With hard disc recording now featuring on at least one model in each manufacturer’s digital receiver range, other features must distinguish between PVR receivers – such as how they handle the EPG for easy access to sufficient information for recording the shows you want, and their price. Technisat has approached the problem with a cheap PVR using its own programme information service, SFI. Although available since last year for ‘ordinary’ receivers, SFI has really come into its own with the Digicorder S1 hard disc drive model.

BUILD
Teutonic satellite receivers have always been on the robust side and the Digicorder is no exception (it is actually made in Germany, not imported from the Far East). The Digicorder looks sleek and classy. With a silver and dark acrylic front panel, slightly weird power button (like a miniature UFO jammed in the front) and a commendably small brand badge, it looks the business.

The dot matrix alphanumeric display gives the time when the machine’s in standby (the clock can be switched off to save a couple of watts of power), the channel or recorded programme name, or the menu item. It’s brilliant. The left-hand end of the front panel is a huge rocker switch for Channel Up/Down buttons. Most of the lower half of the front is a flap that covers the Digicorder’s common interface slot for plug-in conditional access modules – only one slot; a bit disappointing for a receiver of this calibre.

Around the back there’s a logical and uncrowded array of sockets. The single LNB input can handle DiSEqC LNB switching and DiSEqC 1.2 motorised dish mounts, and there’s an LNB loopthrough for a second receiver. The UHF aerial loopthrough is compatible with UK specifications, although the number of direct AV connections means you may never actually use it. The Digicorder also has an RS232 serial computer interface but software upgrades are usually taken care of over the air, by satellite.

SETUP
The Digicorder is a doddle to set up for satellite TV viewing (if you ignore the poor German menu translations) but you can do it all the hard way too. When the receiver is first switched on, the Auto-install starts. This first sets the language and country and then offers a standard instal-ation of a DiSEqC switched dish for Astra and Hot Bird, or a manually selected system of up to four LNBs for any satellites.

Provided that Astra 1 is available, the Digicorder checks that there is no updated soft-ware to be had, and then offers the choice of scanning the satellites for channels (all or just unencrypted) or using a pre-prepared list. If you opt for the latter, the receiver is ready to use in acouple of minutes. If you want to search out the latest active channels then the Digicorder took about four minutes to check out Astra 1 and about eight to deal with Hot Bird.

If you need to set up the Digicorder for a more complicated system or you want to track down channels on a new transponder, then you exit the Auto-install and use the Digicorder’s menu system. There you’ll find the usual functions, to search all satellites, one satellite, or a transponder, or to search for a particular channel with the PIDs defined.

The receiver can also be set up for more unusual LNBs – specifying the local oscillator frequencies and checking reception of anytransponder on a satellite. Here you can also select the screen format of the connected TV, primary audio language, subtitle language, Scart output signal format, UHF signal format and UHF modulator channel.
It’s from the menus, after the Auto-install, that you can set up a DiSEqC 1.2 motorised dish. Unusually, this can be configured to reside on one of the DiSEqC switched LNB inputs, so in theory you could have a couple of fixed LNBs and a motorised dish, all feeding the Digicorder’s one LNB input. And it’s more than just a DiSEqC 1.2 sys-tem. With USALS, you can enter the longitude and latitude of your site, and the mount (if compatible) will turn to the calculated position of a satellite. There’s also an Autofocus function to home in on the best position.

The whole installation process is pretty straightforward and, because much of it is handled by the Auto-install wizard, it’s difficult to go far wrong. However, much is dependent on downloaded lists of transponders or channels. These are updated regularly at the moment but that may not always be the case. There is no means, in the current software at least, to update the transponder details yourself.

NAVIGATION
The channels are stored in the Digicorder in an alphabetically sorted list of 4,000 channels with two 999-channel favourite channel lists for TV and radio. Since the onscreen display alwaysdefaults to one of these favourite lists (depend-ing on whether it’s in TV or radio mode), these are not so much ‘favourite’ lists as ‘all channels
you are ever likely to watch’ lists.

