Toshiba DST-3100 Set Top Box

Rating:
Summary: WHAT'S WITH THE COOLING FAN??
Review: This unit is unusable in a bedroom because of an unbelievably loud cooling fan. The fan never shuts off, even when the machine is turned off; you have to unplug it to silence it! I'm of the opinion that Home Theater components should be silent, but this has a fan as loud as the fan on my desktop PC. Really poor, arrogant engineering.

The picture and features are fine, lots of connection options, easy to set up. I got it to work right out of the box. The machine is slow to acquire the programming guide, but they've done a good job with the guide itself. The remote also has channel and volume buttons that are too small and the RF doesn't work, it's basically only a line of sight IR.

Bottom line, if you use it in a media room, in a closed case (with a glass front, RF doesn't work) and you can get it for <$400, it might be a buy, but not for your bedroom.