TEST REPORT Satellite Receiver

Topfield TF5000CIP
2 CI receiver with
Positioner and USALS
As DiSEqC motors take over the motorized satellite world, it would be easy for those of us and LNB input and loopthrough connectors.
with the traditional 36 volt motors to feel a little jealous of all the new receivers that appear An RS232 port is also available for connec-
all the time. But while DiSEqC and USALS give us ease of installation, if we already have a tion to a computer.
motor of the older style, or a dish too big to make use of these new technologies, a receiver
with 36V motor control is still a necessity unless we use a separate piece of electronics to The menu system is well-designed and
convert DiSEqC commands into something our motor can understand. So it’s good to see easy to read, in a yellow and blue style. While
this latest offering from Topfield giving us full control of a 36V motor in addition to multiple- the colours are different, there are a lot of
switch DiSEqC configuration, DiSEqC 1.2 and USALS. similarities between this receiver’s interface
and that of the well-designed TF5000PVR
Masterpiece we looked at recently. Menus
The TF5000CIP’s silver case with a cen- The receiver’s front panel contains the are available in English, French, German,
tral black area housing the display gives off expected standby, channel and volume con- Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, Turkish,
the usual quality look and feel we’ve come trols, with an LED display showing the time Russian, Polish, Farsi and Thai.
to expect from Topfield, although the black or channel number. Under the flap there are
plastic remote control doesn’t quite match
the rest of it. The remote is however nicely
two common interface slots – the card slots
above them are blanked out. Installation
shaped and easy to use, and the buttons are The setup menu gives us plenty of options
mostly in the places you’d expect them – At the back, there are the terminals to con- for TV connection – the Scart output can be
after a short time it becomes intuitive to use nect to the motor, plus two Scarts, audio and set to composite, RGB, S-Video or YUV. Wide-
without searching for the required button composite video outputs, S-video, S/PDIF screen and 4:3 displays are fully catered for,
each time. digital audio, TV antenna in and out sockets, including the often-forgotten option of scal-
ing a 16:9 widescreen broadcast into either
4:3 or letterbox format for display on a 4:3
screen. The RF output can be set to PAL I,
G and K variants, plus NTSC M. Teletext is
available, both inside the receiver itself and
by insertion into the signal sent to the TV.
Choices of antenna connection cover just

about anything available. As well as the tra-

ditional 36 volt terminals, DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1
and 1.2 are supported along with USALS,
also known as DiSEqC 1.3. Using DiSEqC 1.0
switches chained through a 1.1 switch, up
to 16 LNBs can be connected to the single
antenna input, thanks to separate 1.0 and

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1.1 entries in the LNB menu. One thing that’s
missing though is a 12V switch output.
The motorized setup works in the way
we’d expect. After setting the east and west
limits of the dish, the most easterly and
westerly satellites are set, along with one in
the middle. After this, the list of satellites in
the receiver’s memory are displayed. After
choosing the ones we wish to receive, a final
press of the OK button tells the receiver
to calculate the positions of the satellites
between the selected positions. If additional
satellites are needed that are not already in
the list, these can be easily added later by
entering the name and position of the satel-
lite, plus at least one transponder.
Setting up using a DiSEqC motor and the
USALS system is even more simple. All that
is needed is your longitude and latitude and
a reference satellite, and the receiver calcu-
lates the rest.
Now that the positions are stored, we
need to go to each one in turn to search for
channels. Thankfully, with a large number
of channels to scan if we have a motor-
ized system, searching is impressively fast.
Scanning the 93 pre-programmed trans-
ponders on Hotbird takes just 2 minutes, 47
seconds. Including the network scan option
adds a further 4 minutes to the scan, with a
total of 104 transponders found.
Everyday use
Scanning through the channels with the
up and down keys is fast and responsive,
and the channel list that’s brought up with
the OK button is equally responsive. The
remote’s volume buttons double as page
up and down, making navigating a long list
easy.
A sorting option is available that toggles
the list between the default or alphabetical
order, and a second button jumps through
the list alphabetically. Further sorting, by
satellite, encryption and favourites are
available in the “Organizing Services” menu.
Here, channels can be moved, renamed,
Satellite Receiver TEST REPORT
deleted, locked or hidden from the list as puter using software from the www.i-top-
required. field.com site. In addition to these features,
you’ll also find a powerful parental control
Five favourites lists are available with system, three games and a calendar.
editable names. Adding channels to the
favourites is easily done, and if five lists are Tuner sensitivity is good, and getting a
not enough for you, no problem - further lock on a channel never takes more than a
lists can be added, up to a total of 30. second or two. Similar to the TF5000PVR
The EPG follows the rest of the design in Masterpiece, very low symbol rates seem to
being fast and easy to use. Two separate cause a few problems. There is an improve-
screens are available, with the red button ment from the Masterpiece though, the
used to switch between them. The first gives lowest symbol rate received in our tests
data just on the current channel. Switching is 1680, compared to 2098 in the Master-
to the second, we get the familiar grid dis- piece.
play showing multiple channels.
While we don’t have any recording func-
tions inside the receiver, it does include
some quite flexible timer functions so that
we can use it in conjunction with a VCR or
DVD recorder. There’s no facility to add pro-
grammes to the timer from the EPG, which
is a shame. But setting them manually lets
us schedule the timer for any date and time
into the future, and with some useful repeat
scheduling periods that even some PVRs
forget, such as every weekday or every
weekend. The timer can also be used as a
wake-up timer, but there’s no sleep timer.
Over-the-air software updates are avail-
able from the Astra 1 and Hotbird satellites.
Software and/or channel data can also be
transferred to another TF5000CIP via the
RS232 port, or this can be done via a com-
Expert conclusion
+
The TF5000CIP doesn’t have any unique features or gimmicks.
But it includes everything most users will need, and does it all very
well. The interface is logical and easy to use, everything is where
you would expect it to be. Unlike most receivers, there don’t seem
to be any quirks or problems that would become an annoyance in Andy Middleton
everyday use. All in all, it seems Topfield have made another excel- TELE-satellite
Test Center
lent receiver. UK
-
There’s no 12V switch output, which might be a problem for some users. A 5000
channel memory could be a little small for multi-satellite reception.
www.TELE-satellite.com — TELE-satellite International
TEST REPORT Satellite Receiver Info-Box

Main menu

Topfield TF5000CIP
Digital satellite receiver with
2 CI and posiitioner
Installation menu
TECHNICAL Manufacturer Topfield Co Ltd,
Duksan Bldg. 260-4,
DATA
Seohyeon-Dong, Bundang-Gu,
Seongnam, Korea

Web Page www.topfield.co.kr

Fax +82-31-708-2607

Model TF5000CIP

Function Digital satellite receiver with

2 Common Interfaces
and positioner

Channel Memory 5000

EPG
Satellites 90

Symbolrate 1 – 45 MS/s (lowest SR

received in our test: 1.680)

DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

USALS yes

Programmable 0/12 V Output no

S-VHS Output yes

Video/Stereo audio output yes, 3xRCA

Digital Audio Output S/PDIF (optical)

Search options
Color System PAL, NTSC

Modulator yes

C/Ku-Band Compatible yes

SCPC Compatible yes

EPG yes

Power Supply 90-250VAC, 50/60Hz

Power Consumption 230 watts max, 10W in standby

TEST

Internal teletext
RESULT

Features

Channel Memory

Channel
INTERNATIONAL

Scan Speed
SATELLITE

Video Quality

Audio Quality

TELE
Tuner Sensitivity
USALS setup

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