TEST REPORT Satellite Receiver

Star Sat SR-X2500CUCI

A Newborn Star With Numerous
Pay-TV options and USALS
Like they often say, even a good chef can ruin tant. But if the hardware is perfect, and something tion. To get to this submenu or
his first pancake. The same might be also true went wrong in the software kitchen, the overall other “branches” of the Instal-
with receiver manufacturers. It takes an enormous impression for the product could be worse than lation “tree”, the usual “0000”
work to create a perfect receiver that everyone it deserves. Luckily, when receivers like StarSat PIN code should be entered each
would be truly satisfied with. And we’re not only SR-X2500CUCI hit the market, both hardware and time, until you decide to change
talking about hardware engineers nowadays, in software are normally brought as close to sophis- it to something your kids won't
the digital world the software can be more impor- tication as possible. guess so quickly.

Channel Search
The Receiver SR-X2500CUCI, you are seconds
away from watching the channels
are quite simple. Like what lan-
guage would you like the menu to Pre-programmed satellites
Looks like the days of huge and you’ve paid for. appear in (you can choose from cover mainly Europe and Asia,
ugly black boxes are now gone. English, German, French, Turkish from 55 West to 148 East . These
With it's compact and stylish But before we can go that far, and Arabic), what would be your satellites, as well as four blank
silver case, the modern receiver let’s first connect the LNBs, TV preferred audio and subtitle lan- positions, called “Addsat 1-4”,
like SR-X2500CUCI, can really set, VCR and a HiFi system. The guage, and if you would like the can be renamed or otherwise
become a “star” of your TV cabi- back panel of SR-X2500CUCI has satellites listed in other menus to reconfigured. There are mainly
net. The buttons, available on the one LNB input (with loop-through be sorted by name or position. two channel search modes – the
front panel (Standby on/off, “OK”, output), two scarts, three RCA expected automatic and manual
“Menu”, “Cancel”, and last but not outputs for video and audio, while If you don’t like to spend your search, with various sub-options.
least the round button for moving the fourth is used for a 0/12V time endlessly reading the user Unfortunately, the blind scan is
the cursor left, right, down or up) switch. Let’s also not forget about manual (which is not that bad not available yet.
allow the user to get access to the the serial port for connecting after all, but is available only in
majority of receiver’s functions. your receiver to PC, as well as English), simply browse through As far as our tests showed, it
If in your area the FTA is not so the terrestrial antenna input and the available menu items. One of makes more sense to choose the
popular, or you just would prefer a modulator output. Not bad, but them, called “Easy Installation”, Network search. It takes almost
to see one of the latest movies on nowadays it wouldn’t hurt also to would surely attract your atten- the same time as the regular
your local Pay-TV channel, open have the outputs for S-Video and
the flap on the right side of the digital audio.
front panel. If the package you’re
TEST
RESULT

Features
interested in uses Viaccess, The remote control can really be
Irdeto, Cryptoworks, Nagravi- called ergonomic – it’s lightweight
Channel Memory
sion, Conax or Mediaguard (Seca) and all buttons are located where
Channel
to encrypt its transmissions, go you would intuitively expect them
Scan Speed
ahead and insert the smart card to be.
SATELLITE

Channel
you have in the upper slot behind
INTERNATIONAL

Switching Speed
the flap. It’s an universal smart
card slot, and should properly Installation
Video Quality
handle the above-mentioned con- When you power on your new
ditional access systems. Should SR-X2500CUCI for the very first
Audio Quality
the card you have belong to any time, prepare to answer a lot of
other system, just get the needed questions on the “User Setting” TELE
Tuner Sensitivity
CI module. With 2 CI slots of screen. But don’t worry, they

