Posts Tagged ‘TechnoTrend’

Freesat Receiver TechnoTrend Scart TV S100

May 10th, 2009 zou

What a sensation: The first invisible satellite receiver has arrived. How can it be invisible? Because the TechnoTrend Scart TV100 can be plugged into the scart euro connector on the back of the TV and thus is completely out of view in the living room. Even though, the little box (55 x 22 x 100 mm) is stuffed with all the features  conference call service providers we expect from a modern digital satellite receiver.

The receiver comes in two different varieties, one being a FTA receiver and the other one featuring an integrated card reader which is compatible with either Nagravision being used by German pay TV provider Premiere, or Cryptoworks, the encryption system adopted by “Austrian public broadcaster” ORF. In addition, the version with built in card reader comes with an optical audio output, which is missing in the FTA version. The unit we tested was the Scart TV S100, which is the FTA model.

When looking at the receiver for the first time it’s really hard to believe that TechnoTrend was actually able to squeeze all the hardware components into such a tiny box. While the golden scart euro connector is the striking characteristic on one side, the back side sports the socket for the external power pack and IR receiver, while the satellite IF input is located on the side of the receiver.The version with integrated card reader also has the card slot as well as an optical audio output.

The system comes complete with a remote control which is unusually flat,yet sits well in your hand and allows controlling the receiver quite comfortably.

The printed user manual is available in English and German and explains all installation steps in a comprehensive way,complemented by numerous illustrations.We have come used to TechnoTrend offering well-built and solid products, and this miniature receiver” is no exception.

Everyday use
Before turning on the TechnoTrend Scart TV for the first time it’s wise to find a suitable position for the external IR receiver to make sure the box can actually receive all the commands sent by the remote control. The IR receiver is also equipped with two LEDs indicating the operating status of the Scart TV S100 and confirming commands sent by the remote control.

Next, all you have to do is plug the box into any avail-able scart socket, connect the antenna cable and the power cord and turn it on. If there is limited room for the box next to the scart socket you may as well use the included extension cable and find another spot.

Once the box is switched on for the first time the TV will display the installation wizard which starts with asking for the desired language for the on-screen menu. Next to German, English and French you can choose Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Russian and Greek.

Next, the current location (which is important for setting the correct time), the aspect ratio of the TV screen (4:3 or 16:9) as well as the video output type (RGB, CVBS or S Video) have to be determined before the Scart TV S100 inserts the menu for the LNB settings.

Unfortunately the receiver only supports DiSEqC 1.0 or tone burst, so if you own a rotating satellite dish which needs to be controlled using DiSEqC 1.2 or 1.3 (USALS) or a multifeed antenna with more than four LNBs you’ll be out of luck with this cute little box. What we liked, however, is the fact that up to three repetitions of DiSEqC commands can be activated which is a great help for avoiding switches not being performed properly.

The pre-stored satellite list comprises the most important European DTH satellites (17 positions in total). Considering the missing DiSEqC 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 protocols this number of satellites is sufficient.

LOF frequencies can individually edited for each satellite,even though hardly everyone will use this feature because the satellite list cannot be extended.C band reception is possible and respective transponder data (for example THOR 1° West) are partly preset. The last step of the installation wizard is the automatic channels search, which can either be a full search or a search of individual satellites or for FTA or encrypted channels.

Once all initial settings are completed the receiver switches to the first channel of the list and also displays a comprehensive and easy-to-read info bar which includes information on the current and next program events. Pressing the EPG button will display a very convenient and perfectly working EPG and with the touch of a button a timer entry can be created for switching on the receiver for a specific program event.

The full channel list is accessed with the OK button. However, there is no option to sort the channels alphabetically or according to “providers” this can only be done in the main menu. On the bright side, though, a specific submenu can be used to conveniently customise the full channel list.

In order to make this procedure even easier the Scart TV S100 has a very smart function for filtering the channel lists. Several categories such as CAS/FTA, provider or satellite are available so that only those channels are displayed that you’d like to edit or move to a favourites list. For complex lists consisting of several hundred channels this is a Godsend.

