1. TEST REPORT HDTV PC Receiver
TechnoTrend S2-3650CI
Handy HDTV-CI Receiver
for Your PC
10-11/2007
TECHNOTREND S2-3650CI
HDTV Reception with Many Features
for Little Money
The
German
company
TechnoTrend has for
some time now been working
on HDTV solutions for your PC or laptop.
Since many PC’s have problems with avail-
able card slots, TechnoTrend decided to
design an external box that is easily con-
nected to your PC or laptop through the
USB 2.0 interface.
Incorporating a USB 2.0 checking out Irdeto, Alphacrypt, definite possibility. The included Some extra points were awarded
interface was not an arbitrary Conax and Viaccess modules, 48-page user manual provides here.
choice; this type of connec- we also confirmed that a Crypto- detailed instructions on how
tion has established itself as a works module was just as easily to use their own “TechnoTrend TechnoTrend recommends
standard that can be found on recognized. PayTV reception is Media Center” software. using an Intel Pentium 733 MHz
most modern PCs and laptops therefore not a problem at all. PC for normal DVB-S. For DVB-
today. There’s also a nice little Thanks to the USB connec- S2 it should be at least a 3.4
side-effect: thanks to the com- On the back can be found an IF tion, installation is a piece of GHz Pentium 4 or AMD 3500+/
puting power that comes with input, a USB connection as well cake. We also appreciated the Dualcore along with a powerful
a PC, TechnoTrend can offer its as a connection for the external overall mechanical quality of the graphics card such as the ATI
little HDTV receiver box for an 12V power supply. box; no plastic parts were used. X1800/X1900 or NVidia 6600GT/
unbeatable price. This left us with a very positive 7600GT. The PC itself must also
The included remote control impression. be operating under Windows XP
On the front side of the S2- sits nicely in your hand although or Vista.
3650CI box that is only 15x10x3 the buttons themselves are
Everyday Use
cm in size can be found a CI rather small; unless you have The included software is
module slot for reception of smaller fingers, pressing two divided into two sections: the
any PayTV form. In addition to buttons at the same time is a The installation of the S2- TechnoTrend Media Center
3650CI box and its accompa- software for TV reception and
nying software is plug&play a tool for accessing data ser-
compatible. After connecting vices such as Internet via sat-
the box to a PC, the hardware ellite. The Media Center comes
is automatically recognized by preprogrammed with a nearly
Windows at which point it asks complete channel list from the
for the driver CD. popular European ASTRA 19.2°
east orbital position. The entire
Once installed, the only channel list is sorted by provider
remaining step is to set up the making it easy to find the chan-
“TechnoTrend Media Center”. It nel you want.
isn’t even necessary to restart
the PC; the box can be used If you want to receive other
immediately. We also had no satellite besides ASTRA, this
trouble setting up this box on a can be handled via the Chan-
HDTV via ASTRA 19.2° east as an example 32-bit Windows Vista machine. nel Search menu. More than 90
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2. European, Asian and American is also offered. In this mode
satellites are preprogrammed the software displays the EPG
with up-to-date data; this helps data of all previously defined
to make channel scanning fun channels next to each other in
again. It is also just as easy to an organized way so that, for
expand or edit the transponder example, with a single glance
data. you can see what your favorite
channels have in store for you in
Even every possible local the evening.
oscillator frequency (LOF) is
freely selectable. If you’re sitting comfortably
watching TV and the telephone
In addition to a manual tran- rings or someone comes knock-
sponder scan, an entire orbital ing at your door, the TimeShift
position can be scanned auto- function lets you pause the pro-
matically. An 80-transponder gram you are watching and pick
satellite required about nine it up again at a later time.
minutes for this task to be com-
pleted. With the help of the Timer
function, numerous programs
The Media Center as a Jukebox – MP3 playback
DiSEqC 1.0 is available for can be marked for recording;
the control of up to four LNBs. weekly and daily timers are sup-
Unfortunately, DiSEqC 1.1 for ported. Naturally, for record-
the control of up to 16 LNBs is ings to take place the PC must
currently not supported. At this be turned on; at the end of a
point it should be mentioned that recording, the Media Center will
an unlimited number of channels see to it that the PC is turned
can be stored and thanks to its off. Of course a currently run-
easy-to-understand presenta- ning program can be recorded
tion and the Favorites lists, you at any time on the PC’s hard
should never lose track of what drive.
you have.
