Amiko HD-8240 Testing Report

Edit/addendum: Within 8 hours of receiving our North American test report and requests, Amiko (Karmacom) sent us new test firmare that added/corrected the following for us: - 480i analog enabled - Simultaneous 1080p HDMI / 480i analog output - USALS E/W display bug corrected - Manual PID entry added The public version for North America, NA8200 1.4.30 is pre-installed on all of our HD-8240's. It certainly is nice to have a STB line that receives support in North America from the manufacturer. Originally when we contacted Karmacom about the Amiko Alien back in December 2011 the intention was to bring the most advanced True FTA STB in the world to North America. We certainly were not looking to replace our “workhorse” basic STB’s. Unfortunately 2012 started very badly for our top selling and extremely popular OpenBox STB line. S9, S10 and S12 went from relatively decent quality to an out of the box, from the factory defect rate of up to 40%. Factory support for North America has been all but non-existent for at least a year. In February 2012 the decision was made (at great financial loss) to drop the OpenBox line entirely. Apparently the problems continue as we receive emails almost daily from non-customers looking for help with their defective, brand new OpenBox products. While testing the Amiko Alien in secret for 2 months I had reviewed the entire Karmacom STB lineup of Amiko’s and Optibox. While they offer many great products for the European market, most are not suitable for one reason or another in our limited and quite different satellite market. After the initial success working with Karmacom and introducing Amiko Alien to North America I decided to revisit the Karamcom lineup. This time the goal was not bring over something revolutionary like Alien. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, what North America is in need of is a high quality, easy to use True FTA satellite receiver. After discussions with Marton at Karmacom it was decided that we should test out their Amiko HD line. These STB’s are based on the latest Ali3606 processors rather than the out of date 3602 found in other products. I have been testing the HD-8340 since early March. 8340 is the “big brother” to the HD-8240 and is roughly equivalent to a S9 vs S10. HD-8340 is a bit different than 8240 in that it has a front display that belongs on the Starship Enterprise with all sorts of indicators, scrolling channel names and various icons for different things. It actually is a bit much for our market. Because Amiko STB’s are built like tanks the gift box packaging alone is

very large and the individual shipping costs for USA, Canada and Mexico would be crazy. 8340 is extremely cool but unfortunately will probably be a product never offered in North America. Enter 8340’s little brother, the Amiko HD-8240. This is the “S10” version in an S10/Alien form factor housing and with a front display similar to Alien. Being smaller and less weight this is something we can offer and ship at prices competitive with the cheap China STBs. HD-8240 is what we have been waiting for: a basic high quality blindscanning S2 satellite receiver. I am actually understating 8240 when I say “basic”. It is basic compared to an Alien with 150 channels WebTV, Opera Web Browser, network recording and 100 other features. 8240 certainly isn’t “basic” when compared to OpenBox S9, S10, the new Skybox F3, Pansat 9500 or the so-called imitation “Manhattan”. 8240 makes any of the old 3602 boxes look like a 90’s analog receiver. HD-8240 does everything you would expect: S2, HD, blindscan, PVR but it does it BETTER. It also does and has some things you won’t find in the other STB’s: Ali3606 processor, Wireless N capable, 2 USB ports, Youtube player, updated Media Player, games, online updates and more. 8240 functions just fine in it’s primary role, watching TV, but can also do much more if you want it to. The latest Ali3606 processor This is quite a step up from the 3602 based receivers. Higher processing speed, newer architecture, all new GUI options, 1080p True HD, twin USB 2.0 support, better media player, PVR functions and more. Unlike some of the 3602 units where they change to a slightly different GUI to make it look like a new box, HD-8240 actually looks, feels and operates like a new box. Blindscan This is a very important feature for many people in North America. HD-8240 does not disappoint. The blindscan is very accurate and fairly speedy. 8240 blindscan especially excels at low symbol rate and weak S2 blindscan detection which is where most blindscans fail miserably. Blindscan speed using a universal LNBF on 97W/G19 Ku was 3 minutes, 1 second with 100% detection. A standard LO (10750) LNBF will perform even faster. Traditional per-transponder and scan of all transponders in memory is also included. The 8240 database is all new and up to date, integrating active True FTA transponders instead of listing a bunch of out of date, encrypted or temporary feeds.

Configured to blindscan for unencrypted TV and radio. The typical “all” and individually selectable TV/radio

scans are configurable like most other FTA STB’s.

