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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 06-07-08/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
36. Timer entries can be created right from the EPG
37. Various repeat recording options can be used in order not to
miss an interesting broadcast
38. MP3 playback
39. Playing back a previously stored recording
40. Image viewer
one of the many smart fea-
tures of the receiver is that
you can press the INFO but-
ton on the remote to call up
a listing of the entire tran-
sponder content without
adding the channels to the
channel list.
While most of our readers
are deeply interested in the
technical aspects of receiv-
ers we review, the average
user out there simply wants
to watch TV without any
fuss. It is precisely for them
that Amiko has implement-
ed Auto DiSEqC detection,
which means the receiver
finds out all by itself which
DiSEqC port has to be used
for the currently selected
satellite.
We truly love how this
manufacturer achieves a
balancing act between of-
fering special treats to pros
and DXers and pleasing
your average Joe.
Talking about user-friend-
liness, we’d like to go back
to blind scan once again:
First, all active transpond-
ers on both polarisations (or
on one only, if requested)
are looked for.
While at work searching
the receiver displays an
oscillator diagram – even
though this turned out to
be eye-candy without much
actual use.
The second step involves
analysing all found active
transponders and reading
all channels and feeds on
those transponders. On the
one hand this reduces the
duration for the blind scan
to an absolute minimum,
while on the other hand it
makes sure all available
transponders are found re-
liably.
Let’s turn to DVB-T/C now,
which also creates an excel-
lent first impression. It, too,
features either an automat-
ic or manual channel search
and in automatic mode our
test receiver required four
minutes for a search across
the entire frequency band.
If you opt for the man-
ual mode you can define
the frequency that is to be
scanned based on a pre-
stored list for the VHF and
UHF ranges.
Unfortunately, the Amiko
Alien 2 does not allow stor-
ing DVB-T and DVB-C chan-
nels in a single channel
list. As soon as the recep-
tion mode is changed in the
basic settings the existing
channel list is deleted and
the receiver shuts down and
re-starts again.
We tested both DVB-T and
DVB-C reception and are
happy to report that both
worked absolutely flawless-
ly with the Alien 2.
Now that DVB-S and DVB-
T/C channel searches have
filled our channel list with
hundreds of offerings we
can finally move from theo-
ry to practice.
But wait a minute – we’d
better bring some order
into our channel list first,
which vastly enhances our
viewing pleasure later.
The Amiko sports a dedi-
cated menu item for chan-
nel list management which
allows deleting, moving,
renaming or PIN-locking
one or several channels at
a time. In addition, a total
of 32 favourites lists can be
set up and filled.
Once again, this menu
item creates a very pleas-
ant user experience which
takes a lot of pain out of
channel list editing. A tidy
house, a tidy mind – we
couldn’t agree more!
One last thought before
we finally start with the
practical section of our re-
view: In the old days we
had a handful of channels
and we almost knew their
daily offering by heart.
These days, it is impossible
to know what comes on TV
and if you have children you