Hot on the heels of the TM-6900 high-definition receiver, Technomate's TM-5200D USB brings PVR capabilities and even a flavour of HD to budget standard-definition reception.

For under £70, the TM-5200D not only provides a free-to-air receiver that's easy to use and set up, but it has a blind search to keep up to date with the broadcasting changes, and hardware and software built in to add hard disc recording.

Build

The TM-5200D USB does not have the 'full-width' style of its older brothers. This receiver is in the same casing as the (very popular) TM-1000 and TM-1500. To be honest, the front panel looks a little dated now but it's far from unattractive. The (simple green fluorescent) display is in a shiny chromed ring, with three buttons and a fold-down flap concealing - well not a great deal, really.

This is a free-to-air receiver so there's no card slot here, nor common interface slot, so you can't add a CAM for pay-TV - but, actually, you can. You can add a programmable card reader internally and Technomate says that the TM-5200D will auto-detect it so you can effectively upgrade later to a CAM receiver.

The only item lurking under the front panel flap is the USB 2.0 connector. That's very handy when using this for updating the receiver's software, or even playing MP3 files or displaying digital photos on your TV, through the TM-5200D. But if you want to permanently make use of the TM-5200D's recording capabilities, then this is the last place you want to connect a memory stick or hard drive. Like the TM-6900, the TM-5200D needs a USB socket at the rear as well.

There is room there, although the receiver's diminutive size means the back panel is quite packed. There is just one LNB input but this is DiSEqC 1.0 and DiSEqC 1.1-compatible so you can connect up to 16 LNBs/dishes here. Of course, the TM-5200D will also drive a DiSEqC 1.2 or USALS motorised mount so the choice of satellites to receive from, is really limited only by your antenna.

There are Scart sockets for both the TV and VCR (or DVD recorder) and the TV socket can output both composite and RGB video signals. Separate composite video output is also provided and so (unusually) are YPbPr component video signals, for connection to an HD ready TV.

One slight restriction is that you cannot watch component video and RGB at the same time (although they use different socketry), for instance, if you're using a DVD recorder with RGB input.

You can watch via a UHF distribution system on other TVs around the home, as the TM-5200D has a standard UHF modulator. There are also stereo analogue audio outputs and a Dolby-compatible optical S/PDIF digital audio connector.

The TM-5200D's remote control is bit plasticky but comfortable enough and well laid out, without too many buttons but some useful shortcuts. The placing of buttons for Menu, Exit and the like is always a personal matter, but this handset has a fairly all-pleasing approach.

Setup

The TM-5200D is supplied pre-programmed with more than 3,200 channels across 23 satellites, so the few thousand that apply to your situation are there on tap (according to the language you select), for a near-instant setup without any searching, once the means of accessing the satellites has been established.

If you do want to search for channels on particular satellites, then the TM-5200D is also adept at this. First, the antenna setup is defined, either by selecting the DiSEqC switching arrangements for each satellite to be received, or by setup of a motorised dish. USALS setup is particularly simple - with the satellite positions calculated for you when you enter the site's longitude and latitude - and (unusually and usefully) has electronic limits on east and west dish movement. Setting up a DiSEqC 1.2 motor is a bit more involved but simple to master and maintain with coarse and fine dish movement, system reset and recalculate functions.

When you have your satellites in your sights, the TM-5200D can scan them in a number of ways. The normal scan can search for all channels, free-to-air channels only, or just TV channels, and the network search can be switched on or off. Searching the 72 transponders in the receiver's database on Astra 19.2°E, for all channels, took the TM-5200D about 2 minutes 45 seconds - a very good speed by today's standards.

The advanced search will scan an individual transponder, with the frequency, polarity and symbol rate either entered via the handset or taken from the stored database (FEC is automatically detected). The PID search performs a similar function but allows for specific PIDs to be set or automatically detected.