The hard to lock KFTL on 72W/AMC-6 and other low SR feeds are easy for Amiko HD-8240. Satellite configuration options Amiko HD-8240 has all of our standard configuration options such as USALS, DiseqC 1.2, 1.1, 1.0 plus some others not seen on most of the 3602 boxes. One thing to note right away, 1.2 motor controls use automatic position numbering like Alien and many EU STB’s. You don’t have to set a position for each bird, 8240 does it automatically. The first position set = 1 ; second is 2 and so on. USALS works extremely well assuming your system is aligned properly to start. Set your coordinates and forget it. Our typical LNB settings are included, although the layout is a bit different than we are used to in the 3602 STBs. 5150, 10750, 9750/10600, 10600 are all in there along with the ability to specify a user frequency. There are nice additional settings such as the ability to designate a single polarity per-satellite for the guys using rotors, and the ability to select 13/18V and 13.5V/18.5V for situations where you may wish a voltage boost.

Antenna setup screen for 87W/SES-2 Ku.

Setting up single polarity, like for use with a polorrotor. Watching TV The all new Ali3606 GUI is fairly straightforward but is a bit different than what we have seen on this side of the pond. Like anything new it takes some getting used to in order to operate efficiently. A single press of the OK key will bring up full channel list and a press of the RED key will allow you to look at individual satellites. Further sorting is just as easy.

HD-8240 has a variety of display options available that are configurable by the user. One interesting option is the ability to move the information bar. By default it is on the bottom of the screen, I reset on this box to display at the top. Information displayed is basic. If a HD channel is tuned it simply and clearly will tell you “HD” but will not specify the type or resolution. I did not find any trouble feeds in my 8240/8340 testing. NBC-S2, a great variety of wildfeeds, PBS Montana, FSTV and everything else I threw at it played flawlessly. I’m sure we will encounter something that plays less than perfect somewhere, but overall the playback performance is A-1.

Organization Amiko HD-8240 offers a much improved and easy to use channel organization system. Old wildfeeds are easy to delete in bulk, channels can be quickly moved and renaming is about as easy as it gets using the remote control. It certainly is not the limited function and hassle seen with other STB’s.

Renaming a channel. Resolution, supported modes and VFORMAT Amiko HD-8240 has 3 video outputs: SCART (not used here), CVBS (analog/yellow) and HDMI. A typical Ali resolution control is included in the setup allowing selection of the various modes and frequency rates. 1080p 60Hz full HD is supported. Resolution can be selected VIA the menu setup or by pressing the VFORMAT button. The front panel will display the set resolution. Unlike the OpenBox, 8240 will allow you to change resolution VIA VFORMAT even with no channels scanned in, so you should never get stuck in an unsupported PAL mode.

Resolution selection in the setup screens.

An important note: as HD-8240 is a brand new STB meant for Europe, 480i analog mode is not yet supported. The lowest resolution is 576i/PAL. The engineers are aware of our need for 480i for ancient analog TV’s and should be able to implement 480i in the future. USB, Ethernet and WiFi support HD-8240 and the Ali3606 allow for several new options. The first big improvement is twin USB 2.0 support. There is a USB port on the back of the STB, and a front mounted port under the CI/CAM access door. Twin ports allow for multiple HDD connections and the ability to run an Amiko WiFi N-module like Alien uses. There is a built in speed test for HDD’s. HD-8240 will determine the read/write speed of your attached USB drive and provide an estimate of how many programs you can record/timeshift at once, and whether you can record SD or HD.

Speed test for a poor performing USB flash drive. As mentioned before, the Amiko WiFi N modules are supported along with traditional wired Ethernet. Unlike S9/S10 where internet has no function other than piracy, HD-8240 has a variety of useful internet features which will be covered later. One thing you WILL NOT find in HD-8240 is “plugs”, piracy/mirroring options or anywhere to add them! PVR and Media Player PVR functions have been greatly improved over the 3602 STB’s. Record from timeshift and watch one, record another are supported. There are a variety of record formats available. TS/PS are the standards along with a couple more exotic options. TP record allows you to make a full Transport Stream recording of an entire transponder. This is useful for stream analysis and is also what is needed in order for the engineers to fix any feed problems we may encounter. 8240 also allows to record as scrambled. This mode does us little good in North America unless you subscribe to one of the few small sub services here such as Russian Media on 99W/G16. This mode records the CAM/card/encryption data for an encrypted program so you can later play it back through an authorized CAM/card. Timed recording is supported and the internal real time clock seems to keep time much more accurately than OpenBox, which could lose 5-10 minutes per day.

