Goldenmedia

TEST REPORT HDTV Receiver

Golden Media UNI-BOX 9080
CRCI HD PVR COMBO Plus
A PVR Receiver with an
Exceptional BlindScan Function
• Whoever designed the housing of Golden Media’s UNI-BOX 9080
deserves a pat on the back. It’s very pleasing to the eye and would
nicely adorn any TV rack or living room cabinet. The front panel sports
an elegant black see-through Plexiglas flap behind which you’ll find
eight buttons that can be used to fully control the UNI-BOX 9080
should the remote control go missing. You’ll also find two integrated
card readers as well as a CI slot behind this flap. While the card reader
is only compatible with the Conax encryption system, the CI slot can
communicate with every type
of module, for example, Irdeto,
Cryptoworks, Seca or Viaccess.

02-03/201
1
Golden Media UNI-BOX 9080 CRCI HD
PVR COMBO Plus
Perfect family receiver but also a
top choice for the satellite DXer thanks
to its high-speed BlindScan function

10 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 02-03/201 — www.TELE-satellite.com
1

TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
Arabic ‫العربية‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/ara/goldenmedia.pdf
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/bid/goldenmedia.pdf
A VFD display can be found fit your needs. DVB-S2 and German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/deu/goldenmedia.pdf
in the middle of the front DVB-C as well as DVB-T and English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/goldenmedia.pdf
Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/esp/goldenmedia.pdf
panel and is very easy to read DVB-C combinations are French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/fra/goldenmedia.pdf
even if the front panel flap is available from the manufac- Hebrew ‫עברית‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/heb/goldenmedia.pdf
Chinese 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/man/goldenmedia.pdf
closed. When the receiver is turer.
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/pol/goldenmedia.pdf
on, it shows information on Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/por/goldenmedia.pdf
the currently selected chan- An absolute must for any Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/rus/goldenmedia.pdf
Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/tur/goldenmedia.pdf
nel, the time as well as tech- HDTV receiver is an HDMI Available online starting from 28 January 2011
nical parameters using small output that can provide
icons. the best possible audio and
video quality to the TV. In grammable 0/12V output as trol’s plastic housing, the but-
Looking at the rear panel addition the manufacturer well as a main power switch tons themselves are covered
of this new Golden Media included Scart jacks (for use so that the receiver can be with a slip-free surface that
receiver is also a joy. The in Europe), six RCA jacks for completely disconnected makes the entire remote con-
first thing you notice is the YUV, stereo audio and com- from the power source. trol comfortable to use. The
two tuners; our test receiver posite video plus an RJ45 excellent multi-language user
came equipped with DVB-S2 jack, an optical digital audio We were also very pleased manual also included in the
and DVB-T HDTV tuners. output, an RS232 serial inter- with the included remote con- package must also be men-
Since these tuners are plug- face and since this is a PVR trol. It sits comfortable in your tioned. Even though at first
in modules, it is possible to box you’ll also find a USB 2.0 hand plus all the buttons are glance it seemed to be some-
customize the receiver with port. To top it all off, the rear legibly labeled and organized what unorganized, in the end
a combination of tuners that panel also comes with a pro- in a very logical manner. In the user manual was able to
contrast to the remote con- answer every question that
popped up during our tests
and should therefore be an
outstanding source of infor-
mation for the user at home.

0.55 All in all, we were very
happy with the receiver’s
quality; we were impressed
with its design and even with
the remote control and user
manual Golden Media did not
spare any expense.

When the UNI-BOX 9080 is
turned on for the first time,
an Installation Assistant did
not appear as is the case with
many other receivers. But it
didn’t really matter; a single
push of the Menu button
immediately takes you to the
Main Menu. And just like the
elegant design of the receiv-
er’s housing, the Main Menu
is just as elegant and orga-
nized. It consists of eight sub-
menus that let you take care
of all of the receiver’s settings
and also let you access all of
the receiver’s functions.

