The DiSEqC facilities are easy to work with and compatible with the various motors and positioners we tried. The dish can be moved continuously or in steps, allowing you to peak the dish while monitoring the bargraphs that indicate the signal strength and quality of the currently selected transponder.

As soon as the optimum position has been found, it can be stored.

Manual searching

Multi-satellite searching is included – the 9000HD will automatically move from one satellite to the next. However, as with so many other receivers, scanning tends to start while the dish is still in transit.

In addition to the usual automatic channel search – for which you can specify free and/or encrypted channels and network-seeking – is its manual counterpart, which lets you specify a transponder for searches. Here, polarisation, frequency and symbol rate can all be entered – while a submenu facilitates PID entry. Regrettably, you don't get the hardware blind search of the competing Vantage HD 8000S.

Which brings us to the most important benefit of Linux-based receivers. Their open-source nature encourages the development of third-party firmware and plug-ins. Thanks to the Ethernet port, firmwares can be transferred directly to the receiver via the internet.

Unfortunately, the official site (the modifiable FTP details of which are pre-programmed into the firmware) repeatedly failed to download the latest version, causing the receiver's display to flash 'panic'. We found it easier to install new firmware via a USB memory device.

Channel features

The receiver's channel list can be sorted alphabetically, according to encryption status or by satellite. If you're feeding each tuner with independent dishes aimed at different satellites you can swap between the relevant channel lists.

The manual says frequently viewed channels can be placed into one of five favourites lists. Our review sample receiver contained 25 such lists, so additional lists can be defined. They're shared between radio and TV channels.

Channel databases can be loaded or backed up over the network, courtesy of a Windows channel-editor program available from the internet. The receiver's integral channel editor has all of the expected features including delete, lock and rename.

Usual PVR features

This receiver will do everything expected of a twin-tuner satellite PVR – including picture-in-picture, teletext and the 'bookmarking' of recordings.

You can record and watch different channels, or play a file over the HDD while two recordings are in progress – an alternative to playing an existing recording is watching a third channel that shares a transponder with one of the channels currently being recorded.

However, playing a current recording from the beginning is not possible – you can see it in the recordings list, but that's about it. The 9000HD's EPG supports both now-and-next and seven-day schedules, has both list and grid modes, and can directly schedule timer events ('reservations'). The timer in question can also be manually programmed, supports a seemingly unlimited number of events and allows for dates as far ahead as 2023.

Recordings can be accessed from the Multimedia menu – there's also a handset shortcut key. Timeshifting, with trick functions is supported. Here, temporary HDD files provide the necessary timeshift buffering.

Multimedia skills

The 9000HD can be configured to play MP3 audio files stored in the shared folders of Windows PCs on your network – although the (straightforward) process is, like much else, inadequately described in the awful manual.

We tried transferring video files to the 9000HD's media/TV directory via FTP, but although transfer was successful, playback wasn't. The transferred files were not displayed in the recordings menu, not even digital broadcast-derived MPEG-2 transport streams, renamed with the 9000HD's .trp extension.

However, it's possible to view JPEG photos, as well as play MP3 files – whether directly from a USB memory device or copied to the receiver's HDD from USB or a PC via FTP.