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AZBox Ultra HD april 2011
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n www.azbox.com n £250 (approx)
AZBox ultra hd AZBox has fused an HD sat PVR with a broadband-enhanced media server with reasonable, if imperfect, results The Opposition Blade BM7000s n Very similar specifications for £100 less with better PVR but poorer AV performance and far less convenient network connectivity
Build and connectivity
Considering its range of functionality, the Ultra HD is small – partly because the power supply is in a small, separate box. Understated and robust, the Ultra HD has only silver cursor keys and a power button to break up the uniform front panel. A fold-down flap on the left
conceals the front-panel USB socket and a smart card slot in the left side of the machine. There’s no common interface and no front panel display; only power and network LEDs illuminate a darkened room. On the top of the receiver is a hatch for access to the SATA disc drive bay. No drive is supplied as standard, which makes the £250 price for this receiver a bit steep – but it’s easy to fit storage in here as an internal drive, or an external unit connected to the USB sockets. The Ultra HD’s remote control handset is also relatively small and doesn’t lack buttons. It sports dedicated pads you don’t see elsewhere – a Home button to return to the main menu and a Check button to select an item in the computer-like tick-box menus. Around the back the Ultra HD shows its HD capabilities with no Scart sockets to be seen but both HDMI and component video TV outputs, and composite video, S-video, and analogue audio for SD recording. An optical S/PDIF socket looks after digital audio output. A second USB socket provides for more permanent
Interface
Vu+ Duo n Similar functionality for £150 more, but twin-tuner and Enigmacompatible. Networkability through FTP only, not shared workgroup folders
To truly take centre stage as the home’s AV hub, a receiver must do more than just receive and record broadcast channels. Playback of AV files on removable storage is a must, access to media on the home network is highly desirable, and the ability to scour the internet as well is cream on the cake. The AZBox UltraHD does all this – and it has a programmable card reader and is Linux-based too, so there’s scope for third-party plug-ins. A proprietary Linux system is used, but you can replace the firmware with a downloadable unofficial Enigma2 image to open up Dreambox plug-in compatibility. For £250, it’s not cheap but the Ultra HD can cause a bit of a stir.
You can search for FTA, scrambled, TV or radio channels only or single transponders with the ability to set parameters such as frequency range
TV, web and media playback functionality are grouped together in a slick-looking main menu which can be called up while watching a channel
The 7-day ready EPG looks smart with the ability to search for shows via text entry and schedule recordings to internal or external storage devices
Test satellite and modulation) to be altered. The Ultra HD’s blind search is effective and fast too. The range of frequencies searched can be set, as can the polarisation covered, the symbol rate lower limit, and the frequency increment size. The blind search first looks for active transponders, adds them to the database, and then scans them. Setting up the Ultra HD’s network connection is also simple. Provided it’s configured for DHCP, the process is automatic once initiated.
Basic use
connections to external storage and the all-important Ethernet socket connects the Ultra HD to your network and the world beyond. Perhaps because it has ready access to alternative sources of media, the Ultra HD boasts one satellite tuner only, with one LNB socket (and loopthrough). This will drive DiSEqC 1.1 switches and DiSEqC 1.2/USALS motors, and there’s a traditional 0/12V switching output too (often used for C-band selection) so you won’t be restricted in the satellites the box can reach.
Setup
Setting up the S1500C is easy enough – once you have switched on the HDMI output so you can see the reception and menus on an HDMI TV (it’s absurd this isn’t the default) and have found the Antenna Setup and Satellite Scan menus hiding in the TV Channel section of the main menu. Each LNB connected is defined, selecting the DiSEqC port, 0/12V, LNB local oscillator, power, and 22kHz tone, with pop-up menus for a motorised antenna. Several satellite search modes are provided. The scope of the normal database scan can be altered with a tick-box menu of TV, radio, FTA and scrambled channels, and the database edited in a separate menu (the provision to download channel lists from the internet is not yet implemented). It’s pretty fast, scanning Astra 19.2°E in under four minutes. The Ultra HD can also scan an individual transponder from the database and in ‘Advanced Scan’ mode a single transponder enabling all the parameters (including PIDs LNB input and loopthrough
HDMI output
YPrPb component video output
Ethernet network interface
The Ultra HD uses a carousel menu with 11 sections displayed with the Home key and run across the bottom of the screen. Selecting an icon switches to that function or brings up the full-screen menu, as appropriate. It looks pretty but is less convenient than a simple list. Watching TV (or listening to radio, if toggled from the handset) is just one main menu item. The channel list is displayed in two columns with icons to show encrypted channels, and tuning details and now-and-next information for the highlighted channel. The channel list can be limited by satellite (or IPTV), genre, provider, country, encryption (strangely, including HD) or favourite channels, and within each list the channels can be sorted by name or broadcast frequency. Channels can be locked, skipped or deleted from the list – but only moved in the favourites lists. Tuning details, now-and-next info, and the programme synopsis are also displayed in an information banner on channel change or pressing the Info key. The EPG is displayed with the Guide button or from the additional ‘Detail Menu’ and shows a grid of programmes from seven channels over a couple of hours, or the shows on the selected channel (this display can also be accessed from the channel list). The EPG can be searched for a text string and you can reserve a programme for display or recording.
