TEST REPORT                   HDTV Combo Receiver




Skyworth ALI-HD
                                                                                                                                                      04-05/201
                                                                                                                                                              1
                                                                                                                                     Skyworth ALI-HD
                                                                                                                                Easy to use combo receiver
                                                                                                                           in small size with excellent blind-scan




DVBS-2 & DVB-T Receiver
•	This	tiny	receiver	comes	
                                                                                TELE-satellite World                            www.TELE-satellite.com/...
from	Skyworth,	a	well-known	                                                    Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
                                                                                Arabic       ‫العربية‬     www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/ara/skyworth.pdf
manufacturer	to	our	readers:	in	                                                Indonesian   Indonesia   www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/bid/skyworth.pdf
TELE-satellite	04-05/2010,	exactly	                                             German
                                                                                English
                                                                                             Deutsch
                                                                                             English
                                                                                                         www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/deu/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                                         www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/eng/skyworth.pdf
one	year	ago,	we	reported	on	their	                                             Spanish      Español     www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/esp/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                French       Français    www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/fra/skyworth.pdf
innovative	Scart	connector	receiver	                                            Hebrew       ‫עברית‬       www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/heb/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                Chinese      中文          www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/man/skyworth.pdf
line	for	DVB-S	and	DVB-T.	The	small	                                            Polish       Polski      www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/pol/skyworth.pdf

size	of	those	receivers	come	to	mind	                                           Portuguese
                                                                                Russian	
                                                                                             Português
                                                                                             Русский		
                                                                                                         www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/por/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                                         www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/rus/skyworth.pdf
again	when	we	look	at	their	newest	                                             Turkish      Türkçe      www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/tur/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                                           Available online starting from 1 April 2011
combo	box,	measuring	just	260mm	
wide	and	210mm	deep.




40 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com
                                                         1
Skyworth have managed        controls next to an LED dis-     are pre-programmed, oth-               receive DVB-S2, the terres-
to shoe-horn both a DVB-        play that shows the channel      ers can be added. LNB                  trial part does not include
S2 and a DVB-T receiver,        number, a flap hides away a      frequencies are fixed, but             DVB-T2 to match, so there’s
quite an achievement. And       CI slot and USB port, where      cover most configurations              no HD through the TV an-
even though the receiver        a storage device can be          available including C-band.            tenna even if it is available
is 40mm high there is a         connected. It’s worth noting                                            in your area. Scanning here
good range of connections       from the outset though that        Hitting the scan button for          can be over the whole spec-
squeezed onto the back          the unit’s power require-        the first time gave me a real          trum, or an individual chan-
panel. There are single         ments are for a power sup-       surprise – it is very fast! A          nel can be specified.
HDMI, Scart, component          ply of between 175 and 240       scan over the whole of AS-
and composite video con-        volts, so it would be unsuit-    TRA 2 takes only 3 minutes                At my location there are
nectors, audio connections      able for use in the Americas     and 20 seconds to find 96              only two DVB-T transpond-
in both digital and analogue    and other areas that use         transponders. Adding the               ers and one DVB-T2 – the
flavour, along with loop-       110V.                            network scan option en-                two traditional ones were
throughs to compliment the                                       sures that any frequencies             found and scanned in an
satellite and terrestrial in-      A good range of anten-        for the provider that are              equally fast 27 seconds,
puts. The UHF output is for     na connections are avail-        not already in the receiver’s          the DVB-T2 didn’t register
loop-though purposes only;      able despite the initial basic   database are also scanned,             at all. I was a little con-
there is no RF modulator        feel of the receiver. Op-        but this adds a time over-             cerned as the frequency
onboard. LAN and RS232          tions range from a single        head onto the scan. The                bands to scan are set by
ports are also present for      fixed dish through DiSEqC        same satellite scanned with            country, and the options of
upgrade purposes.               switches and motors, with        this enabled took over twice           Czech, Brazil, France, Ger-
                                USALS included for a very        as long – 6 minutes 50 sec-            many, Poland, Italy, Rus-
  The front panel has but-      easy motorised setup. 41         onds. There is another way             sia and Sweden might not
tons for the most basic         satellites around the world      though, blind scan comes               have been good for me here
                                                                 to our rescue and will flew            in England. But all of them
                                                                 across the whole satellite,            seemed to work just fine,
                                                                 picking up any new fre-                and if needed a look on the
                                                                 quencies and adding every-             internet to find the frequen-
                                                                 thing it finds. The same 96            cies to enter would be a last
                                                                 transponders were found in             resort to find your channels
                                                                 a staggering 2 minutes 54              if your country’s frequency
                                                                 seconds, even faster than              band did not match these
                                                                 the normal scan. That is               defaults.
                                                                 an average of just 1.8 sec-
                                                                 onds per transponder. Blind              The channel list is ac-
                                                                 scan is clearly the way to go          cessed as usual from the
                                                                 here.                                  central OK button. Scrolling
                                                                                                        is quite fast, and there are
                                                                   Our sample receiver also             page up and down buttons
                                                                 had a DVB-T tuner built in.            to help out here too. The list
                                                                 While the satellite tuner can          can be filtered with the left