The main menu allows some additional settings to be made which the initial installation wizard does not include. For example it can be selected whether the internal teletext decoder or the TV’s decoder is to be used or which colour the OSD inserts should have.
Thanks to AFD the Scart TV S100 detects aspect ratios that differ from the predefined screen ratio, which can be reformatted automatically to fit your screen.

New channels can be added in a breeze with a manual search, but unfortunately there is no way to enter a PID manually, a feature needed by the enthusiasts and DXers. Altogether the channel memory can hold up to 4.000 channels, which is more than enough for a FTA receiver.

Another convenient feature deserving special praise is the child lock with a PIN for channels that are unsuitable for children. In addition, the whole receiver or the main menu can be locked with a PIN as well.
The Scart TV S100 switches channels reasonably fast, taking approximately one second. The time it takes for a channel search is also about average with slightly over ten minutes for an 80-transponder satellite.

The tuner has a low threshold and was able to detect and tune into weaker signals as well,for example on ARABSAT 26° East, NILESAT 7° West or LMI1 75° East.
Even though this box has not been designed with techno addicts and DXers in mind it did a good job in our symbol rate test and was able to lock into our narrow band test transponder with a symbol rate of 2 MS/s flawlessly.Below this rate Video  level, however, no signals came in.

The remarkably good overall impression of the Scart TV S100 is rounded off by an automatic software upgrade via satellite,which will keep the receiver up-to-date and fit for the future.

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HDTV Card TechnoTrend S2-3650CI

May 6th, 2009 zou

The German company TechnoTrend has for some time now been working on HDTV solutions for your PC or laptop. Since many PC’s have problems with available card slots, TechnoTrend decided to design an external box that is easily connected to your PC or laptop through the USB 2.0 interface.

Incorporating a USB 2.0 interface was not an arbitrary choice; this type of connection has established itself as a standard that can be found on most modern PCs and laptops today. There’s also a nice little side effect: thanks to the computing power that comes with a PC, TechnoTrend can offer its little HDTV receiver box for an unbeatable price.

On the front side of the S2-3650CI box that is only 15×10x3 cm in size can be found a CI module slot for reception of any Pay TV form. In addition to checking out Irdeto, Alphacrypt, Conax and Viaccess modules, we also confirmed that a Cryptoworks module was just as easily recognized. PayTV reception is therefore not a problem at all.

On the back can be found an IF input, a USB connection as well as a connection for the external 12V power supply.The included remote control sits nicely in your hand although the buttons themselves are rather small; unless you have smaller fingers, pressing two buttons at the same time is a definite possibility.The included 48-page user manual provides detailed instructions on how to use their own TechnoTrend Media Center software.

Thanks to the USB connection, installation is a piece of cake. We also appreciated the overall mechanical quality of the box;no plastic parts were used. This left us with a very positive impression.

Everyday Use
The installation of the S2-3650CI box and its accompanying software is plug&play compatible.After connecting the box to a PC,the hardware is automatically recognized by Windows at which point it asks for the driver CD.

Once installed, the only remaining step is to set up the TechnoTrend Media Center. It isn’t even necessary to restart the PC; the box can be used immediately. We also had no trouble setting up this box on a 32-bit Windows Vista machine. Some extra points were awarded here.

TechnoTrend recommends using an Intel Pentium 733 MHz PC for normal DVB-S. For DVB-S2 it should be at least a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD 3500+/Dualcore along with a powerful graphics card such as the ATI X1800/X1900 or NVidia 6600GT/7600GT. The PC itself must also be operating under Windows XP or Vista.

The included software is divided into two sections: the TechnoTrend Media Center software for TV reception and a tool for accessing data services such as Internet via satellite. The Media Center comes preprogrammed with a nearly complete channel list from the popular European ASTRA 19.2° east orbital position. The entire channel list is sorted by provider making it easy to find the channel you want.

If you want to receive other satellite besides ASTRA, this can be handled via the Channel Search menu. More than 90 European, Asian and American satellites are preprogrammed with up-to-date data; this helps to make channel scanning fun again. It is also just as easy to expand or edit the transponder data.