Since this is a Combo
receiver with two different
tuners, the receiver naturally
needs to be matched to two

www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/201 —
1 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 11

More on This Manufacturer
Read TELE-satellite’s Company Report:

GOLDEN MEDIA
Manufacturer and Distributor, Germany www.cynextra.com receiver with an SCR system, and reliably during our tests.
you’re in luck: the UNI-BOX An especially useful feature
9080 supports single-cable is the audible signal tone that
solutions and lets you define can be activated so that it
all its required parameters. isn’t necessary to repeatedly
The extensive LNB settings look at the TV screen while
are expanded even more with aligning the antenna.
the ability to increase the LNB
supply voltage by 0.5V. This Once all of the settings
is a great idea! If your cable are correctly entered and
run to the antenna is unusu- the receiver itself has been
ally long, increasing the LNB matched to the antenna
supply voltage by just 0.5V system, the next step would
would be enough to overcome be the channel scan. The
any larger-than-normal volt- channel scan is available in
www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1009/eng/goldenmedia.pdf
age drop that would occur in three different modes: satel-
the cable. lite scan, manual transpon-
different antenna setups. As UNI-BOX receiver is not yet der scan and of course the
mentioned before, our test DVB-T2 compatible. An especially interesting BlindScan. Even though the
receiver came with DVB-T feature for those who have receiver comes with two CI
HDTV and DVB-S2 tuners. For DVB-S/S2 reception, older satellite systems would slots and two integrated card
the necessary settings and be the 0/12V programmable readers, the channel scan can
For DVB-T, the receiver options are far more exten- RCA output on the back of the be limited to only FTA (free)
comes preprogrammed with a sive. The manufacturer receiver. It can be individually channels. You can also fur-
list of DVB-T settings from a included a preprogrammed activated or deactivated via ther limit the scan to TV or
total of 17 different regions. list of 44 European satellites. the settings menu for every radio only with one button-
Most of these regions are in Unfortunately, Asian, Ameri- satellite entry. push on the remote control.
Europe: Great Britain, Ger- can or Oceanic satellites are Golden Media also thought
many, Greece, Slovenia, Den- not to be found in the list and In general we noticed with ahead when it came to the
mark, Finland, Italy, Poland, even the included European the UNI-BOX 9080 that the Network scan; in our tests an
Russia, Spain, Sweden, The satellite and transponder manufacturer at a variety of automatic scan of the HOT-
Czech Republic and Slovakia. data is not all that up to date. points in the operating con- BIRD satellites at 13° east
There are also settings for On the other hand, we were cept of the receiver incorpo- was completed in just over six
Australia. These regional set- impressed with the variety of rated some really wonderful minutes and yielded 1427 TV
tings take into account any the available LOF and DiSEqC ideas and bonus features that channels and 395 radio chan-
differences there might be settings. make it all the more easier for nels.
from one region to another the end user to play with this
such as the frequency band The UNI-BOX 9080 sup- box. In the case of satellite With that in mind, we
used or the channel plan. Nat- ports a range of DiSEqC pro- settings, it would be the auto- wanted to take a closer look
urally you can manually scan tocols including 1.0 for the matic DiSEqC recognition. at the DVB-S2 tuner. There
each desired frequency in the classic multifeed antenna were no hiccups whether it
UHF or VHF band with indi- with up to four LNBs, 1.1 for Who hasn’t seen this prob- was SCPC reception with very
vidual parameters. The UNI- the dual reflector dish with lem? The signals of multiple low symbolrates or whether
BOX 9080 can also supply 5V up to 16 LNBs as well as 1.2 satellites are delivered by a it was reception of very weak
at the DVB-T antenna input so and 1.3 (USALS) for use with DiSEqC switch with a single signals. It easily handled our
that a signal amplifier could a motorized antenna. The cable to the receiver but then SCPC test transponder with a
be used with an antenna with- available LOF settings were you can’t quite remember symbolrate of 1.240 Ms/sec.
out the need of an external just as extensive: in addition which satellite is connected on INTELSAT 14 at 45° west
power supply. to a universal Ku-band LNB, a to what DiSEqC port. For the as well as two very weak tran-
C-band LNB can also be con- Golden Media UNI-BOX 9080 sponders on BADR at 26° east
The red function button can nected. Thanks to the manual this is no problem at all; with while other similar receivers
be used to start a fully auto- LOF entry, less popular LOFs the push of one button, the hardly even recognized those
matic channel scan across the that are not preprogrammed receiver automatically looks signals.
entire frequency band. In our in the receiver can be manu- at each port to identify which
case the scan found all avail- ally entered. port the currently selected Over the past several years
able DVB-T channels in 84 satellite is connected to. This we’ve tested quite a variety
seconds. Unfortunately, the If you want to use this feature functioned quickly of BlindScan receivers here