We were quite pleased with
The “main panel” of the Media the integrated teletext func-
Center is divided into three sec- tion. In only a few seconds it
tions. Thanks to the prepro- managed to download all of the
grammed channel list, the user available pages making it possi-
can jump right into TV viewing; ble to access any of those pages
the first channel doesn’t need or sub-pages in those same few
any more than two seconds to seconds. These pages can also
HDTV via ASTRA 19.2° east in a window appear on the screen. be saved in HTML format on
your PC.
The channel switching time is
actually quite good considering The TechnoTrend manufac-
this is all happening through a tured tuner is quite sensitive
PC. Switching between chan- and has no problems handling
nels on the same transponder is small bandwidth SCPC signals.
taken care of in just about one Our 1.6 Ms/sec test transpon-
second; between two differ- der was no obstacle for the S2-
ent transponders, the software 3650CI box; high symbolrates
needs about two seconds. EPG also presented no difficulties.
data can also be displayed as In addition to QPSK modula-
long is this information is made tion (necessary for DVB), the
available by the provider. Infor- box and software also supports
mation on current and upcom- DVB-S2. Reception of the con-
ing programs is displayed in a stantly increasing number of
window near the bottom of the HDTV programs in MPEG4 using
screen. the H264 standard is no longer
a problem.
The EPG in the S2-3650CI
box might make some owners After checking out all of the
EPG of standard set to boxes green basic functions, we naturally
with envy. The software is able wanted to test its HDTV capabil-
to read in all of the EPG data ities. It didn’t take long at all to
only a few seconds after switch- find the FTA channels on ASTRA
ing to a new channel. The user at 19.2° east and in just about
can then take this data, includ- two seconds we were enjoying
ing expanded EPG data, and the first channel in top-notch
arrange it in a more easy-to- picture quality.
read fashion with just the push
of a button. Only in a direct comparison
could we see what the difference
A Channel Magazine function in HDTV quality meant. While
24 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 10-1
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Intel Core2 1.86 GHz machine, flowed smoothly with perfect French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/fra/technotrend.pdf
HDTV reception required much synchronization between the Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/hel/technotrend.pdf
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more CPU power. Our machine two at all times.
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no negative effects to be seen or Dolby Digital stereo system Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/pol/technotrend.pdf
on any of the other software linked with your PC, you can Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0711/rus/technotrend.pdf
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programs that were running. It naturally also take advantage of
is therefore possible to watch superior audio quality in addi-
tion to a super-sharp picture. is possible to program all of the
buttons on the included remote
Contrary to some DVB-S2 control to whatever you need if
set top boxes, the TechnoTrend the default settings happen to
Media Center has no trouble not be good enough. In addition
handling BBC’s Sky Digital tran- to TechoTrend’s Media Center
sponders on ASTRA 2D at 28.2° software, a variety of other pro-
east. grams are also made available
that can be used with this box.
In addition to TV reception,
the Media Center can also play And don’t worry; if you’re one
back videos from the PC in all of those that simply can’t do
the different formats. Thanks without ProgDVB, you can relax,
to the integrated picture-in-pic- this box also works nicely with
ture function, the live TV picture this software. In the latest ver-
can be displayed at the same sion of ProgDVB, DVB-S2 sup-
time in a small window or vice- port was also implemented; the
versa, the live picture in a large Media Center as tuning aid in
window and the video playback the background is now a thing of
Teletext in a small window. the past.
Annoying commercials can be A special note for DXer’s and
skipped over. Not only that, the hobbyists: the TechnoTrend
software can also act as a juke- S2-3650CI box can, like many
box and play back any music other PC DVB-S solutions, also
data format. This is all nicely handle MPEG 4:2:2 assuming of
integrated into the channel list. course that the proper Codec is
installed.
Through its own menu page
in the Media Center software it
Expert conclusion
+
The TechnoTrend S2-3650CI is a true alterna-
tive to an HDTV set top box. You get quite a bit
of power for not too much money. The included
software functioned perfectly.
TV Guide
- Thomas Haring
TELE-satellite
Test Center
An expansion of the DiSEqC protocol to 1.1 Austria
would be nice to have.
TECHNIC
DATA
Distributor DVB-Shop, Deutschland
Tel. +49-34954/31960
Fax +49-34954/49233
Website www.dvbshop.net
E-Mail webmaster@dvbshop.net
Model TechnoTrend S2-3650CI
Function USB box for reception of DVB and DVB-S2 in SDTV/HDTV
Channel Memory unlimited
Satellites 93
Symbolrate 4-45 Ms/sec.
SCPC Compatible yes (starting at 1.6 Ms/sec. in our test)
USALS no
DiSEqC 1.0
EPG yes
C/Ku-Band Compatible: yes
Picture in Picture
www.TELE-satellite.com — 10-1
1/2007 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 25