Posts Tagged ‘TeVii’

HD Satellite PC Card TeVii S470

August 21st, 2009 zou

TeVii DVB-S/S2 PCI-E Card S470
In the past several years one development in particular has become more and more popular: the incorporation of digital receivers in a PC and of course the digital receivers with built-in PC’s. We are keeping an eye out on the development of set-top boxes that, in addition to the normal function of receiving digital TV and radio content via satellite, can also connect to the Internet so that video conference calling clips or IPTV can be played back. These home multimedia powerhouses would also be able to display your pictures, play back music and even allow you to play games. At the same time, more and more homes are warming up to the idea of PC reception. There are a number of reasons for this: receiving satellite TV through a PC is less expensive than with a stand-alone set-top box, conference call recording digital content can take place directly on the hard drive of the PC  this saves the user time when burning a DVD in that the data doesn’t first have tobe transferred over to a PC.Then there are those house holds that despite having an LCD monitor that they use with their PC’s, they still have an older TV that is used for normal TV viewing. And since watching HDTV programming without a high resolution LCD or plasma TV makes no sense, this content is also viewed through a PC.

The Taiwanese company TeVii recognized this trend a long time ago and has strengthened their development of  TV and radio reception solutions for PC’s. This wouldn’t be the first time that TELE-satellite introduced a TeVii product; one of these was the TeVii S650 USB box.

This time it’s the new S470 PC Card. This new model is not connected externally; instead it is linked directly to the motherboard via a PCI-E slot. This is a modification of the well-known PCI slot in that much higher transmission speeds are now possible; perfect for HDTV reception. PCI-E slots come in two different hights, and TeVii even provides the S470 with both brackets: the standard one for regular PCs and the low profile bracket,which is ideally suited for the new slim PCs.

We began by installing the card in a typical PC. For us this turned out to be an older Pentium IV 3 GHz PC with 1GB RAM. According to the manufacturer, the mini-mum PC requirements are a 2 GHz CPU for SDTV or 2.4 GHz for HDTV, 512 MB RAM for SDTV and 1GB for HDTV as well as a graphics card with 128 MB of memory. Our test PC falls just within these requirements. Naturally, the TeVii card supports the Windows XP and Vista as well as Linux operating systems. The MyTeVii software is only compatible with Windows; Linux users must find suitable alternatives in the Internet. We were happy to see that TeVii included 64-bit drivers for Windows.

The TeVii card is delivered in a handy box. Included is a remote control with batteries, an IR receiver, a software CD and fold-out installation instructions. The TeVii S470 is plug&play compatible and for our test PC this meant install-ing the card in an available PCI-E slot and then putting the cover back on the PC.

We quickly connected a satellite cable from one of our signal distributors to the IF input on the card and last but not least connected the IR receiver. Now it was time to play. After turning on the PC, Windows XP immediately found the new hardware. Instead of letting Windows search for matching drivers, the installation CD was inserted into the appropriate drive. The installation assis-tant appeared and began installing the necessary driv-ers as well as the MyTeVii software.

At this point it is also possible to select whether just the drivers and MyTeVii software should be installed or if the TeVii Data program should also be installed. This program permits the use of Internet via satellite conference calling service but more on that later. After clicking the OK button it takes only a few seconds before all of the required data has found its way to our test PC. If for any reason you don’t happen to like the TeVii software, a demo version of ProgDVB can also be found on the installation CD. We will have more on this pro-gram and other alternative programs a little later.

The included remote control sits very nicely in your hands, is clearly labeled and left us with a very favorable impression in terms of its workman-ship.

Software Setup

When the TeVii software is started for the first time,itinitially greets the user with a blank screen. A preprogrammed channel list isn’t activated nor does the soft-ware ask the user to perform a channel scan. Considering that the TeVii S470 is being distributed around the world and that a preprogrammed channel list would probably not make sense anyway, it would have been nice if the user was directed to an automatic or manual channel scan.

The TeVii developed user interface provided us with a very clean and organized impression. On the right side are the channel list and avail-able satellites; the currently selected channel is displayed to the left. An EPG bar at the bottom of the display window provides information on the currently running program. The size of the playback window can be adjusted to your liking; the TV picture can also be viewed in full-screen mode.

Clicking the right mouse button opens the Options menu giving the user access to all of the necessary settings. The TeVii software itself is very international conference call ; it can communicate with the user in a variety of languages: English, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Ital-ian, Polish, Russian, Span-ish and Swedish. With this many choices, no one should have any problems finding  a matching language.

