8/14/2019 0901 Opensat

1/5

TEST REPORT

0 . 5 2

38 TELE-satellite & Broadband 12-01/2009 www.TELE-satellite.com

HDTV Satellite Receiver

Designed for High DenitionOPENSAT XT-9500 HD

Im one of those people who prefersfunction over aesthetics beauty is only skin-deep after all. Theres no point insomething looking good if it doesnt dothe job. But I have to admit, as soonas the box was opened, I was seduced by the minimalist good looks of the

OPENSAT XT-9500 HD. This classy black receiver from distributors ABC BIZNIZ of Slovakia boasts HD reception and good connection options at an attractive price,could we have both style and substancein a single package?

The front panel contains anon/standby button, and thevertical set of buttons controlchannel and volume. Theselight up in red when the unitis powered up, and theyrequite bright too - almost toobright when watching TV in adark room. A crisp text displayshows the name and number of the channel being received, or

the clock in standby. In standbymode, the button lights are stillon, joined by the matching redglow of the on/standby button.

Under the ap on the frontpanel we nd two CI slots for

pay-TV modules and even aSmart card reader. Also underthe ap is a USB socket, used toupgrade the receivers rmwarefrom a USB stick.

Initial setupTheres plenty of options to

choose from when it comes tohook-up time. Two Scart sock-ets are available for TV andVCR. Helpfully for recordingpurposes, the VCR Scart alwaysoutputs in standard denition,so even HD channels can beeasily recorded to DVD or vide-otape if required. The TV Scart

8/14/2019 0901 Opensat

2/5

TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/... Arabic www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ara/opensat.pdf Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/bid/opensat.pdf Bulgarian www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/bul/opensat.pdf Czech esky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ces/opensat.pdf German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/deu/opensat.pdf English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/eng/opensat.pdf Spanish Espaol www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/esp/opensat.pdf Farsi www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/far/opensat.pdf French Franais www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/fra/opensat.pdf Greek www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/hel/opensat.pdf Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/hrv/opensat.pdf Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ita/opensat.pdf Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/mag/opensat.pdf Mandarin www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/man/opensat.pdf Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/ned/opensat.pdf Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/pol/opensat.pdf Portuguese Portugus www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/por/opensat.pdf Romanian Romnesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/rom/opensat.pdf Russian www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/rus/opensat.pdf Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/sve/opensat.pdf Turkish Trke www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0901/tur/opensat.pdf

Available online starting from 28 November 2008

Download this report in other languages from the Internet:

12-01/2009

39www.TELE-satellite.com 12-01/2009 TELE-satellite & Broadband

OPENSAT XT-9500 HDStyle and substance in a

single package

can be set to use componentvideo, so if your TV can handlesuch signals and only has aScart connection available,you can still get HD resolution.HDMI, the standard connection

for HD is also present along withcomponent video RCA jacks. Acomposite video output is alsoavailable, but theres no placein the modern world for our oldfriend the UHF antenna loop.

I am somewhat unusual inhaving an old-tech CRT TVwhich can handle HD signals viaa component input. After just afew minutes of head-scratch-ing, I was viewing BBC HD fromASTRA 2.

Whilst the type of connectionin use can be switched betweenRGB, Composite, or Compo-nent in the menus, a dedicatedbutton on the remote sets thescreen resolution. Availableresolutions range from 480p

up to 1080i. This gives an extrause for the permanently stand-ard denition VCR Scart , andthis cured my initial confusion.You can use this as a backupwhen nding the correct reso-

lution for your TV.

If you end up with a scram-bled picture in a resolution yourTV does not support as I did,you can switch over to the VCRScart and still see the menu.Once Id got it up to 1080i, I hada perfect HD picture and couldsay goodbye to the temporaryVCR Scart route.