                                                                                                                              0.5




                                                         www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/201 —
                                                                                          1     TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine   41
1




2                                                                              and right buttons to select      ble that can be renamed as
                                                                               between each of the satel-       required, and are accessed
                                                                               lites in memory. Terrestrial     quickly from the dedicat-
                                                                               channels can be separated        ed button on the remote.
                                                                               too.                             Channels can be added to
                                                                                                                more than one list mak-
                                                                                  A nice extra feature is the   ing the system fully flexible
                                                                               “find” function, accessed        and usable. Channel editing
                                                                               with the red button. Here        too is quite comprehensive,
                                                                               the list is filtered to match    channels can be renamed,
                                                                               the text that is entered,        edited, locked or set to be
                                                                               pressing B would filter it       skipped in the list.
                                                                               to just channels beginning
3                                                                              with that letter, and press-        Picture quality is OK in
                                                                               ing B again would find BBC       higher quality connections
                                                                               One, BBC Two etc. This           – the picture through the
                                                                               would be even more useful        Scart was very fuzzy when
                                                                               if it let us use the number      first used, but switching
                                                                               buttons as letters, as they      into RGB mode made the
                                                                               are printed on the remote        picture much more accept-
                                                                               in the same way as they are      able. I found the pictures to
                                                                               on a phone keypad. Sadly         be a little bland, but a few
                                                                               this isn’t available.            tweaks of the colour, bright-
                                                                                                                ness and contrast controls
                                                                                 Favourites lists are essen-    in the menus made them
                                                                               tial now we have thousands       much nicer.
1. Channel list                                                                of channels to choose from,
3. Channel edit                                                                and it is good to see that the    Being a HDTV receiver,
3. EPG                                                                         receiver has 32 lists availa-    Skyworth expects users to


42 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com
                                                         1
4                                                                                                                                                                   9




5                                                                                                                                                                  10




6                                                                                                                                                                  11




7                                                                             4. Find function                                      8. Satellite scan
                                                                              5. Media player                                       9. Satellite scan options
                                                                              6. Motor settings                                     10. Terrestrial scan
                                                                              7. Programme info                                     11. Timer

                                                                                 More on This Manufacturer
                                                                                 Read TELE-satellite’s Company Report:


                                                                                SKYWORTH
                                                                                OEM Receiver Manufacturer, China                                www.skyworth.com




8




                                                                                www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/skyworth.pdf
                                                                                www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1003/eng/skyworth.pdf