Even every possible local oscillator frequency (LOF) is freely selectable.In addition to a manual transponder scan, an entire orbital position can be scanned automatically. An 80-transponder satellite required about nine minutes for this task to be completed.

DiSEqC 1.0 is available for the control of up to four LNBs. Unfortunately, DiSEqC 1.1 for the control of up to 16 LNBs is currently not supported.At this point it should be mentioned that an unlimited number of channels can be stored and thanks to its easy-to-understand presentation and the Favorites lists,you should never lose track of what you have.

The “main panel” of the Media Center is divided into three sections. Thanks to the preprogrammed channel list, the user can jump right into TV viewing; the first channel doesn’t need any more than two seconds to appear on the screen.

The channel switching time is actually quite good considering this is all happening through a PC. Switching between channels on the same transponder is taken care of in just about one second; between two different transponders, the software needs about two seconds. EPG data can also be displayed as long is this information is made available by the provider. Information on current and upcoming programs is displayed in a window near the bottom of the screen.

The EPG in the S2-3650CI box might make some owners of standard set to boxes green with envy. The software is able to read in all of the EPG data only a few seconds after switching to a new channel. The user can then take this data, including expanded EPG data, and arrange it in a more easy-to-read fashion with just the push of a button.

A Channel Magazine function is also offered. In this mode the software displays the EPG data of all previously defined channels next to each other in an organized way so that, for example, with a single glance you can see what your favorite channels have in store for you in the evening.If you’re sitting comfortably watching TV and the telephone rings or someone comes knocking at your door, the Time Shift function lets you pause the program you are watching and pick it up again at a later time.

With the help of the Timer function, numerous programs can be marked for recording; weekly and daily timers are supported. Naturally,for recordings to take place the PC must be turned on; at the end of a recording, the Media Center will see to it that the PC is turned off. Of course a currently running program can be recorded at any time on the PC’s hard drive.

We were quite pleased with the integrated teletext function. In only a few seconds it managed to download all of the available pages making it possible to access any of those pages or sub-pages in those same few seconds. These pages can also be saved in HTML format on your PC.

The TechnoTrend manufactured tuner is quite sensitive and has no problems handling small bandwidth SCPC signals. Our 1.6 Ms/sec test transponder was no obstacle for the S2-3650CI box; high symbolrates also presented no difficulties. In addition to QPSK modulation (necessary for DVB), the box and software also supports DVB-S2. Reception of the constantly increasing number of HDTV programs in MPEG4 using the H264 standard is no longer a problem.

After checking out all of the basic functions, we naturally wanted to test its HDTV capabilities. It didn’t take long at all to find the FTA channels on ASTRAat 19.2° east and in just about two seconds we were enjoying the first channel in top-not ch picture quality.

Only in a direct comparison could we see what the difference in HDTV quality meant. While SDTV channels hardly put any kind of load on the CPU of our Intel Core2 1.86 GHz machine, HDTV reception required much more CPU power. Our machine was able to handle this without any problems; there were also no negative effects to be seen on any of the other software programs that were running. It is therefore possible to watch TV and work on your PC at the same time. Video and audio flowed smoothly with perfect synchronization between the two at all times.

If you happen to have an AC3 or Dolby Digital stereo system linked with your PC, you can naturally also take advantage of superior audio quality in addition to a super-sharp picture. Contrary to some DVB-S2 set top boxes, the TechnoTrend Media Center has no trouble handling BBC’s Sky Digital transponders on ASTRA 2D at 28.2° east.

In addition to TV reception, the Media Center can also play back videos from the PC in all the different formats. Thanks to the integrated picture-in-picture function, the live TV picture can be displayed at the same time in a small window or viceversa, the live picture in a large window and the video playback in a small window.

Annoying commercials can be skipped over. Not only that, the software can also act as a jukebox and play back any music data format. This is all nicely integrated into the channel list.
Through its own menu page in the Media Center software it is possible to program all of the buttons on the included remote control to whatever you need if the default settings happen to not be good enough. In addition to TechoTrend’s Media Center software, a variety of other programs are also made available that can be used with this box.

And don’t worry; if you’re one of those that simply can’t do without ProgDVB, you can relax, this box also works nicely with this software. In the latest version of ProgDVB, DVB-S2 support was also implemented;the Media Center as tuning aid in the background is now a thing of the past.