TELE-satellite International — www.TELE-satellite.com

one, but results in much more
channels saved in your receiv-
er’s list. For example, on Astra
1 at 19.2 East the regular auto-
matic search takes 4 minutes 18
seconds, saving 573 TV and 315
Radio channels, while Network
search, taking just one minute
longer, adds another 53 TV and
28 Radio channels. On less popu- transponder, and it takes up to EPG presentation is – it’s not pos- correctly displayed both in the
lar satellites, like Eutelsat W4 at 1.5-2 seconds for the next PayTV sible to see at the same time what Channel List and in EPG. However,
36 East, there is no visible dif- channel. is being broadcasted by other with channel names transmitted
ference between the two search channels as well – the classic grid in a font different from Latin, it
modes. Both bring 74 TV and 3 Once the channel is selected, presentation would still be more would not be possible to use the
Radio channels in 2 minutes 12 an information bar would appear preferable. “FN” function to quickly locate
seconds. It is quite fast, but if in the bottom of the screen. channels in a long list. Renaming
you’re looking for some particular Selecting encrypted channels, Even though the menu of the them in the “Edit” mode is also
channel, it might not be in the final conditional access system of receiver can be only displayed in unfortunately impossible, while in
list. Even though we upgraded the which is understood by the uni- 5 languages at the moment, spe- the Channel List mode only Latin
firmware shortly before perform- versal smart card slot of SR- cial characters (like Russian) are letters can be used.
ing the above described tests, X2500CUCI would also display
some important transponders
were missing on both satellites.
the used encryption systems’
names. However, if something
TECHNIC Manufacturer STAR SAT,PO Box 42291,
Dubai,United Arab Emirates
DATA
And, traditionally, the only way more exotic, like Z-crypt is used, Website http://www.star-sat.com
out is to use the good old Manual the receiver will just say “Scram- E-mail starsat @emirates.net.ae
Search, which can be easily done bled Channel”, unless you have
Fax +971-4-2287765
thanks to always-up-to-date Sat- the needed CI-module and a
Model SR-X2500CUCI
coDX chart. smartcard for it.
Function Digital Satellite Receiver with
2 CI slots and an universal
SR-X2500CUCI locks to both Actual versions of SR-
integrated module
SCPC and MCPC carriers flaw- X2500CUCI firmware have a lot of
Channel Memory 4000
lessly, and its tuner sensitivity nice features, which both DXers
also needs to be complimented and regular users would appre- Symbol rate 2 – 42 Ms/s

– such linearly polarized channels, ciate. For example, the fastest DiSEqC 1.0/1.2/1.3/USALS
as Lider TV and 2M from Eutelsat way to find the channel you’re 0/12V Output Yes
Sesat were perfectly received, interested in is no longer brows- Scart Connectors 2
while for 36 East position we used ing through your endless channel Video/Audio Output Yes, RCA
an LNB set up to receive circular list. Simply click the “FN” button
Digital Audio Output No
polarizations. Two other receivers on the remote control and enter
Color System PAL/NTSC
in our lab were unable to receive the first letters of that channel’s
them because of insufficient name. Two more clicks and voila S-VHS Output No

signal, while SR-X2500CUCI per- – you are already watching it. Modulator Yes
fectly locked to both carriers. C/Ku-band Compatible Yes
Electronic Program Guide (EPG) SCPC Compatible Yes

Everyday Use is fast, however, you have to get

used to the way it’s presented
EPG Yes
Teletext Yes
Zapping speed differs notably, in SR-X2500CUCI. Once the EPG
USB 2.0 Connection No
from 0.3-0.5 seconds, if you are button on the remote control is
switching between the channels pressed, the same channel list Power Supply 90-250 V, 50/60 Hz

of the same transponder, 0.7-1 would appear, as after pressing Power Consumption Max. 30 W
second, if you are selecting the “OK”, but with different options.
next FTA channel from a different The main disadvantage of such

Expert conclusion
+
SR-X2500CUCI is a good choice both for regular
users and DXers. Presence of 2 CI slots plus an
universal smart card slot means great flexibility for
the fans of PayTV reception. DiSEqC, USALS support
and 0/12V output make multi-satellite reception Channel List Automatic Channel Search
Nickolas
easy. Nice features, like the “FN” function, make the Ovsyadovsky
operation of this receiver even more pleasant. TELE-satellite
Test Center

-
Hungary

It would be nice to have digital audio and S-Video outputs. Majority of

users would still prefer to have the EPG presented as a grid. Although
letters other than Latin are supported, in some menus they are still
not displayed correctly. And unfortunately, the recording timer is also
missing in current firmware. Hopefully, such slight software minuses
will be shortly fixed in frequently appearing firmware updates.
Channel Searching Teletext

TELE-satellite International — www.TELE-satellite.com