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can be used without any
problems. Formatting these
devices (thankfully also in
NTFS format) with this re-
ceiver is also possible. If
you really want to be able to
use all of the DS-5500HD’s
functions, such as the vari-
ous OSD display modes or
its PVR features like fast
forward/rewind, it definitely
pays to have a look in the
user manual where detailed
information on these and
other features can be found.
All-in-all, the DS-5500HD’s
menu structure is very logi-
cally constructed and easy
to use although one of the
options to save energy in
Standby that the manufac-
turer incorporated in the
display settings gave us a
little bit of a headache in our
test center.
To make it easy for the
new owner to get right to
satellite reception, Drag-
onsat included a very com-
prehensive list of European
and Asian satellites along
with the corresponding C
and Ku-band transponder
data. In some cases this list
is very up to date; the newly
launched ASTRA 1N satellite
located at 28.2° east is cor-
rectly identified. But in other
instances it’s not quite up to
date; important transpond-
ers like 11494H or 11671H
on ASTRA1 at 19.2° east are
missing.
The DS-5500HD is com-
patible with all the DiSEqC
protocols allowing it to be
used with nearly every pos-
sible antenna configuration.
DiSEqC 1.0 can be used with
up to four satellites, 1.1 with
up to 16 satellites as well as
1.2 and 1.3 for motorized
antennas. They also thought
to include the ability to free-
ly define LOF parameters.
Once these settings have
been taken care of and the
receiver has been matched
to the reception equip-
ment, the next step would
be to start filling the chan-
nel list with as many as
10,000 entries. To handle
this task there is an auto-
matic channel scan on one
or more satellites, a manual
transponder scan, an ex-
panded transponder scan
with manual PID entry as
well as a Blindscan. If you‘re
not interested in receiv-
ing encrypted channels, the
scan can be set to find only
freely receivable channels.
This would save quite a bit
of time and provide organi-
zation later on when going
through the channel list.
The channel scan itself
was fast right from the
start; the DS-5500HD need-
ed only about five minutes
to find 1568 TV and 373 ra-
dio channels on HOTBIRD at
13° east. If you invest a little
more time, 12 minutes to be
exact, the Blindscan func-
tion will find 1604 TV and
374 radio channels on the
same satellites. Naturally
the Blindscan feature had to
prove itself under more dif-
ficult conditions, specifically
on TURKSAT at 42° east with
all of its narrowband SCPC
transponders. It mastered
1. The DS-5500HD's main menu
2. System settings
3. The DS-5500HD also
supports the NTFS file system.
Recorded data no longer needs
to be split into 4GB pieces
4. Channel list editor
5. Channel list entries can be
edited all the way to their PID
values
6. Thanks to the Favorites
lists, popular channels can be
accessed very quickly at any
time
7. The customized channel list
can be backed up on an external
USB storage device
8. Recorder settings
9. OSD settings
10. The installation assistant
starts with the OSD language
selection
11. Network settings
12. If you prefer, you can do
without all of the DS-5500HD's
many Internet features, but who
would want to do that?
13. Time settings
14. Daylight savings time
settings have been uniquely
solved
15. Language settings