1

1

at TELE-satellite but it’s safe range nor can you limit the
to say that the UNI-BOX 9080 scan to only one polarization.
can be ranked as one of the Nevertheless, it’s a function
best. We started a BlindScan that’s an absolute ‘must have’
on HOTBIRD at 13° east and for every DXer and feed-
were surprised that it finished hunter.
the task in just about seven
minutes. It found 1479 TV The entire installation pro-
channels and 430 radio chan- cess is rounded off by two
nels. At first we thought the more outstanding features:
2 receiver worked off of a pre- the first is the sub-menu
pared channel list; there was “Automatic Installation”. This
no other way to explain this feature takes much of the
exceptional result in such setup work away from the
a short time. So, we then end-user. In this mode the
moved our roof antenna to receiver attempts to identify
another satellite and started on its own what satellites –
a new BlindScan. The UNI- even through a DiSEqC multi-
BOX 9080 identified 287 TV switch – can be received with
channels and 143 radio chan- the available equipment. The
nels on TÜRKSAT at 42° east; automatic channel scan of all
even the narrowband SCPC the receivable satellites can
3 transponders were recog- be started with the push of
nized and stored in the chan- just one button. This feature
nel list. worked very well in our tests
and in addition to the usual
To compare, we then suspects such as ASTRA
performed a channel scan 19.2° east and HOTBIRD
without the BlindScan func- 13.0° east, ASTRA2 at 28.2°
tion using only the prepro- east and BADR at 26° east
grammed transponder data were also recognized without
from the manufacturer and any problems.
achieved very meager results:
only 25 TV and 3 radio chan- The second feature is an
4 nels were found on TÜRKSAT. azimuth and elevation cal-
Additional tests of the Blind- culator. You have to enter in
Scan function, for example, your local coordinates manu-
on EUTELSAT 36° east, con- ally but they can easily be
firm its incredible speed and found with Google maps or
precision; even the narrowest some other Internet service.
bandwidth SCPC transponder In return though, you’ll get all
was easily recognized and the necessary parameters to
processed. A more precise align your satellite antenna.
presentation of the BlindScan
test results can be seen in Once the UNI-BOX 9080
Table 1. The only drawback to has been set up with all the
5 the BlindScan function: you local parameters, it would be
can’t set a specific frequency a good idea to take care of all

HOTBIRD 13° Ost 7 Minutes 1479 TV and 430 Radio Channels
TÜRKSAT 42° Ost 8 Minutes 287 TV and 143 Radio Channels
EUTELSAT 36° Ost 10 Minutes 35 TV and 3 Radio Channels
EXPRESS AM44 11° West 4 Minutes 19 TV and 1 Radio Channels
■ Table 1: BlindScan Results
1. Golden Media UNI-BOX 9080 Start Screen
2. The clear and concise Main Menu
3. Separate settings for DVB-S/2 und DVB-T Reception
4. Region selection for DVB-T reception
5. The extensive settings capabilities in DVB-S/2 mode

