TELE-audiovision - The World’s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication

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22 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication — 01-02/2015 —
current and next events, sta-
tus information about the cur-
rently watched channel, and
a concise weather report for
a location that can be freely
selected in Settings. Admit-
tedly, this is a somewhat un-
conventional idea, but we
found it’s a really practical
use of status bar space.
We did like the fact that
whenever the receiver is re-
cording an event, the channel
list clearly indicates which of
the other channels can still be
received live. Unfortunately,
however, the S1-44HD 3D can
only take care of one record-
ing at a time.
Let’s now have a look at
the electronic program guide,
which sports an easy-to-use
design and either displays a
preview of six channels on a
single screen, or the entire
programming schedule of
one channel. HBBtv may also
turn out to be a convenient
feature for many, as it can
be used to call up extended
EPG information or to access
content libraries and online
services that are offered by a
number of TV providers.
A thing that struck us again
and again during everyday
use is the excellent video and
audio quality delivered by
this new satellite receiver. In
addition, the remote control
with its numerous dedicated
buttons for specific functions
has proven its worth on many
occasions. Need to change
the soundtrack language,
activate subtitles, access an
external storage medium,
adjust the video resolution or
call up a list of stored timer
entries? Consider it done with
the touch of a button, since
you’re never more than one
button away from execution.
We particularly appreciated
the button that launched a
virtual mouse cursor on the
TV screen, which can then be
moved with the remote con-
trol’s arrow buttons. In Linux
mode this virtual cursors is
without function, but when
we move to the Android side
of the S1-44HD 3D now, this
changes dramatically, as we
are about to see.
The Android operating sys-
23. Channel list and favourites
lists editor
24. Channel list editor
25. Favourites lists editor
26. The channel list can be
saved onto an external storage
medium and later be restored
from there again, if necessary
27. App categories
28. List of currently installed
apps
29. Log-in to Google Play
Store using an existing Google
account
30. Google Play Store
31. Apps are available for
virtually all uses
32. Google Android settings
33. Weather forecast
34. YouTube app
35. Recording a program
36. While a recording is taking
place, the channel list only
shows those channels that can
actually be received
37. Adding a timer entry
tem opens the door to mil-
lions of apps which can be
downloaded conveniently
to the receiver from Google
Play Store. Facebook, e-mail,
Twitter, calculator, calendar,
web browser or games – you
name it and Google Play Store
will most certainly have it.
Apart from the virtual mouse
that can be launched with
the remote control, it is also
possible to connect an actual
keyboard and mouse to the
receiver so that typing and
navigating become a much
smoother affair. During our
test we tried out a number
of different apps, all of which
were launched and executed
flawlessly. At no time did we
get the impression that we
were pushing the receiver to
its limits. We believe it would
take special games that re-
quire an enormous amount of
processing and graphics pow-
er to come even close.
The benefits offered by
Android become particularly
visible when it comes to mul-
timedia features. The built-in
media player of the S1-44HD
3D is compatible with all cur-
rent video formats as well
as with the popular MP3 and
WMA audio formats. Photos
can be presented in great
style to friends and fam-
ily with the help of an image
viewer, no matter whether
the pictures are stored on the