1. TEST REPORT Satellite Receiver
Kathrein UFS 821
Solid German Workmanship
Kathrein, a traditional manufacturer out of
Germany, wants to offer the UFS 821 – a Sound
silver. On the front panel is a large multifunction
control for volume, channel selection, etc. An easy- SatcoDX
& Vision Center – to its customers. It would be a
center for audio and video. Is that a good idea?
to-read VFD display was positioned in the middle by
the manufacturer and shows the channel name as Compatibility
We think so. The entire system is packaged in an well as other information. Especially exciting is this
elegant cabinet that is available in either black or receiver’s SatcoDX compatibility.
The Editor program made avail-
able from the manufacturer at
Behind a flap can be found two makes the buttons a little harder From here you end up in the sat- no charge can import the up-to-
CI slots, four buttons for opera- to reach. ellite list from which the desired date SatcoDX data in SDX format.
tion of the receiver without a satellites can be selected. The This is great news for owners of
remote control and also a USB
interface. As expected from Everyday Use receiver comes preprogrammed
with 21 European satellites. The
motorized systems. It is unfor-
tunate though that Kathrien only
Kathrein, the rear panel is nicely The UFS 821 is for the most box even offers the partitioning provided the UFS 821 with enough
equipped: in addition to the IF part a plug & play receiver. of the satellite list into four con- room for 4000 channels. It won’t
input and looped-through output Simply connect the two tuners to tinents. take long to fill this list up.
and the two Scart connectors, the LNB’s or multiswitches, turn
you will also find three RCA jacks the box on and, thanks to the The last and most important The built-in tuner is relatively
for video and stereo audio, an preprogrammed channel list for step of the installation assistant is sensitive and managed to handle
S-video output, an RS-232 inter- Astra and Hotbird, in most cases the automatic channel scan. Six narrowband SCPC signals starting
face, a USB interface for connec- installation in central Europe will minutes was needed to scan 80 at 2.0 Ms/sec. in our tests without
tion to a PC and an optical digital immediately produce a picture on transponders without the network any problems. Additional basic
audio output. the TV. If you are able to receive search activated. Of course a settings can be handled in the
The included user manual is of more than one satellite with your manual scan (with or without PID nicely organized main menu. The
exceptional quality and describes system (DiSEqC 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3 entry) is also available as is the receiver can provide the video
even for the beginner all func- are supported), you simply access ability to edit individual transpond- signal in CVBS, RGB, S-Video or
tions and settings of the UFS 821 the installation assistant to help ers, create new entries or delete YUV formats for flat screen TV’s
in great detail. We were not as set of the receiver step-by-step. existing ones. As with other Kath- or projection systems. PAL and
elated with the remote control. rein receivers, new programming NTSC are also supported.
It sits nicely in your hand but the Once the desired OSD lan- data can be directly loaded into
OK button as well as other opera- guage has been selected (English, the receiver via satellite. The receiver comes from the
tional buttons were located near German, French, Italian, Span-
the bottom of the remote. On ish, Dutch, Polish and Turkish are
the one hand we are not used to available), the next step would
TEST
Features
RESULT
seeing this and on the other it take you to the tuner settings.
Channel Memory
Channel
Scan Speed
SATELLITE
Channel
Switching Speed
INTERNATIONAL
Video Quality
Audio Quality
TELE
Tuner Sensitivity
TELE-satellite International — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. cooperation with the company Linux-based Kathrein receiver Conclusion
tvtv.Services. This company with can still do more. It is possible Thanks to the large multifunc-
its Internet programming guide at to transfer jpeg pictures and mp3 tion control and the VFD display,
www.tvtv.de or www.tvtv.co.uk is music files to the box for play- this box can easily be used as a
a household name in many Euro- back. The USB 2.0 interface on simple radio receiver even without
pean countries. The up-to-date the front panel can be used to it connected to a TV. At least now
DVR Manager tvtv data can be set to download connect a portable hard drive or we know what Kathrein means by
factory with a 160 GB hard drive. into the receiver via satellite at even a digital camera through the term Sound & Vision Center. It
This is enough for up to 100 hours a preset time thus making this which, video, mp3 and image data would be a great pity if it were only
of TV and radio recordings. Oper- up-to-date data available at any can be transferred. In our tests used for this purpose, but satellite
ation of the hard drive is actu- time. this functioned perfectly using a radio fans could use the UFS 821
ally quite clever in the UFS 821. standard digital camera. as an ideal radio receiver.
Should the available space on the Additional features such as “Now
hard drive not be enough for addi- Playing” with the current program
tional recordings, the receiver of all 60 TV channels listed by tvtv TECHNIC Manufacturer KATHREIN-Werke KG,
Rosenheim, Germany
can be set to automatically delete can be sorted by Genre, by daily DATA
Tel. +49 (0) 8031 184-0
older data. The timeshift buffer tips plus the detailed information
Fax +49 (0) 8031 184-306
for time-delayed TV recordings is of all programs can be displayed.
manually adjustable and can be The Search function can be used E-Mail sat@kathrein.de
set for several hours. to help keep an eye out for spe- Model UFS821
cific programming. Thankfully, Function Digital Satellite Receiver
Should one or more encrypted with tvtv EPG you are no longer with PVR Function
recordings end up on the hard limited to a certain number of Channel Memory 4000
drive, the UFS 821 provides the channels; instead, all content is Satellites 45
ability to decrypt the signal after available since the receiver stores
Symbol Rate 2-45 Ms/sec.
the fact. The recording would the entire database on the hard
SCPC Compatible Yes
be marked in the replay list and drive.
USALS Yes
as soon as the receiver is placed
in standby mode, it begins to Eventually, the available free DiSEqC 1.0 / 1.2 / 1.3
decrypt the recording. space on the included 160GB hard Scart Connectors 2
drive will come to an end. At this Audio/Video Outputs 3 x RCA
Surprise! point it would be a good time to
transfer your favorite recordings
UHF Output
0/12 Volt Output
Yes
No
EPG from tvtv to your PC and from there perhaps
burn them to a DVD. Thanks to
Digital Audio Output Yes
EPG Yes
We were pleasantly surprised the integrated USB 2.0 interface,
when we pressed the EPG button. this is absolutely no problem. The C/Ku-Band Compatible Yes
So that the general overview of necessary software for this (DVR EPG Yes
all the available programs would Manager) is also provided free of Power Supply 100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz
not be lost and so that the user charge by Kathrein on their web SatcoDX Compatible Yes
was provided with very up-to- site. In just 16 minutes a 2GB file
date EPG data for up to a week was transferred.
in advance, Kathrein has not only
relied on a channel’s own EPG When the DVR Manager is
data but has also entered into a started, you get the idea that the
Expert conclusion
+
The Kathrein UFS 821 is a very elegant and easy- Channel Manager (SatcoDX) Info Bar
to-use receiver that, thanks to the tvtv EPG, will make
the user very happy. The USB transfer to the PC func-
tioned without any problems. It would be an ideal
receiver for the radio freak. Thomas Haring
TELE-satellite
- Test Center
Austria
The preprogrammed satellite list could be bigger.
If the receiver were to support the DiSEqC 1.1 protocol, it would also
make an interesting box for the DXer. The data transfer rate of the USB
connections could be faster.
tvtv EPG Tuner Setup
www.TELE-satellite.com — TELE-satellite International