Inpax X-9100 Linux PVR - TELE-satellite International Magazine

TEST REPORT
0.52
HDTV Linux Receiver
Turkish Delight
A high-definition Linux-based
PVR promising a number of
interesting features, all housed in
a tiny case. Can it be possible?
Hailing from Istanbul, Turkey,
the X-9100 PVR from
INPAX is quite a surprise.
The little black box measures
just 26cm across,
19cm deep and 4cm high
and comes in a stylish shiny
black case with a minimalist
appearance. There are just
three buttons on the front
panel: Standby, channel up
and channel down. An LED
display displays the current
channel number, or the
clock in standby.
A flap on the right-hand
side conceals a USB port
and a single smart card slot
which seems to be able to
read a variety of cards – it
even accepted my Sky Digital
card and allowed me to
view all my subscription
channels except those that
are tied to an individual
receiver. This was quite a
surprise. The card slot is
the only conditional access
option: there is nowhere to
add a CAM.
At the back, the antenna
input and loop-through
serve the single tuner. Video
options are limited to HDMI,
Scart or composite video,
whilst there are stereo audio
outputs plus S/PDIF. For
connection to the outside
world there’s an Ethernet
LAN port and an RS232 port.
A cold start of the receiver
doesn’t take as long
as might be expected from
a Linux-based receiver, taking
around 45 seconds from
flicking the switch for a picture
to appear on screen.
This is one of the surprises
that come from the X-9100
utilising a much smaller,
embedded version of Linux
than the more complex versions
we’ve seen in the past.
Those who might be
daunted at the prospect of
setting up a Linux receiver
need not worry too much.
The options and menu system
are no more complicated
than those of a standard
receiver. USALS is supported
to enable easy setup of
a DiSEqC motor, with the
added bonus of some major
cities already being programmed
into the receiver’s
memory.
A wide range of LNB settings
are included, and
as the receiver is of Turkish
origin, special settings
for DIGITURK are even included.
If none of them suit
your system the LNB’s frequencies
can also be
specified manually.
DiSEqC is
supported from
version 1.0 to
1.3 to ensure
that just about
any motor or
switching setup
will be supported.
71 satellites
from around
18 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 06-07/2011 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 06-07/2011 — TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 19
06-07/2011
Inpax X-9100 Linux PVR
A competent good-looking black box with
full range of functions
the planet are pre-programmed
into the receiver
and these can be edited and
deleted as required. New
satellites can be added as
required by simply specifying
the orbital position. If
you are setting your own
dish up, you’ll be pleased to
see the inclusion of a large
on-screen signal meter
function to help you find a
good signal.
Scanning satellites is fast
compared to some other
Linux-based receivers. For
viewers of Canal Digitaal, TV
Vlaanderen or UPC Direct on
ASTRA 1, a special fast scan
function is available. For
the rest of us, a standard
scan zips across the satellite
spectrum in good time.
A scan across Astra 2 took
four minutes to scan the 90
stored frequencies.
A very welcome addition is
a blind scan option, so that
any frequencies not already
held in the transponder list
can be found. This works a
little differently than others
we’ve seen in the past. First,
the entire frequency spectrum
is scanned, adding any
newly-found frequencies to
the stored transponder list.
After this, the regular scan
kicks in, scanning the new
frequencies alongside those
previously stored. This adds
some time to the scanning
process, 2,5 minutes were
taken to find and add an
extra eight transponders to
the list, then another 4:15
to scan them all. The blind
scan isn’t ideal for feedhunting
however, as there is
no ability to scan a portion
of the frequency band.
Channels are accessed
from a channel list similar to
those on most other receivers.
The left and right buttons
are used to filter the list
between FTA-only, HD and
encrypted channels, plus of
course there is the option to
display everything. The red
button can be used to filter
the list further by limiting
the satellites shown in the
list. An A-Z function is also
available, which filters the
list by the first letter of the
channel name, but doesn’t
sort it further than this – so
Azerbaijan TV would still appear
ahead of Aastha TV if
this was their order in the
default list – this I found just
a little confusing. Dedicated
page up and down buttons
on the remote help to speed
navigation of this and other
lists around the menus.
The remote itself is a
standard, generic feeling
model, not helped by the
occasional occurrence of the
pressed button repeating
your previous action rather
than the one you were expecting.
Another rather
strange quirk is that the order
of the coloured function
buttons is different from the
normal red-green-yellowblue
sequence. I didn’t even
know that this order has
been burned into my brain
from the use and testing
of so many receivers over
the years, but I proved that
it is by pressing blue when
I thought I was pressing
green several times.
The remote is kept simple,
and there are no buttons
for selecting the correct aspect
ratio, or screen resolution,
but these options
can be found inside the receiver’s
settings menus.
Most important options are
found here, including to select
between RGB or CVBS
from the Scart port. To access
the latter option select
HDMI mode 5761 and push
volume buttons up or down
to toggle between RGB and
CVBS.
There is one special feature
in the menus where
Inpax must however be congratulated.
An option exists
to store the sound volume
setting for each channel individually.
This is the perfect
answer to that all-too-common
situation of changing
channel from an overly quiet
one to one of those that has
the sound cranked up so loud
that your neighbours will be
banging on the wall within
no time. Of course, if only
audio levels could be regulated
to avoid this situation,
such a function wouldn’t be
needed. But that is unlikely
to happen anytime soon and
very likely never, so in the
meantime: thank you Inpax
for thinking of this.
The channel editing functions
are limited to deletion,
moving, and renaming. The
sometimes important ability
to edit PIDs is missing,
for example. There are eight
preset favourites lists. Their
names are quite strange,
with the first few letters
missing. But it’s easy to correct
this by simply adding
a new favorite and giving it
whatever name you want.
The yellow button in the FAV
menue will create a new favorite
list.
There is no room inside the
tiny case for a hard drive,
recordings have to be made
onto a USB device plugged
into the front socket. Recordings
can be started directly
from the remote’s record
button or from a timer event
that can be set manually or
from the EPG. The 9100’s
EPG is quite usable, and