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04-05/2012
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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 04-05/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
An HD Compatible
Mini DVB-S2 Receiver
The SCART connector is
very widely used in Europe
and for many years there
have been small satellite
receivers that you simply
plugged into the SCART
connector. But when the
SCART connector was de-
veloped, there was at that
time no HDTV and as a re-
sult these little SCART re-
ceivers don‘t measure up
to today‘s requirements. In
order to display HD content
on a TV, you have to use the
HDMI jack.
And it‘s exactly this con-
cept that Skyworth has
addressed: the Skyworth
HS18 is the first mini re-
ceiver with an HDMI output.
With the HS18 the HDMI ca-
ble is a mere 10cm in length
and not only that, it‘s incor-
porated directly into the re-
ceiver. This lets the set top
box disappear completely
behind the TV right next to
the HDMI jack.
Thanks to the included
mounting material, the 100g
HS18 can easily be fixed in
place so that the tension
on the HDMI cable won‘t
be too much. It‘s small 11
x 7 x 1.7cm size takes up
almost no space at all and
yet comes with all the dif-
ferent connection capabili-
ties you‘d expect to find in
a modern receiver. This in-
cludes, of course, the satel-
lite IF input, a USB 2.0 in-
terface for external storage
devices, a port for an RS232
adapter plug, a jack to plug
in the external IR receiver
as well as a jack for the ex-
ternal 12V power supply.
The package also includes
a small but handy remote
control. The buttons are
clearly labeled and provide
a comfortable back pres-
sure when pressed.
One of the LEDs that is
integrated into the infrared
receiver shows the current
operational status of the
box, if it‘s red the receiver is
in standby and if it‘s green
the receiver is in opera-
tion. All in all, we were quite
pleased with the workman-
ship quality of the Skyworth
HS18 and we also liked that
it‘s just a little bit larger
than a pack of cigarettes.
When you turn the re-
ceiver on for the first time,
you‘re greeted with the
main menu and its six sub-
menus. As usual, we started
with the system settings
with which you can set up
the receiver to your per-
sonal requirements. The
very fist step is to select the
desired OSD language. You
can choose from English,
French, German, Italian,
Spanish Portuguese, Rus-
sian, Turkish, Polish, Arabic
as well as Farsi.
The HS18 works quite well
with the available TV equip-
ment in that it supports
picture resolutions in 480i,
480p, 576i, 576p, 720p
50Hz, 720p 60 Hz, 1080i 50
Hz, 1080i 60 Hz as well as
1080p 50 Hz and 1080p 60
Hz. Clearly, if you own the
HS18, you will be perfectly
prepared for the day when
HDTV is transmitted via
satellite in 1080p. We also
found the two Auto modes
quite practical whereby in
the first mode the resolution
is automatically matched to
the incoming satellite sig-
nal while the second mode
orients the receiver to the
resolution of the TV.
All of these capabilities
are even further enhanced
by the automatic time syn-
chronization. Skyworth put
some thought into this and
doesn‘t ask the user to en-
ter the local time differ-
ence from GMT but rather
provides a list of countries
and cities to choose from.
We found this to be not
only more practical but also
much more customer-ori-
ented! Other settings possi-
bilities include the ability to
individually set the sharp-
ness, contrast and bright-
ness of the video output.
Once the Skyworth HS18
has been matched to the
Skyworth HS-18 DVB-S2
Sophisticated, fully-featured
miniature receiver
www.TELE-satellite.com/
TELE-satellite-1205/eng/skyworth.pdf
TEST REPORT
Miniature HDTV Receiver