There is also a ‘Provider’ list, in which channels are grouped by broadcasting network. This is a good way of getting at a particular channel, so long as you know the network. As a list is browsed (a channel or a page at a time) the inset window shows the channel, and the current programme name and times is given (a press of the i button displays the full programme details, if transmitted).

There is no distinction made between the different satellites a channel may come from. Although the onscreen list shows the satellite, you cannot, say, display only the channels on one satellite or sort the list by satellite (except by manually rearranging the list, channel by channel). However, highlighting a channel in the list and pressing the button displays the most comprehensive details about a channel that you’re likely to find – not just the satellite and transponder details but PIDs, video and audio bit rates, network ID, encryption details, and more – the works.

You can also select a channel by its number or by simply pressing the channel up/down buttons on the remote, or by using the Digicorder’s comprehensive EPG system. This uses the DVB data transmitted with many channels as well as independent seven-day listings compiled by Technisat and downloaded from Astra 1 each night or on demand – SiehFern Info (SFI).

Of course the SFI data covers mainly German channels but it also includes such ‘Ausland’ offerings as BBC World, CNBC, CNN, TV5 and others. The DVB programme data plugs gaps in the SFI info and the whole lot is presented in an ‘overview’ of those channels selected for EPG inclusion, with the name and a progress bar for the current programme. The programmes on next can also be shown, or any in the coming week.

The display can be changed to a complete listing of a selected channel or a listing by pro-gramme genre. Any show on now can be selected for viewing and future shows tagged for viewing (changes channel at the appropriate time), VCR recording (changes channel and prevents interruption) or hard disc recording. For those channels not selected for the full SFI treatment, the information banner displayed on a channel change gives full now and next programme
details.

PERFORMANCE
With a decent broadcast signal, the Digicorder is capable of excellent pictures. The images are clear and crisp with deep blacks, bright whites and strong colours. The sound is also high quality. With the emphasis on German channels, many of which broadcast excellent music concerts, opera and stage plays, the audio abilities of the Digicorder are put to the test – and it fares very well.

OTHER FEATURES
The Digicorder has many other functions – freeze frame, decoded and re-inserted teletext (with an 800-page memory for quick access), PIN operated parental lock, two remote control command settings for two-receiver installations, previous channel button, manual event timer, sleep timer, and camera viewpoint selection – but it’s the PVR hard disc recorder that attracts attention.

The 80GB drive stores up to 60 hours of programming (typically about 50 hours). Versions with 40GB (£239), 120GB (£319) and 160GB (£349) of storage are available. Programmes can be recorded by pressing the Record button, by a timed event or by pausing a broadcast and electing to store it permanently. Recordings started manually can be stopped automatically at the end of the programme.

With just one tuner, the Digicorder cannot record and show different channels at once. Playback allows the usual PVR functions of pause, fast forward and rewind at 4x, 16x, 64x speed and in jumps of 10 minutes. Recordings are accessed as another list from the channel navigation menu. Each recording is shown with the programme
name, date, time, channel and length. Impressively, the programme EPG details are available when a recording is played and if one recording bridges two or more programmes, the details change at the right time as it’s played.

The Digicorder has a recordings management menu that allows recordings to be blocked (with the parental lock), deleted and renamed. From this menu a recording can be played and bookmarks placed at any point for jumping straight to in the normal playback mode. What’s more, the section of a recording between two bookmarks can be deleted so that, say, the adverts can be removed. There’s no way to place a bookmark very accurately (a pause with frame advance, say) and the recording shows onscreen signs of the splice after a deletion but, nevertheless, it’s a useful addition to the PVR functions.

There’s also no means to join together two recordings, or to duplicate them but as all these existing PVR editing functions were added in a software update during this test, the future may hold yet more additions. And the promise of more and better functionality with future developments is the Digicorder's saving grace; there is currently no editing of the transponder database. But the Digicorder looks great, is quick to set up, has good connectivity, has a fabulous EPG and, best of all, a price that (so far) can’t be beat

Published August 2004, What Satellite & Digital TV