Skyworth HT21 - tele-audiovision.comtele-audiovision.com/TELE-satellite-1207/eng/skyworth.pdfManufacturer Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology CO., LTD. Unit A 13-16/F, Skyworth Mansion,

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Skyworth HT21

•Filledwithfeaturesjustlikea„big“receiver•SensitiveDVB-Ttuner•Extensiveprogrammenu•PVRcompatiblethroughUSBinterface•Futuristicmenu

TEST REPORT Miniature HDTV Receiver

0.5

06-07-08/2012

www.TELE-satellite.com/12/07/skyworth

64 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 06-07-08/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

A Mini DVB-T Receiver

TEST REPORT Miniature HDTV Receiver

When we opened the care-fully packaged Skyworth HT21 DVB-T, we instantly had flashbacks of those mini receivers from the past. Back then they were fitted with Scart connectors; to-day‘s modern, HD compat-ible version from Skyworth comes with a short HDMI cable hard-wired into the re-ceiver for connection to an LCD or plasma TV.

The receiver is not only inconspicuously small, but it also weighs a mere 92g. As for connectors, it comes with a DVB-T input, a looped-through output, a USB 2.0 interface as well as a con-nection for the external IR receiver. The IR receiver also has an integrated LED so that the user can easily iden-tify what mode the receiver

is currently in. Because of its size, Skyworth had no room to integrate a power supply inside the receiver housing; instead it uses an external power supply. The overall workmanship of the receiver, the remote control and the IR receiver is quite exceptional.

Thanks to the practical in-stallation assistant, the ini-tial setup of the Skyworth HT21 DVB-T is actually quite simple. After selecting the OSD language (English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Turkish, Farsi and Arabic), the receiv-er switches over to region selection.

Unlike satellite reception, there are small differences

in the frequency arrange-ments from one country or region to another. This makes selecting the correct location necessary so that a successful channel scan can be achieved by the user. The following choices are avail-able: England, Germany, It-aly, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland and Iran. Once the user has made a choice, the comple-tion of a scan across the entire frequency spectrum in less than a minute com-pletes the initial installation.

The entire team here at the test center was com-pletely fascinated by the OSD display of this new Sky-worth receiver. The various menu entries and windows are presented in a modern, futuristic fashion. This is a

Why should the housing of a receiver be unnecessarily big, clumsy and heavy when all of the electronics would take up no more space than 10.5 x 6 x 1.5cm? The engi-neers at Skyworth started thinking about this too and began working on develop-ing a new DVB-T receiver. DVB-T, compared to satellite reception, is more perfectly suited for mobile applica-tions because of its minimal antenna requirements. Just think: you could watch TV in the gazebo in your back yard, in your RV or in your summer home.

Of course, a receiver like this would also need to have a place in your living room and in this age of HDTV would also need to have a high-resolution A/V output.

Skyworth HT21 DVB-TExtremely small receiver with exceptional characteristics

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welcome change from the format found in many other receivers!

Even the structure of the main menu left us with an overall positive impression. It is logically constructed and easy to use. While the main menu point is selected in the vertical level, you‘ll find the sub-menu selections in the horizontal level. At first this arrangement might appear to be unusual but you‘ll get used to it after only a short time and soon after won‘t want it any other way.

Naturally the very first

thing we wanted to do was test this receiver with our test equipment. For mobile applications, such as in an RV, this turns out to be a 22“ LCD TV. But we also wanted to see how it behaved with a 55“ plasma TV and whether it could really deliver incred-ibly sharp pictures via the HDMI interface. On the re-ceiver side, the video output signal can be set to 720p and 1080i (each at 50Hz). You can also match the pic-ture frame rate to your TV or display 4:3 programs on a 16:9 TV. A wide assortment of languages for the audio tracks and subtitles is an ab-

1. The Skyworth HT21 Installation Assistant2. Automatic channel scan3. Main Menu4. The HT21 is a real multimedia machine with MP3 and video playback plus picture viewer5. The HT21 can be matched with any equipment thanks to its broad settings capabilities6. Manual channel scan7. Setting the time8. The HDMI video output can be set to 720p or 1080i (50Hz)9. A calendar, a calculator and a video game round out the functional capabilities of this receiver10. Info bar with information on the current and upcoming program11. Current channel technical details12. EPG Overview13. Creating a timer entry14. The internal teletext decoder


solute must to have in any of today‘s digital receivers and should be integrated into a high-end product like the Skyworth HT21. The same is also true for the automatic time setting via the DVB-

T data stream so that user merely needs to enter the time difference of the users location from UTC/GMT.

Despite the fact that the

number of available DVB-T channels will never be able to keep up with the number of satellite channels.

Skyworth still incorpo-rated extensive channel list

editing capabilities into their receiver. The user can move channels around, rename them, lock them or delete them, or move them into one of eight different Favor-

ites lists. These Favorites lists cannot be individually named but are instead dif-ferentiated from each other by symbols. The channel list can also be sorted alphabeti-cally, by PayTV/FreeTV or by frequency. Yes, this feature is available although you might find that you hardly ever use it.

The tuner in the HT21

does not support DVB-T2 so in many cases you might not be able to enjoy an HD pic-ture. The HT21 can handle HD content but for some reason the manufacturer

unfortunately opted to do without a DVB-T2 tuner. We tested this with an HD signal in MPEG-4/H.264 on a DVB-T carrier and can confirm that it worked perfectly.

