The Skyworth HS18 is a small HDMI-equipped DVB-S2 satellite receiver measuring 11x7x1.7cm. It has a wide range of connection options including HDMI, USB, and SCART. The receiver supports multiple picture formats up to 1080p and comes with a remote control and mounting hardware for hidden installation. Setup and configuration options allow customizing the receiver for personal requirements and local time/channel listings.

1. TEST REPORT Miniature HDTV Receiver
Skyworth
HS18
• Ideal for hidden installation on the
back of TVs
• Perfectly suited as a fully featured
camping receiver
• Fully functional PVR thanks to the
USB interface
• Supports all of the standard picture
formats
• Very sensitive IR remote control
signal receiver
16 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 17

2. TEST REPORT Miniature HDTV Receiver
An HD Compatible
Mini DVB-S2 Receiver
04-05/2012
Sky wor th HS-18 DVB
-S2
Sophisticated, fully-fea
tured
miniature receiver
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TEL E-satellite-1205/enlite. com /
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The SCART connector is HS18 can easily be fixed in pleased with the workman- prepared for the day when
very widely used in Europe place so that the tension ship quality of the Skyworth HDTV is transmitted via
and for many years there on the HDMI cable won‘t HS18 and we also liked that satellite in 1080p. We also
have been small satellite be too much. It‘s small 11 it‘s just a little bit larger found the two Auto modes
receivers that you simply x 7 x 1.7cm size takes up than a pack of cigarettes. quite practical whereby in
plugged into the SCART almost no space at all and the first mode the resolution
connector. But when the yet comes with all the dif- When you turn the re- is automatically matched to
SCART connector was de- ferent connection capabili- ceiver on for the first time, the incoming satellite sig-
veloped, there was at that ties you‘d expect to find in you‘re greeted with the nal while the second mode
time no HDTV and as a re- a modern receiver. This in- main menu and its six sub- orients the receiver to the
sult these little SCART re- cludes, of course, the satel- menus. As usual, we started resolution of the TV.
ceivers don‘t measure up lite IF input, a USB 2.0 in- with the system settings
to today‘s requirements. In terface for external storage with which you can set up All of these capabilities
order to display HD content devices, a port for an RS232 the receiver to your per- are even further enhanced
on a TV, you have to use the adapter plug, a jack to plug sonal requirements. The by the automatic time syn-
HDMI jack. in the external IR receiver very fist step is to select the chronization. Skyworth put
as well as a jack for the ex- desired OSD language. You some thought into this and
And it‘s exactly this con- ternal 12V power supply. can choose from English, doesn‘t ask the user to en-
cept that Skyworth has The package also includes French, German, Italian, ter the local time differ-
addressed: the Skyworth a small but handy remote Spanish Portuguese, Rus- ence from GMT but rather
HS18 is the first mini re- control. The buttons are sian, Turkish, Polish, Arabic provides a list of countries
ceiver with an HDMI output. clearly labeled and provide as well as Farsi. and cities to choose from.
With the HS18 the HDMI ca- a comfortable back pres- We found this to be not
ble is a mere 10cm in length sure when pressed. The HS18 works quite well only more practical but also
and not only that, it‘s incor- with the available TV equip- much more customer-ori-
porated directly into the re- One of the LEDs that is ment in that it supports ented! Other settings possi-
ceiver. This lets the set top integrated into the infrared picture resolutions in 480i, bilities include the ability to
box disappear completely receiver shows the current 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p individually set the sharp-
behind the TV right next to operational status of the 50Hz, 720p 60 Hz, 1080i 50 ness, contrast and bright-
the HDMI jack. box, if it‘s red the receiver is Hz, 1080i 60 Hz as well as ness of the video output.
in standby and if it‘s green 1080p 50 Hz and 1080p 60
Thanks to the included the receiver is in opera- Hz. Clearly, if you own the Once the Skyworth HS18
mounting material, the 100g tion. All in all, we were quite HS18, you will be perfectly has been matched to the
18 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