The media player is completely new and easier to operate than the poor versions in some of the 3602 STB’s. Most of the standard MPEG2/MPEG4 formats are supported, and it will play back most recordings made with OpenBox media player and the later PVR recordings.

Internet and other features In addition to the high build quality, new Ali3606 processor, great blindscan and other satellite features, Amiko HD-8240 offers some useful internet functions, making it an even better value for a STB priced to compete with cheap China 3602 boxes. For guys looking to strictly watch satellite TV these features will not interfere with basic operation and are not required to operate or upgrade your 8240. For the rest of the internet connected world the internet features are a nice bonus. The one thing NOT supported is piracy and plug options, you will not find these in 8240. Youtube Player. The Youtube player is basic yet functional. It has the appearance of the Alien Youtube player but functions a bit different. HD-8240 Youtube player will first download your selected video and then play it, versus Alien which will buffer a small amount and play almost right away. The end result is the same, you can search and watch Youtube!

Firmware update by FTP/HTTP. Although we have not deployed it, HD-8240 has the ability to log onto our servers and update itself. Once deployed and fully enabled the user can login right in the STB and select from full firmware updates or sat/TP data updating, and the STB will do the update for you online. There will be no need to download a ZIP file on your computer, uncompress it, put on a flash drive, move to the STB and initiate an update. Initially all updates will be the “old fashioned” way and update files will always be made available for traditional download for guys who are not using the internet functions of the HD-8240.

Internet functions menu. Weather Forecaster This is an actual weather forecaster, not a piracy module of any sort. It is similar in appearance and function to the Alien weather forecaster except for some reason it works much better than Alien in North America. A search for 3 insignificant towns in Minnesota, USA resulted in weather for those actual locations. Enter your town such as “Rosemount” and get your current and future weather. Since I did not supply the state or ZIP code and it found the towns right away, I suspect 8240 may be using IP address location to help with searches.

Other features and options There is so much new and available with the 8240 and Ali3606 that it is impossible to list it all. I haven’t even discovered all of its capabilities. The firmware images are 8192k which is twice the size of 3602 and the 3601 used in the Skybox F3. From what I can see in the code, much of the space is unused so many more options could be potentially added to it by Karamcom and the engineers. Limitations and issues Like any STB there are limitations, and like any new STB there are always things to improve and work out. The one actual “bug” I have found is in the initial setting of USALS coordinates. When you enter your coordinates and switch longitude to “W” for west it shows and operates correctly. If you go back to USALS setup for some reason, it shows you “E” even though it is still set to and functioning as “W”. As long as you are aware of this and don’t try to change it back, it is nothing to worry about and does not affect function one bit. Karmacom has been made aware of this display bug as they probably have not noticed it in EU where they use “E” for all USALS locations. At the moment according to the firmware release notes, the Youtube player only plays SD videos. This is not a bug, HD Youtube has not been enabled in the initial firmware but it will be added. Just like the 3602 boxes, there is a 64+64 satellite slot limit. We have functioned fine here with OpenBox and 64 slots so this is nothing new. Our North American database currently has 62 satellites enabled. The only other known issue is not with the HD-8240 but the Ali editors. We do not yet have one that supports HD-8240 correctly. This appears to be a simple data parsing problem that the engineers should be able to correct easy enough. The current editors are all setup for the simpler 4096k images from 3601 and 3602 STB’s so they need to make a change for the 3606. Conclusions The HD-8240 is a great next generation replacement for the OpenBox S9, S10 and even the new F3. It takes a bit getting used to with a new layout and more of the European way of doing things, but the learning curve is fairly light. While not hard to use, it is not the entry level simplicity of a 3602 STB. Build quality is completely superior and the lack of bugs for a new box is refreshing, especially compared to the older 3602 STB’s that have had the same issues for years. Amiko HD-8240 does not have the failure, design and defect issues seen with the OpenBox lines. HD-8240 is a great choice for an “entry” level STB and as a replacement for ailing 3602’s. Availability & Support More information on the Amiko HD-8240 is available at http://www.amikoalienusa.com/?page_id=375 Authorized Alien NA HD-8240's are covered by the Alien NA 1 year limited warranty. File updates & utilities will be provided through our support sites as traditional downloads and eventually by the automatic FTP feature. Amiko HD-8240 is available throughout North America from Authorized Amiko Alien North America retailers. Authorized Retailer information is available at http://www.amikoalienusa.com/?page_id=342