Azbox me

TEST REPORT Linux HD Receiver

TELE-satellite Magazine

The New Business Voucher
www.TELE-satellite.info/12/03/azbox-me
Direct Contact to Sales Manager

Super
Receiver

• Can be started in three different user interfaces
• Comes with an extremely sensitive tuner
• Already a fully functional multimedia box
• Very low heat generation guarantees long
hardware life
• Includes learning remote control and reset
button in case of unsuitable images

16 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 02-03/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 17

TEST REPORT Linux HD Receiver

What‘s the difference be- a mix of brushed aluminum
tween a super receiver and a and a black acrylic visor be-
normal receiver? hind which can be found a
If it‘s a Linux receiver VFD display. The shape of
you‘re talking about, then the receiver is easy to de-
the answer is clear: it‘s when scribe: it is perfectly square
it can boot in more than all around (25cm x 24 cm x
just one Linux image. For 4 cm).
the Linux operating system The simple design of the
there are a number of very receiver was also carried
sophisticated user interfaces over to the front visor which
that each have there own is just as minimalistic in de-
special highlights. sign. You can only see a sin-
TELE-satellite has already gle button surrounded by an preciated the simple design; BOOT Normal/Recovery. If a Sigma backed out of the even though it does make
reported on Linux receivers LED ring the color of which it doesn‘t always have to be problem ever occurs during OpenMIPS project. That‘s sense to be able to turn the
that can boot in two different indicates the operational a complex geometric shape. a firmware flash, there‘s no too bad. Although it‘s not receiver completely off if it
images. But the brand new status of the receiver, as well Sometimes less is more. need to panic! Simply move that big a tragedy; it would won‘t be used for a while.
AZBox ME can actually start as a VFD display that can Since the housing isn‘t coat- the switch over to Recovery still have been a MIPS pro- Pulling the plug out is not
with three different images show alphanumeric charac- ed in a glossy paint, you can and load new firmware via cessor based Android which the best way to kill power to
and that for us makes it a ters in blue and a USB port. handle the receiver as much the network. For the user means it couldn‘t have been the receiver especially if the
super receiver. Naturally the It was nice to see that the as you want without having this means no more worry- used to access the Google cables are all nicely placed
AZBox ME can do a lot more AXBox designers installed why some manufacturers to worry about getting fin- ing about accidentally up- Market not to mention the behind a cabinet.
than just start with three dif- the USB port in the proper don‘t install the USB port gerprints on the surface. loading the wrong firmware thousands of apps that can The available YUV jacks
ferent user interfaces. orientation so that a USB the proper way. A stylish „Z“ It was at this point that or having the power go out be found there - these are are perfect for those who
This surprising receiver stick won‘t face down when made out of brushed alumi- a question came to mind: during a flash process. all laid out for ARM proces- have, for example, a video
makes quite an impression. it‘s inserted. It‘s a minor num, the logo of the AZBox 02-03/2012 shouldn‘t this receiver have a And while we‘re talking sors. But since AZBox manu- projector, that still don‘t
The housing is made of black detail but, nevertheless, family, rounds out the front AZBox ME card reader? We checked the about flashing, the AZBox facturer OpenSAT makes the have their own digital inputs.
Today's absolute
metal while the front visor is we can‘t quite understand panel of the receiver. We ap- best Linux Receiver back of the box and didn‘t ME has the largest capac- source codes available to any The component outputs pro-
find one there. Only when ity memory that we know interested developer, there‘s vide a way to enjoy HDTV
we looked at the right side of. A fat 512MB lets us in- still hope that something will using an analog pathway.
did we find a slit in the hous- stall three firmware images happen with Android. The AZBox ME only comes
ing. Yep, that must be it. The in parallel. During the boot The rear panel also sports with one tuner but it has a
card reader supports Conax process, Bank 0, 1 or 2 can an HDMI port and RCA jacks looped-through output so
SmartCards. If you want to be selected. These banks for component outputs that additional receivers can
use this card reader, keep in can be flashed however the (YUV) as well as composite be connected. In addition
mind that the SmartCard will user likes so that there‘s re- video and audio (L+R). In to instructions for program-
stick out about 2cm so you ally no excuse not to try ev- addition there‘s e-SATA, USB ming the three flash posi-
have to make sure there is ery available image! 2.0 and an optical audio out- tions and a pocket guide,
enough room on the side of The receiver comes put. there‘s also a remote control
the receiver. shipped with two different We also liked the main and a SATA cable as well as a
When we took a closer Linux images (Bank 0 and 1). power switch that can be set of screws.
look at the receiver‘s rear Actually, Android should also used to turn the receiver Since a Linux receiver can
panel, we instantly noticed be part of this but at the last completely off. Many manu- only reach its full poten-
an inconspicuous switch: moment chip manufacturer facturers omit this switch tial with a hard drive, we
acquired a 2.5“ SATA hard
drive. You could, of course,
also use an external hard
drive via the USB port or
e-SATA interface, but this
would disturb the harmony

