The other option is 'All Frequencies', which works on any satellite and seems to be a kind of blind search, scanning the whole Ku-band. It certainly takes long enough; almost 17 minutes on Astra 2 compared with two minutes for the By Satellite search; on Astra 1 it took about 21 minutes against two minutes.

All Frequencies is definitely more thorough – picking up over 1,200 Astra 2 signals compared with 691 for By Satellite. You can also scan individual transponders and add your own, with free range to pick low symbol rates, but not FEC – so you won't be able to tune in ITV HD. It's also possible to either replace the existing database or add to it, which also saves time.

Multi-sat users won't find support for DiSEqC 1.2 or USALS motors – but mini-DiSEqC and DiSEqC 1.0 switches are catered for – nor can you choose whether to exclude free-to-air, scrambled, radio or data channels from a search, but you can set the channel list to automatically exclude these channels.

Finally, you'll want to get at videos, music and photos stored on your digital storage, and the KRP-500A's Home Media Gallery can access anything on a Digital Living Network Alliance (DNLA) server, including PCs and network storage devices or USB storage.

DLNA is a minefield, but we were successful with PCs running Windows Media Connect, and although it should play many file formats, it won't do DivX or XviD, or any protected files. Connection is via wired Ethernet – no wireless, we're afraid.

Navigation and features

The menus are very elegant, with a simple black, white and grey colour scheme that uses either thumbnail views of live channels or a transparent overlay.

You can select inputs and channels through the attractive Home Menu, via specific remote buttons, or via a pop-up menu that scrolls between a favourites list, channel lists for each tuner, and an inputs list.

The single favourites list isn't really enough, but it can take entries from any of the others, up to 20 analogue channels, 20 DTT channels, 40 satellite channels, all five external inputs and the Home Media Gallery top menu.

More than one favourites list would have been welcome, but a search tool lets you easily search the DTT and satellite lists by TV or radio, satellite, HD or SD, encryption setting and initial letter. The master channel lists can also be edited and moved around (but you can't rename channels), although with thousands of satellite channels that's a big task.

Freeview viewers will be pleased that both logical channel numbering and the MHEG-5 interactive engine are supported, so channels appear in the right order and you can use red button services.

There's also the full seven-day DVB-T EPG, and on satellite there's also as much DVB EPG information as broadcasters supply (not much outside Germany, we'll admit).

However, the KRP-500A isn't Freesat-approved, so you don't get the channels in the right order and you can access only now-and-next schedule information. In theory, it could be upgraded to Freesat standards with new firmware, but there's little hope that Pioneer will go through this tough process now Kuro is being wound down.

However, at least some of Kuro's programming is Linux-based (a Linux licence appears in the manual), so maybe some enterprising individual will provide a hack.

The HMG navigates through a simple menu structure that will be familiar to anyone who has used a media extender device, and like most of them, it often cuts off the end of long file names.

Photos are presented in a variety of gallery formats; you can search for files, create slideshows with soundtracks, and playlists. The playback controls are quite advanced and it all makes you wish you could record off -air content onto attached media, as well as playing it back.