3. 1 6 11
available TV system, the lites and also a transponder
next step would be to set scan.
up the correct connection
to the satellite antenna. The The user will like the ability
HS18 supports all of the to limit the automatic chan-
available DiSEqC protocols, nel scan to FTA-only (free-
that is, 1.0 for reception of to-air) and also to TV or ra-
up to four satellites, 1.1 for dio only and to TV and radio.
up to 16 satellites as well as Added to this is the inte-
1.2 and 1.3 for motorized grated network scan and as
2 7 12 antennas. The list of prepro- a special bonus there‘s also
grammed satellite positions a BlindScan. The BlindScan
is made up of 46 entries feature functioned quite
and includes all of the stan- well in our tests and man-
dard European satellites. aged to find 1461 TV chan-
We were happy to see that nels and 516 radio channels
the list itself was very up- on HOTBIRD at 13°E in just
to-date. The transponder four minutes. In comparison
list as well as the satellite the automatic channel scan
list can easily be edited so of HOTBIRD at 13°E with the
that it really only takes just help of the preprogrammed
a few button-pushes on the transponder data found
remote control to add, edit 1478 TV channels and 522
3 8 13 or delete transponder or radio channels in about six
satellite entries. minutes.
On the LNB side of things Once the channel list has
there are a large number of been filled with hundreds of
preprogrammed LOF val- channels, it would be nice
ues available for the C-band for the user to have a de-
and the Ku-band; manual cent channel sorting and ed-
LOF entry is not possible. iting function; the Skyworth
Once the receiver knows HS18 doesn‘t disappoint
exactly what satellites it here either. In a clearly and
can receive, the next step logically designed menu in-
involves filling up the chan- dividual channels can be as-
4 9 14 nel list. To accomplish this signed a PIN code, deleted,
task, there are three search moved, renamed or moved
modes available: an auto- into one of the 32 freely
matic channel scan on one namable Favorites Lists. It
satellite, an automatic chan- deserves to be mentioned
nel scan on multiple satel- here that if needed all the
1. Main Menu (Antenna installation)
2. Main Menu (System settings)
3. Main Menu (Tools)
4. PVR Menu
5. The extensive satellite list with all usable European orbital
positions
5 10 15 6. Antenna settings including position entry for DiSEqC 1.3
7. DiSEqC 1.1 for up to 16 LNBs is also supported
8. The LNB LOF values can be selected from a preprogrammed list;
manual entry is not possible
9. Channel scan on one satellite
10. Transponder scan
11. The HS18 also supports BlindScan
12. Thanks to extensive editing capabilities, the channel list can
easily be matched to a user‘s requirements
13. All channels on a satellite can be deleted with the push of just
one button
14. Setting the time by choosing the country and city
15. The receiver‘s software can quickly be updated via USB
storage devices
20 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 21

4. channel entries from a sin- displayed through the Sky- The new HS18 receiver same transponder. As you
gle satellite can be deleted worth HS18. For this pur- from Skyworth comes with would expect with a high-
at one time; this would save pose there are two modes a fully functional and quite quality product, Skyworth
some users a lot of time and available: a complete over- sensitive DVB-S2 tuner. also included a time shift
aggravation. view of a single channel and Whether it was weak sig- function with the HS18 that
also a simultaneous display nals, such as those on allows the user to pause a
In general we were quite of five channels in a grid for- BADR at 26°E that come in live program and come back
happy with the quick reac- mat. Both formats are clear- relatively weak here in Aus- to it at a later time without
tion time of the receiver to tria, or narrow band SCPC missing a thing. In this way
remote control commands signals, the receiver could you can answer that tele-
as well as with the sensitive not be brought out of its phone call or handle some
IR receiver. Both of these rhythm. As a result, the other unavoidable interrup-
make using the receiver that ly organized and offer the HS18 had no trouble at all tion in the middle of your fa-
much easier and can put a user a good overview of the receiving the 12634V tran- vorite show without missing
smile on the lips of users upcoming programs. Since sponder on TURKSAT at a beat.
when they‘re working with the Skyworth HS18 is a PVR 42°E with a symbol rate of
the receiver such as when receiver, timer recordings 2.222 MS/sec. We were also The incorporated media
sorting the channel list. can be set up directly from surprised at the picture and player in the HS18 plays
the EPG. Unfortunately, you audio quality of the small back all the prerecorded
Once the receiver has can only set up a total of HS18. It can be used in an TV and radio content but is
been completely set up ac- eight timers; considering RV with a 24“ monitor just trumped by an MP3 jukebox,
cording to the user‘s re- the number of TV channels as well as with a 50“ LCD TV a picture viewer and a video
quirements, the main menu that are available today, this in your living room at home. player for all of the stan-
can be left simply by push- number is somewhat small. dard formats (for example,
ing the „Exit“ button. This Even though the HS18 MPEG, VOB, TS, MKV, AVI).
takes the receiver to the But this is made up for by isn‘t much larger than a
first channel in the chan- the well-arranged channel pack of cigarettes, it eas- This makes the small Sky-
nel list. An informative Info list that can be easily ac- ily becomes a fully featured worth HS18 box a fully-fea-
bar appears that displays cessed with a single push of PVR receiver thanks to its tured multimedia receiver
the title of the current and the OK button. The list can USB 2.0 port and the use of with which you can not only
upcoming programs plus be further refined to those an external storage device. enjoy TV and radio pro-
provides information on the channels from individual Its capabilities exceed many grams, but you can also en-
availability of teletext, sub- satellites or from specific other mini receivers in that joy listening to your favorite
titles or EPG data. groups (provider, CAS). A it can record two HD chan- songs. And let‘s not forget
practical search function nels simultaneously while that it can also play the lat-
As long as the program- with the use of the OSD showing a third TV channel est video clips from the In-
ming provider offers EPG keyboard is also available live. Since the HS18 only has ternet and lets you present
data for the next several to help make finding specific a DVB-S2 tuner, all three your vacation pictures and
days, it can be evaluated and channels much easier. channels have to be on the videos to all of your friends.
22 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