0.51 in the living room by add-
ing more visible components
and cables.
Installing the hard drive is
easy. A total of seven screws
need to be removed from
the receiver housing in order
to get the top cover off. The
designers of the AZBox ME
came through once again:
a sheet metal box is mount-


ed to the housing with four ous steps. First on the list
screws; it can hold a 2.5“ was selecting the language.
as well as 3.5“ hard drive. It‘s interesting to note that
We never expected that this you can also choose „Bavar-
little receiver would also ian“ as one of the languages.
be able to hold a 3.5“ hard Next come the video set-
drive! Another plus point! tings. Lastly comes the tuner
Once everything was configuration and the start
screwed back together, the of a channel scan. We tested
hard drive was automatically the firmware with our DiS-
recognized. It was format- EqC 1.0 antenna system that
ted through the Hard Drive consists of four antennas
menu. Included were all of pointed to ASTRA 28.2E, AS-
the typical PVR functions TRA 19.2E, HOTBIRD 13.0E
such as Timeshift and timer and HISPASAT 30W. The
recordings. channel scan revealed the
The AZBox ME remote con- expected number of chan-
trol is ideal. Even though it‘s nels and did so in a speedy
rather unremarkable and not fashion.
all that luxurious, it does sit With a freshly generat-
nicely in your hands with all ed and therefore unsorted
of the buttons easily reach- channel list it might not be
able with your thumb. much fun channel surfing; it
The arrow buttons are would probably take quite a
surrounded by a ring of six few button pushes to wade
additional buttons. This ar- through the thousands of
rangement might take a little channels before you‘d find a
getting used to in that, for channel you like.
example, you could acciden- This Linux operating sys-
tally press the EPG button tem functions in a beautifully
instead of the down-arrow different way: the up/down
button. But it won‘t take long buttons as expected switch
before you get used to the between one channel at a
setup and are able to keep time forwards or backwards
the buttons separate from while the left/right buttons
one another. switch between providers.
The highlight of the remote They are automatically ar-
control can actually be found ranged by satellite. Once you
inside the battery compart- get used to this simple logic,
ment: there you‘ll find a but- you can switch amazingly
ton that activates the learn- fast between channels.
ing function. This makes it Naturally you can use a
possible to reprogram the variety of settings editors
right button in the first row to modify the settings. We
to, say, turn your TV on and recommend the excellent
off. But, of course, you can freeware „DreamSet“ (www.
reprogram this button to dreamset-editor.com) since
handle every other possible it‘s compatible with the dif-
function. ferent firmware versions of
The AZBox ME is delivered the AZBox ME so that you
with two pre-installed Linux only need one editor for both
images; the user is immedi- images.
ately given a choice between Operating the Boot (0) im-
the two images. Even though age is for the most part logi-
both of them are Linux imag- cal and self-explanatory. The
es, they both use completely Boot (0) firmware left us with
different user interfaces. We an overall good impression.
selected „Boot (0)“ to start It‘s easy to see that we‘re
with. An assistant recog- dealing with a mature oper-
nized the first-time use and ating system in which every
guided us through the vari- function has been perfectly

20 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 02-03/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

