both STBs are compact (26 x 23 x 6 cm) and can be placed in either horizontal and vertical positions - allowing convenient space-saving in the home.
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