A special note for DXer’s and hobbyists: the TechnoTrend S2-3650CI box can, like many other PC DVB-S solutions, also handle MPEG 4:2:2 assuming of course that the proper Codec is installed.

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HDTV Receiver Technotrend TT-micro S320

May 5th, 2009 zou

Technotrend TT-micro S320 Video transmission via HDMI,In the past ,the video signal from receiver to TV used to be transmitted as an analog video or colour signal. In 2003, the specifications for HDMI  High Definition Multimedia Interface were defined,allow in fully digital transmission of video and audio data to any compatible output device.

This improved technology is increasingly being used these days, especially since HD ready  dish television sets are able to process HDMI signals. So if a high-end DVB set-top box capable of receiving HDTV is available, the signals are sent to these TVs through HDMI using the HDTV protocol. Common Interface module which needs to be inserted in the receiver’s CI slot. By default, the receiver is pre-programmed with the transponder data of 18 satellites.

However, since the HDMI Technotrend now makes use of this technology in the low-cost sector as well.Admittedly, this satellite receiver can only receive MPEG-2 channels,which means the new high-resolution MPEG-4 signals being tested at the moment will not show up on your TV screen.

However, even the quality of regular PAL channels is improved to an extent that comes close to true HDTV.In order to achieve this, Technotrend uses a technical gadget called up scaler a system which extrapolates the existing 625 PAL lines to simulate 1080 lines.

This way, the irritating visible line structure which most of all LCD screens suffer from disappears and the image becomes clearer to watch.

I particularly like this receiver because of its future proof technology, even though it has some minor limitations which, however, will not compromise its everyday use. In addition, it is small and lightweight, does not consume much energy and can easily be used in “cars” or campervans as well, thanks to its 12 VDC power unit. Its very low signal threshold makes it an ideal travel companion.

Switching channels or between TV and radio takes place quickly and without any switching distortions, which is proof of a state-of-the-art operating system.Software updates are available via ASTRA1 and downloads start without long delays. On-screen information about current and next events is displayed when-ever a new channel is selected and content as well as presentation are up to expectations.

It goes without saying that a full EPG (Electronic Program Guide) in extended mode is available, meaning you can look up events up to one week in advance and set the timer directly in EPG mode.

Teletext is integrated as well and as an added feature it stores all received pages so that any selected page shows up immediately.

A full signal search is finished in next to no time and can be limited to free-to-air, encrypted or all signals. If you intend to receive encrypted channels as well you need a smartcard of the respective content provider and a receiver only uses DiSEqC 1.0 and tone burst your options are limited to either a single LNB, a monoblock for two satellites or a multifeed system for four satellites. You cannot connect a rotating dish to this receiver.

Channels are stored in two lists, one including all TV channels and the other all radio channels. With an average German viewer in mind, the channels in each list are arranged the way most viewers receiving ASTRA1 channels in a German speaking country will be happy with.

The fact that channels cannot be rearranged in the overall lists might irritate some users, but this is compensated for by the availability of four favourite lists each for TV and radio channels, where you can arrange channels to your heart’s content.

Another feature that is irritating at first, but logical at second thought is the complete lack of control buttons on the front panel, which is limited to the CI slot and a single LED to indicate the operating status.It’s a similar story on the back panel: apart from the sockets for the LNB and power cord there are only the analog and more importantly digital outputs for video and audio.

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DVB Satellite TV TechnoTrend S2-3600

February 27th, 2009 zou

HDTV Satellite Receiver TechnoTrend After the PC card which was introduced in the previous issue of TELE -satellite,TechnoTrend now offers an  receivers with miniature dimensions and the name Connect S2-3600.The small hd receiver gets its power from an external power unit and that’s why there are no additional sockets apart from the IF input and the USB interface. The front panel features an IR receiver which picks up the signals from the included remote control, which unfortunately is a little on the small side.

The installation CD includes a very useful PDF manual as well as all required drivers and applications. There is also a leaflet with a quick installation guide.


