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GROUP TEST
MID-RANGE SATELLITE SYSTEMS
INTRO
If you’re in the market for a new satellite system check out
these five mid-rangers which sell for between £150 to £240...
FERGUSON SRD 6 £200 (inc. 60cm dish)
Until fairly recently Ferguson sourced their satellite
receivers from Pace, and very good they were too, but their latest model, the SRD
6 has been designed and built by their parent company Thomson. The stylists
have been at work and they’ve tried hard to make it look different from the
regiment of anonymous black boxes. It’s not displeasing, though the open smart-card
slot is not a good idea, as anyone with kids will testify. We’re not sure about
the ergonomics of the strange-looking remote handset, at least it’s not going
to be picked up by mistake...
For the price it’s reasonably well featured. The 199 channel
memory has more than enough room to cope with Astra channels present and future.
Channel allocation on our sample was somewhat eccentric with Astras 1A, 1B and
1C allocated channels 1 to 49. Astra radio occupies channels 51 to 94 and Astra
1D is programmed on channels 101 to 114. That’s not normally a problem but on
this receiver shifting channels around is a chore, it could definitely do with some
kind of ‘swap’ facility. Otherwise there’s little to complain about. It has an
8-event/1-year VCR timer, three SCART AV sockets, and line-audio outputs, so it
can be easily hooked up to an AV system. The stereo sound channels have
Wegner-Panda 1 noise reduction and there’s a PIN operated parental lock to
restrict access to designated channels. Everything is controlled from a well
thought-out, menu-driven on-screen display.
The receiver works well enough, though it favours a good
strong signal, there’s not a lot of sensitivity in reserve. Colours are bright
and well defined, but noise is evident in areas of high saturation. Sound
performance is fine, it has a neutral sound with very little background hiss. The
SRD6 is a bit of a mixed bag but on balance the good points outweight the bad
ones and it’s a welcome breath of fresh air to a market that at times seems to be
obsessed with cloning and badge-engineering.
Value 90%
Ferguson telephone: 0181-344 4444
GOODMANS ST700 £150 (inc. 60cm dish)
This receiver is based on the Pace PRD700 and is sold
exclusively through Comet stores. It’s
a fairly conventional design with the familiar Pace split-front layout. The
right side has a set of three LED indicators whilst a flip-down panel on the
left covers the single smart card slot and power/channel buttons. It has a frugal
99 channel memory, factory programmed for all Astra channels, including 1D. The
supplied 60cm dish comes with with an enhanced (1D compatible) LNB though the
receiver can be programmed to work with other types, including older FSS band,
Telecom and DBS models. BSKYB and other English language stations have been
grouped together on channels 1 to 17. The newcomers on 1D obviously came too
late to be included and they are all consigned to channels 51 to 64.
All operations are controlled from a menu-driven on-screen
display, this is reasonably easy to use, though it doesn’t generate channel
names, which is more than usually annoying as the receiver hasn’t got a front-panel
channel indicator either. On the plus side it does have pukka Wegner-Panda 1
noise reduction, three SCART connectors and stereo line audio output sockets. Other
features worth a quick mention include a reasonably secure parental lock,
4-event/2-week VCR timer and user-programmable channel, tuner and audio
parameters. The remote control handset is on the small side, and the buttons
are all the same size but in general it’s quite easy to use. The only operational
quibble concerns the manual selection of two-digit channels , which involves
pressing a third button, otherwise it
performs very well indeed. The picture looks clean with little noise, colours
are sharp and the sparklie count is low even on weak signals or during adverse
conditions. Stereo sound is average to good with acceptable levels of background
hiss. A competent though quite basic design but very good value for money.
Value 95%
Goodmans telephone (01705) 673763
MITSUBISHI ST-PB10 £200 (inc. 60cm dish)
Mitsubishi are comparative newcomers to the satellite TV market
and this is their first Astra system. It’s a fairly cautious toe in the water
exercise and rather than design and build a receiver from scratch they’ve
badge-engineered a Pace model, it’s based on the the PRD-700, which also
appears in this roundup as the Goodmans ST700. As a matter of interest Pace
never actually marketed this model in the UK under their own name.
The PB10, like its Goodmans cousin has a 99-channel tuner,
ready to go with all of the Astra channels programmed in, including the new
ones from Astra 1D. It has a Wegner-Panda 1 stereo sound system, on-screen
display, three SCART sockets, single smart-card slot and 4-event/2-week timer.
The parental lock is quite secure and requires a 4-digit pin code to restrict
access to individual channels and the on-screen menus. Channels 1 to 17 are set aside for English language
channels, though it’s a simple enough matter to swap the order around, or alter
any of the other main tuning settings from the on-screen display.
