|
REVIEWS
STRAP
BUDGET SATELLITE RECEIVER
HEAD
PACE MSS-200-1
INTRO
Once again Pace set the standard for Astra
receivers with the MSS-200, the newly arrived replacement for the PRD-800
COPY
IN THE FAST-CHANGING and often unsettled
world of satellite television Pace have been a little island of stability,
churning out a succession of well
designed receivers over the past dozen or so years. Pace receivers are normally
reliable, usually easy to use, sometimes innovative, moreover they generally
perform well and are sensibly priced. The MSS-200 has got a lot to live up to
then, more so as it’s a replacement for the very popular PRD800 which has already
become something of a design classic in STV circles. The MSS-200 looks quite
different to its predecessor, this has altogether more conservative cosmetics,
bland even, almost indistinguishable from a score or so other black boxes.
The front panel is divided into three
sections. The left third has a covered card slot, the moulding suggests there
could be a version with twin card slots somewhere down the line; the centre
section is blank apart from four buttons, for channel up/down, pay-to-view authourisation and power
on/standby. The right hand panel houses the three-digit channel mode and status
display, plus the infra-red receptor. Around the back there’s a fairly standard
assortment of socketry, including three SCART connectors, a pair of phonos
carrying the stereo line-audio output, a single LNB F-connector and the aerial
in and out sockets. The RF output is adjusted from the set-up menu, it’s set to
channel 38 by default.
All operations are controlled from a
menu-driven on-screen display. The initial set-up routine is very
straightforward, in most installations the only thing you need to mess around
with is the time and date setting. The
tuner is factory set for all current Astra channels, plus those that will be
used by 1D; the LNB menu can be configured to work with a range of LNBs,
including wideband, dual-band, DBS and Telecom models. Virtually all tuning
parameters can be customised, channels can be re-allocated and re-named, and
there’s a search facility for those who want to do a little exploring; a compatible positioner is available.
The on-screen display is fairly easy to use,
and read; the background colour can even be changed, plus there’s a contrast
control and plain background option. In addition to the more exotic
user-adjustments for tuning and audio modes (mono, stereo, frequency, radio
blanking, de-enphasis -- J17, 50 or 75uS -- and bandwidth) there are
pre-settable bass and treble tone controls, and volume. Settings can be stored,
either globally, for all channels, or as one of four user-defined sound ‘shapes’.
It has a parental lock, protected by a 4-digit PIN, which can lock out any selected
channel and disable menus; it should be sufficient to discourage most
determined juvenile hackers, just remember to cut out the part in the
instructions, about how to reset the PIN....
Two other interesting features of the
on-screen display are a simple help feature, available on most menus, and an
unsusual favoutite channel selection. This one is different, instead of a bank
of pre-set channels the MSS-200 has all of its channels ready sorted in to
eight subject categories (films, sport, news, light entertainment, etc). All
the user has to do is pick the kind of programme they want from the favoutrite
menu, then choose the specific channel from the list that appears on the
screen. The selections can be altered but this is definitely a sit down and
read the instruction book sort of job. To round off the features the receiver has
an 8-event/28-day VCR timer, sleep timer and provision to download the program
memory to another receiver, handy if it develops a fault.
We would have been concerned if the picture
performance was not up to Pace’s normal high standard. Sensitivity was very
good with no sparklies on troublesome channels like UK Gold. Colours were
accurate and well defined with noise only visible on highly saturated reds.
Overall picture noise levels were very low. Sound quality from the Wegner/Panda
1 decoder was good too, very little in the way of background hiss, the volume
and tone controls are a welcome bonus.
Pace appear to have adopted an evolutionary,
rather than revolutionary approach with this receiver, which isn’t dramatically
different to PRD-800 in general specification. Nevertheless it looks and feels
like a new receiver and once again sets a benchmark for others to beat.
DATA BOX
PRICE -- £230 (with 60cm dish)
FEATURES -- Astra receiver/decoder, 199
channel memory (1-64 pre-tuned to Astras1A, 1B, 1C and 1D, 65 to 105 assigned
to radio channels); menu-driven on-screen display; built-in Videocrypt decoder;
Wegner stereo/Panda 1 NR; sleep timer;
variable bass and treble; audio presets; favourite channel selection;
8-event/28-day VCR timer; parental lock
PROS -- flexible, easy to use, good
performance
CONS -- single card slot and LNB input
Pace Telephone (0274) 53200
RATINGS
Performance 9
Looks 8
Ease of use 9
Features 8
Value 8
Total 42/50
---end---
Ó R. Maybury 1994 1609
|