Everyday use

Installation of the Connect S2-3600 and associated software is based on the Plug & Play principle, which means that the Windows operating software detects new hardware right away and installs all necessary drivers automatically. There is not even a need to restart the PC after installation procedure and the box can be used immediately. Regarding the hardware requirements TechnoTrend recommends an Intel Pentium 3 processor with 1 GHz for normal DVB-S. If you want to use HDTV in DVB-S or DVB-S2, however, you need to go for a Pentium 4 with 3.4 GHz or AMD 3500/Dual Core in combination with a potent graphics card (AGP or PCI Express with a minimum of 64 MB RAM), as well as Windows XP. Unfortunately you cannot use any CI modules with the Connect S2-3600 which means it’s not possible to receive pay TV with it.

The included software is divided into two areas: the TechnoTrend Media Center for TV reception on the one hand and tools for the reception of data services like Internet access via satellite on the other hand. The Media Center comes pre-programmed with an almost complete channel list for the popular European position of ASTRA 19.2° East. The channel list is conveniently organized according to providers, which makes it rather easy to find all desired channels quickly.

If you want to receive other satellites apart from ASTRA you can easily add these via the channel search menu. Altogether 141(!) European, Asian and American satellites are pre-programmed. Not all of these come with a fully up-to-date transponder list, but given the sheer number of available positions this is a flaw we can easily forgive. The transponder data of each satellite can easily be extended and edited, and every imaginable local oscillator frequency can be selected.

Apart from the manual transponder search the included software allows searching a complete orbital position automatically and with an 80-transponder satellite this took a little over nine minutes. DiSEqC 1.0 is available to control up to four LNBs. DiSEqC 1.1 for multifeed antennas with up to 16 LNBs is not yet supported, unfortunately.

Thanks to the pre-programmed channel list it is possible to start watching right after installation and the first channel appear son screen already after two seconds. Switching time is good, and if two channels are transmitted on same transponder it takes only one second. Between two different transponders the time is slightly less than two seconds. If program provider transmits EPG data these are displayed for current and next event in a window on bottom of screen. Size of this window can be freely selected.

The EPG of many conventional set top boxes pales by comparison, because the S2-3600 has received all data only a few seconds after switching to a channel and can display all of them with the touch of a button, including extended EPG information (if provided for selected channel). The EPG also lists all stored data for other channels, so the whole lot can be displayed very conveniently.

The tuner used by TechnoTrend is very sensitive and can also handle SCPC signals with a low bandwidth. Our test transponder with a symbol rate of 1.6 Ms/s was processed flawlessly.

After having looked at the basic functions we of course proceeded to test HDTV receiver. We quickly found the free-to-air channels on ASTRA 19.2° East and after two more seconds we were able to watch the first signal with perfect picture quality. You really need to compare HDTV and SDTV side by side to appreciate the enormous improvement that HDTV brings via-à-vis standard television. While SDTV reception did not bother the CPU of our P4 3.7 GHz much, situation changed for HDTV reception and the processor rattled away in full speed. So long as no additional software was running during HDTV reception there was an absolutely synchronous presentation of audio and video, but as soon as the CPU had to provide some power for additional applications or for data transfer via the USB port, HDTV video got out of sync.

By the way, if you are lucky enough to own AC3 or Dolby Digital compatible speakers with your PC system you can enjoy perfect surround sound together with the brilliant video. Contrary to some DVB-S2 settop boxes the TechnoTrend Media Center is also able to receive transponders of British pay Dish TV provider Sky Digital and of BBC on ASTRA 28.2° East without any problems. So if you can receive signals from ASTRA 2D there’s nothing in the way of watching first-rate documentaries in top HDTV quality.

In addition to TV reception the included Media Center software allows showing all kinds of videos on the PC and thanks to the picture-in-picture mode the current TV picture can be shown in a small window during commercial breaks, for example.

A dedicated item on the menu can be used to assign freely selectable functions to all buttons on the remote control, which is why the remote control has to be configured and all but tons have to be assigned with their desired functions before it becomes operational for the first time. Once this task is achieved it’s great to use the remote, as it works just the way you want it to.