44 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com
                                                         1
connect their tv sets via the          sic, but does its job. Where            ture on screen. A bonus is       side the media player – a
HDMI socket. This became               available, EPG data goes as             that they are stored in the      basic but usable interface
obvious when we tried to               far as a week into the fu-              standard .ts format which        that seems more integrated
listen to Dolby Digital with           ture. Timers can be added               allows them to be edited         when you notice that it is
our TV connected to the an-            to switch to a channel when             and processed easily on a        also used to access all me-
alogue output or the Scart             it starts, or record to a USB           computer. As seems to be         dia that may be on your USB
socket: there was no sound             device. It’s worth noting               usual with recording in this     device. Music, videos in AVI
to hear. Analogue outputs              that unlike many receivers,             manner, the external drive       format and pictures can all
and Scart are only meant as            it does not seem to check               needs to be formatted in         be found in separate pages
a last-resort or for configu-          for a conflict when a timer             FAT format and not NTFS          of the same menu. The mu-
ration, but not for regular            event is running – chan-                so the file size limit of 4GB    sic player, often just a quick
viewing.                               nels can be changed, menus              needs to be remembered if        add-on to a satellite receiv-
                                       accessed and even scans                 the files are to be used later   er, is better than many.
  It’s good to see that the            started without warning,                in Windows.
remote has some useful                 resulting in lost recordings                                                Files can be renamed and
function buttons for opera-            or a crashed receiver that                As well as recording from      moved around, folders cre-
tions that are too often hid-          needs to be powered off                 the EPG, a recording can of      ated and favourites marked.
den inside menus – nota-               and back on to come back                course be started manu-          Pictures, video and the re-
bly those to select of audio           to life.                                ally, and timeshifting is also   ceiver’s own recordings can
track, video format between                                                    available, accessed from         have the same treatment.
widescreen or normal, and                Recordings though are of              pause button which feels al-     It’s a let-down though that
video format to choose the             good quality when played                most hidden away at the top      all of the AVI files I tried to
screen resolution.                     back on a computer – there              end of the remote.               play appeared with a black
                                       are none of the issues that                                              screen with only the sound
  The ALI-HD’s EPG is ba-              were found with the pic-                  Recordings    appear     in-   playing.




46 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com
                                                         1
Expert Opinion                                                                TECHNICAL
   +                                                                                                          DATA
    + super fast blind-scan finds all channels                            Distributor            Skyworth Overseas Ltd, Unit 1601-4 Westland Centre,
                                                                                                 20 Westland Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
    + includes all functions including high-defi-
 tion                                                                     Tel                    +852 23180500
    + a well thought-out media player is included                         Contact                sales@skyworth.com
    + recordings are saved in .ts format                                  Website                www.skyworth.com.hk
                                                    Andy Middleton
                                                      TELE-satellite
   -                                                    Test Center
                                                                UK
                                                                          Model                  ALI-HD

   - country selection for DVB-T seems out of                             Function               Combo Receiver for           and

 date                                                                     SCPC compatible        Yes
   - the Find button does not make use of the remote control‘s            USALS                  Yes
 keypad                                                                   DiSEqC                 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3

                                                                          Scart connectors       1

  Skyworth have done well         example of “simple is best”.            Audio outputs          2 (left & right)

to include both satellite         With the small issues of the            Video outputs          Composite, Component, HDMI

and terrestrial tuners and        sometimes silent audio with             Resolutions            480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i
recording capabilities into       AC-3 soundtracks and the                UHF output             No (output is for loop-through only)
such a small package. De-         apparent inability to cor-              0/12 volt output       No
spite appearing to be quite       rectly play AVI files aside,            Digital audio output   S/PDIF
a basic receiver, most func-      the ALI-HD fulfils its role as          EPG                    Yes
tions needed to receive TV,       a receiver with a good set
                                                                          C/Ku-band compatible   Yes
including     high-definition     of basic functions that are
                                                                          Power supply           175-240V AC
are here. The media player        kept simple and all fitted in-
                                                                          Common interface       1 PCMCIA
is well thought-out, a good       side a small-sized box.
                                                                          Card slots             0

                                                                          Silicon Tuner          Yes

                                                                          Dimensions             260x210x40mm



                                                                                                       ENERGY
                                                                                                          DIAGRAM




                                                                                                                                    Apparent Power




                                                                                                                                    Active Power

                                                                                                                    Mode        Apparent Active Factor
                                                                                                                    Active      20 W     10 W 0.5
                                                                                                                    StandBy     17 W      8 W 0.47




                                                                  www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/201 —
                                                                                                   1       TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine   47

