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TEST REPORT

TELE-satellite International www.TELE-satellite.com

HDTV CI Receiver

Next to the button, the infra-red light detector and 2 statusLEDs are placed. Two CI slotsare hidden behind a sliding door.

Finally, in the left part of thefront panel, we can see the roundstandby button. It has a nice redLED in the center that is lit whenin standby mode.

The rear panel is equippedwith IF input and output, HDMIinterface for HD Ready TV-sets,RS-232 interface for upgrad-ing receiver software and YPbProutput for those who can not useHDMI. Users who plan to buy a HDmonitor but have not got it yet,can use analog SDTV outputs:CVBS on RCA or CVBS/RGB onSCART. Classical audio equipmentcan be connected either via RCAstereo audio output or via opticalS/PDIF output (selectable format:Dolby Digital or PCM). ARION didnot forget about the power switch a useful control when soft-ware hangs up or we get lost ina strange submenu and are notsure what to do.

Remote control unit is well-shaped and has a good feel when

you press a button. Franklysaying, we would make SAT, EPGand TV/RADIO buttons more dis-tinctive but this is purely subjec-tive opinion that may vary fromuser to user.

InstallationSince this is a HD TV rece iver, it

is by default prepared for a 16:9HD TV-set. If you use it with a 4:3

SD TV-set connected to SCART,you may have some fun before youchange the settings for the outputdevice and see the stable pic-ture. The options for video outputshould make everybody happy.On the HDMI output, we can get:PAL/NTSC 480i/576p/720p/1080i50/60Hz. More on that later.

The installation itself goessmoothly and the rst step is theselection of languages. We havethe possibility to set the languageof OSD, preferred audio, subtitles

and teletext including the secondpreferred choice. For example youcan set your native language asthe rst audio choice and Englishas the second one. The secondone will be automatically selectedonly if your native soundtrack isnot transmitted. Of course, if noneof them is broadcast, the receiverwill play the rst available audio.

For the audio/subtitles/teletext,we have the following possibilities:English, Spanish, French, German,Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turk-

ish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish andGreek. The choice for the OSDlanguage is even wider. Except forthe mentioned above, we addition-ally have the following languages:Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Polish,

Satellite Receiver

ARION AF-8000HDCI

The rst thing that strikes your eyes when yousee the front panel of AF-8000HDCI is its very niceLCD display. The display shows not only numbersbut also text. We can see the number and name of the channel we are tuned to or the title of the menuwe are in. Of course, in standby mode, it shows thepresent time. Letters and gures are composed fromwhite dots, while the background is blue. While its

readability from a distance leaves something to bedesired, it can be really helpful when you need tocontrol or program your receiver without RCU. Usingseven buttons located beneath the display, you cando quite a number of operations. The buttons are:Menu, OK, Exit, Channel up/down, Volume up/down.Channel and volume buttons serve as arrows whenin a menu tree.

Slovak, Hungarian, Czech, Slov-enian, Romanian. This choice isquite good as compared to theother models and manufacturers.

After setting languages, wemove to antenna settings. It isreally nice to see here all DiSEqCversions available from 1.0 to1.3 (USALS). 60 satellites fromall over the world are pre-pro-grammed and there is possibil-ity to add 10 more. This is a bignumber! Transponder data arenot quite up-to-date but we mayedit them manually. It would begreat if we could load a ready list

(e.g. from SatcoDX) via a serialinterface.

We have three modes for chan-nel search: automatic (with net-work scan on or off), manualand advanced (when you providevideo and audio PIDs manu-

ally). You can set either FTA orALL channels. This may be animportant decision since we haveonly 4000 entries in the channelmemory available. It is not toomuch if one has a motorized dish

or multifeed system.Some channels maybe marked as scram-bled being FTA for partof the day. So, if you are an userwho must have all possible chan-nels on the list, choose the ALLmode and network scan ON. Aftersearching each satellite, edit itschannels getting rid of those youcan not descramble in any cir-cumstances. Such approach willmake it possible not to exceed the4000 limit even if you live in suchpart of Europe where a lot of sat-ellite beams are readable.

In the ALL mode with the net-work scan set to ON, it took AF-8000HDCI 13 minutes to scanHotbird (13 East). It is not veryimpressive but acceptable. Dif-ferent kinds of HDTV channelswere found and processed with-out any problem. This includesDVB-S, DVB-S2 in QPSK and8PSK, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2.ARION box handles SCPC from1 Ms/sec and its tuner is quitesensitive. Everything that weexpected to receive in the testlocation with a 85 cm motorizeddish was in fact achievable.

Channel edit functions (delete,rename, move, lock and place infavorite) are quite efcient andcomfortable. Of course, it wouldnot harm if ARION provide in thefuture a PC based channel editor.Dealing with thousands of chan-nels with a RCU is not something

we want to do very often.

