Golden Media Spark One - Plenty To Offer Out Of The Box (Part 2)

With storage connected via USB, the Spark One becomes a PVR. The greatest drawback is the single turner; two tuners, to freely watch and record two different channels at once, would be a huge improvement-but then, this is a budget machine. GM’s Spark Triplex offers three turners, but costs more.

However, the Spark One can record two channels at once (and you can watch a third) provided they are all on the same transponder. Once a channel is being recorded, the channel list show which other channels are available.

Of course, live broadcasts can also be paused and rewound, and whether the receiver can manage to record or pause, say, two HD channels at once is down to the speed of your connected USB storage. The Spark One can test the available speed and predict that combination of HD and SD channels can be handled.

With storage connected via USB, the Spark One becomes a PVR

Unfortunately, you cannot playback a recording until it is finished. However, the Spark One does provide the usual playback ‘tricks’, including fast forward and reverse up to 64x and a useful draggable progress bar to get to any point in the life.

Connected to a broadband modem, the Spark One provides considerable internet access, too. As well as dedicated access to certain web providers such as Picasa, YouTube, SHOUTcast radio and so on. It also provides RSS feeds and the Opera web browser.

More impressive is the Spark ‘Portal’, which allows a whole range of apps to be loaded on the receiver, to provide access to online services such as news, music and game, like a ‘smart’ TV. The Spark One also HbbTV compatible, so you can use European online services such as catch up TV from ARD and ZDF.

Performance

The Spark One will only produce SD output from the Scart socket when the whole receiver is switched to SD – so to swap between watching live HD broadcast and archiving a programmer in SD to a DVD recorder is a tedious business.

That aside, it produces excellent quality pictures from the HDMI output, whether live or recorded, both broadcast in HD or up scaled by the box (up to 1080p).

Although some of the onscreen messages and labels are poorly translated to English, the menu system is simple to use. However, the Spark One did hang up a few times on us so it’s worth keeping the software updated.

Performance of the Spark One

Verdict

It’s difficult to get away from the fact that the Spark One is most rivaled by GM’s own Spark Triplex, which with near identical functionality but three tuners for satellite and DTT, is just $45 more. However, if the budget simply won’t stretch that far then the Spark One takes the biscuit-PVR and blind search form a solid foundation for the receiver, while the Conax card readers, the online capabilities and super-fast search make this a very tempting package.

Connectivity

1.    Ethernet network connection

2.    LNB input and loop through

3.    Composite video output

4.    Coaxial digital output

5.    USB port

6.    HDMI output

7.    Stereo analogue audio outputs

8.    Optical digital output

9.    Scart socket

10.  RS232 data port

11.  Power switch

In the box

1.    Switch-mode power supply

2.    Audio circuitry

3.    Ethernet interface

4.    Single IF tuner

5.    Mains processor

6.    Card reader

Ratings

Plus

·         Fast satellite searching

·         Spark Portal apps

·         Easy and intuitive to use

Minus

·         Only one tuner

·         No simultaneous SD and HD output

·         Some software instability

·         Build: 8/10

·         Setup: 8/10

·         Searching: 8/10

·         Navigation: 8/10

·         Performance: 8/10

·         Features: 8/10

·         Value: 8/10

·         Overall: 8.2/10

Test and measurement

Power usage

A healthily low [power consumption in standby mode should keep the electricity bills more manageable

·         Idling: N/A

·         In use: 20W

·         Standby: 0.5W

Search: 28.2⁰E

A fast database scan with much the same speeds for searching for all channels or just FTA

·         FTA scan: 4m21s

·         Full scan: 4m24s

·         Blind search: 6m31s

Search: 19.2⁰E

Very fast search speeds for 19.2⁰E and a fast blind search to keep the database up-to-date

·         FTA scan: 3m13s

·         Full scan: 3m09s

·         Blind search: 5m55s

Search 13⁰E

A very fast blind search speeds that in practice makes a database scan almost redundant

·         FTA: 3m50s

·         Full scan: 3m54s

·         Blind search: 5m46s

Video formats

·         MPEG-2: Yes

·         AVI: Yes

·         VivX: Yes

·         Xvid: Yes

·         MKV: Yes

·         WMV: Yes

·         VOB: No

Specifications ·         No. LNB inputs: 1 ·         LNB Loop through: Yes ·         No. aerial inputs: None ·         Aerial loop through: None ·         DiSEqC: Level 1.0/1.1/1.2 (USALS) ·         No. channels: 5000 ·         Selectable FEC: No ·         Symbol rate: 2000 – 45000 ·         Blind search: Yes ·         Linux: Yes ·         CAM: 2 x Conax ·         Common Interface: None ·         Teletext: DVB decoded ·         EPG support: DVB 7-day, ‘now/next’ ·         Timer: 8 events, 26 years ·         Hard drive: Via USB ·         UHF modulator tuning: N/A ·         Software upgrade: LAN or USB download ·         Data ports: RS232, USB, Ethernet ·         SD out: Scart (composite/RGB), composite video ·         HD out: HDMI ·         Audio out: stereo analogue audio, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio