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Comag PVR 2/100CI HD october 2010
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n www.rockdale.co.uk n 01493 6677509 n £180
Comag PVR 2/100CI HD The Opposition Icecrypt S4000 n Similarly specified box with more multimedia flexibility, a bit bigger HDD, and a fast normal search but nearly double the price
Comag has previously been best known in the UK for its camping systems and cheap receivers found in Lidl under the Silvercrest name, but with the PVR 2/100CI HD the UK should take the brand a whole lot more seriously. This HD PVR boasts twin tuners, a 400GB hard drive built in (and further memory via USB), common interface slot for plug-in CAMs, and a blind search – all for £180.
Build and connectivity The PVR 2/100CI HD does not look like a cheap machine. The front panel is gently curved and glossy black plastic with a discreet but clear dot matrix display in the centre to give the channel name, time, menu option and so on. On the left-hand side are chromed buttons for control of the receiver – unusually including Menu, and Exit, as
well as the normal cursor controls and OK. The power button doubles as a hard reset (if held in), much like a PC power control. The right-hand side has a push-to-open flap concealing the CI slot (the PVR 2/100CI HD sells in Germany as an HD+ receiver) and the USB socket. Bizarrely, this is a mini-USB socket so an adapter lead is required to connect up anything useful. Although this is supplied, it means that a memory stick doesn’t just stick out the front but hangs off the machine by the adapter lead – very untidy. A full-sized socket would have been much better, preferably with another at the rear. Although the USB can be used for additional PVR memory, the main use will be for software and channel list downloading and uploading. The PVR 2/100CI HD’s remote control handset is less
Interface
Micro M150HD n Similarly priced (caravan-friendly) HD PVR with comparable capabilities but just one tuner, poorer PVR facilities, no HDD built in and no proper blind search
It may have its operating quirks, but this astonishingly cheap and stylish Comag PVR is far from downmarket
The PVR’s twin tuners can be fed from one LNB feed and there’s full support for motorised dish users, including all forms of DiSEqC and USALS
More channel-sorting features would have been welcome, but you can create 10 favourites lists and enter text to search for channels
EPG data can be displayed for one channel at a time or as a three-channel grid with synopses that can be browsed day by day
Test satellite ‘This dazzlingly cheap machine is a competent and well-featured twin-tuner HD PVR receiver’
elegant. It’s rather light and plastic and simply covered with buttons in a rather poor layout. Even after extensive use, we had to peer at the handset all the time to work out where a particular button had vanished to. What’s more, handset communication can be unreliable. The receiver occasionally pauses before responding to a button-press. Whether this is down to the handset, the receiver sensor or the software is unclear, but it’s a minor niggle, not a great problem. The rear of the PVR 2/100CI HD is well provided with sockets. There are two LNB inputs for the two tuners, and both have a loopthrough. Indeed, if you only have one LNB feed you can connect the output of one to the input of the other (a bridge cable is supplied) and still get some of the benefits of two tuners. Output is primarily by HDMI or, at a push, component video (YPbPr). There are also two Scart sockets, for TV and VCR/DVD recorder, and separate composite video and stereo analogue audio on phono sockets and digital audio on both optical and coaxial S/PDIF sockets. You are not going to be short of connections with this machine.
A useful tuning tone is provided for setting up the dish, and this can be turned on or off with a dedicated button on the handset. If you have a motorised DiSEqC 1.2 or USALS dish, then this can be set up at this stage. For a full picture you can scan the satellite(s) available for active transponders. The PVR 2/100CI HD can either search all the satellite’s transponders stored in a database, search a single transponder, or perform a blind search of the satellite to update the database. You can limit the channels found to free-to-air or encrypted ones (although it makes precious little difference to the time taken) and to TV or radio or both. Of course, blind search is not fast, and you cannot limit the frequency range or polarisations covered so it always takes much the same (long) time – about 25 minutes. Strangely, if the normal database scan doesn’t find exactly what it expects it seems to do something of a blind search too, and so it takes an inordinate time to scan a satellite as well. However, as it searches, the PVR 2/100CI HD reports on the number of new transponders found and the number of TV and radio channels found, both ‘old’ ones already in the channel list and newly discovered broadcasts. The old channels found replace those already in the channel list and new ones are tacked on the end. The whole channel list can be easily edited to remove the pre-programmed channels not relevant to your system. The transponder database for each satellite can be edited manually and new transponders (or even whole new satellites) added. When the channel list is up-todate, the whole lot can be simply saved to a USB memory stick for restoration at a later date if you have to reset the machine or simply want to get back to square one.