A momentary push of the OK button presents the channel list and after every channel change the receiver blends in, as we expected, an informative Info bar with in-

formation on the current and upcoming programs. A push of the EPG button opens up a complete electronic pro-gramming guide that lists all the channels on the currently

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selected frequency. But, as usual, this data is only dis-played if the providers make this information available in the first place.

We appreciated the abil-ity to set up timer record-ings directly from the EPG; the HT21 can be turned into a PVR-ready receiver simply by connecting an external storage device to the USB port such as a USB stick, an SD card or an external USB 2.0 hard drive. Since timer entries can be set to repeat on a daily, weekly or week-end basis, you‘ll never again have to worry about missing the next episode in your fa-vorite TV series.

Thanks to the included time shift function, unex-pected visitors or telephone calls won‘t interrupt your TV pleasure. The live TV pro-gram is simply paused and then restarted at a later

time when the interruption has passed. You won‘t miss a thing!

During our tests we also liked another feature in the HT21 that can be activated while watching TV by push-ing the NAV button on the remote control. This feature allows you to select subtitles or various audio tracks and also lets you turn on the in-ternal teletext decoder. A zoom function and diverse channel list editing capabili-ties are also available here.

Since the HT21 is a receiver that is especially suitable for mobile applications, we test-ed it not only with our large rooftop UHF antenna, but also with a small rod anten-na. As we have already seen in tests with other receiv-ers, this small antenna can also deliver a strong enough signal for interference-free DVB-T reception. And with

15. Setting the length of a recording16. Recording list17. MP3 playback18. Internet downloaded videos can be played back without any problems19. DivX playback20. MOV playback21. Data Manager22. Photos can easily be displayed23. Photo selection24. PVR settings25. A wide assortment of editing capabilities are available for the channel list26. Dubai Sports HD from one of our own modulated DVB-T frequencies27. For our tests we set up a complete transponder from BADR 26° east as a DVB-T frequency for the Skyworth HT2128. Saudi Sport 2 from BADR 26° east as received by a DVB-T receiver in our Austrian test center29. All six HD channels from our „homemade“ DVB-T frequency were processed by the Skyworth HT21 without any problems30. Saudi Sport 1 on BADR 26° east as received by a DVB-T receiver in our Austrian test center

DATATECHNICAL

Manufacturer Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology CO., LTD. Unit A 13-16/F, Skyworth Mansion, Gaoxin Ave. 1.S. Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518057, China

Email sales [email protected]

Internet www.skyworthdigital.com

Tel +86-755-26010018

Model HT21

Function Very small PVR Receiver with HDMI

Input frequency VHF (177.5 bis 226.5 MHz) UHF (474-858 MHz)

EPG yes

Supported standards

Video resolution 720p, 1080i 50 Hz

RS232 no

Ethernet no

USB 2.0 yes

HDTV yes (only via )

MPEG4/H.264 yes (only via )

+

–

Thomas HaringTELE-satellite

Test CenterAustria

DIAGRAMENERGY

Active Power

Apparent PowerMode Apparent Active FactorActive 10 W 5 W 0.5PVR 11 W 5 W 0.45StandBy 3.5 W 0.5 W 0.14


Living room friendly receiver with excellent reception characteristics. The OSD is futu-ristic and a welcome change from the typi-cal display found in receivers from other manufacturers. Thanks to the USB 2.0 port, the HT21 can with one hand be expanded to include PVR functions and yet its small size lets you easily slip it into your pants pocket so that you can take it with you in your RV or outside to your gazebo. Picture quality is excellent regardless if the HT21 is used with a 22“ LCD TV or a large plasma monitor. The receiver‘s audio quality is also outstanding.

Unfortunately the built-in tuner doesn‘t support DVB-T2

Expert Opinion

The first 15 minutes: active use with channel switching as well as recording and playback via the USB 2.0 interface. The second 15 minutes: standby

the HT21 it was no different: the little Skyworth worked together with the small an-tenna very well and thanks to its error correction was able to provide for excellent TV reception even with weaker signals. Even when we cre-ated our own DVB-T signal in our test center and routed it to the HT21 through a corre-sponding modulator, the in-tentional error bits we added to the data stream did not bother the receiver‘s soft-ware at all. Additionally, the receiver proved itself even when the picture quality was reduced by our artificially in-troduced errors.

The HT21‘s PVR functions revealed the receiver‘s best side: previously recorded content could be played back without any problems or the

content could be transferred to a PC for further process-ing. The little receiver can even be used as a jukebox at a party. Thanks to its MP3 playback, it could create the perfect atmosphere at a cel-ebration; its picture viewer could also set the right mood when showing your friends and family your latest vaca-tion pictures on your TV. The Skyworth receiver can also playback downloaded mov-ies from the Internet in DivX, MPEG, MOV and TS.

All of the features men-tioned so far are even fur-ther enhanced by the abil-ity to upload new software into the HT21 through a USB storage device so that new software from the manufac-turer can easily and quickly find its way into the receiver.

While some users will pass the time during long com-mercial breaks by playing the integrated video game, others will take advantage

of the integrated calculator or calendar. Overall the Sky-worth HT21 is a well-round-ed receiver that we really enjoyed testing.

Documents

Skyworth HT21 - tele-audiovision.comtele-audiovision.com/TELE-satellite-1207/eng/skyworth.pdfManufacturer Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology CO., LTD. Unit A 13-16/F, Skyworth Mansion,