The TeVii S650 is a compact DVB-S2 USB box for receiving HDTV satellite signals on a PC or laptop. It supports SD and HD reception, has a sturdy metal case, and includes a comprehensive software suite. The software has a clear interface, supports various international languages, and allows flexible channel organization and recording capabilities. In testing, the TeVii S650 successfully received signals across a range of strengths and formats. It provides drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems.

1. TEST REPORT HDTV Satellite USB Box
TeVii S650 – DVB-S2 USB Box
Small but powerful
remote control, a short user’s
With the S650 Taiwanese guide, batteries for the remote
control as well as a CD with all
manufacturer TeVii introduces a required software and drives.
A comprehensive instruction
further development of its DVB-S manual is available as PDF.
USB Box S600, which is now also
Everyday use
capable of receiving high-definitions As minimum system require-
ments for its new USB Box TeVii
channels (HDTV). specifies Intel Pentium 3 1 GHz
or higher, for HDTV capabilities
the box requires Intel Pentium
The S650 Box comes in a based PC with USB 2.0. In case 4 2 GHz with 128 or 256 MB
metal case which gives it a very you’re wondering: yes, it’s true RAM respectively, DirectX 9
sturdy look and the level of – TeVii also offers a Linux driver or higher as well as a graphics
workmanship is also very high. for its latest product. An infra- card with a minimum of 16 MB
Its backside features a satel- red LED is located behind a pro- dedicated memory. Of course a
lite IF input as well as a loop- tective cover on the front panel USB 2.0 port is also required. In
through output. An external for picking up commands from general, most modern PCs will
power pack – which is also con- the remote control, a feature be able to meet these require-
nected to the rear panel – pro- that worked brilliantly in our ments, particularly as MS Win-
vides the box with all the power test. dows 2000, XP and Vista are all
it requires. supported. Linux drivers are
The complete package comes available as well.
On one side we find a USB fully equipped with the S650
host interface for connecting USB box, the external power TeVii ships the box with a
the box to a Windows or Linux pack, a USB 2.0 cable, the whole range of software applica-
12-01/2009
TEVII S650 – DVB-S2 USB BOX
Compact HDTV receiver for PC
or laptop computer
with comprehensive software
44 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 12-01/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. tions such as the TeVii in-house that other manufacturers
software suite, software for
Internet-via-satellite, SkyGrab-
follow TeVii’s example and that
way push the upgrade to 64-bit
TELE-satelliteother languageswww.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in
World from the Internet:
ber – which we will discuss later operating platforms. Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ara/tevii.pdf
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/bid/tevii.pdf
in more detail – and the well- Bulgarian Български www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/bul/tevii.pdf
Czech Česky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ces/tevii.pdf
known and popular ProgDVB The required drivers are German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/deu/tevii.pdf
PC software for DVB-S/2. Our installed in a breeze and as English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/eng/tevii.pdf
Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/esp/tevii.pdf
Windows Vista PC recognised a next step we recommend Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/far/tevii.pdf
the TeVii S650 box right after installing the full software pack- French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/fra/tevii.pdf
Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/hel/tevii.pdf
plugging it in and prompted us age from the CD. The installa- Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/hrv/tevii.pdf
to insert the driver CD. Thank- tion process of the individual Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ita/tevii.pdf
Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/mag/tevii.pdf
fully TeVii does not only provide applications is for the most Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/man/tevii.pdf
Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ned/tevii.pdf
32-bit Windows drivers but also part self-explanatory. When Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/pol/tevii.pdf
all 64-bit drivers that Windows the TeVii software is launched Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/por/tevii.pdf
Romanian Românesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/rom/tevii.pdf
Vista64 users need. This was for the very first time the user Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/rus/tevii.pdf
an unexpected surprise and a is greeted by a black window Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/sve/tevii.pdf
Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/tur/tevii.pdf
point we cannot praise highly and an empty channel list, as
Available online starting from 28 November 2008
enough. It can only be hoped there are no pre-stored chan-
www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2009 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 45

3. nels available. The user interface took a little less than eight minutes
of myTeVii is clearly structured and to scan a satellite with just over 100
looks quite straightforward. To the transponders, which is a slightly
right we find the channel and satel- above average achievement.