Skyworth

  • 1.
    TEST REPORT HDTV Combo Receiver Skyworth ALI-HD 04-05/201 1 Skyworth ALI-HD Easy to use combo receiver in small size with excellent blind-scan DVBS-2 & DVB-T Receiver • This tiny receiver comes TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/... from Skyworth, a well-known Download this report in other languages from the Internet: Arabic ‫العربية‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/ara/skyworth.pdf manufacturer to our readers: in Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/bid/skyworth.pdf TELE-satellite 04-05/2010, exactly German English Deutsch English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/deu/skyworth.pdf www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/eng/skyworth.pdf one year ago, we reported on their Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/esp/skyworth.pdf French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/fra/skyworth.pdf innovative Scart connector receiver Hebrew ‫עברית‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/heb/skyworth.pdf Chinese 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/man/skyworth.pdf line for DVB-S and DVB-T. The small Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/pol/skyworth.pdf size of those receivers come to mind Portuguese Russian Português Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/por/skyworth.pdf www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/rus/skyworth.pdf again when we look at their newest Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1105/tur/skyworth.pdf Available online starting from 1 April 2011 combo box, measuring just 260mm wide and 210mm deep. 40 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 2.
    Skyworth have managed controls next to an LED dis- are pre-programmed, oth- receive DVB-S2, the terres- to shoe-horn both a DVB- play that shows the channel ers can be added. LNB trial part does not include S2 and a DVB-T receiver, number, a flap hides away a frequencies are fixed, but DVB-T2 to match, so there’s quite an achievement. And CI slot and USB port, where cover most configurations no HD through the TV an- even though the receiver a storage device can be available including C-band. tenna even if it is available is 40mm high there is a connected. It’s worth noting in your area. Scanning here good range of connections from the outset though that Hitting the scan button for can be over the whole spec- squeezed onto the back the unit’s power require- the first time gave me a real trum, or an individual chan- panel. There are single ments are for a power sup- surprise – it is very fast! A nel can be specified. HDMI, Scart, component ply of between 175 and 240 scan over the whole of AS- and composite video con- volts, so it would be unsuit- TRA 2 takes only 3 minutes At my location there are nectors, audio connections able for use in the Americas and 20 seconds to find 96 only two DVB-T transpond- in both digital and analogue and other areas that use transponders. Adding the ers and one DVB-T2 – the flavour, along with loop- 110V. network scan option en- two traditional ones were throughs to compliment the sures that any frequencies found and scanned in an satellite and terrestrial in- A good range of anten- for the provider that are equally fast 27 seconds, puts. The UHF output is for na connections are avail- not already in the receiver’s the DVB-T2 didn’t register loop-though purposes only; able despite the initial basic database are also scanned, at all. I was a little con- there is no RF modulator feel of the receiver. Op- but this adds a time over- cerned as the frequency onboard. LAN and RS232 tions range from a single head onto the scan. The bands to scan are set by ports are also present for fixed dish through DiSEqC same satellite scanned with country, and the options of upgrade purposes. switches and motors, with this enabled took over twice Czech, Brazil, France, Ger- USALS included for a very as long – 6 minutes 50 sec- many, Poland, Italy, Rus- The front panel has but- easy motorised setup. 41 onds. There is another way sia and Sweden might not tons for the most basic satellites around the world though, blind scan comes have been good for me here to our rescue and will flew in England. But all of them across the whole satellite, seemed to work just fine, picking up any new fre- and if needed a look on the quencies and adding every- internet to find the frequen- thing it finds. The same 96 cies to enter would be a last transponders were found in resort to find your channels a staggering 2 minutes 54 if your country’s frequency seconds, even faster than band did not match these the normal scan. That is defaults. an average of just 1.8 sec- onds per transponder. Blind The channel list is ac- scan is clearly the way to go cessed as usual from the here. central OK button. Scrolling is quite fast, and there are Our sample receiver also page up and down buttons had a DVB-T tuner built in. to help out here too. The list While the satellite tuner can can be filtered with the left 0.5 www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/201 — 1 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 41
  • 3.
