This document reviews the Eycos S80.12 HD, one of the first PVR receivers for receiving and recording HDTV channels. It has a robust design and easy-to-use interface. Key features include an included 500GB external hard drive, support for USB and SATA interfaces, and the ability to record up to 30 timers. Testing showed reliable recording of HDTV channels and quick channel changing. The only missing feature is support for DiSEqC 1.1. Overall, the receiver is a good addition for receiving and recording HDTV content.

1. TEST REPORT HDTV Receiver
Eycos S80.12 HD EYCOS
Works
10 - 1
S80.12
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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.
External Freecom 500GB harddisk
One of the first companies to After it has been switched on sockets for stereo audio and Secondly, it generally can
add such a unit to their prod- the blue 9-digit alphanumeric video, YUV and – naturally, be a tiresome job to connect
uct range is the up-and-coming display is illuminated which for a HDTV receiver – HDMI it a receiver to a PC in order to
Korean company Eycos, which – together with the seven silver impresses thanks to USB 2.0 transfer data because more
has teamed up with tried-and- buttons on the front panel and and S-ATA interfaces. often than not the PC is located
tested distributor Satforce the black case – creates a per- in a different room of the
for the German-speaking and fect appearance. While the reasoning behind house and endless cables are
European markets. the USB 2.0 interface is pretty required.
Generally, owners of this clear to us, most of you will prob-
Naturally, our expectations product are advised to keep a ably ask about the purpose of Thirdly, many people like to
were high when one of the first ready supply of spare batter- the S-ATA interface. The answer bring their recordings to friends
boxes of the S80.12 HD series ies for the remote control, as is quite simple, really: as one of or their holiday home without
arrived directly off the assem- the buttons on the box can only the first manufacturers of PVRs having to create a DVD first.
bly line at our editorial office. be used to perform a limited Eycos has come to appreciate All these reasons clearly point
When we unpacked the unit all number of operations. Two CI the fact that the permanently to a clear solution, which is an
colleagues present agreed that slots are hidden behind a flap integrated receiver harddisk in external harddisk.
the looks of the receiver were on the right side of the front many cases is far from being
simply perfect. Finally, a manu- panel and can take up all stan- the perfect solution. Eycos has realised that this
facturer has decided to do away dard CA modules like Irdeto, is what consumers demand and
with all those labels und logos Seca, Viaccess, Conax, Crypto- Firstly, consumers are forced any external harddisk can be
on the front panel indicating works, Alphacrypt etc. to decide about the size of used with their latest device, no
DiSEqC, MPEG, DD or whatever the harddisk right at the shop matter whether it sports a USB
else there might be to brag If the front panel excites you, where they buy the device, and 2.0 or S-ATA interface.
about included features. We then the rear panel will prob- exchanging the harddisk after-
cannot praise this enough and ably leave you lost for words. wards is not only a tricky job You can even connect a hard-
hope that other manufacturers Apart from all the usual sus- but also requires an authorised disk to both interfaces in which
will follow suit so that stylishly pects such as satellite IF input dealer in order to make sure case the receiver will ask which
designed boxes will not be spoilt and loop-through output, digi- the warranty does not become disk to use every time you start
by too many logos any longer. tal audio output, scart and RCA void. a recording or set a timer for a
40 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 10-1
1/2007 — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. recording. Swapping harddisks robust and sturdy, even though will also leave you stunned, 6000 channels, which should be
and transferring data to a PC some users might find it to be because Eycos has managed to sufficient for most users.
becomes child’s play and to top a bit oversized. All buttons are arrange the many features of
it off, even a USB stick with suf- clearly labelled and beginners their new S80.12 HD into four The second menu area helps
ficient memory can be attached should be able to use it right neatly structured areas. to personalise the device, start-
to the USB interface so that you away, too. ing from selecting the desired
can put several hours of record- The first area deals with the language of the OSD (English,
ing in your pant pockets, for Our test unit was shipped with antenna configuration and the French, German, Spanish, Ital-
example. a German operating manual and channel list. All in all, 175 Euro- ian, Russian, Turkish, Dutch,
although this was labelled as a pean, Asian and American sat- Czech or Polish) and ranging
Updating the operating pre-release version it included ellites are listed, yet the list is from setting the brightness of
system of the receiver can also all required information in a not fully up-to-date and needs the front panel LED all the way
take place with a USB stick so neat and sufficient manner. some revision. The manufac- to a number of OSD settings.
that the also available RS-232 turer has promised to address
interface will be out of work
most of the time. Everyday use this problem and offer an
update by the time the official
A feature worth mentioning is
the automatic detection of AC3
The Eycos S80.12 HD is a sales starts. audio. Thanks to this, owners of
Our test unit came with an product clearly geared towards DD 5.1 home theatre systems
external Freecom 500GB hard- the European market and thus The receiver can handle C- won’t have to manually select
disk which has the added ben- it is hardly surprising that it band as well as Ku-band signals the Dolby Digital soundtrack
efit of switching off as soon as comes pre-programmed with and even the most exotic LOFs – this task is fully taken care of
the receiver goes into standby. all channels that are likely to be won’t pose a problem thanks to by the receiver.
received in European countries. a manual LOF setting. You can
From a design point of view it The channel list includes up- choose to use the new Eycos The AV settings of the S80.12
also fits in nicely with the new to-date parameters for ASTRA receiver with a DiSEqC rotating HD can be used to pair the
S80.12 HD thanks to its blue 19.2° East, HOTBIRD 13° East system or a multifeed antenna receiver with your TV set or
LED on the front panel. and TURKSAT 42° East. since it features DiSEqC 1.0, beamer by choosing parame-
1.2 as well as 1.3 (USALS). The ters like resolution (576p, 720p
A USB extension cable is also By the time the receiver is only thing missing is DiSEqC or 1080i), colour system (PAL
included, which allows connect- officially available in stores 1.1. or NTSC) as well as signal types
ing external USB devices with- Eycos have promised to add CVBS or RGB for those using a
out having to fiddle around with ASTRA 3A 23.5° East and In line with all the positive scart connection.