integrated. We quickly be- After spending some time
came acclimated to the EPG with this image, our curiosity
and the Videotext feature got the better of us and we
also functioned lightning couldn‘t wait any longer; we
fast with its unlimited page had to try the image at „Boot
memory. It‘s curious though: (1)“. To accomplish this we
while watching a channel, a had to perform a reset and
push of the red button dis- then while restarting the re-
plays a small „Event List“ ceiver we had to hold down
menu from which EPG infor- the „1“ button on the remote
mation can be accessed. A control until the receiver
fourth menu point is labeled confirmed our selection. The
„Technical Information“ and receiver‘s boot loader recog-
makes it possible to display a nizes the last selected image
variety of relevant informa- and boots it automatically so
tion on the currently running that when switching images
program. All the PIDs are the user simply needs to se-
shown as is information on lect 0, 1 or 2 during the boot
resolution and reception plus process.
there‘s a black box on the A totally different greet-
right side that is supposed to ing image appeared and
display a graphic with BER, after only a short loading
SNR, signal and bitrate. Al- time we could clearly see
though these values are that a completely different
also shown numerically, the user interface was loaded.
graphic was not displayed. Even though the skin of the
Hopefully this will be cor- interface was adapted to
rected in a future version of the AZBox ME, we instantly
the firmware; a satellite DX- recognized one of the most
ers heart beats faster with popular operating systems
this kind of information and of Linux satellite receivers.
if it‘s displayed graphically, As before, an assistant
it then makes it possible to once again guided us through
observe this data over time. the initial setup. In the first
We entered the IP address step the video output and
of the AZBox ME into the PCs resolution are selected.
Mozilla Firefox browser to Next the user selects from
test if it would be presented a list of many different lan-
in the web frontend. And guages whereby a small flag
sure enough, a page was is shown next to the lan-
opened with an abundance guage name. It‘s a small but
of functions. useful element if you can‘t
You can access the EPG read the English spelling of
information for all channels, each language.
switch between channels After a short introduc-
and stream them into the tion to navigating with the
browser and display them remote control, the next
using the browser‘s VLC step was the configura-
plug-in. tion of the tuner. You can
You don‘t have to sit in choose between a simplified
front of the TV; you can ac- automatic configuration or
cess the receiver through an expanded configuration
the network. You can also for more complex satel-
completely configure the lite systems. We opted with
AZBox ME through the web the simple configuration for
frontend, set up timer re- DiSEqC 1.0 with four inputs
cordings - you can even call (A, B, C and D).
up a virtual remote control. The last step was starting
It‘s unbelievable how far the an automatic channel scan.
integration between the re- After just a few minutes it
ceiver and browser has gone. was complete and we could


check out the functions. in how easy it would be to such a way that there is no
Channel surfing was clocked program a recording and if conflict between them.
at 2-3 seconds between FTA the receiver could correctly
HD channels and 1-2 seconds handle this programmed re- • Attempt to timer record
for FTA SD channels. The cording coming out of stand- two overlapping programs
EPG information was dis- by mode. We came up with on the same transponder.
played very nicely; you can the following situations: Result: the receiver didn‘t
select from different display have any problems here; it
modes and even lengthier • Recording from Standby can handle multiple record-
program descriptions are to- with the antenna already ings on the same transpon-
tally readable. The PVR func- pointed at the correct satel- der.
tions are also available with lite. Result: the recording
this image as they were with was handled without any At this point we wanted to
the Boot (0) image. problems. test how well suited the AZ-
The Timeshift function can Box ME would be for satellite
be activated at any time - all • Recording while watch- DXers. Somewhat different
you have to do is push the ing another channel in which criteria are important here.
Pause button. Oddly enough, the antenna was pointed at Satellite DXers want to be
the real Pause function was a different satellite. Result: able to receive rare or weak
programmed into the yellow no problems here either. signals. Most of the time this
button. The AZBox ME promptly involves feeds, that is, brief
Recordings are not started displayed a message on the transmissions such as with
with the Record button (this screen that because of a live broadcasts.
switched the receiver over to timer recording the satellite In many cases these
radio mode) but rather with has to be changed. It then transmissions are unedited,
the red button. We‘re deal- switched to the programmed something that can be very
ing here with a contradiction channel. Outstanding! entertaining especially if you
in the keyboard layout that is happen to catch a blooper
due to the OpenSource Linux • Attempt to timer record or some other mishap that
operating system. Neverthe- two overlapping programs would normally not make it
less, it didn‘t take long to get on two different transpon- to the regular transmission.
used to this arrangement. ders. Result: in this case the Many feeds are encrypted,
receiver displayed a mes- but luckily not all of them.
Recordings can be started sage that involved two over- But often enough the MPEG
at any time, although we lapping programs. The user 4:2:2 format is used which
were much more interested needs to select recordings in can handle a larger color


space so that an acceptable
picture can be displayed
even after it has been edited
several times over.
Standard receivers can‘t
do anything with this format
and therefore can‘t display