There are a couple of notable differences between the
Goodmans and Mitsubishi receivers; the first one is the fascia which has a much
squarer appearance, and probably won’t date so quickly as the slanty panels on
the ST700. The other difference concerns the price, the Mitsubishi PB10 is
around £50 dearer than the Goodmans receiver. We double checked the specs to
make sure we hadn’t missed anything, and even opened them up, but no, they’re
peas from the same pod. Performance and control operations are identical, so bear,
in mind previous comments about the lack of a channel display, and direct
channel entry. If it comes to a toss-up between the two then the cheaper
Goodmans system would be the one to go for.
Value 85%
Mitsubishi telephone (017072) 76100
NOKIA SAT800 Plus £230 (inc. 60cm dish)
When the SAT800 first appeared about six months ago it met with
widespread criticism for being far too basic. Nokia clearly took many of the comments
on board for the 800 Plus has re-emerged as a quite different animal. From the
outside little seems to have changed. It’s still a very striking design, with
the three control buttons and channel display contained within a curved,
lip-shaped panel. The single card slot is cunningly concealed in the shut-line
that divides the fascia; maybe it’s not so cunning, the card can be easily
removed, something to bear in mind if there are children about. Around the back
there’s three SCART sockets and a pair of phonos for stereo line audio output.
The main criticism of the old SAT 800 concerned the lack of
an on-screen display, Nokia have put that to rights with the 800 Plus. It has a
simple to use menu-driven OSD that is used
to generate a channel name and number display and allows the user access to
many of the receiver’s higher tuning functions. It has also enabled Nokia to
give the 800 Plus a clock and VCR timer, with a 4-event/4-week capacity, plus a
proper parental lock, instead of the rudimentary channel lockout on its
predecessor.
Some features haven’t changed though. It has a useful
200-channel tuner memory, pre-tuned to all four Astra satellites, with the
popular UK channels allocated the first 18 slots. There’s also provision to
allocate 18 favourite channels, these are factory assigned to UK and BSKYB programmes,
but both this, and the main channel memory can be easily re-organised if required.
Picture quality is unchanged, which is just as well as this is a good performer
with a clear, sharp picture, colour accuracy
is good and the tuner copes well with reduced signal strength. The lack of
Wegner-Panda 1 noise reduction is not a major issue, there is some background
hiss but its not enough to be a problem. The 800 Plus is a major improvement
but it’s up against some tough competition both from similarly priced
receivers, and increasingly form the budget sector as well.
Value 80%
Nokia telephone (01793) 644223
TECHNISAT VC-3004 £240 (inc. 60cm dish)
Technisat leave you in little doubt about the origins of the
VC-3004, it’s easy enough to work out what the ‘liste’ button on the handset
does, but what about ‘zuruck’ ? If your German isn’t that hot then the English operating
manual thoughtfully explains that it recalls the last menu item on the
on-screen display. But can the instructions be relied on? Hopefully yes, but
they’re not very easy to follow and we found at least one discrepency, including
a diagram depicting the layout of the front panel. The illustration at the
front of the book shows the concealed channel change buttons in a completely
different position. They’re behind a hinged flap, next to what looks like two
card slots, though one of them is blanked off. Build quality is generally very good, though if the on-off button
is pressed hard it disappears inside the case, and may not come out again...
It’s moderately well specified with a monster 350-channel memory,
pre-programmed with TV and radio stations from almost 20 satellites. They’ve
made intelligent use of the memory and the channel sequence changes according
to the OSD language selection. The main Astra channels occupy the first 18
positions when English is chosen, the order can be changed, and channels
deleted from the list to make sequential selection easier. Additional features
include an 8-event/24-hour timer, a simple parental lock and a tone control
with spatial sound option.
On-screen performance is good, colours are well defined with
respectably low noise levels, sensitivity is reasonable. Sound performance is
satisfactory too, though the noise reduction system isn’t especially efficient,
and there’s a marked increase in background noise when the spatial mode is
selected. Given the larger than usual
channel memory and good tuning facilities this receiver might be worth
considering for a multi-satellite systems, though it rates as only average for
Astra reception.
Value 75%
Technisat telephone (01225) 444894
CONCLUSION
Picture quality Nokia 800 Plus
Sound quality Ferguson SRD 6
Features and facilities Technisat
VC-3004
Ease of use Goodmans/Mitsubishi
Cuteness factor Ferguson SRD 6
Overall value for money Goodmans
ST-700
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R. Maybury 1995 0703
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