the interface on the back of the ASTRA2 28.2, both of which attributes mentioned so far the
receiver – a very thoughtful carry several HDTV channels receiver is also very quick when Naturally, you can also define
gesture. across Europe. An updated scanning for signals. Four and whether your TV is 4:3 or 16:9,
channel list will also be made a half minutes is all it took to so that the receiver sends the
The workmanship of the available on the manufacturer’s fully scan an 80-transponder correctly formatted signal via
receiver lives up to the expec- website at www.eycos.de. satellite and it may well be that HDMI. Furthermore, the inter-
tations we have in Eycos and it set a new record for this job. nal clock can be set manually or
the remote control is also Pushing the ‘Menu’ button All-in-all there is memory for synced with satellite data.
www.TELE-satellite.com — 10-1
1/2007 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 41

3. TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/ara/eycos.pdf our SCPC test when it received either, which is available for
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/bid/eycos.pdf
Bulgarian Български www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/bul/eycos.pdf and processed symbol rates symbol rates between 10 and
German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/deu/eycos.pdf from as low as 1.6 MS/s. No 32 MS/s.
English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/eng/eycos.pdf troubles with DVB-S2 reception
Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/esp/eycos.pdf
French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/fra/eycos.pdf
Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/hel/eycos.pdf
Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/hrv/eycos.pdf
Expert Conclusion
Croatian
Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/ita/eycos.pdf
Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/mag/eycos.pdf
Mandarin
Dutch
中文
Nederlands
www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/man/eycos.pdf
www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/ned/eycos.pdf +
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/pol/eycos.pdf The Eycos S80.12 HD is one of the very first PVR
Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/rus/eycos.pdf receivers for receiving and recording HDTV chan-
Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/tur/eycos.pdf
nels, and even as a pioneer in the field it worked
reliably and flawlessly during our tests. The exter-
nal harddisk brings back the fun to transferring
One of the main features of create a backup which can be data to a PC and creating DVDs, so that a cosy Thomas Haring
a PVR is the possibility of set- used whenever the channel list evening in front of the telly at the weekend lodge
TELE-satellite
Test Center
ting the timer to record a cer- gets messed up after a channel is no longer out of the question – simply bring Austria
tain event. Here the Eycos box search or a system reset. along the harddisk with your favourite movies or
draws a distinction between shows. In general, the new Eycos is a perfect addition to your
Event Timer and Remind Timer. Zapping between channels living room equipment as it’s very easy to familiarise oneself with
is real fun with the S80.12 all its features.
Setting a Remind Timer will HD, because the new channel
simply prompt the receiver to appears on screen after about
switch to a selected channel one second. Even when switch- -
at a given time, while an Event ing between HDTV and SDTV The DiSEqC 1.1 protocol for addressing up to 16 LNBs would
Timer entry will make sure the channels we did not experience come in handy for all owners of a multifeed antenna.
receiver records the selected any noticeable delay.
program on the harddisk. In
total, 30 timer entries can be If you want to start a new
defined, and genuine couch recording manually all you
potatoes will appreciate the have to do is push the ‘Record’ TECHNIC
fact that daily or weekly events button. In case two harddisks DATA
can be programmed as well. are attached the receiver asks Manufacturer Eycos
which of the two you’d like to Distributor Satforce Kommunikationstechnik
The last two menu areas use. GmbH
deal with any CI modules that Tel +49 (0)86 54 773 851
might be inserted and with Since the new Eycos box is Fax +49 (0)86 54 773 852
the two interfaces for external only equipped with a single E-Mail info@satforce.com
harddisks. Similar to the Win- tuner you can only watch chan- Model S80.12 HD
dows Explorer you can directly nels that are transmitted on Function Digital HDTV Satellite
address external USB or S-ATA the same transponder as the PVR Receiver
harddisks. New directories can recorded channel and you can Channel memory 6000
be created at the touch of a only switch to any other chan-
Satellites 175
button and recordings can be nel once the recording has fin-
Symbolrate 2~45 Ms/sec. (in test from
deleted, moved or renamed. ished.
ca. 1.6 Ms/s) in DVB
New disks can be formatted
10~31 Ms/s in DVB-S2
and the data consistency of Even though we tried real
existing disks can be checked hard we were unable to upset SCPC compatible yes
at any time. the receiver during recording USALS yes
a HDTV channel. All recordings DiSEqC 1.0 / 1.2 / 1.3
One button labelled ‘Upload were played back brilliantly and Scart euroconnectors 2
Channel’ can easily be over- without any glitches. Audio/Video outputs 3xRCA
looked, yet it hides a feature YUV yes
many owners of satellite receiv- The tuner used by Eycos HDMI yes
ers have been waiting for for turned out to be worth every
USB 2.0 yes
ages. Simply press the button penny and even when pushed
S-ATA yes
and the current channel list is to the limits with a weak signal
transferred to and stored on from NILESAT 7° West at a UHF output no
the harddisk. test site in Vienna we could not 0/12 Volt connection no
detect any difficulties. BBC HD Digital Audio output yes
For one thing, this facili- also came in interference-free EPG yes
tates channel list editing to a at another test site in Munich. C/Ku-Band compatible yes
large extent, and for another Power supply 95-250 VAC, 50/60 Hz
thing, this feature is handy to The S80.12 HD also passed
Harddisk explorer Playback bar EPG for one channel
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