The settings menu comes with a variety of options and settings possibilities. Nearly every aspect of the software can be matched to the users requirements, such as, how content is displayed, the stor-ing and operation of the channel lists, the control of LNBs, the use of multiple monitors, setting up recordings and time shifting, the video and audio Codec’s, the IR receiver, the parameters for the EPG display and last but not least an Expert menu that provides access to the basic parameters of the software. Despite all of these settings possibilities, the Main menu has remained clear and easy to understand. TeVii accomplished this thanks to the window architecture that is part of MS Windows. It would not be possible to clearly present so many settings in a standard set top box. Once all of the needed settings are taken care of, the TeVii card must then become acquainted with the antenna system with which it will be used.

Since the card works with all the different DiSEqC protocols, it can be used with a typical multifeed antenna (DiSEqC 1.0), a Wave frontier antenna with up to 16 LNBs (DiSEqC 1.1) as well as a motorized system (DiSEqC 1.2 and USALS) without any problems. The S470 comes with a large selection of pre-programmed satellites that includes 170 American, European and Asian satellites. It’s not very often that we see a receiver that comes with so many satellites to choose from that are also for the most part very up to date. Thanks to the easy to understand OSD structure it is quite easy to match the necessary parameters (DiSEqC, LOF, etc.) to each individual satellite. It’s also just as easy with just a few mouse clicks to access, delete or edit transponders. The same holds true for the satellite settings.

To make sure that the signal from the LNB can be processed correctly, it is necessary to provide the correct local oscillator frequency (LOF) and switching point between low and high band. The MyTeVii software comes preprogrammed with a number of LOF values for the Ku-band and C-band and if you happen to be using an LNB with a non-standard LOF, it can simply be entered in manually. When all the parameters from your antenna system have been entered, the next step takes you to a channel scan. At this point you can perform a manual transponder scan or let the TeVii S470 handle all of the scanning work automatically.

Since the S470 is a PC solution, the size of the channel memory is for all practical purposes unlimited and almost begs to be filled with channel data. The card is both DVB-S and DVB-S2 compatible and therefore, in addition to QPSK modulation in DVB-S, it also supports 8PSK in DVB-S2. The “Auto” setting switches between the two by itself. An automatic scan of HOTBIRD at 13° east was completed in just a little over six minutes in our tests. Not bad at all considering this is a PC solution. The TeVii card also gallantly passed one of our toughest tests with the horizontal transponders on NILESAT at 7° west. The S470 also performed perfectly with our SCPC test; it was able to process the narrow band signals on TÜRKSAT 42° east without any difficulties.

Everyday Use
Thanks to the extremely fast data connection through the PCI-E bus, the S470 can switch between channels very quickly; it makes channel surf-ing a lot of fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re switching between HD channels or SD channels or if you’re switching from HD to SD or vice versa, the switching time is just a little over one second. This is actually quite good considering this is a PC solution and it even leaves some set top boxes in the dust. When in Windows mode, the software, if desired, blends in EPG information on the current program at the bottom of the display.

It is also possible to make this EPG information as well as channel data visible on the on-screen display. This is especially practical when the PC monitor is being used in full-screen mode as a TV and the TeVii software is being controlled from the couch via the remote control. The per-fect design of the TeVii software is only further confirmed in the channel list. It can be sorted and modified a number of ways so that, for example, channels can be grouped by package, transponder or satellite or Favorites lists can be filled with channels that you watch more often. Unwanted channels can be marked and deleted with just a single click. Adult channels can be locked out with a PIN code so that kids can’t accidentally stumble on those channels.

It is quite practical that the editing of the entire channel list takes place directly in the MyTeVii software window thus making any changes immediately visible. In addition to the playback of  live TV, the S470 naturally also comes with recording and time shift func-tions. For one thing, record-ings can be manually started. They can also be started at a specific time through the EPG or programmed manually. Thanks to the time shift function, you won’t miss any of the action in that movie you’re watching should the telephone ring. The movie is simply paused and when you’ve had enough of talk-ing with your favorite Aunt, you can pick up watching that movie where you left off.

The TeVii software can store recordings as a trans-port stream or in MPEG compatible format so that it can be played back with any video player. The EPG was designed with clarity and simplicity in mind. It displays all of the information provided by a broadcaster in an easy-to read and logically sorted format. Ideally, this would let you see programming information up to seven days in advance with data on each individual program such as content, provider, etc.

