use the card in combination with the Windows Media Center (only with Windows Vista and Windows MCE 2005). As – unfortunately – the Windows Media Center does not support HDTV with H.264 we decided right at the start to use the in-house software solution provided by the manufacturer.
left
to
record,
right):
play/pause,
timer,
previous
channel, search, one channel down, one channel up, volume, mute, teletext and EPG. Above the control bar a second bar indicates the current position during playback. It can also be used to move to another position thanks to time shifting during playback and recording. There are no
Installation was completed in a breeze, and we also did not encounter any difficulties installing all required drivers on our test PC which is equipped with Intel Core2Duo 1.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce graphics board and Windows Vista. A few minutes was all it took to get ready for HDTV on the PC.
Everyday use Even at first sight the FireDTV Viewer impresses with its sleek, cleverly laid out and easy to use appearance. The manufacturer went at great lengths to avoid overpowering users with a main screen that is full of buttons, features and adjustment options. Thanks to this strategy even absolute beginners will not be overwhelmed by an endless variety of settings and thus should be able to use the software after only a short while.
dedicated buttons for fast forward and fast rewind, but thanks to the time shift bar this is no real loss. Once the installation process is finished the software
CI menu
is ready to perform its first channel scan. The FireDTV Viewer comes with a prestored list of 153 European, Asian and American satellite positions which is quite upto-date and well sorted. Any required LOF can be used which means that the good old C band is supported just as well as signals from the exotic S band. DiSEqC 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3 are available if your set-up includes more than one LNB
PVR timer function
and make the software compatible with small dual-feed antennas as well as motorised
dishes.
Only
those
relying on DiSEqC 1.1 (frequently used in combination with
multi-focus
antennas)
are left standing in the rain, The main window displays the selected TV channel in presentation mode (full screen) or any desired size. Only when the mouse cursor is moved to the outer right section of the window does a channel list pop up. This way no valuable space is wasted by a permanent channel list display.
as the software currently is unable to work with such systems. In the end, however, the manufacturer would be able to rectify this glitch with a simple software update. The pre-stored transponder list allows performing a channel scan either across the full frequency range of a satellite or for a restricted
The control bar is located at the lowest end of the FireDTV Viewer and can be used to control the viewer. Altogether it boasts eleven buttons, which are (from
range. Alternatively, a single transponder can be chosen for a scan as well. Each scan result is saved separately with an individual time stamp by the software and it is even
40 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 04-05/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com
Extended EPG
possible to decide whether the result should be added to an existing list or stored separately. In case you don’t use a conditional access module it is of course perfectly possible to restrict any search to free-to-air channels only. We tested the software with
HOTBIRD 13° East with its 100+ transponders and were surprised it took only 4:20 minutes to find more than 1500 TV and radio channels, which is quite an achievement. Now that the channel list is