lite list, with the actual TV channel
being shown to the left of that. Of During our test the TeVii box deliv-
course the window size of the TV ered some remarkable results. On
channel can changed as required the one hand it turned out to have a
and it goes without saying that a full low threshold and to be able to also Main window
screen presentation mode is avail- handle weak signals, such as trans-
able as well. myTeVii is quite inter- missions from ASTRA 2D 28.2° East
national and can be customised for at our test location in Munich, for
the following languages: English, example. On the other hand it works
German, French, Arabic, Chinese, very well with SCPC signals and has
Finnish, Italian, Polish, Russian, no problems processing low-band-
Spanish and Swedish. width SCPC signals. Our test tran-
sponder on TURKSAT 42° East with
The TeVii box supports DiSEqC pro- a symbol rate of just over 2000 KS/s
tocol 1.0 for up to four LNBs as well came in flawlessly.
as protocol 1.1 which means it can
be used with a multi-focus antenna. In reception mode the TeVii can
Owners of motorised dishes are be set to display EPG information
looked after as well because both in the status bar of the application
hardware and software are compat- window, if these data are provided EPG insert
ible with DiSEqC protocols 1.2 and by the respective channel. In addi-
1.3 (USALS). USALS settings can be tion, a full OSD insert can be called
adjusted very conveniently via the up, which is particularly handy when
settings menu of the TeVii software controlling the box from the couch
which fully controls a 1.3-based with the included remote control.
motorised dish. We believe the OSD layout deserves
special praise as it does not only
In general TeVii’s in-house soft- display the channel name when zap-
ware allows a huge range of con- ping, but also scrollingly provides
figuration options, such as defining extended EPG information and this
individual LOF parameters for each way offers much more detailed back-
satellite. The corresponding values ground information than we would
for the Ku and C bands as well as for normally expect when switching
LNBs used for the reception of circu- channels. This is a truly great fea-
lar signals are already pre-stored. In ture that we really love! Speaking of Satellite and transponder list
addition, a few mouse clicks is all it special praise, the software turned
takes to change the DiSEqC param- out to communicate brilliantly with
eters as well. the included remote control which
is clearly labelled and convenient to
Once the software has been con- use.
figured to work with the existing
antenna equipment the next step The channel list is another high
consists of performing a channel point and offers a whole lot of sorting
search to fill the virtually unlimited and adjusting options. For example,
channel memory with data. To that channels can be sorted according
end, a pre-set satellite list with 177 to bouquets, transponders or sat-
European, Asian and American posi- ellites, TV or radio channels can be
tion is available. This and the cor- faded out with a simple click of a
responding transponder data are button and you are free to set up
very up-to-date, and even if the odd several favourite lists. The chan- Channel search
parameter might not be 100% accu- nel list can be edited directly in the
rate this can be corrected in a whiz main window. Individual entries can
by looking up the required settings be updated via satellite, renamed
at www.SatcoDX.com. or protected with a PIN code from
unauthorised viewers, such as chil-
Obviously it is possible to edit sat- dren.
ellite and/or transponder data by
updating existing entries with only a For a DVB-S/2 PC solution chan-
few mouse clicks or by entering new nel switching is ok with about three
satellites or transponders just as seconds. Between HDTV and SDTV
quickly. If you want to fill the TeVii channels it takes a little longer. The
box’s channel memory it is enough one major advantage of DVB receiv-
to mark one, several or all transpon- ers for the PC is the option to record
ders of a satellite entry and activate onto the PC’s hard disk, and this is
the channel search. The software also one of the draw cards of the
Sorting the channel list according to providers
46 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 12-01/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

4. TeVii. Timer records can be set up facturer will bundle the card with a
effortlessly and time shift is avail- USB card reader for some areas at
able, meaning that you can freeze the time when this report gets pub-
the current program at any time lished.