For the most part, the TeVii software appears to be perfect, but TeVii kept in mind that good can always be made better. For this reason the engineers included a plug-in interface that with the help of the software will let you add a variety of extra features.

How much of a load does thiscard put on the processor?
A big question is this: if you plan to do other work with your PC while the TeVii software is playing back video, how much does this TV reception affect the running of other programs? In SD mode, a PC with half way decent hardware will have no problems at all. But with HDTV the outlook is different. If it involves HDTV in 720p format, our older Intel Pentium IV did not have any problems and was able to produce an interference-free picture with a processor load of about 75%.

But in 1080i mode, video dropouts were the norm and the CPU load climbed to nearly 100%. At the same time, doing other work on the PC was not really possible while TV playback was in operation. We therefore decided to test the card in a more modern PC (Intel Core2Duo). The result was as expected: the card was able to realize its full potential and played back HDTV in 1080i format without any problems at all. With that in mind, we want to make it clear that the manufacturer’s hardware requirements for HD reception are really the minimum requirements.

If you are more experienced in handling your software set-tings and if your video card supports H264 acceleration, then TeVii has some tricks on hand, how to bring down processor load significantly.This is what’s needed to do: Go to main menu: Settings, Directshow Filters, Cyberlink, Video and in the properties mark “Use Hardware Accelerator” or “DXVA” (depending on your system). Apply the changes and go to the main settings menu of MyTeVii, go to Autograph and proceed like this: If you are using Vista or Windows 7 choose “Enhanced Video Renderer”. If you are using XP choose Video Mixing Renderer 7. That’s all, close settings windows, and restart MyTeVii. Note that the enhanced Video Renderer is not compatible with the IVR mode and thus will work only in simple mode, this means no OSD.
The only feature that was missing from the TeVii S470 PCI-E card was a CI slot. For you, the end user, this means that PayTV reception is not possible. However, there are two solutions to this! You may wait till 3rd Quarter 2009 and TeVii will introduce the S475, which is a DVB-S2 low profile PCI-E card with CI daughter board. It will feature a CAN tuner with a loop through. The other possiblity is software. There are quite a few TV viewers available that work well with the TeVii S470,the most popular and most widely used of these would of course be ProgDVB. Obviously, ProgDVB can’t magi-cally pull a CI slot out of a hat, but it is possible to access another receiver through card sharing using a valid Smart-Card. It could work like this: you have a valid “PayTV subscription” card that is inserted in a receiver in your living room. You set up your PC in such a way that it has access to this receiver through a network connection. With the proper plug-ins, this will let you access the SmartCard in your receiver with the TeVii S470 and thereby share that SmartCard with your living room receiver and the TeVii card.

ProgDVB isn’t the only one out there. There are a number of other programs that together with the S470 will provide you with TV reception. Refer to Table 1 for the necessary links. In meantime, the new MyTeVii 4.xx software, which was not yet available at time of this test, will also support all kind of plugins including softcams, card sharing and so on. We also don’t want to forget the radio lovers out there. The TeVii S470 is not just for TV reception; it naturally can also be used for top-quality satellite radio reception. And just like TV channels, radio channels can also be recorded and digitally stored.

TeVii Data
TeVii doesn’t only specialize in satellite TV and radio reception products; there’s also a completely different application. The magical phrase here is Internet via Satellite. The technology behind this is quite simple: the user sets up a connection via modem or ISDN. The speed of this connection can be a mere 56kbps but it only plays a very small role. If the user surfs the Internet or starts a download, the request is sent via modem to the Internet via Satellite provider which then retrieves the data via a high-speed connection and routes it to a satellite. The customer at the other end only sends the information request via modem to his provider; the information he needs is sent back to him at high speed via satellite.

The only drawback is that every person that can receive the same satellite can also receive the data you requested. Yes, the data is encrypted and only meant for you to receive but there is software available that will bypass this encryption so that the data can be seen by others as well. In our tests, data reception using the TeVii software functioned flawlessly. We didn’t expect any-thing else.

What’s better? PCI-E Card or USB Box?
Unlike the S470 PCI-E card, the TeVii’s S650 is externally connected to a PC via USB 2.0 and powered by an exter-nal power supply. We were interested to find out which of these versions would be better for the end user. To this end we checked the pro-cessor load on our Intel Pentium IV PC in SDTV mode as well as in HDTV (720p and 1080i) mode. We discovered that both the USB version and PCI-E version placed about the same load on the PC.