Comag has taken a slightly different approach to setup than is found on most receivers. The emphasis is on the pre-programmed channels. Almost 500 channels on the satellites across Europe (Astra 28,2°E, Astra 19.2°E, Hot Bird, Turksat, Sirius, Amos and Hispasat) are preprogrammed into the receiver so all you have to do is set up the details of the LNB connections (switches, etc) and you are ready to go. 2 LNB inputs and TV Scart loopthrough outputs
YPbPr component video outputs
VCR Scart
HDMI
S-video output
FTA scan, Astra 1 19.2°E: 11m 16s 0
25 mins
FTA scan, Hot Bird: 18m 25s 0
25 mins
Full scan, Astra 1: 12m 38s 0
25 mins
Full scan, Hot Bird: 19m 10s 0
25 mins
Blind Search, Hot Bird: 24m 50s 0
25 mins
Power consumption: 20W (2W standby)
Basic use The PVR 2/100CI HD lists all the channels found in one list with the ability to step sideways to individual lists for the different satellites (regardless of whether these contain any channels or not). However, the first list displayed is always the all-channels list and so it is tedious to have to step across to ‘your’ satellite each time to find the channels you want (which may be in two or more sections of the complete list depending on when they were found), particularly as there is no means to re-order the channel according to
Setup
Tech Data
Stereo analogue audio outputs
Composite video output
Coaxial S/PDIF audio output
Optical S/PDIF audio output
Mains power switch
Features No LNB inputs: 2 LNB loopthrough: Yes DiSEqC: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, USALS No. channels 5.000 Selectable FEC: No Symbol rate range: 1000-35000 Blind search: Yes Linux: No CAM: No Common interface: 1 Teletext: DVB decoded and re-inserted EPG support: DVB now-and-next, 7-day Timer: Unlimited events, unlimited time Hard drive: 400GB and via USB UHF modulator tuning: N/A Software upgrade: USB download, OTA Data ports: Mini USB AV outputs: SD out: TV Scart (composite, RGB, S-video), VCR Scart (composite video), YPbPr, composite video HD out: HDMI, YPbPr Audio out: Stereo analogue audio, optical digital audio, coaxial digital audio
Test satellite
A front flap conceals a CI slot and USB port
Ratings PLUS
n HD PVR receiver with
twin-tuners
n 400GB HDD n Blind search for a bargain price
Minus
n No fast search n Not the best HD picture n Some strange approaches to
everyday use
Build Setup Searching Navigation Performance Features Value
hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh
PVR and multimedia Programmes can be recorded to either the internal hard disc or any USB memory plugged into the receiver. Which one is used is determined in the event timer, so recordings started directly from the remote handset always use the hard disc. The two tuners allow two channels to be recorded at once and, if necessary, another recording to be watched at the same time. Or you can even record two channels and watch a third live channel as long as it is on the same
Performance HD pictures are are very sharp, crisp and clear. However, they’re also rather too strong-coloured and comparisons with the output from a Sky HD box displaying the same channels show the PVR 2/100CI HD’s picture as a bit cheap. It’s not a big problem and may not be noticed in isolation (and it is certainly less evident with the YPbPr connection), but can impinge slightly on the viewing. SD images are well upscaled to HD for output and SD output is of a good quality for recording and/or piping around the home to secondary TVs. Sound is also well up to standard and the provision of both flavours of S/PDIF should ensure that everyone gets to benefit from digital sound n Geoff Bains
Verdict It’s not perfect, but the PVR 2/100CI HD certainly puts to rest any thoughts of the Comag brand being the stuff of portable and downmarket receivers only. This dazzlingly cheap machine is a competent and well-featured twin-tuner HD PVR receiver that can grace the AV centre of many a home while offering the flexibility of a fully fledged enthusiast’s machine for the price of a Freesat box.
Interface
86%
name, satellite, encryption and so on. You can, however, edit the channels list or use the string search or the 10 favourite channels lists, which may be populated and named as you want, or even use the mosaic display that shows thumbnail images of the next nine channels onscreen at once. The EPG is a bit different too. One press of the EPG button shows the programmes on the current channel, with a brief synopsis of the selected programme. A further press produces the multichannel display – a unique design with just three channels across the top, the times down the side, and a slightly longer synopsis at the bottom of the screen. You can scroll through the channels or the times and jump a day forward or back. Both EPG displays allow the selected programme to be entered into the event timer for recording on the hard disc or a connected memory stick. The PVR 2/100CI HD also offers teletext, both decoded by the receiver and re-inserted into the video signal for decoding by the TV set (although the latter is not available via HDMI) and a picture zoom function.
transponder as one of the channels being recorded (the channel list ‘ghosts out’ unavailable channels). However, unlike some other PVRs, this third channel can only be viewed; recordings are limited to two at a time. If you have just one LNB feed (and a cable ‘bridge’ between the two tuners) then two channels on the same frequency band and polarisation can be recorded. Timeshifting is possible (only after you press Pause) but paused programmes cannot be converted to permanent recordings. You can start to watch a recording before it has finished, and return to the point you previously left. The list of recordings is conjured up with the Movies button on the remote and the PVR 2/100CI HD can fast-forward or review at speeds up to x32 and pause or play in slow motion at x½, x¼, or x1/8. You can jump forward or back five minutes and set markers at any point and jump between them. However, there is no way to jump to a particular point in an unmarked recording. Impressively, the PVR 2/100CI HD can perform simple editing functions on a recording; a section can be marked out and then deleted. The cuts are not very accurate but remove the bulk of an ad-break. Photos on a USB memory can also be viewed with a slideshow facility through the Photo button, but the Music button does nothing at all, so MP3 files remain unavailable.
Transponder lists can be edited manually and exported to a USB stick for safekeeping (e.g. should you need to reset the machine) 4 What Satellite & Digital TV October 2010
The programme info bar shows now-and-next data including programme synopses displayed in a clear and attractive manner
The 2/100CI HD lacks a quick search option so scans can be slow. Blind search, however, will be welcomed by patient feed hunters