1

6 11

7 12

8 13

9 14

10 15

1

16 21

17 22

18 23

19 6. The UNI-BOX 9080 supports SCR
single-cable solutions
7. Channel scan options
8. Automatic recognition of receivable
satellites
9. Calculation of Azimuth and Elevation
10. Language selection
11. Eight timer positions are available
12. Various settings possibilities
13. Software update
14. Detailed information on the free
space of a USD device
15. Network parameters can be set either
via DHCP or manually
20 16. DVB-T channel scan
17. HD channels and encrypted programs
are identified in the channel list by their
own icons
18. Satellite selection
19. Channel list restricted to Irdeto
encrypted channels only
20. Saving the channel list and all
settings to a USB Stick
21. Channel list search function
22. Info bar with data on the current and
upcoming program
23. Current programs in the EPG
overview


the user-defined settings as Indonesian, Slovenian, Swed- the local time difference from ture, some organization will
well as matching the TV to the ish, Slovakian as well as a few GMT as well as activate or be needed. For this task the
receiver setup. The receiv- other languages. deactivate daylight savings UNI-BOX 9080 comes with
er’s OSD can communicate time (summer time). numerous possibilities all pre-
with you in English, German, As you would expect with sented in a clear and easy-to-
French, Italian, Russian, any good DVB-S2 receiver, We were surprised at the understand menu. Just like
Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, the internal real time clock extensive on-screen display with the EPG display and the
Arabic, Polish, Ukrainian, Per- (RTC) is automatically set settings that were avail- channel list, the red function
sian, Romanian, Hungarian, via the satellite signal. The able. In addition to standard button is used to limit the
Croatian, Bulgarian, Czech, user, however, needs to set parameters such as display number of displayed chan-
24 timeout, display position or nels. It can be set to show
transparency, you can also only those channels on a spe-
set brightness, contrast and cific satellite, those using a
color saturation. Be careful specific encryption system
in adjusting these settings or those from a specific pro-
though, as they also affect vider. The list can also be set
the displayed TV picture. to display only HD channels
as well as only those channels
When connected to an LCD from one or the other tuner.
or plasma TV, the UNI-BOX The remaining channels can
9080 can present the video be renamed, moved, deleted,
signal via the HDMI output in locked with a PIN code or
25 480p, 576p, 720p 50 Hz, 720p skipped over.
60 Hz,1080i 50 Hz and 1080i
60 Hz. If you can’t or don’t Especially useful is the abil-
want to use the HDMI output, ity to edit entire transponders
the signal is also available in all at once, greatly simplify-
RGB and YUV. You can also ing this task. Thanks to the
select how a 4:3 signal can be powerful search function,
displayed on a 16:9 screen. individual channels can be
Using a dedicated button on found simply by entering the
the remote control, the video first few letters of the channel
format can be changed to name. Channels can also be
match the currently received moved into one of 32 Favor-
26 signal. ites lists for easy access later.
The channel list editing fea-
All of these settings capa- tures are also available in the
bilities are topped off with Favorites lists.
the ability to select a fast or
regular standby mode. In fast Once all the settings have
standby mode, the receiver been dealt with, the receiver
uses a little more power but has been matched to the
comes out of standby much antenna system and the
more quickly than in regular channel list has been filled,
mode. Additionally, the VFD you can finally leave the Main
display can be completely Menu. The UNI-BOX 9080 will
27 turned off in standby mode if then automatically switch
desired. over to the first available
channel.
Once the channel list has
been filled (8000 max) with Every time you change a
thousands of channels thanks channel, a very detailed Info
to the speedy BlindScan fea- bar appears momentarily that
24. The REC button can mark programs for recording directly in the EPG
25. Display of the technical parameters of a channel with a symbolrate of
only 1.240 Ms/sec.
26. MP3 playback
27. JPEG display