this type of transmission. firmware versions. The most
But this makes the AZBox ME critical component is already
amazing in that it can play in place: a BlindScan-com-
back this format without any patible tuner!
lag! This fact alone would be To see how well the AZ-
a great selling point in feed Box ME works with motor- ASTRA 2D to see if we could ties of this receiver but we
hunter circles. ized antennas, we hooked up receive BBC HD. Well, how still hadn‘t checked out the
To test it we found sev- the receiver to our 1.0-me- about that! The tuner, de- multimedia side of this box.
eral transponders with MPEG ter offset antenna with DiS- spite a small antenna, a So, we decided to copy a
4:2:2 feeds. We had luck EqC 1.2 motor. We asked misaligned motor and bad number of movies from the
with the first transponder the receiver to perform an weather was able to receive AVI container via FTP onto
and were able to watch a automatic channel scan on the problem transponder 50 the receiver‘s hard drive and
live broadcast. To verify that 14 different satellites. Since (10847 V 23000, 8/9) on AS- in a second test we connect-
this was indeed a transmis- this task would take some TRA 2D and display it with- ed an external USB 2.0 hard
sion with MPEG compres- time, we let the receiver run out any interference. drive that contained multi-
sion in 4:2:2, we recorded overnight. Additional traits of a good media content.
the transponder stream (TS) We woke up the next tuner include the ability to All of the movies were
and copied it to our PC us- morning anxious to see if the receive small symbol rates played back without any
ing FTP. The Open Source receiver was successfully and also to display a pic- problems; even DivX coded
tool „Mediainfo“ (mediainfo. able to handle the job or if ture even if the signal is movies were handled without
sourceforge.net/en) offers it crashed, something that weak. With that in mind we any difficulties. We weren‘t,
the necessary assistance in happens all too often with turned our dish to TELSTAR however, able to display sub-
that in addition to the Codec, other receivers. 12 at 15W and called up the titles in SRT format; but this
the Chrome Profile is also To our relief we found that 11566H transponder. This is normal: we don‘t know of
shown. the receiver was still running uses a symbol rate/FEC of any receiver that can do this.
Feedhunters love to use a and that it had found a total 5625 ½. BYU TV was dis- The AZBox ME surprised us
function called BlindScan in of 6136 services (TV, radio played without any hesita- once again when we inadver-
which the entire frequency and data). This was impres- tion worth mentioning. tently tried to open an AVI
range of an LNB is scanned sive especially because a We also attempted the file that originated from our
in a very short time for ac- storm passed through dur- Russian INTER+ channel on Fuji S9000 camera. These
tive transponders without ing the test that knocked our the same satellite that was videos normally can only be
having to enter in additional antenna slightly out of align- broadcasting on 10988H opened under Windows and
parameters such as symbol ment and therefore was no with a symbol rate/FEC of quite often a Codec from the
rate or FEC. longer optimally aligned. 2180 ¾. This transponder camera manufacturer would
Although the AZBox ME Instead of trying to per- had already been found dur- also have to be installed. Be-
currently doesn‘t have a fectly realign the antenna, ing our overnight channel fore we realized what we had
BlindScan feature, the addi- which was not possible be- scan. done, the receiver played
tion of this function has been cause of the ongoing storm, Thus far we‘ve been very the video back without any
promised for one of the next we turned the antenna to impressed with the capabili- difficulties at all.


Playing movies back from
a hard drive is all by itself a
types and confirmed to our
satisfaction that it was no
downloaded into the receiver
and, of course, Plugins can
movie, that we earlier copied
to the receiver‘s hard drive
We could have tested this
receiver for days on end; we
other multimedia devices.
The vast array of functions in
Expert Opinion
Best Linux receiver with outstanding hard-
beautiful thing, but it would bother for the AZBox ME to be manually copied via FTP via FTP, and stream it to the were always discovering new this receiver will blow away
ware
be far better to be able to play back DivX data via the to the AZBox ME and then PC via VLC through the web and fascinating features or even the most experienced Factory-equipped with two Linux images
have direct access to our network. installed. frontend. capabilities in this little pow- enthusiasts and they‘d have Large flash memory can administer three
images
multimedia server on which
can be found a nicely or-
Another great feature is
the integrated YouTube cli-
And just like with the first
image, we also opened the
Throughout the entire
test, during which the AZ-
erhouse. The AZBox ME is
truly a super receiver.
the ability to always try out
new functions, Plugins and
+ Emergency image can be activated through a
switch Vitor Martins Augusto
ganized library of music, ent. This lets you watch Mozilla Firefox browser on Box ME was thoroughly put Normal, everyday users images. TELE-satellite
Low heat dissipation Test Center
pictures and movies. The YouTube videos through the our PC in the Boot (1) image. through its paces, the re- will be satisfied with every Even for the most sophis- No cooling fan Portugal

