TEST REPORT
10-11/2007
40
TELE-satellite & Broadband
—
10-11/2007 — www.TELE-satellite.com
First PVR
for HDTV
HDTV Receiver
Eycos S80.12 HD
No matter whether
it’s Anga Cable, Cabsat or Cebit, the catch-
word at all consumer electronics fairs these days is HDTV. While
standard set-top boxes with CI interfaces were the talk of the town
last year, this year manufactures have made another leap forward
and proudly present their new HDTV PVR receivers to a stunned
audience.
EYCOS S80.12 HD
Works reliably and flawlessly,
HDTV makes fun with this box
One of the first companies to
add such a unit to their prod
-
uct range is the up-and-coming
Korean company Eycos, which
has teamed up with tried-and-
tested distributor Satforce
for the German-speaking and
European markets.
Naturally, our expectations
were high when one of the first
boxes of the S80.12 HD series
arrived directly off the assem
-
bly line at our editorial office.
When we unpacked the unit all
colleagues present agreed that
the looks of the receiver were
simply perfect. Finally, a manu-
facturer has decided to do away
with all those labels und logos
on the front panel indicating
DiSEqC, MPEG, DD or whatever
else there might be to brag
about included features. We
cannot praise this enough and
hope that other manufacturers
will follow suit so that stylishly
designed boxes will not be spoilt
by too many logos any longer.
After it has been switched on
the blue 9-digit alphanumeric
display is illuminated which
– together with the seven silver
buttons on the front panel and
the black case – creates a per
-
fect appearance.
Generally, owners of this
product are advised to keep a
ready supply of spare batter-
ies for the remote control, as
the buttons on the box can only
be used to perform a limited
number of operations. Two CI
slots are hidden behind a flap
on the right side of the front
panel and can take up all stan-
dard CA modules like Irdeto,
Seca, Viaccess, Conax, Crypto-
works, Alphacrypt etc.
If the front panel excites you,
then the rear panel will prob
-
ably leave you lost for words.
Apart from all the usual sus
-
pects such as satellite IF input
and loop-through output, digi-
tal audio output, scart and RCA
sockets for stereo audio and
video, YUV and – naturally,
for a HDTV receiver – HDMI it
impresses thanks to USB 2.0
and S-ATA interfaces.
While the reasoning behind
the USB 2.0 interface is pretty
clear to us, most of you will prob-
ably ask about the purpose of
the S-ATA interface. The answer
is quite simple, really: as one of
the first manufacturers of PVRs
Eycos has come to appreciate
the fact that the permanently
integrated receiver harddisk in
many cases is far from being
the perfect solution.
Firstly, consumers are forced
to decide about the size of
the harddisk right at the shop
where they buy the device, and
exchanging the harddisk after-
wards is not only a tricky job
but also requires an authorised
dealer in order to make sure
the warranty does not become
void.
Secondly, it generally can
be a tiresome job to connect
a receiver to a PC in order to
transfer data because more
often than not the PC is located
in a different room of the
house and endless cables are
required.
Thirdly, many people like to
bring their recordings to friends
or their holiday home without
having to create a DVD first.
All these reasons clearly point
to a clear solution, which is an
external harddisk.
Eycos has realised that this
is what consumers demand and
any external harddisk can be
used with their latest device, no
matter whether it sports a USB
2.0 or S-ATA interface.
You can even connect a hard-
disk to both interfaces in which
case the receiver will ask which
disk to use every time you start
a recording or set a timer for a
External Freecom 500GB harddisk
(55 pagine)
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