1

provides information on the very good and were about tion button, the displayed In the OSD settings you can
current and upcoming chan- one second between two dif- channels can once again be select whether to show the
nel. The icons that appear let ferent transponders. reduced to a specific satellite, channel list in one, two or
the user know what additional package or Favorites. With three columns. A feature that
features are included by the The electronic program the help of the yellow func- we don’t see very often is
provider. For example, this guide (EPG) also turned out tion button as well as the REC the ability to use the colored
could be teletext, subtitles, very well. It can be accessed button, timer entries can be function buttons to display
various languages and EPG from a dedicated button on setup directly from the EPG. the EPG data of a channel
data to name a few. As is typi- the remote control and is Up to eight timer settings are directly from the channel list.
cal with every DVB receiver, available in four different available. It is also possible What could be better than
a push of the Info button dis- modes: to set these timers to work skimming through the chan-
plays expanded programming on a daily, weekly, monthly, nel list and pushing a single
information with a description Current – the current EPG weekday or weekend basis. button to read more about
of the program assuming of data from five channels is dis- So, it really doesn’t matter the currently selected pro-
course that this data is made played anymore when your favorite gram? Deciding what to watch
available by the provider. Next – the EPG data of the TV shows are shown, this out- couldn’t be any easier than
next program is shown for standing timer function won’t this. The red function button
For those more technically five channels let you miss any upcoming can also be used to reduce
oriented, even more informa- More – EPG data in table episodes. the channel list to a certain
tion is available by pressing format for five channels satellite, provider or content.
the red function button: from Schedule – in this mode the If you use the receiver with- This same button can also be
PIDs all the way to signal channel list is shown on the out an attached hard drive used to switch between the
strength and quality, dozens left side while the EPG data and therefore can’t record two reception modes; in our
of parameters are displayed from the next couple of weeks any programs, you can use case it was DVB-T HDTV and
that would raise the pulse of for the currently selected the timer function to provide DVB-S2. If you want to make
any technician or DXer. channel is shown on the right a user-settable reminder as a small change to the chan-
side. to when to switch over to the nel list while the receiver is in
As far as this receiver’s desired channel. operation, the UNI-BOX 9080
picture and audio quality are It doesn’t matter which of provides the necessary tools
concerned, we were very the four modes you select, The channel list of the for this task in a somewhat
impressed during our tests they are all put together in Golden Media UNI-BOX 908 slimmed down graphical ver-
regardless whether it was an organized fashion and also turned out quite well. sion. The blue function button
an HD or SD channel. Chan- correctly present the EPG It can be displayed with the provides order in the channel
nel switching times were also data. Thanks to the red func- single push of the OK button. list. It can be used to sort the

1

list based on free or encrypted Naturally, the PVR can be be checked using the inte- also be updated via DVB-S,
channels, encryption mode as used with both tuners regard- grated speed test function. DVB-T, USB and the RS232
well as alphabetically. All of less of what path the content The external storage devices interface, but in the end, the
these channel list features uses to get into the receiver. can be formatted in either Internet is the most widely
are available not only in TV If you’re not familiar with the FAT or NTFS. Obviously the used update method. The
mode but also in radio mode. term PVR, we’d like to take a fact that this would delete required network param-
Switching between modes moment and provide a brief any content already on them eters can be obtained by the
is handled by pushing a explanation. The received is implied and doesn’t need to receiver automatically via
button on the remote control. DVB signal is stored digitally be expanded on here. Since DHPC from a local network
Thanks to the 32 Favorites and without any signal degra- Golden Media opted for exter- router or they can be manu-
lists, thousands of channels dation on an internal or, in our nal storage devices with the ally entered by the user.
can be properly organized. case, external storage device. UNI-BOX 9080, recorded con-
Each family member can cus- During playback, all of the tent can be easily transferred And to top it all off, the UNI-
tomize their own personal features you have come to to a PC where you can then, BOX 9080 also comes with
Favorites list with their favor- know such as Pause and Fast- for example, convert it to a three integrated video games
ite channels. Forward/Rewind at various DVD. that you can use to pass the
speeds are available. Along time during those long com-
The two internal card read- with this is the Time Shift fea- As with most PVR receiv- mercial breaks.
ers and the CI slots had to ture that lets you pause a live ers, the Golden Media box
also prove themselves using a transmission and then restart can also playback MP3 music We really enjoyed putting
variety of modules and cards. it from the point where it was and display your vacation pic- the new UNI-BOX 9080 to the
Unfortunately, the card read- stopped when you’re ready tures that were previously test here at our test center. It
ers are only Conax compat- to continue watching. So, if stored on an external storage is an extremely user-friendly
ible and are therefore limited for example a telephone call device. In our tests, as with receiver with every detail
in their use. interrupts the movie you were everything else so far, this well thought out. It makes a
watching, you can pause the feature functioned perfectly. perfect living room receiver
As the name of the receiver movie, carry on your tele- for the entire family while its
suggests, this box becomes phone conversation and then These external storage large selection of features,
a true PVR receiver once an continue watching that movie devices need not only be used its stable operating software
external storage device such after hanging up the phone for the PVR function or for and above all its outstand-
as a USB hard drive or USB without missing a thing. storing MP3 and picture data, ing BlindScan function also
stick is attached. Thanks to but they can also be used to make it very interesting for
the speedy USB 2.0 connec- The UNI-BOX 9080 lets you comfortably install new firm- the professional user. Thanks
tion, high resolution content time shift and record another ware as well as saving the to its BlindScan function, this
can be recorded without any channel at the same time but receiver settings and the receiver has found a perma-
problems. it would require a sufficiently channel list. And let’s not nent home here in our test
fast storage device which can forget that the firmware can lab.

