Vantage HD-7100S review

Things have never looked rosier for hi-def enthusiasts looking beyond Sky for their HDTV fix.  

One of the latest boxes with the all-important support for DVB-S2 and H.264 is the Vantage HD-7100S – the first HD satellite receiver with blind search that we’ve seen.  

Don't be limited to Sky

All the rage a few years ago, this feature seems to have slipped off  the spec lists of late. Odd, given its benefits – especially if your hobby is feed-hunting.

Other noteworthy features include HDMI and component hi-def outputs (to 1080i, with upscaling of standard-def ), two-slot CAM emulation, two CI slots, Ethernet and PVR upgradability via  USB or Serial-ATA (SATA).

A version with DTT is available and a twin-tuner PVR model is in the pipeline.

Simple layout

This one of the best-looking satellite receivers we’ve seen, with its glossy piano-black finish, informative 13-character fluorescent display and copious red illumination.

The entire front-panel hinges downwards to expose the CI and card slots (as supplied, Conax is emulated). Its control buttons – standby, menu-access, volume and channel-change – can be operated when the ‘drawbridge’ is open or closed.

The remote is solidly built, but the labelling is poor. Its ‘coloured’ buttons, frequently used for sub-menu access, aren’t themselves coloured. Instead, the surrounding bezel area is thinly outlined with the appropriate colour. The rear panel is well-stocked with connectors.

A powerful receiver

In addition to the usual LNB input/output are SATA and USB ports for PVR upgrades – also present are Ethernet and RS232 ports for updating firmware and exchanging databases.

The HDMI port and component ports are complemented by Scarts for TV and VCR, plus composite/ S-video outputs and analogue/digital audio outputs.  Regrettably, all standard-def outputs are disabled when the receiver is set to hi-def.

Internal construction – which partners a Samsung tuner with the capabilities of the STi7101 chipset – is neat; the beefy power supply is more than capable of driving DiSEqC dishes, and running temperatures are acceptable.

Straightforward installation

The main menus are fairly well-organised, although some  are confusing – a case in point being the powerful but  unintuitively laid-out one that configures DiSEqC motors  (1.3/USALS and 1.2 mounts and positioners are supported,  as well as simpler 1.0/1.1 ‘switchboxes’).

You’ll find this in the ‘installation’ menu, where you’ll configure your LNB/dish settings and scan for channels – manually, automatically or ‘blindly’. For auto-scanning you can specify all or just FTA channels – network searches are also permitted.  

If you opt for the manual search, entry of frequency/ polarity/symbol rate is possible – as is the ability to specify PIDs. To find everything, especially on a new satellite, the blind search is the best, albeit slowest option.  

Scanning satellites

Blind search can concentrate on four (presettable) symbol rates, but there’s also an ‘auto’ option that looks for everything. The downside with the latter is that it’s tediously slow and can take several hours.

This, according to Satellite Superstore, is because blind search is implemented via software rather than hardware.  Searching multiple satellites, motorised dishes automatically moving when appropriate, is also possible – regrettably without the option of blind search.

But at least scanning doesn’t start until the dish has arrived at the relevant satellite, ensuring that nothing is missed.

Other sub-menus look after system configuration, channel organisation, parental lock, a Tetris game, the conditional access hardware and ‘multimedia’ (USB/SATA and network configuration, among other things).

Updating firmware

Within the system-configuration group are language options, AV settings (TV system, aspect ratio and timeshifting – if you’re using an external hard drive), the clock and timer. From the channel organiser, radio and TV services can be deleted or edited – favourites can also be defined from here.

Even with the very latest firmware, the DHCP (auto network-configuration) settings of the review sample didn’t work, an invalid IP address being allocated.  After making the necessary changes manually, entering the receiver’s IP address into a web browser yielded a ‘page not found’ error.

But then again, the HD-7100S is not Linux- based and so functionality like web control and FTP access is unlikely. We were, however, able to use the receiver’s ‘FTP Browser’, found alongside the IP settings, to download newer firmware from Vantage’s server.

The details of an alternative FTP site can also be entered, which could prove useful for third-party support.  Satellite Superstore admitted that it normally takes several months for firmware to reach a stable condition – the HD-7100S is very new.

Future PVR functionality

Just before deadline we were e- mailed a new and more stable version that adds, among  other features, a standard-def component output option  and the ability to record one channel while viewing  another carried via the same transponder.