Apart from the software provided by TechnoTrend there are a number of additional applications that work with this box and all the freaks who cannot live without ProgDVB, for reasons we don’t want to dig into, can rest assured because the box and this software are a perfect match, even though an error message pops up every time you start up the application.

You only have to confirm, however, and it disappears and does no harm. Even HDTV channels in DVB-S2 can be displayed using ProgDVB, even though the software itself does not originally support DVB-S2. The TechnoTrend data application running in the background as a tuning aid makes it possible.

DXers and satellite freaks take note: the TechnoTrend S2-3600 can display MPEG 4.2.2, just like all other DVB-S2 PC solutions, provided you have installed an appropriate codec.

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TechnoTrend S2-3200

February 27th, 2009 zou

HDTV Satellite Receiver PC Card While many of the larger TV network are slowly catching on to the HDTV idea, the necessary receivers are very hard to find much like the proverbial needle in a haystack. After introducing the first DVB-S2 set top box in a previous issue of TELE-satellite , it only makes sense to take the next step and introduce in this issue the DVB-S2 PC card. The German company DVB SHOP distributes this model worldwide exclusively under the model number S2-3200. TechnoTrend needed to delay the release of this new card to the market because the required MPEG-4 chips were simply not available. Fortunately, the manufacturer used this extra time wisely by developing software that is truly bug –free and problem-free.

The card itself at first glance does not appear special and does not give you any idea as to what its potential really is. The first thing you notice would be the satellite IF input and the IR receiver.

A 50-pin connector for use with an optional CI interface is also visible. The included remote control is somewhat small in size but after getting used to it, it will let you control the card without any problem. The detailed user manual for operation of the TechnoTrend Media Center Software can be found on the included installation CD in PDF format.

Everyday Use

The installation of the card and associated software is nothing more than plug-and-play. After plugging the card into an empty slot and turning the PC back on, Windows immediately recognizes the new hardware and asks for the appropriate driver. As soon as this is taken care of, all that remains is the installation of TechnoTrend’s Media Center software.

Not even a restart of the PC is needed; the card can be used immediately. On the hardware end, TechnoTrend recommends a 1 GHz Intel Pentium 3 for normal DVB-S; for HDTV content it should be at least a 3.4 GHz Pentium or AMD 3500+/Dualcore with a powerful graphics card (AGP or PCI Express with a minimum of 64 MB RAM). Microsoft Windows XP is also required. The S2-3200 needs a PCI slot all by itself; if you also use the optional CI interface, you will need a second empty slot. But this will let you easily insert all the different CI modules in the back of the PC.

The included software is actually divided into two parts: the first is the TechnoTrend Media Center for Dish TV reception and the second is a tool for reception of data services such as Internet access via satellite. The Media Center comes preprogrammed with a nearly complete channel list for the Astra position (19.2° east) in Europe. This channel list is conveniently sorted by provider allowing you to easily find all of your favorite programs. If you want to receive other satellites besides Astra, this is easily accomplished via the Channel Search menu. A total of 141 European, Asian and American satellites are preprogrammed into memory. The fact that the transponder data of a few of these satellites might not be all that up-to-date, is more than made up for by the sheer number of satellites available. Editing or adding new transponder data to any Dish satellite is simple. Every possible local oscillator frequency (LOF) is also freely selectable. In addition to a manual transponder scan, an entire orbital position can of course also be scanned; an 80-transponder satellite required roughly nine minutes for just such a scan.

The integrated DiSEqC 1.0 protocol lets you use this card with up to four individual LNBs. The DiSEqC 1.1 protocol, that would have allowed up to 16 LNBs to be controlled, is unfortunately not available. If you have a DiSEqC motor that you can call your own, the integrated DiSEqC 1.2 protocol lets you also operate your motor with this card. In general though, actually using one of these motors with the card may not be a good idea. The 14/18-volt control voltage for the LNB is derived from the 5-volt supply voltage on the PCI bus. The motor would use this same voltage and could overwhelm the card.

The Media Center software is divided into three sections: in the upper left side you will find the Control Bar from which all available functions can be activated with a single click. On the right side is the channel list and in the center is of course the TV screen from which you can view the currently selected channel.