1

Expert Opinion TECHNICAL
+ DATA
Distributor Golden Media, Cynextra GmbH
As a Combo receiver, the UNI-BOX 9080 can
Stuttgarter Straße 36, D-73635 Rudersberg
receive DVB signals two different ways. The two
Tel. +49 (0) 7183 / 30 777-0
integrated CI slots and card readers allow opera-
tion with a variety of encryption systems. The Fax +49 (0) 7183 / 30 777-20

firmware did not give us any problems during our E-Mail info@cynextra.com
Thomas Haring
tests. TELE-satellite Website www.golden-media.net
Up to 8000 channels can be stored in the receiv- Test Center
Austria Model Golden Media UNI-BOX 9080 CRCI HD PVR COMBO Plus
er’s channel memory; this is sufficiently large
Function Digital HDTV dual tuner PVR receiver with
enough so that this receiver can easily be connected to a motor- various Features & Blindscan,
ized antenna system. SCR single-cable solutions are supported available tuners DVB-T HDTV, DVB-C, DVB-S/S2
as are all the different DiSEqC protocols. Channel Memory 8000
Both the DVB-T and DVB-S2 tuners are extremely sensitive; in
Input range DVB-T 170-230 MHz, 470-860 MHz
DVB-S2 mode the receiver had no trouble handling narrowband
RF-input level DVB-T -70dBm to -8dBm
SCPC signals or very weak signals.
Demodulation DVB-T COFDM 2K/8K
The outstanding BlindScan function deserves especially high
praise! Input range DVB-S/2 950-2150 MHz

Signal level DVB-S/2 -65dBm to -25 dBm
- SCPC compatible yes
Unfortunately, the included satellite and transponder data DiSEqC 1.0 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3
is not all that up to date and there are only eight free timer
USALS yes
positions available.
HDMI output yes

Scart connector yes
ENERGY Audio/Video outputs 6x RCA
DIAGRAM Component video output yes

S-Video output no

UHF modulator no

0/12V connector yes

Digital audio output yes

EPG yes

C/Ku-band compatible yes

PVR-function yes
Mode Apparent Active Factor USB 2.0 connector yes
Regular StandBy 5W 2W 0.4
Apparent Power
Active 27 W 15 W 0.55 Ethernet yes
Active Power Fast StandBy 25 W 13 W 0.52
E-SATA no

Power supply 100-250V AC 50/60Hz

Power consumption 40W max.

Dimensions 300x231x64mm
First 15 minutes: StandBy (regular) - Second 15 minutes: Receiver boot-up, Weight 2kg
then active operation with channel switching, recording, playback, etc. -
Operating temperature 0°C to 45°C
Third 15 minutes: Fast StandBy


Goldenmedia

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