TEST REPORT HDTV Satellite Receiver

Dizipia DS4H-9160
about all the connection
options we could need. The
antenna input for each of the

Bigger and Better

two tuners has a correspond-
ing loop-through output, and
the first tuner can be looped
into the second if only one
antenna feed is available. A
little loop-through cable is
included in the box to do just
It might not have the most catchy name, but the this. HDMI and S/PDIF are
DS4H-9160 from Korean manufacturer Dizipia makes an available for digital video and
audio along with the more tra-
imposing statement with its size and looks. The sleek black ditional two Scarts, component
metal-cased receiver is bigger than most at 43cm wide, 28cm and composite video and RCA
deep and 6cm high and the sturdy metal case means it’s quite stereo audio. There’s another
USB connector here as well
heavy too. The shiny front panel contains a nice and clear as RS232 and even an Ether-
channel information display. net port, although there is no
information in the manual to
The remote is also larger the keys have a definite click grid of little red lights. At first explain how this is used.
than usual, measuring when they are pressed, but at glance they look like they are
24x5cm. This can be pro- the same time don’t need too just indicators, but they are in Set-up
grammed to operate a TV in much pressure to make the fact little buttons, and through Connecting the receiver is
addition to the receiver, and connection as many of these these most of the receiver’s made easy by some helpful
this was quick and easy to set type do. Complementing the most important functions clear diagrams in the manual.
up for my TV from the codes assuring click of each button, can be controlled. The front Each of the connectors is pic-
in the back of the manual. For the STB or TV button lights up panel is rounded off with two tured and the options for each
once I had no need to be trawl- when a button is pressed. CI slots and a USB port under explained. One important
ing the internet for additional the right-hand flap. point that can cause confu-
codes to make this work! The The front panel’s other sion is made clear: if only one
remote is clearly laid out, and notable feature is an unusual At the back we have just antenna is used in conjunc-

20 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

tion with the loop-through and messages just English, telling the receiver it’s loca- in the sky in the future, sat-
cable, switching channels German and Russian are tion by latitude and longitude ellites can be edited, added
while recording is limited to available. Strangely, the list so that it can calculate the and removed as needed. The
the channels on the same of languages for audio and positions of the satellites you transponder frequencies for
transponder only. The two subtitle defaults are different. wish to receive. the satellites appear to be
LNB inputs can also be set The choice here is between nicely up-to-date too.
to different satellites, so two English, German or French. The list of satellites pre-
independent fixed dishes are programmed into the receiver Scanning for channels
also an option, this too would Then it’s off to the chan- is very impressive – there are themselves is nice and fast
limit what can be watched and nel search screen where our around 170 of them! I’d chal- with a full scan over ASTRA
recorded at the same time. chosen satellites are set up lenge you to find one that’s 2 taking just eight minutes.
and searched for the first time. not already there, but in case Once the channels are in
The first time we switch on, Motorised DiSEqC dishes and there is or a new satellite memory, a good selection of
we go straight to the instal- USALS are supported. It’s appears functions are present to allow
lation wizard where the local a simple job further editing and sorting.
time, time zone and preferred o f
languages are. There are lim- The full chan-
ited language options nel list is
here – for the on-
screen menus

0.55

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Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/ara/dizipia.pdf
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/bid/dizipia.pdf
Bulgarian Български www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/bul/dizipia.pdf
Czech Česky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/ces/dizipia.pdf
German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/deu/dizipia.pdf
English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/eng/dizipia.pdf
Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/esp/dizipia.pdf
Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/far/dizipia.pdf 02-03/2009
French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/fra/dizipia.pdf
Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/hel/dizipia.pdf DIZIPIA DS4H-9160
Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/hrv/dizipia.pdf A competent receiver with lots of
Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/ita/dizipia.pdf connection options and
Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/mag/dizipia.pdf powerful capabilities
Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/man/dizipia.pdf
Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/ned/dizipia.pdf
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/pol/dizipia.pdf
Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/por/dizipia.pdf
Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/rus/dizipia.pdf
Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/sve/dizipia.pdf
Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0903/tur/dizipia.pdf
Available online starting from 30 January 2009

www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2009 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 21

 receiver instead of the tra- tion can be used to delete
ditional IDE. Our test model the oldest recordings when
was unfortunately supplied space runs out. With this kind
without an drive installed of system, the unwanted loss
internally, so this at least of an important recording is
gave me an excuse to fully always a worry. Thankfully
test connecting a hard drive there is a helpful option to
to the USB ports. protect individual recordings
Main menu
so that they are not deleted
I was not very confident, accidentally or by the auto-
but even a fairly old USB delete function. Parental
drive connected to the rear control of recordings is also
USB port proved me wrong supplied via password pro-
by working almost faultlessly, tection.
including recording HD chan-
nels. There were however a Timeshifting is also availa-
few times where the picture ble for live TV. A simple press
became a little jerky as you’d of the pause button is all that
expect. But even watching is needed, after this the usual
an HD channel and recording rewind and fast-forward con-
another onto the USB drive trols become available. A wel-
Channel info was possible, if not 100% come extra function divides
accessed by simply hitting the A final option exists to limit perfect. the recorded programme into
“OK” key when watching TV. the allowed programmes by segments like chapters of a
This list can be quickly sorted their age rating, although External drives use a stand- DVD, making navigation much
into alphabetical order, by this depends completely on ard FAT32 file system, so easier than having to wind
scrambled/FTA status, or left the broadcaster transmitting backup and retrieval to a com- through a long timeshifted
in its original state of sorting the correct age classification puter is simple and straight- programme. The standard
by channel number. A nice information. forward. The file manager amount of programme that is
touch is the “zoom” function, on the receiver will be easy temporarily recorded defaults
where the channel list can be Hard drive to navigate for anyone used
to using computers, with the
to 30 minutes, but this can be
changed in the settings up to
switched between filling the
whole screen or just a part of
functions familiar structure of files and a maximum of two hours.
the left-hand side, so that the As HD broadcasts use a folders and even the “..” to go
TV picture can be seen at the lot of data and high speed back to the parent directory. A source of disappoint-
same time. data transfer is essential, an ment might be the lack of any
SATA interface is used in the An automatic delete func- editing functions. It’s always
All of the editing and organi-
sation functions are accessed
from here too which is easier
than having to go to a dedi-
cated editing menu. Channels
can be moved up and down
the list as required. As many
favourites lists can be set up
as required, and adding to and
editing them is easy to do.

For those with children,

two options exist for parental
control – the traditional pass-
word approach or the ability
to completely hide certain
channels until the password
is entered. In addition to this,
you can limit the viewable
channels to a single favourites
list or set an amount of time
before the receiver switches
itself off – to stop the kids sit-
ting in front of the TV all day!