As you can see in the processor load screen shots, both values are in the same range. The variations that can be seen are due to smaller changes in the video (the same scene shown for a longer period of time) resulting in less of a load on the processor. For the end user the choice ultimately comes down to personal taste. The USB box is clearly more flexible and can also be used on camping trips together with a laptop. The PCI-E version has the advantage that it doesn’t need an external power supply and doesn’t have an external box that takes up valuable space on your desk.

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HD Satellite TV TeVii S650 USB box

April 1st, 2009 zou

TeVii S650 USB box With the S650 Taiwanese manufacturer Satellite Receiver TeVii introduces a further development of its DVB-S USB Box S600, which is now also capable of  Dish Network receiver high-definitions channels HDTV.


The S650 Box comes in a metal case which gives it a very sturdy look and the level of workmanship is also very high. Its backside features a satellite IF input as well as a loop-through output. An external power pack – which is also connected to the rear panel – provides the box with all the power it requires.

On one side we find a USB host interface for connecting the box to a Windows or Linux based PC with USB 2.0. In case you’re wondering: yes, it’s true – TeVii also offers a Linux driver for its latest product. An infrared LED is located behind a protective cover on the front panel for picking up commands from the remote control, a feature that worked brilliantly in our test.

The complete package comes fully equipped with the S650 USB box, the external power pack, a USB 2.0 cable, the remote control, a short user’s guide, batteries for the remote control as well as a CD with all required software and drives. A comprehensive instruction manual is available as PDF.

Everyday use

As minimum system requirements for its new USB Box TeVii specifies Intel Pentium 31GHzor higher, for HDTV capabilities the box requires Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz with 128 or 256 MB RAM respectively, DirectX 9 or higher as well as a graphics card with a minimum of 16 MB dedicated memory. Of course a USB 2.0 port is also required. In general, most modern PCs will be able to meet these requirements, particularly as MS Windows 2000, XP and Vista are all supported. Linux drivers are available as well.

TeVii ships the box with a whole range of software applications such as the TeVii in house software suite, software for Internet-via-satellite, Sky Grabber – which we will discuss later in more detail  and the well-known and popular ProgDVB PC software for DVB-S/2. Our Windows Vista  PC recognized the TeVii S650 box right after plugging it in and prompted us to insert the driver CD. Thank-fully TeVii does not only provide 32-bit Windows drivers but also all 64-bit drivers that Windows Vista64 users need. This was an unexpected surprise and a point we cannot praise highly enough. It can only be hoped that other manufacturers follow TeVii’s example and that way push the upgrade to 64-bit operating platforms.

The required drivers are installed in a breeze and as a next step we recommend installing the full software pack-age from the CD. The installation process of the individual applications is for the most part self-explanatory. When the TeVii software is launched for the very first time the user is greeted by a black window and an empty channel list, as there are no pre-stored channels available. The user interface of myTeVii is clearly structured and looks quite straightforward. To the right we find the channel and satellite list, with the actual Dish TV channel being shown to the left of that. Of course the window size of the Dish Television channel can changed as required and it goes without saying that a full screen presentation mode is avail-able as well. myTeVii is quite inter-national and can be customized for the following languages: English, German, French, Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

The TeVii box supports DiSEqC protocol 1.0 for up to four LNBs as well as protocol 1.1 which means it can be used with a multi-focus antenna. Owners of motorized dishes are looked after as well because both hardware and software are compatible with DiSEqC protocols 1.2 and 1.3 (USALS). USALS settings can be adjusted very conveniently via the settings menu of the TeVii software which fully controls a 1.3-based motorized dish.

In general satellite receiver TeVii in-house software allows a huge range of configuration options, such as defining individual LOF parameters for each satellite. The corresponding values for the Ku and C bands as well as for LNBs used for the reception of circular signals are already pre stored. In addition, a few mouse clicks is all it takes to change the DiSEqC parameters as well.

Once the software has been configured to work with the existing antenna equipment the next step consists of performing a channel search to fill the virtually unlimited channel memory with data. To that end, a preset satellite list with 177 European, Asian and American position is available. This and the corresponding transponder data are very up-to-date, and even if the odd parameter might not be 100% accurate this can be corrected in a whiz by looking up the required settings at SatcoDX.com.

