Alma S1800 HD FTA Media Player - HD Free To Air Satellite Receiver

If you thought you couldn’t get a high definition satellite receiver with PVR recording for just $60… well, think again

The opposition

Rockdable REL50/12HD

Similar spec and similar limited PVR facilities, with better (although confusing) navigation and faster searches but nearly twice the price

Ferguson Ariva 102mini

Even smaller (to be hidden away), but with SAM, better navigation and PVR, but poor connectivity and nearly twice as expensive

A few months ago, $52.5 for an SD satellite receiver (the BigSAT Golden 1CR) seemed almost too good to be true. Now, the S1800 comes along for just $7.5 more and it’s a high definition machine with PVR support.

While the S1800 is not quite the fount of features that some (more expensive) machines are, it is certainly a fully-functioning receiver with a size that will appeal to caravan owners and other spatially challenged viewers (although it is mains powered so you’ll need an inverter to use it with a 12V supply).

Build and connectivity

Unlike many diminutive receivers that abandon the ‘normal’ set-top box arrangement for a compact format, this unit follows the standard form. Looking at the photograph, you wouldn’t guess it is just 18cm across. The size of the front USB socket (for PVR storage) gives the game away a little, but the conventional front panel, complete with central numeric display make the S1800 a miniature version of a normal box; almost a dolls house receiver. It’s a wonder how the mains power supply was crammed in there along with the rest of a complete HD digital receiver.

The size of the front USB socket (for PVR storage) gives the game away a little, but the conventional front panel

The remote control is not so miniaturized, but it’s no large, classy handset either. The buttons are rather close together and the layout is a little odd in places. However, this is a budget machine, after all.

The back panel holds few surprises, except that it suffers from far less corner-cutting than might be expected at this price. The one LNB input has a loop through output too. The S1800 can support all the DiSEqC formats 1.0 and 1.1 for up to 16-way LNB switches and 1.2 and USALS for motorized mounts.

The main output is via HDMI (with full 1080p output), but there’s also a Scart socket for SD, and audio is available from both coaxial digital and stereo analogue connections. There’s no USB on the rear so PVR storage must plug in at the front – a bit disfiguring for this cute receiver.

Setup

The S1800 is installed in the normal way, albeit with a ‘fewer screens’ approach. The satellites to receive are selected from a list (or added, if new) and the LNB parameters set up for each one.

Then you search the satellites individually or sequentially. Searching can be for free-to-air channels only, or for just TV, or just radio. You can perform a normal database can be edited as transmissions change) or a blind search. However, you can’t search a single transponder. The S1800 is not fast at searching. In particular, blind searches take what is for today an interminably long time.

Basic use

Features to make using the S1800 quicker or easier have been pared to the bone. The onscreen channel list shows the channels in the order stored, with a euro symbol for encrypted ones. Although there is a channel search to find channels starting with an entered string, there is no way to reorder or filter the list. So if you want to see FTA channels, you have to scroll through the lot.

The EPG is also simple to the extreme; just a listing of the programmers on the current channel – all seven days of it, if broadcast, with the synopsis of the selected show. One sophistication is that you can book a timer event for an individual show, and access the timer with single button pushes, but otherwise, it’s very basic.

‘The back panel holds few surprises, except that it suffers from far less corner-cutting than might be expected at this price’

PVR and multimedia

While there’s no room in the S1800 for a built-in HDD, you can connect any USB storage to enable the PVR facilities but these are not too extensive. The S1800 can only record one channel at a time, although a second channel at a time, and although a second channel on the same transponder can be viewed, you cannot record this as well.

While there’s no room in the S1800 for a built-in HDD, you can connect any USB storage to enable the PVR facilities but these are not too extensive.

You can pause a live broadcast but not in the ‘normal’ way. Pressing the Time shift button simply records the current channel and, although you can then pause and rewind this, it’s no different in effect to pressing Record. Change channels (on the same transponder) and the recording goes on in the background and when you stop, you’ll find it there in the recordings list.

The only difference between Time shift and recording is that with the Time shift mode you can start to watch a recording before it’s finished (by rewinding back to the start).

A nice touch, missing from many PVRs is that you can resume playback where you last left off, but otherwise, the S1800 is bereft of playback features. There is no visual indication of how far through the file you are (the Info button shows figures) and the only way of moving the playback point is the fast forward and reverse controls (up to x32).

However, the Alma can also playback MP3 music files and photos from the connected storage, as well as video files in a decent range of formats.

Performance

The S1800 may be lacking in physical stature, but for reception performance it stands tall. Sound from both digital and analogue outputs is up to scratch, the images from HD channels are crisp and lively, and SD channels rendered well too.

SD output from the Scart socket is a welcome inclusion and doesn’t disappoint. Playback is largely indistinguishable from live reception and the S1800 performs well as a media player for video, music, and photos, too.

Verdict

While the S1800 may well be bought by some on the basis of its small size, most will probably be attracted by the price. While navigation, EPG, and PVR functions are limited and searches are slow, this is a truly cheap box. It’s hard to believe that $60 can get you a high definition receiver with PVR facilities, and that may be enticing.

It’s hard to believe that $60 can get you a high definition receiver with PVR facilities, and that may be enticing.

Ratings

Plus

·         Extremely cheap

·         Very small (and rather cute)

·         Good image and sound performance

Minus

·         Limited PVR facilities

·         Poor navigation and EPG

·         Slow search speeds

·         Build: 7/10

·         Setup: 8/10

·         Searching: 6/10

·         Navigation: 7/10

·         Performance: 8/10

·         Features: 7/10

·         Value: 10/10

·         Overall: 7.6/10

Connectivity

1.    LNB input

2.    LNB loop through output

3.    TV Scart

4.    Stereo analogue audio

5.    HDMI

6.    Coaxial digital audio output

Test and measurement

Power usage

This small receiver has a matching power consumption, using a modest 12W even when going full out

·         Idling: N/A

·         In use: 12W

·         Standby: <1W

Search: 28.2⁰E

Database scans are very slow due to unnecessarily large database but reducing that speeds them up

·         FTA scan: 8m58s

·         Full scan: 9m27s

·         Blind search: 11m40s

Search: 19.2⁰E

Long time for all searches, but the blind search in particular is slow compared to some boxes

·         FTA scan: 6m08s

·         Full scan: 6m26s

·         Blind search: 13m14s

Search 13⁰E

Unusually, 13⁰E searches are faster than 19.2⁰E, but they are still slow for a modern receiver

·         FTA: 6m00s

·         Full scan: 6m20s

·         Blind search: 11m21s

·         Video formats

·         MPEG-2: Yes

·         AVI: Yes

·         VivX: Yes

·         Xvid: No

·         MKV: Yes

·         WMV: No

·         VOB: No

Specifications ·         No LNB inputs: 1 ·         LNB Loop through: Yes ·         DiSEqC: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, USALS ·         No. channels: 5000 ·         Selectable FEC: No ·         Symbol rate range: 2000-60000 ·         Blind search: Yes ·         Linux: No ·         CAM: none ·         Common Interface: None ·         Teletext: DVB decoded ·         EPG support: DVB now/next, 7-day ·         Timer: 30-events, 50-years ·         Hard drive: via USB ·         UHF modulator tuning: n/a ·         Software upgrade: OTA ·         Data ports: USB ·         AV outputs ·         SD out: Scart ·         HD out: HDMI ·         Audio out: Stereo analogue audio, coaxial digital audio