22 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

helpful to have even some to quickly switch resolution.
basic edit controls to take out Added to this is an idea taken
commercials in a recording from the world of comput-
and it’s a pity there is no pro- ers. After the resolution is
vision to do anything like this. changed, a box appears on
As a sports fan, I also missed screen for you to confirm that
a slow-motion playback option you can see the picture. The
which I often use. default is “no”, so if you end up TV setup menu
with an unwatchable image,
Everyday use just press the OK button and
it reverts to the previous res-
Navigating around satel-
olution. Both progressive and
lites, channels and the receiv-
interlaced modes are availa-
er’s menus is fairly easy,
ble, ranging from 480 to 1080
although perhaps not quite
scan lines.
as intuitive as some other
receivers we’ve seen. For
Widescreen broadcasts are
example, even after quite a
commonplace these days and
lot of time using the receiver
it’s good to see that all options
I am confused by there being
here are catered for. For view-
a “back” button that doesn’t
ing widescreen broadcasts on
actually move the menus back EPG
a 4:3 screen, letterbox and
to the last level! The “menu” pan/scan modes are avail- used to zoom the EPG display access to subtitles and addi-
key doesn’t do this either as I able. In reverse, a 4:3 broad- between the full screen or tional audio tracks.
might have expected. Instead cast on a 16:9 screen can be just a part of it. Programmes
the “exit” button does this, untouched with black bars set to be recorded can have a There’s a novel feature for
at least sometimes – at other at the sides, or zoomed as parental control put on them users of pay-TV systems. As
times it does what it says and required. There’s even a spe- at reservation time. Tradi- usual, if a scrambled pro-
exits the menu system com- cial button on the remote for tional timer-mode recording gramme is recorded, a valid
pletely. this too, to switch between is also available. card is needed to be used to
16:9 and 4:3 mode. watch the recording at a later
Picture quality is a big issue Everyday channel-surfing is date. However, there’s a spe-
for HD receivers and thank- I had difficulty making the fast, and thanks to the good cial “descrambling” function.
fully the HD quality out from EPG work, most likely because widescreen implementation, At a preset time of your choos-
the Dizipia lives up to expecta- it requires an internal hard mostly painless. Once sorted ing, for example while you
tions. Standard definition pic- drive to store its data on. into the desired order, or into are asleep, the receiver will
tures are also upscaled when Assuming it will work prop- favourites lists, navigating get to work on the recorded
viewing in a HD resolution erly in a production model, around the channels is easy. file and remove the encryp-
and this too adds a little extra it contains all the usual func- The “back” key finally finds a tion. A valid viewing card is
quality to the picture when tions we’d need and expect. use here, a quick press takes still needed to descramble the
compared with RGB Scart. Programmes in the future can us back to the last chan- pictures of course.
be set to record, or just to nel viewed. Inbuilt Teletext
There’s a very helpful dedi- be watched. Like the channel is available, and dedicated As there are two USB ports,
cated button on the remote list, the blue button can be buttons on the remote give it’s easy to have one con-

24 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

nected to a hard drive as I software inside isn’t as fully
had to, plus still access other developed as it could be. Nav-
USB devices from the other. igating the menus sometimes
MP3 audio files can be played, feels a little tiring as they do
and pictures look great on a not feel as intuitive as those
large HD screen. on some of the other PVRs
available.
Overall Recorded files list

This is a competent receiver On the plus side however,

with lots of connection options good picture performance,
and powerful capabilities. ease of picture size and shape
After using it for a while how- adjustment with dedicated
ever, it does start to feel like buttons and CI slots, for an
it’s a sports car with a speed everyday PVR it should do the
limiter in the engine, that the job just fine.

Expert Opinion
+
Twin tuners with a comprehensive range of dish
and connection options, descrambling control, full
support of widescreen and HD resolutions Recorded file playback
SW upgrade and recording to PC via Ethernet
2 channels recording and 1 recorded file playback
Immediate Timeshifting
TECHNIC
32-bit true-color OSD Andy Middleton DATA
TELE-satellite
User-friendly operational menu Test Center Manufacturer Dizipia, Inc., 2nd Floor, Shinhan Bldg., 147-9 Garak-dong,
Linux Operating System UK Songpa-Gu, Seoul 138160, Korea
1080p video resolution support Tel +82 (0)2 21 52 32 00

- Fax
www
+82 (0)2 407 34 05
www.dizipia.com
Not the most intuitive of menu systems
email [email protected]
No editing of recordings
Model DS4H-9160
Type HDTV-Receiver with Scaler
ENERGY Satellites 170+
DIAGRAM
SCPC compatible Yes
USALS Yes
Mode Apparent Active Factor
StandBy 12 W 3W 0.25 DiSEqC 1.0/1.2/1.3
Apparent Power
Reception 45 W 25 W 0.55
Scart connectors 2
Symbol rates DVB-S: 1000-45000
DVB-S2 20000-30000 (QPSK)
DVB-S2 10000-30000 (8PSK)
Active Power Audio outputs 2 (left & right)
Video outputs Composite, Component, HDMI
UHF output No
0/12 volt output No
Digital audio output S/PDIF
EPG Yes
C/Ku-band compatible Yes
Power supply 100-250V AC, 50/60Hz

www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2009 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 25