Obviously it is possible to edit satellite and/or transponder data by updating existing entries with only a few mouse clicks or by entering new satellites or transponders just as quickly. If you want to fill the TeVii box’s channel memory it is enough to mark one, several or all transponders of a satellite entry and activate the channel search. The software took a little less than eight minutes to scan a satellite with just over 100 transponders, which is a slightly above average achievement.

During our test the TeVii box delivered some remarkable results. On the one hand it turned out to have a low threshold and to be able to also handle weak signals, such as trans-missions from ASTRA 2D 28.2° East at our test location in Munich, for example. On the other hand it works very well with SCPC signals and has no problems processing low-band-width SCPC signals. Our test transponder on TURKSAT 42° East with a symbol rate of just over 2000 KS/s came in flawlessly.

In reception mode the TeVii can be set to display EPG information in the status bar of the application window, if these data are provided by the respective channel. In addition, a full OSD insert can be called up, which is particularly handy when controlling the box from the couch with the included remote control. We believe the OSD layout deserves special praise as it does not only display the channel name when zap-ping, but also scrollingly provides extended EPG information and this way offers much more detailed background information than we would normally expect when switching channels. This is a truly great feature that we really love! Speaking of special praise, the software turned out to communicate brilliantly with the included remote control which is clearly labelled and convenient to use.

The channel list is another high point and offers a whole lot of sorting and adjusting options. For example, Freesat channel can be sorted according to bouquets, transponders or satellites, TV or radio channels can be faded out with a simple click of a button and you are free to set up several favourite lists. The channel list can be edited directly in the main window. Individual entries can be updated via satellite, renamed or protected with a PIN code from unauthorized viewers, such as children.

For a DVB-S/2 PC solution channel switching is ok with about three seconds. Between HDTV and SDTV channels it takes a little longer. The one major advantage of DVB receiver for the PC is the option to record onto the PC’s hard disk, and this is also one of the draw cards of the Sky Grabber  TeVii. Timer records can be set up effortlessly and time shift is avail-able, meaning that you can freeze the current program at any time and later continue from exactly that point with a single touch of a button. Another practical feature is the TeVii’s software capability of recording all events in a special DVD-compatible mode, in addition to the standard transport stream.

The integrated EPG is a beauty as well and displays all information in an organized way. Events can be marked for recording directly in the EPG, and you can even set up the timer to record daily or weekly events. To make sure you don’t miss a single scene you may even add extra time before the beginning an after the end of every recorded event.

The perfect overall impression of the TeVii software is rounded off by a dedicated plugin interface. This allows software developers to create extensions and add-ons for my TeVii and to offer new and useful features. The only thing we missed really badly during our test was being able to use CI modules for pay TV reception. However, the manufacturer will bundle the card with a USB card reader for some areas at the time when this report gets published.

Image representation and processing power

Our test PC was equipped with an Intel Core2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor and was able to display SDTV and HDTV in either 720p or 1080i absolutely flawlessly, even without draining too much processing power from the system. This means you can work with other applications while watching satellite TV using the my TeVii application. With a slightly older Intel Pentium IV system interference-free HDTV was at first only possible with 720p, while 1080i resulted in a number of dropouts, but the manufacturer responded quickly and released a new software version during our test, which fixed even this problem.

Additional software

While most metropolitan areas have high-speed Internet infrastructure the situation is a little less satisfactory in some rural regions. Frequently there are no cable networks and DSL solutions sometimes don’t work due the large distance between interchange and user. In such cases Internet-via-satellite may become a real alternative and the TeVii Data application that comes with the S650 constitutes the right software tool for that. When installing the software it installs a network driver which allows to set and edit all required TCP/IP parameters. It suffices to select the desired provider (out of a list of 27 providers/satellite positions) or you may choose to enter all details manually. The software then checks if the antenna is aligned correctly and activates Internet access. The SkyGrabber demo software also comes from the field of internet-via-satellite and relies on the fact that – contrary to landline Internet access  internet-via-satellite sends data not to one user specifically, but basically to every one within the satellite’s footprint. Data received from the satellite are filtered and SkyGrabber tries to assemble pieces of music, films etc. to create complete files. Please note, however, that saving third-party material may be illegal under certain circumstances.

Before we finish we have one word of advice for all DX enthusiasts out there: of course you can use the TeVii S650 with, for example, the ProgDVB software with Elecard codec to receive MPEG 4:2:2 feeds, for exam-ple from EUTELSAT W3A at 7° East.

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