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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 04-05/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
16. Easy channel search with
OSD keyboard
17. Teletext
18. Favourites lists can easily
be edited and renamed
19. Channels can be moved to
the favourites list with a single
touch of a button
20. Audio settings
column, while the right col-
umn shows all correspond-
ing sub-items that belong
to any given menu section.
We ventured into the ‘Pref-
erences’ right away, which
is required to make sure re-
ceiver and TV panel work on
common ground.
The STHD-8820 CICXE
PVR offers video in 576i,
576p, 720p 50Hz, 720p
60Hz, 1080i 50 Hz, 1080i
60Hz as well as 1080p for ei-
ther 50Hz or 60Hz devices. It
goes without saying that we
went for maximum quality
and chose 1080p – after all
it’s a nice move by the man-
ufacturer to provide hard-
ware that can deal natively
with 1080p sources. As far
as video settings are con-
cerned you can also select
how 4:3 material should be
displayed on a 16:9 screen
(letterbox or pan & scan), as
you would expect from any
HDTV receiver.
In the ‘Preferences’ sec-
tion you can select your
settings for OSD language,
audio, subtitles, EPG and
teletext. The receiver comes
with a real-time clock (RTC)
that can either be set manu-
ally, or you can have it pick
up the time signal that is
transmitted on DVB-T and
DVB-S data streams. If you
choose the automatic option
you have to indicate the time
difference between your
time zone and GMT so that
the receiver can calculate
the correct local time. While
it is possible to change be-
tween standard and daylight
saving time, this has to be
done manually as the manu-
facturer has not implement-
ed automatic adjustment.
The ‘Preferences’ section
is also the place to go for a
range of channel list options
and for adjusting contrast,
brightness and transparency
of the OSD.
They say that looks can be
deceiving, so we tried to find
out if the receiver can live
up to its outside promises.
First, its channel list has to
be filled with TV and radio
channels – and off we went
to the antenna settings and
channel search. Before we
proceeded our eyes seemed
to be glued to a menu item
that read ‘Auto Install’. Out
of sheer curiosity we called
up that function and after a
few moments the receiver
had found out the precise
configuration and DiSEqC
setup of our reception in-
stallation. And before we
knew it a channel search
had started on all satellites.
Of course you can always
choose to do all the work
yourself and select ‘Satellite
Settings’, which allows you
to define parameters such
as DiSEqC protocol (1.0 for
up to four LNBs, 1.1 for up
to 16 LNBs, 1.2 and 1.3 for
controlling motorised anten-
nas) and LOF values (prede-
fined – even for SCR LNBs
– or free to select). The list
of default satellites includes
28 positions, made up of
those birds that are most
commonly used in Europe.
Considering the fact that the
AMIKO STHD-8820 CICXE
PVR comes with a switchable
12V output we would have
expected a more compre-
hensive list, to be honest, or
at least a few positions that
are off the beaten track.
For the actual channel
search, the following options
are available: Single Scan,
TP Scan, TP Edit, Auto DiS-
EqC and Auto Scan. Single
Scan stands for a search
performed across an en-
tire satellite, while TP Scan
can be selected if only one
transponder needs to be
scanned. For both types the
scan be restricted to FTA
channels, TV, radio or TV
and radio. In addition, both
search modes can be per-
formed with or without net-
work scan turned on. If you
need to adjust the internal
transponder list you best se-
lect TP Edit which allows you
to add, delete or edit indi-
vidual entries. Auto Scan is