and later continue from exactly
that point with a single touch of a
button. Another practical feature
Image representa-
is the TeVii’s software capability tion and processing
of recording all events in a special
DVD-compatible mode, in addition power Various configuration options
to the standard transport stream. Our test PC was equipped with
an Intel Core2 Duo 1.8 GHz proces-
The integrated EPG is a beauty as sor and was able to display SDTV
well and displays all information in an and HDTV in either 720p or 1080i
organised way. Events can be marked absolutely flawlessly, even without
for recording directly in the EPG, draining too much processing power
and you can even set up the timer from the system. This means you
to record daily or weekly events. To can work with other applications
make sure you don’t miss a single while watching satellite TV using the
scene you may even add extra time myTeVii application. With a slightly
before the beginning an after the end older Intel Pentium IV system inter-
of every recorded event. ference-free HDTV was at first only
possible with 720p, while 1080i
The perfect overall impression of resulted in a number of dropouts, but
the TeVii software is rounded off the manufacturer responded quickly LNB settings/DiSEqC
by a dedicated plug-in interface. and released a new software version
This allows software developers to during our test, which fixed even this
create extensions and add-ons for problem.
myTeVii and to offer new and useful
features. The only thing we missed
really badly during our test was Additional software
being able to use CI modules for pay While most metropolitan areas have
TV reception. However, the manu- high-speed Internet infrastructure the
situation is a little less satisfactory in
some rural regions. Frequently there
are no cable networks and DSL solu-
tions sometimes don’t work due the
large distance between interchange
and user. In such cases Internet-via-
satellite may become a real alterna- Timer settings
tive and the TeViiData application that
comes with the
S650 constitutes
the right soft-
ware tool for that.
When installing
the software it
installs a network
SkyGrabber
TeVii Data
48 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 12-01/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

5. driver which allows to set and footprint. Data received from
edit all required TCP/IP param- the satellite are filtered and
eters. It suffices to select the SkyGrabber tries to assemble
desired provider (out of a list of pieces of music, films etc. to
27 providers/satellite positions) create complete files. Please
or you may choose to enter all note, however, that saving third-
details manually. The software party material may be illegal
then checks if the antenna is under certain circumstances.
aligned correctly and activates
Internet access. The SkyGrab- Before we finish we have one
ber demo software also comes word of advice for all DX enthu-
from the field of internet-via- siasts out there: of course you
satellite and relies on the fact can use the TeVii S650 with, for
that – contrary to landline example, the ProgDVB software
Internet access – internet-via- with Elecard codec to receive
satellite sends data not to one MPEG 4:2:2 feeds, for exam-
user specifically, but basically to ple from EUTELSAT W3A at 7°
everyone within the satellite’s East.
SCPC reception via TURKSAT 42° East
Expert opinion
+
The TeVii S650 USB box is a compact DVB-S/2
receiver for the PC. For SD reception it does not
require the latest PC equipment and should work
smoothly with most systems. The included soft-
ware suite is very comprehensive and leaves noth- Thomas Haring
ing to be desired. TV reception (SDTV and HDTV) TELE-satellite
Test Center
worked absolutely flawlessly in our test with an Austria
Intel Core2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor.
-
We would have liked to be able to use CI modules with the TeVii
S650.
TECHNIC
DATA
Manufacturer TeVii Technology Ltd. Taiwan
Email Sales patricia@tevii.com
Email Support peterson@tevii.com
Model S650
Function USB box for the reception of SDTV and HDTV,
radio and data on the PC
Channel memory unlimited
Satellites 177
Symbolrates 2-45 Ms/sec.
SCPC compatible yes (approx. 2.2 MS/s and above in our test)
USALS yes
DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
EPG yes
C/Ku Band compatible yes