The picture quality of HDis, as youd expect, superb.My usual everyday TV view-

ing setup consists of stand-ard denition broadcasts via aSky+ receiver, and I am usuallyquite proud of the picture qual-ity from an RGB Scart connec-tion with good quality cables.The quality increase though

between this and HD deliveredvia component is amazing, andmakes the usual picture lookquite fuzzy by comparison. Somuch for RGB then!

Sadly, were still in the early

days of HD so there are few FTAchannels to choose from. Wecan still get the benets though,as standard denition broad-casts are upscaled when view-ing through component video orHDMI. This results in a notice-

able increase in picture qualityand sharpness over the stand-ard Scart, but of course its notclose to the clarity of a true HDbroadcast.

Audio output is available via

the traditional RCA connec-tors, or a S/PDIF digital opticaloutput.

The receivers menus areclear, simple, and logically laidout. Choice of language is very

8/14/2019 0901 Opensat

3/540 TELE-satellite & Broadband 12-01/2009 www.TELE-satellite.com

good, with 18 languages avail-able. Most major European lan-guages are covered plus Arabic

and Persian, and those in East-ern Europe will be pleased tosee Czech, Slovak, Slovenianand Hungarian included along-side the more usual choices.

The installation menu is therst port of call when settingup for the rst t ime. A com-prehensive list of 51 satel-lites is pre-programmed intothe receiver, and these can beedited, deleted or added to asrequired. The correspondingtransponder lists appear to be

equally comprehensive and up-to-date.

DiSEqC 1.2 and USALS areincluded to give easy control of a DiSEqC motor for multi-satel-lite users. DiSEqC switches are

also supported and all neces-sary LNB parameters are edit-able, so most setups will be

easily catered for.

Channel scanning is well-thought out. All transpond-ers can be scanned, or just asingle one. Network scanningis also available which is veryuseful on large satellites likeASTRA and HOTBIRD. A niceaddition is a PID lter func-tion, allowing scanning of onlyTV or radio channels. The sat-ellite and transponder menuswork together, aiding any edit-ing required. The transponder

list menu also contains a PIDediting function, invaluable forthose rare but important timeswhere PIDs need to be enteredmanually.

Searching an entire satellite

is quite fast an entire networkscan of ASTRA 2 takes 16 min-utes to scan 83 transponders.After the scan is complete, thelist of found channels can beedited before they are commit-ted to the receivers memory.Theres no blind scan func-tion, but as this is a receiverdesigned to be used to watchstandard TV rather than searchfor unusual channels, it doesntreally feel like it is missing.

With the channels safely inmemory, we get to the furtherediting of the list to suit ourindividual preferences. This isnever much of a pleasurableexperience, but the XT-9500does a good job here of makingit easier than most.

All the editing, sorting andltering functions we need areavailable, and are easy andintuitive to use. Eight favour-ites lists can be set up, andadding to these is easy too. Asecond window appears next tothe channel list ready for chan-nels to be copied into it. Thiscan then be switched to, allow-ing arranging and editing in thesame way as the main list.

Everyday useOnce we have our lists set up,nally we can sit back and watchsome TV, and everyday viewingis helped by some good designhere too. The main channel listcan be sorted or ltered alpha-

betically, or by FTA/encryptionstatus and even ltered by

just one encryption system if more than one is in use - per-haps useful if using more thanone CAM.

The best feature relating tochannel lists though is perhapsthe most obvious, yet so oftenforgotten when receivers aredesigned. The receiver remem-bers which favourites list is inuse, or what type of lter youhave applied, until you decideto choose a new one. This alonemakes the receiver so muchnicer to use on a regular basisthan so many others Ive usedin the past.

One possible criticism how-ever is that the channels keeptheir original numbers evenwhen a favourites list or lteris being used. There are advan-tages in this, as long as you canremember the numbers.

I personally might have foundit easier to have the channelsnumbered 1,2,3 based on what-ever list Id chosen, rather thantheir original numbers espe-cially after Id manually movedthem around. But its still easier

to navigate than many otherreceivers.

