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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 06-07-08/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
21. Spark online portal
22. Weather forecast
23. Go to ‘Networking’ for access to YouTube, Shoutcast, Picasa or
RSS feeds, among others
24. YouTube access with the Amiko Alien 2
25. A number of interesting applications for the Amiko Alien 2 are
available from the Spark App Store
26. Recording settings
27. The receiver’s database can be saved onto an external storage
medium
28. Channel list
29. Sorting the channel list according to satellites
30. This menu can be used to activate teletext, different
soundtracks and subtitles
31. Integrated teletext decoder
32. A maximum of two simultaneous recordings (SD or HD) are
possible
33. Channel list with all HD channels
34. Info bar with titles of current and next events
35. EPG overview covering several channels
Amiko Alien 2 will be happy
to work with any of these
setups and make the most
of all received signals.
But don’t just take our
word for – here’s a look at
the specifications: It sup-
ports DiSEqC 1.0 for up to
four LNBs, 1.1 for a total of
16 LNBs, as well as 1.2 and
1.3 for motorised anten-
nas. A number of frequently
used oscillatory frequencies
are already pre-stored, yet
if you need a more out-of-
the-ordinary setting you
can always enter it manu-
ally as well.
DXers and owners of old-
er reception systems will
appreciate the fact that
this receiver can either give
out 13V/18V for switching
between polarisations, or
provide 13V or 18V per-
manently, if required. Both
voltages can be increased
by 0.5V, which is particu-
larly helpful for high-length
cabling.
The Amiko Alien is a
receiver with two fully-
fledged DVB-S2 tuners,
which means that all set-
tings can be adjusted indi-
vidually for each tuner. In
case you want or have to
use this box with only a sin-
gle line it is possible to hand
over the signal from tuner
1 to tuner 2 – this is neatly
implemented in the operat-
ing software.
When you’re ready to ini-
tiate a channel search you
can either go for a fully au-
tomatic mode across one
or several transponders, or
you may of course just as
well define a manual search
on one or more transpond-
ers.
Since we’re dealing with
a top-notch receiver here
there is a blind scan option
available, and any search
can be restricted to TV, ra-
dio, FTA TV and FTA radio.
Network scan can be acti-
vated to make sure all tran-
sponders belonging to the
same provider are found
more easily.
Once again, DXers will
give high marks for manual
PID entry in the transpond-
ers search menu.
All of these functions are
presented clearly and in a
self-explanatory way, cre-
ating a very pleasing us-
er-experience overall. Not
once did we have to consult
the user manual and we’re
sure even less technology-
savvy users will instantly
get along with the Amiko
Alien 2.
What’s more, the per-
formance of the various
search modes left us just as
impressed.
The standard search on
HOTBIRD 13° East only took
four minutes and resulted in
1490 TV channels and 410
radio stations, while a blind
scan on the same position
yielded 1745 TV channels
and 477 radio station after
six minutes.
If you need to add addi-
tional transponders and edit
or delete existing entries
you’ll appreciate the built-
in transponder editor, while