AZbox Premium HD+

Important note: the HD TV tuner in this media centre is a DVB-T tuner rather than a DVB-T2 tuner. This means it cannot pick up HD Freeview channels in the UK. It should, however, have no problem picking up HD channels in other countries or SD channels in the UK.

Azbox stands out in the world of media centres for its scalable products. The Premium HD+ can thus link up with up to two HD digital tuners or satellite. This is an interesting idea, especially as Azbox has announced wide multimedia compatibility for this model, which is also equipped with a screen and a built-in wi-fi module.

A sober design, a finish with no added value

The centre's casing is a relatively sober mix of black plastic and metal. You insert the hard drive (3.5 inches) in the top and this requires a screwdriver. The single-line VFD display only gives the time and length of files played.

The fact that the remote is so big doesn't stop it from sitting very nicely in the hand. While the finish is nothing to write home about, it does stand out from the competition by allowing you to use it for piloting the TV too. The controls are fairly pared down: audio volume and on/off, changing the channel and a choice of video ins.


This device has a particularly noisy fan. You can deactivate it, but it's best not to if you can help it as the hard drive then heats up very quickly, like all the other internal components. It also consumes a lot of energy when running at full speed (26.3W), but we also measured it at 14.8W in standby, which is very high! You can always turn the thing off at the switch at the back, but even then it continues to draw 0.5W.

A new interface but which brings nothing worthwhile to the mix

While the interface makes a change from what we're used to seeing, it doesn't actually add anything new. You browse using a branch structure or thumbnail system. For the thumbnails, photos can be displayed as miniatures. These miniatures however take a while to create and the feature has to be launched manually for each folder. Not so practical.

Very relative compatibility

Multimedia compatibility is very disappointing. HD MKV videos are a particular problem: whether stored on the hard drive, on a USB or on the network, they often can't be played and are jumpy, even at low throughput.

There are also certain problems with photos: when stored on NTFS formatted USB peripherals (the majority!) you can't read them. Worse still, those stored on hard drives are displayed very slowly: you need to wait six seconds between photos.


Blu-ray copies can only be read if they're in branch structure, but you lose subtitling. Upscaling from SD sources is poor with a loss in the sharpness of detail while films at 23.976 are jumpy. There were quite a few crashes during testing and we had to keep unplugging the device to reboot.

Connectivity: built-in wi-fi yes, but at 54 Mbps!

The connectivity at the back of the centre is particularly thorough, with HDMI, component, composite, optical and coaxial outs. There are also USB ports (one at the front), which allow you to link up to your USB keys and external hard drives.


Networking is via ethernet 100 Mbps and built-in wi-fi G. Support is reasonable but at slow speeds only. Best to forget HD video via the network as plenty of them will be jumpy.