_default _116_pages.indd - TELE-satellite International Magazine

FEATURE
Buyer’s Guide
The Features of
a New Satellite
Receiver
Heinz Koppitz
Satellite receivers have undergone some significant
improvements over the past several years. Not only has the
transmission technology improved, they’ve become much
more intelligent, faster and more comfortable – and even
more energy efficient. We’ve put together a list of features
that you should look for when buying a new satellite receiver.
HDMI with 1080 Lines
High definition television brought with
it a substantially better picture: a fully
digitized data transmission and the jump
from PALs 576 lines (480 lines for NTSC)
to 1080 lines. This only goes to show that
the analog video signal with S-Video and
even the Scart system with RGB outputs
has become obsolete. Modern satellite
receivers now come with the new small
HDMI output that carries the 1080 lines of
resolution from the receiver to the TV.
HDMI also works with standard resolution.
This is accomplished with “upscaling”.
These satellite receivers calculate the lines
that are missing and add the result to the
standard signal such that 1080i resolution
is achieved. This “upscaled” signal can be
viewed on any modern “HD-Ready” LCD TV.
Keep in mind that this is not the real high
definition TV that is possible with 1080p
resolution.
Alphanumeric Display
on the Receiver
Up until now the display of channel
names on the front panel was only avail-
28 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 12-01/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com
able in a few receiver models. But today
this technology is considered standard and
you’ll find this feature now even on lowerend
receiver models. This type of display
shows the title of the program and sometimes
even programming information. The
increasing number of radio listeners that
utilize quality satellite reception no longer
need to turn on their TV; the name of the
radio channel is shown in the receiver’s display.
USB Connection
for Data Transfer
In earlier receiver models it was the
serial interface that allowed communication
between the receiver and a PC. Today
it’s the USB interface that takes care of this
task. But USB lets you do much more: you
can insert a USB memory stick to handle an
ever increasing number of functions: upload
a new channel list, upgrade the receivers
operating software and even temporarily
record time-shifted programs.
User-Settable
Blind Scan
Searching for digital signals has just
about reached the same capability as that
for analog signals where a user simply had
to press a Scan button. The disadvan-
tage of digital and compression technology
where multiple parameters needed to be
entered is now a thing of the past. Receivers
have become so intelligent that they
can find not only parameters such as symbolrate,
polarization and PIDs all by themselves,
but transponder frequencies as well.
A Blind Scan can differentiate between a
channel carrying a TV signal and one that
is data only. In many cases the user can
optimize the scan speed by adjusting what
frequency steps to use during a blind scan,
whether to look for radio or TV channels
and also what symbolrate range should be
used.
Easy Channel
Organization
Where in the past it was more difficult
to arrange the TV and radio channels in
a more logical order for quicker channel
access, today multiple Favorites lists make
this much easier. But if you prefer to select
a channel directly from the main channel
list, you will also find easy-to-use editing
functions here such as moving and deleting
channels. External editors allowing users
to organize channel lists on a PC are also
becoming more and more standard – a feature
especially useful with multifeed and
motorized systems.
Environmental
Friendliness
Satellite receivers are consistently being
designed to use less and less energy. 12W
in use and 4W in standby are becoming the
norm. Main power switches let you completely
turn off power to the receiver. New
boot routines guarantee that no settings
data will be lost when a receiver is turned
back on and that reception will quickly be
restored.
Because of all these improvements, it
would be well worth it to eventually, or at
the very least when you go out and buy a
new LCD TV, to replace your current satellite
receiver with a newer model that incorporates
all of the previously mentioned
features.