Everyday useThe rstthingyou do right after

the installation is channel zap-

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DATA

TECHNIC

TELE-satellite International www.TELE-satellite.com

Expert conclusion+AF-8000HDCI is a really good family receiver. It

handles all kinds of HDTV signals very well. Its excel-lent video scaler makes watching SD channels abrand new experience. Some features like all DiSEqCprotocols or advanced channel search place it in theupper segment of the class and may even make it achoice for an advanced satellite enthusiast.

-As typical for the very new products, there are a few small things

that can be improved. For example, when you press a button on theRCU a bit too long, you can get a double or even triple action dueto too sensitive self-repeating feature. The rmware in our samplebox ARIA1000S8000HDCI is the very rst release. It should only be amatter of weeks for ARION to make these small inconveniences goneforever.

Peter Miller TELE-satellite

Test Center Poland

Video output formatAntenna setting

Manufacturer ARION Technology Inc.,Korea, www.arion.co.kr

Fax +82-31-361-3099

E-mail info@arion.co.kr

Model AF-8000HDCI

Function HDTV digital satellite receiver

Modulation DVB-S and DVB-S2:

QPSK, 8PSKDecoding MPEG-2 and MPEG-4

Channel memory 4000

Symbol rate DVB-S: 1-45 Ms/sec,DVB-S2: 10-30 Ms/sec

SCPC compatible yes

DiSEqC 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3

USALS yes

HDMI yes

SCART connectors 2

Analog audio/video outputs 3 x RCA

Component outputs (YPbPr) 3 x RCA

S-Video output no

UHF modulator no

0/12 V control output no

Digital audio output yes (optical)

EPG yes

C/Ku band compatibility yes

Power supply AC 90-250 V 50/60 Hz,45 W max.

ping. AF-8000HDCI does changechannels within 2 seconds. Evi-dently, new MPEG-4 processorsand DVB-S/S2 tuners are not thatmature as the traditional DVB-SMPEG-2 chipsets. Nevertheless, itis not that slow that you can getirritated. Simply, those of us whoare already addicted to channelszapping may perceive this HDTVARION box as slower than ourprevious SDTV device.

However, the most importantthing for the owner of a HDTVreceiver is the video quality thebox provides. And this is wherewe have to nothing but praiseARION. Not only HDTV channelsare displayed perfectly but alsothe traditional channels can beoutput as 576p, 720p or 1080i.The secret here is the built-inscaler (see report in previous issueof TELE-satellite to learn what ascaler does). This feature convertslike magic any regular standarddenition SD channel into a highdenition HDTV channel - at leastit does look like a HDTV channel onyour HDTV monitor.

We watched SD channels scaledup to 1080i with a great pleasure.The nal effect was much betterthan supplying the HD T V-set witha standard signal (for examplevia SCART or RCA) and allowingit to expand it. The processor of AF-8000HDCI does it much, muchbetter. So if you have a HD ReadyTV-set with HDMI interface, usingAF-8000HDCI will not only enableyou to view HD channels but alsosignicantly improve the video of your old favorite SD channels.

All CAMs that we inserted intoCI slots worked awlessly. If youcurrently use a CA module, itshould be no problem whatsoeverto move it to ARION receiver. Inthis way, you can get access tomore HD channels since they areusually scrambled.

Extensive EPG guides are notvery popular on FTA channelsavailable in Europe. More oftenthan not, satellite providers limitthe broadcast data to the currentand next events only, or even donot send program information atall. However those channels thatbroadcast full EPG data were

processed by AF-8000HDCI with-out any problem. EPG can work in2 modes: either showing detailedprogram guide for one channel orshortened guides for a number of channels at once.

Except for the EPG, the currentprogram description is also pre-sented in the information bar. Asusually, more information is avail-able after pressing the Info buttonfor the second and for the thirdtime. Infobar timeout, as well asthe transparency of the wholeOSD can be adjusted in OSD Set-tings menu.

AF-8000HDCI generates sub-titles and teletext in both ways:as VBI and OSD. You can choosewhat suits you better. If yourTV-set does not have a TV TXTdecoder, you can use OSD mode.If it has such a decoder and yourlanguage is not in the receiver lan-guage list for teletext, you betteruse VBI mode and the decoder ina TV-set.

When exploring the menusystem, we discovered among theothers: setting TV aspect (4:3 and16:9), setting screen adjustingmode (Letter Box and Pan Scan),setting time generation either asa local system of from the datastream (as an offset form GMT)and 8 event timer. It also has 2small utilities: a calendar and acalculator. Having a closer look atthe RCU, we found a sleep timerand a pause button (quite regularin PVRs but not always present inreceivers without a hard drive).

Generally, the control of AF-8000HDCI is very straightforward.Its menus are logically composedin a tree structure and everythingis where you expect it to be. Menuscreens have video insets aswell as hints prompting us whichbutton does what. So the usersmanual is hardly ever needed.However, if you decide to skimit, you will see that it is also wellarranged and not too lengthy.

ARION box can exchange soft-ware between receivers. Normalsoftware upgrade is possible viaserial interface. We expect that inthe future, it will also be availablevia satellite.

Info bar EPG

Main menuChannel list