server allows via SAMBA free AZBox ME on your TV. The And just like before we were ceiver remained remarkably aspect of this box: it comes ticated satellite DXer, this
access to this data. text entry in the search field able to access nearly all of cool even though there was with a fast processor and the receiver would be an incred-
We spent a few moments with the keyboard was actu- the AZBox ME‘s functions via no cooling fan. Every other modern firmware permits in- ibly fascinating machine - it – BlindScan function not yet available (coming soon)
with the AZBox‘s network ally quite fast and it was fun the web frontend although Linux receiver that we know tuitive operation. Three dif- comes with a highly modern
settings and were able to es- playing with this application. it was a completely differ- of gets quite hot and even ferent firmware images can tuner that also happens to
tablish a connection rather The incredible assortment ent web frontend; one that puts out more heat in stand- be installed at the same time be extremely sensitive plus
TECHNICAL
DATA
quickly. Instantly a new hard of features in this receiver was suitable to the Boot (1) by mode than the AZBox ME so that it‘s easy to try out a it can handle professional
Manufacturer OpenSAT Ltd, Lagoa, 4950-283 Mazedo, Portugal
drive appeared in the mul- can be even limitlessly ex- image. There are so many does in normal operational different image. MPEG 4:2:2 transmissions.
Website www.azbox.com
timedia player from which panded with the installation functions that you could use mode. This guarantees that Even the most daring at- The AZBox ME manufacturer
E-Mail info@azbox.com
we could access our server of Plugins. There are already that you‘ll always discover the internal hard drive and tempts at flashing the mem- OpenSAT has already said
Model AZBox ME
through the network. We a number of Plugins avail- something new. We were the electronics will have a ory no longer pose any risk that they will shortly be add-
tested a variety of media able that can be directly able, for example, to take a long and healthy life. since the little switch on the ing BlindScan as well. Function Digital HDTV / Linux Receiver with Multimedia
Features and large Flashmemory for 3 Boot Images

Processor (CPU) SIGMA SMP 8655 AD

RAM Memory DDR 256 MB

Video Memory DDR 256 MB

Flash Memory 512MB

Tuner Availink AVL2108 Single Tuner, Blindscan capable

DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, USALS

Harddrives eSATA and internal SATA (2.5“ or 3.5“)

Video Out HDMI, YUV and Composite-Video

Video Containers MPEG1/2/4 (M1V, M2V, M4V); MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG);
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS),
VOB, AVI, ASF, WMV, IFO, ISO; Matroska (MKV),
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video Codecs XVID SD/HD; MPEG-1; MPEG-2: MP@HL;
MPEG-4.2: ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC; WMV9: MP@HL;
H.264: BP@L3; H.264: MP@L4.0; H.264: HP@L4.0;
H.264: HP@L4.1; VC-1: MP@HL; VC-1: AP@L3

Audio Containers AAC, M4A, MPEG Audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA), WAV, WMA,
FLAC, OGG Audio Codecs: AAC, AAC+, Dolby Digital, DTS,
WMA, WMA Pro, MP1, MP2, MP3, LPCM, FLAC, Vorbis,
DTS (Audio Passthrough); Dolby Digital (Audio Passthrough)

Picture Formats JPEG, BMP, GIF

Resolutions 576i (480i), 576p, (480p), 720p, 1080i, 1080p

Ethernet 10/100 Base-T Ethernet

Card Reader 1x (Conax Licence)

ENERGY
DIAGRAM

back of the receiver guaran- All of this is packaged in
tees that you can reflash the a small, attractive housing. Apparent Power Mode Apparent Active Factor
Deep Standby 8.5 W 2.5 W 0.29
receiver should something We are very enthusiastic PVR 26 W 14 W 0.53

ever go wrong. This receiv- about this box and want to Active Power Reception
Standby
21.5 W
21 W
11 W
10 W
0.51
0.47
er lets you enjoy the high- congratulate OpenSAT for
est levels of multimedia - it the success of this super re-
can easily take the place of ceiver.


Azbox me

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