    1 2 and right buttons to select ble that can be renamed as between each of the satel- required, and are accessed lites in memory. Terrestrial quickly from the dedicat- channels can be separated ed button on the remote. too. Channels can be added to more than one list mak- A nice extra feature is the ing the system fully flexible “find” function, accessed and usable. Channel editing with the red button. Here too is quite comprehensive, the list is filtered to match channels can be renamed, the text that is entered, edited, locked or set to be pressing B would filter it skipped in the list. to just channels beginning 3 with that letter, and press- Picture quality is OK in ing B again would find BBC higher quality connections One, BBC Two etc. This – the picture through the would be even more useful Scart was very fuzzy when if it let us use the number first used, but switching buttons as letters, as they into RGB mode made the are printed on the remote picture much more accept- in the same way as they are able. I found the pictures to on a phone keypad. Sadly be a little bland, but a few this isn’t available. tweaks of the colour, bright- ness and contrast controls Favourites lists are essen- in the menus made them tial now we have thousands much nicer. 1. Channel list of channels to choose from, 3. Channel edit and it is good to see that the Being a HDTV receiver, 3. EPG receiver has 32 lists availa- Skyworth expects users to 42 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 4.
    4 9 5 10 6 11 7 4. Find function 8. Satellite scan 5. Media player 9. Satellite scan options 6. Motor settings 10. Terrestrial scan 7. Programme info 11. Timer More on This Manufacturer Read TELE-satellite’s Company Report: SKYWORTH OEM Receiver Manufacturer, China www.skyworth.com 8 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/skyworth.pdf www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1003/eng/skyworth.pdf 44 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 5.
    connect their tvsets via the sic, but does its job. Where ture on screen. A bonus is side the media player – a HDMI socket. This became available, EPG data goes as that they are stored in the basic but usable interface obvious when we tried to far as a week into the fu- standard .ts format which that seems more integrated listen to Dolby Digital with ture. Timers can be added allows them to be edited when you notice that it is our TV connected to the an- to switch to a channel when and processed easily on a also used to access all me- alogue output or the Scart it starts, or record to a USB computer. As seems to be dia that may be on your USB socket: there was no sound device. It’s worth noting usual with recording in this device. Music, videos in AVI to hear. Analogue outputs that unlike many receivers, manner, the external drive format and pictures can all and Scart are only meant as it does not seem to check needs to be formatted in be found in separate pages a last-resort or for configu- for a conflict when a timer FAT format and not NTFS of the same menu. The mu- ration, but not for regular event is running – chan- so the file size limit of 4GB sic player, often just a quick viewing. nels can be changed, menus needs to be remembered if add-on to a satellite receiv- accessed and even scans the files are to be used later er, is better than many. It’s good to see that the started without warning, in Windows. remote has some useful resulting in lost recordings Files can be renamed and function buttons for opera- or a crashed receiver that As well as recording from moved around, folders cre- tions that are too often hid- needs to be powered off the EPG, a recording can of ated and favourites marked. den inside menus – nota- and back on to come back course be started manu- Pictures, video and the re- bly those to select of audio to life. ally, and timeshifting is also ceiver’s own recordings can track, video format between available, accessed from have the same treatment. widescreen or normal, and Recordings though are of pause button which feels al- It’s a let-down though that video format to choose the good quality when played most hidden away at the top all of the AVI files I tried to screen resolution. back on a computer – there end of the remote. play appeared with a black are none of the issues that screen with only the sound The ALI-HD’s EPG is ba- were found with the pic- Recordings appear in- playing. 46 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 04-05/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 6.
    Expert Opinion TECHNICAL + DATA + super fast blind-scan finds all channels Distributor Skyworth Overseas Ltd, Unit 1601-4 Westland Centre, 20 Westland Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong + includes all functions including high-defi- tion Tel +852 23180500 + a well thought-out media player is included Contact sales@skyworth.com + recordings are saved in .ts format Website www.skyworth.com.hk Andy Middleton TELE-satellite - Test Center UK Model ALI-HD - country selection for DVB-T seems out of Function Combo Receiver for and date SCPC compatible Yes - the Find button does not make use of the remote control‘s USALS Yes keypad DiSEqC 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3 Scart connectors 1 Skyworth have done well example of “simple is best”. Audio outputs 2 (left & right) to include both satellite With the small issues of the Video outputs Composite, Component, HDMI and terrestrial tuners and sometimes silent audio with Resolutions 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i recording capabilities into AC-3 soundtracks and the UHF output No (output is for loop-through only) such a small package. De- apparent inability to cor- 0/12 volt output No spite appearing to be quite rectly play AVI files aside, Digital audio output S/PDIF a basic receiver, most func- the ALI-HD fulfils its role as EPG Yes tions needed to receive TV, a receiver with a good set C/Ku-band compatible Yes including high-definition of basic functions that are Power supply 175-240V AC are here. The media player kept simple and all fitted in- Common interface 1 PCMCIA is well thought-out, a good side a small-sized box. Card slots 0 Silicon Tuner Yes Dimensions 260x210x40mm ENERGY DIAGRAM Apparent Power Active Power Mode Apparent Active Factor Active 20 W 10 W 0.5 StandBy 17 W 8 W 0.47 www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/201 — 1 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 47