The Goodmans GDB3 is a budget set-top box. It is extremely basic in design with average build quality and unsecured Scart connectors on the rear panel. The product is supplied with a very poor quality unscreened Scart cable which causes noticeable picture interference (visible as moving lines) caused by in-cable crosstalk. To add to this, there’s a single screened coaxial interconnect cable to connect the STB to the TV antenna socket. This also picks up significant interference from the GDB3 electronics causing patterning on terrestrial TV channels.
It seems easy to find dissatisfied GDB3 owners on the web, many of whom complain about the GDB3 losing stored Freeview channels. The same owner reviews also complain bitterly about lack of software updates to fix problems and poor after sales support from Goodmans.
Guide Price: £40.00
Main Features
1 Automatic and manual Freeview channel installation.
1 UHF loop-through without a modulator.
1 VCR Scart socket with an on-screen timer mode to allow automatic channel selection by day and time.
1 Programme reminder functionality to alert the viewer that a programme is about to start when viewing another channel.
1 Support for 4:3 TV equipment (centre cut out, 14:9 letterbox and 16:9 letterbox) and 16:9 widescreen TVs.
1 7 day EPG and digital text access (slightly slower to access than average).
1 Access to digital radio stations is featured, although no dedicated digital radio button is provided, resulting in the need to remember channel numbers or manually select them from the EPG channel list.
1 Limited favourite channel functionality (menu option) which replaces the Programme Up – Down buttons on the remote to scroll through favourite channels. The lack of dedicated favourite channel selection proved rather annoying in practice. When the favourite channel option was selected the only way of accessing other channels (non favourites) was from the Channel list or by knowing the channel number.
1 Channel name editing.
1 Channel list editing.
1 RGB and CVBS support via the TV Scart socket. However, the RGB picture lacked definition and contrast – not helped by the very poor Scart cable.
1 Good tuner sensitivity gave reasonable performance in poor Freeview signal areas, with the GDB3 receiving most channels in our weak signal test. The threshold for borderline reception was measured at around 37dBuV (DVB-T aerial signal).
Conclusions
The GDB3 is a classic example of “you get what you pay for”. In our opinion it would be a poor buy alongside stiff competition from much more capable and well built boxes like the Humax F2FoxT for comparatively little extra investment. The lack of available Goodmans software updates alone is concerning, especially where users report software bugs which adversely affect the ownership experience.