I was initially a little disap-pointed there was no viewthe last channel button, whichis always good for those of us

8/14/2019 0901 Opensat

4/541www.TELE-satellite.com 12-01/2009 TELE-satellite & Broadband

who try to keep up with twochannels at once. But OPEN-SAT have included a little sur-prise along these lines, onethats not even mentionedin the manual. The back button is usually used to exita menu to the previous level.But pressing it when no menuis displayed produces a list of the last eight channels viewedto select from. Not quite theone-touch zapping solutionweve seen before, but it isstill a nice feature to include.

Its good to also see teletextfully supported. Here in theUK, its rapidly losing out asits inferior digital counterpart

takes over. When our analoguetransmissions end, so will tra-ditional analogue text. Butwhile it lasts, the XT-9500HDgives us a choice of both waysof receiving teletext eitherthrough the receivers inbuiltdecoder, or on the TV itself viaVBI insertion.

The XT-9500HDs EPG is alsoclear and easy to use, bearingin mind the limitations of theusual now/next data trans-mitted. Buttons are availableto scroll forward and back by24 hours, so perhaps in someplaces it can nd further pro-gramme information, althoughI couldnt nd anywhere where

this was available during ourtests. The EPG links to thereceivers event timer, wheresleep and wake-up optionsare available in addition tothe usual function of chang-ing to the required channelat the preset time.

SummaryWhilst there are no

gimmicks or extras addedsuch as games that getforgotten quickly, thisreceiver does what itneeds to easily and well.The menus are logical,the on-screen displaysare clear and helpful.

8/14/2019 0901 Opensat

5/5

DATA

TECHNIC

DIAGRAM

ENERGY

Active Power

Apparent Power Mode Apparent Active Factor StandBy 28 W 14 W 0.50Reception 36 W 19 W 0.52

Andy MiddletonTELE-satellite

Test Center UK

Distributor ABC BIZNIS, Kruovsk 4646, 955 01 Topoany, Slovakia

Tel/Fax Tel +421 38 5313508 - Fax +421 38 5313508

Contact info@abcbiznis.sk

Websites www.abcbiznis.sk, www.opensat.sk

Model XT-9500 HD

Function Digital HDTV receiver for DVB-S and DVB-S2Satellites / CI + Card 51+ / 2 Common Interfaces + 1 Smart Card Reader

Modes MPEG-2 MP@ML, MPEG-4 Part 10/H.264

SCPC compatible yes

DiSEqC / USALS 1.2 / yes

Scart connectors 2 / USB2.0 Connector for Software Upgrades

Symbol rates 1000-45000

Audio outputs 2 (L&R)

Video outputs 1x composite, Component, HDMI

Video Resolutions 480p, 480i, 576p, 576i, 720p, 1080i

Digital audio output yes, S/PDIF

RS-232 / EPG yes / yes

C/Ku-band compatible yes

Power supply 100-250V AC, 50/60Hz

42 TELE-satellite & Broadband 12-01/2009 www.TELE-satellite.com

+Great looks and designIntuitive menus, easy setup and editingWell implemented favourites lists and channel

list ltering

-Generates a lot of heatBright always-on front-panel lights

EPG

The secret channel history screen

Satellite setup

User preferences

PID editor

The remote is well laid-out andmatches the receivers beautifulblack and silver looks. There arefew downsides to the receiver.Perhaps a dimmer function, orone to turn off the front panellights altogether could be goodfor viewers who like to view inthe dark without distractions.

One thing I did quickly noticeis how hot the case becomes,even in standby mode. I sup-pose thats the price we have

to pay for the extra horsepowerneeded to get pictures in HDquality onto our screen. A newsoftware should help to solvethis problem.

Its just a pity that there is notso much FTA HD material outthere to watch at the moment.That will no doubt change in thenear future, and when it doesId certainly be very happy tohave the XT-9500 as a perma-nent xture in my living room.

Expert Opinion