5. 16 21 26 31
17 22 27 32
18 23 28 16. The Skyworth HS18 becomes a fully-featured PVR receiver with
the addition of a USB 2.0 storage device
17. TimeShift is also supported
18. An Info bar appears at the bottom of the screen with every
channel change and provides information on the current and
upcoming program
19. EPG display of five channels
20. EPG display of one channel
21. Timer entries can be set up directly from the EPG
22. Channels can be easily searched for using the OSD keyboard
23. Two HD recordings can be handled at the same time; if a third
recording is started, the receiver asks the user to stop a current
recording
24. While a recording is in process, the channel list only shows
those channels that are on the same transponder
25. The media player can play back content previously stored on a
19 24 29 USB 2.0 storage device.
26. SCPC reception on TURKSAT 42°E is no problem at all
27. Thanks to language selection, multiple audio channels can be
managed
28. The list with entries after scanning a satellite
29. The HS18 is also a fully-featured MP3-Player, picture viewer and
media center
30. MP3 playback
31. Videos can be played back in a variety of formats without any
interference
32. AVI playback
We should also mention vert them into a DVD at a
that the Skyworth HS18 is later time on your PC.
20 25 30 one of only a very few digi-
tal receivers that we have On top of all these fea-
recently tested that can tures that were just men-
work with the NTFS data tioned, the little Skyworth
system. This is particularly comes with yet even more
advantageous because you small but practical features
are no longer restricted by including a dedicated button
the FAT system which would on the remote control to ad-
require another file for any- just the video signal resolu-
thing over 4GB. This makes tion as well as an integrated
it easier to edit any record- teletext decoder. The inter-
ings and, for example, con- nal software of the HS18
24 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 04-05/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 25

6. 26 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

7. can also be easily updated fun thoroughly testing the Expert Opinion
through a USB storage de- Skyworth HS18. It‘s a so-
Sophisticated and stable software, wide
vice. And as long as we‘re phisticated receiver that assortment of features and applications and
talking about updates, the is loaded with features all excellent workmanship. Because of its small
next software revision from of which are packed into a + size it‘s an ideal receiver for RVs but would
Skyworth should include the housing that is only a few also make a very practical receiver for your
activation of the RJ45 inter- centimeters in size. Thanks living room Thomas Haring
TELE-satellite
face and the integrated card to its small size it can easily Test Center
reader. be used anywhere, whether – None
Austria
it‘s in your RV or in your liv-
All in all, we had a lot of ing room.
TECHNICAL
DATA
ENERGY Manufacturer Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology CO., LTD.
DIAGRAM Unit A 13-16/F, Skyworth Mansion., Gaoxin Ave. 1.S.
Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518057, China
Apparent Power
Internet www.skyworthdigital.com
Mode Apparent Active Factor
Active 12.5 W 7W 0.56
Email sales ganweicai@skyworth.com
StandBy 0W 0W 1 Tel +86-755-26010018
Model HS18
Active Power Function Very small PVR Receiver with HDMI
Input frequency 950 - 2150 MHz
EPG yes
C/KU-Band yes
HDTV support yes (up to 1080p)
RS232 yes
Ethernet yes
USB 2.0 yes
Size 11 x 7 x 1.7 cm
The first 15 minutes active use with channel switching, recording,
Weight 115 Gr
playback, etc. The second 15 minutes in Standby
28 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 04-05/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com