Toshiba Places STB1F

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.

Toshiba is positioning the Places STB1F as an Internet, TV and Multimedia adaptor. We therefore tested it opposite other digital media centres. The TV interface impressed us but we wonder if enough attention has been given to the various multimedia decoding features. Answers below!

Plastic casing, RF remote

Although it isn't very wide, the Toshiba Places is quite high, a debatable choice given that there's no space for a hard drive inside. Fanless cooling means that it runs very quietly.


We didn't really like the remote. It's very flat and handling isn't very good, especially for those with big hands. There aren't many buttons on it, which means you often need to go into the menus to change the language on a video or activate subtitling, for example. Note that it's an RF type remote, which is good when you want to pilot your device without necessarily having to point the remote at it, but this does mean you can't use a universal remote instead.

HD Digital Tuner: where's record?

Particular attention has been paid to the digital tuner interface. Indeed we've seen this interface before on the Sagem Netbox 8160, which makes sense as the Places is in fact a Netbox N5200, slightly modified by Toshiba.


The channels are ordered automatically with HD versions coming first. This means that channels correspond to the order you might expect to find them in (BBC1 first and so on). Logos are displayed representing the various channels and the arrow buttons allow you to consult the next programmes from a list. In addition to a summary, there's a thumbnail to illustrate evening shows.

The programme guide is particularly well set-up and doesn't currently use the EPG (Electronic program guide) service, which is usually lacking in information, but rather an online database with programming visible for up to ten days going forward.


However, Toshiba haven't bothered with a facility for recording programmes. Nor can you pause a live programme. This isn't because there's no internal drive (other media centres allow you to store recordings on USB peripherals) and we don't really understand why Toshiba haven't included this on a product of this type.

Multimedia decoding: an under-exploited engine

The decoding chip used is identical to the one on the WD TV Live Hub. However, here, it's under-exploited and only displays up to a maximum of 1080i. This means there's less detail than you get with 1080p.

It's also a shame that there's no DTS decoding and this means you'll need an audio amp for access to this type of audio track. Dolby is better handled, with decoding (only stereo downmix) of SD versions. Dolby TrueHD can only be sent in bitstream.


Things aren't much better when it comes to Blu-ray and DVD backups. ISO files aren't supported and only DVD files can be played. You have to launch the film manually and make do without menus and subtitling. Handling of subtitles is generally ok when they are external to the video file.

There were several system failures during our tests, which meant we had to unplug the device from the mains. An update to the internal software would be welcome, especially as the current version (5.2.16-5) dates from October 22nd 2010.

Connectivity: HD TV only

There aren't an enormous number audio / video outs and this limits usage of the Places STB1F to HD televisions. The only video connector is an HDMI 1.3. Audio can also be sent via the optical socket.

There's a single USB port at the front of the device, giving access to playback of files on external USB peripherals. This is very slow and doesn't allow HD video playback beyond 42 Mbps. In practice this shouldn't be too much of a problem as films with higher throughput are pretty rare.

The Places STB1F is network ready, with ethernet 100 Mbps or wi-fi n. Only UPnP sharing is supported however and you have to install server software on the computer which contains the multimedia files (Twonky for example) or use a networked peripheral as your server.