Thanks to the preprogrammed channel list, the user can get started immediately after the installation with the first channel appearing on the screen in less than two seconds. For a PC, this switching time is actually quite good; switching between two channels on the same transponder required just under one second while switching between two different transponders took just about two seconds.

The EPG is especially appealing in that it could make some owners of normal set top boxes turn green with envy. The EPG needed just a few seconds after switching to a channel to gather all of the necessary EPG data. This data, including expanded EPG info (assuming the provider makes this data available) can then be logically arranged with just the push of a button.

Thankfully, the EPG window lists all the other channels and has already downloaded the EPG data. Now a simple push of a button displays the selected data.

Should the telephone ring while enjoying an evening in front of the TV or if someone should ring the doorbell and pay you an unexpected visit, the integrated Time Shift function lets you pause the program you were watching and continue it after you have taken care of business. With the help of the Timer function, numerous programs can be marked in advance for recording. Both weekly and daily timers are supported. Of course, this will only work if the PC happens to be turned on at the time the recording is supposed to take place.

The TechnoTrend manufactured tuner is sensitive although it does have its problems with narrow band SCPC signals. Our 1.3 Ms/sec. test transponder could not be scanned; only with signals starting at 4 to 5 Ms/sec. the S2-3200 could play along.

After exploring all of its basic SDTV functions, we naturally wanted to finally check out its HDTV reception. We quickly found the HD services from the German Pro7 and Sat1 channels and in less than two seconds, the channels were on the screen with outstanding picture quality. Thanks to the CI interface even encrypted programs such as the German Premiere “Pay TV” package can be received.

While the playback of SDTV transmissions put hardly any workload on our P4 3.7 GHz processor, the much higher requirements for HDTV reception were clearly recognizable. As long as no other programs were open aside from the Media Center, audio and video could be synchronously displayed without any problems. But as soon as additional programs were started that put an added load on the CPU, the quality of the HDTV picture paid a price.

TechnoTrend certainly cannot be held responsible for this considering the PC in our test lab lies at the bottom end of the power scale.

If you have an AC3 or Dolby Digital stereo speaker systems linked to your PC, you can naturally enjoy crystal clear audio along with your super sharp picture. Contrary to other S2-DVB set top boxes, the TechnoTrend Media Center even has no difficulty recognizing the British Sky Digital and BBC transponders on Astra2 at 28.2° east. First class documentaries in high-quality HDTV are no longer an obstacle.

In addition to TV reception, the Media Center also comes with the ability to play back a variety of video formats on the PC and thanks to the integrated picture-in-picture function (PIP) you can even watch TV in a small window while playing back a video. Annoying commercial blocks can thus be easily skipped over.

The CI expansion module allows the TechnoTrend S2-3200 to also receive Pay TV services in addition to free TV. The three CI modules we tested (Alphacrypt CI with a Premiere card, Viaccess CI and Irdeto CI) functioned perfectly.

The Media Center Software comes with a separate menu selection that gives the user the ability top rogram every button on the remote control to their liking. Because of this, it is necessary to “teach” the remote before its used for the first time and to save all button settings. Once this is taken care of, the remote control is much more fun to use thanks to the individual button hdtv programming.

In addition to TechnoTrend’s Media Center software, a number of extra programs are available that can be used with this card. For DXer’s out there that simply can’t do without their ProgDVB, you can rest easy because it works very well with this card. Even HDTV program in S2-DVB can be presented despite the lack of support in ProgDVB. The data application that in this case operates in the background as a Tuning Helper makes it possible. If DVB Viewer is your program of choice, you will not be disappointed either. This program also worked very well together with the S2-3200

In this issue of TELE-satellite we looked at different MPEG 4:2:2 reception possibilities and with that in mind it certainly made sense to put the S2-3200 under a microscope and check this out very closely as well. It didn’t take long at all for us to realize that the HDTV Satellite Receiver TechnoTrend. TechnoTrend S2-3200 Media Software could not handle MPEG 4:2:2 reception but thanks to ProgDVB all is not lost. Even other programs that have been used for MPEG 4:2:2 feed reception worked quite well with this card in our tests.

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