With an internal drive or USB memory connected, programmes can be recorded and played back, with recordings started manually from the remote control or automatically from the event timer (itself set manually or from the EPG). Playback provides Pause and fast-forward/ rewind at up to 32x normal speed. But there’s no way to jump to a specific point in the recording and – most bizarrely – the receiver would not fast-forward or rewind at all with any recording from BBC HD or BBC One HD! Crucially, you cannot start to watch a recording until it is finished – one of the major features of a PVR system. Once timeshifting is initialised, live broadcasts can be paused, and you can fast-forward or rewind through a
S-video output
Optical S/PDIF digital audio output
Composite video output
FTA Scan, Astra 19.2°E: 3m 47s 0
USB interface
Stereo analogue audio outputs
Power connector
5 mins
FTA Scan, Hot Bird: 4m 52s 0
5 mins
Full Scan, Astra 19.2°E: 3m 47s 0
5 mins
Full Scan, Hot Bird: 4m 55s 0
PVR and multimedia
0/12V switching output
Tech Data
5 mins
Blind search (10.700-12.750, Horizontal, 5MHz increment) Astra 28.2°E: 8m 55s 0
10 mins
Power consumption: 40W (standby: 5W)
Features
No LNB inputs: 1 LNB loopthrough: Yes DiSEqC: 1.0/1.1/1.2/USALS No. channels: 15,000 Selectable FEC: Yes Symbol rate range: 1000-45000 Blind search: Yes Linux: Yes CAM: Embedded card reader Common interface: No Teletext: DVB decoded EPG support: DVB now-and-next, 7-day Timer: Unlimited time, unlimited events Hard drive: Via USB, internal SATA UHF modulator tuning: N/A Software upgrade: Internet, USB Data ports: USB, Ethernet AV outputs: SD out: Composite video HD out: HDMI (to 1080p), YPbPr Audio out: Optical S/PDIF, stereo analogue audio
There’s a choice of front or rear USB ports for external storage
Ratings PLUS
n Very versatile n Good picture/
sound performance and excellent networkability
Minus
n Operationally frustrating n Very poor PVR
Build Setup Searching Navigation Performance Features Value
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Performance
The Ultra HD produces excellent pictures and sound
from live and recorded satellite broadcasts, internet video and stored AV files. Upscaled to 1080p, the pictures are detailed, with lively colours and excellent dynamic range (although, from the composite video output, even the onscreen graphics struggle to be seen clearly). But in operational terms, performance is less impressive. The Ultra HD often takes too long to respond to remote control commands and all web page access was horrendously slow despite the reasonable broadband connection. The receiver also often froze during the test, suggesting that another update of the software (easily downloaded via the internet) is in order n Geoff Bains
Verdict For its fairly hefty price, the Ultra HD is a little lacking in advanced PVR functionality and it can be frustrating to operate at times. But these gripes can be addressed with new firmware, and the promise of this machine is unmistakable. The pictures and sound that it produces are second to none, the (largely untapped) potential for third-party software plug-ins is huge, and the ease with which it binds together your TV, satellite dish, networked computers, and the internet is hypnotic – and a clear sign of the shape of TV reception to come.
Interface
83%
paused programme, but you can’t convert a paused programme into a recording. The Ultra HD may have only one tuner but while one channel is being recorded you can watch another channel on the same transponder (the channel list shows which channels are available). But other AV sources are not available; you can’t watch any an IPTV stream, browse the internet, or listen to music while recording. The Ultra HD is a lot more competent with media produced elsewhere, and it can act as a media player for photos, MP3 music and a whole host of video formats (including the likes of MPEG-1/2/4, MPEG-2 Transport Stream, AVI, WMV, ISO, ASF, MKV, H.264, and XviD, up to 1080p) from both the connected storage and via the network. Rather than stream media to and from a networked PC, the Ultra HD accesses workgroup shared folders on other networked PCs or network-attached storage. Combined with the built-in FTP client and server, it becomes simple to truly integrate the Ultra HD into a home-networked AV system. For further afield, the menu carousel includes icons to browse the internet (using the remote control), access and play back YouTube clips (but not iPlayer or Sky Player), and display RSS newsfeeds.
The information banner displays now-and-next programme data, signal strength and quality. You can also view synopses where broadcast
You can stream media located in shared folders on networked devices such as NAS drives. Most formats can be played including 1080p HD files
The included web browser allows you to enter addresses using the remote control and bookmark favourite sites for quicker navigation