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The Official N2News Conaxsat Nano Review

“It’s all about the file dates” is the first thing that I heard from a sales person at Conaxsat.   When I took a look for myself, I found something interesting I thought I would share with my readers.   The Conaxsat receivers have a track record of impressively long stretches of uptime and are always in the front of the pack when it comes to new bin files.    For TV lovers there is little else that matters sometimes, but the Nano also has an impressive list of features.

First, the Nano shares the same code system as the rest of the Conaxsat products.  This means that the coders have less work to do and get patches out quicker.   Updates are easily done through a usb key system.

The CNX Nano, along with all CNX receivers are priced around the same as similar receivers with similar features.    The PVR function is basic but workable.   If you are a heavy PVR user you’ll certainly want to avoid the Nano product as the pvr is really as basic as it gets.   

The Nano excels in two areas when compared to other receivers.   First is the video decoding chip.  The picture produced from the system is clearly better than other units.     It’s hard to put your finger on it exactly but when you see the picture, it just looks better.    The receiver also has a blinding blind search function that can scan an entire satellite in about 2 minutes.

Warranty and support seem to be pretty good as well.   Tech support in the US was difficult to reach but the Canadian contacts make up for that.     The Conasat Nano looks like your average set top box although it does have a lot of lights which Sammy finds annoying but it won’t both most people.

People in know claim to have a plan for the N3 card swap currently underway if this affects your buying decision.    Like the other teams, their plan isn’t well known or tested yet.  

For the price, around $130 USD street, the receiver may be worth looking at if you don’t like the idea of using an IKS receiver.

Features from the manufacturer:

• Upgrade Software & Update Channel Database through USB Port and RS232
• MPEG-II Digital & Fully DVB Compliant.
• C/KU band control for each antenna
• LNB Tone Switch 22KHz mode on/off’
• Multi-LNB controlled by DiSeqC =>DiSEqC 1.0, 1.2 and USALS
• Total 5,000 Channels Programmable
• Blind Scan
• Smart Card Reader(Optional)
• Picture In Graphic (PIG)
• Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for On Screen Channel Information
• Multi-language supported for Menu and OSD
• Zoom Function by 2x..4x
• Parental Lock
• Closed Caption Support
• Dolby Digital Bitstream Out through S/PDIF
• CVBS Video & Audio Output via RCA
• Component Y/Pb/Pr Output via RCA
• S-Video Output
• MP3/JPEG File Play via USB Port
• 7-Segment(4-digit) Type of Front Panel Display
• SMART CARD(Optional) 1 Slot: ISO 7816, GSM11.11 and EMV (payment systems) compatibility

Tuner & Channel

• Type 1 × F Type, IEC169-24, Female
• Frequency Range 950MHz to 2150MHz
• RF Impedance 75 Ohm unbanlanced
• Signal Level -65 to -25 dBm
• LNB Power 13.5/18.5Vdc +/- 5%, 0.5Amax, Overload Protected
• 22KHz Tone Frequency : 22KHz +/- 2KHz, 0.6Vpp +/- 0.2V
• DiSEqC Control Version1.0, 1.2, Tone burst A/B
• Demodulation QPSK
• Input Symbol Rate 2~45 Ms/s, SCPC/MCPC
• FEC Decoder Convolution Code Rate 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 With Constraint Length K = 7

System & Memory

• Main Processor 32-bit ARM946 RISC Processor
• Flash Memory 2 Mbytes
• System Memory 32 Mbytes
• Channel Capacity Digital Channel: 5,000
• Front 7-segment Display (4 digit)

MPEG Transport Stream & A/V Decoding

• Transport Stream MPEG-2 ISO/IEC 13818 Transport Stream Specification
• Profile Level MPEG-2 MP@ML
• Input Rate Max. 90Mbit/s
• Aspect Ratio 4:3, 16:9, Letter Box
• Frame Rate 25Hz for PAL, 30Hz for NTSC
• Video Resolution 720×576(PAL), 720×480(NTSC)
• Teletext Through VBI
• Audio Decoding MPEG/MusiCam Layer I & II
• Audio Mode Single Channel/Dual Channel Joint Stereo/Stereo
• Frequency Response 20~20kHz, <+/-2dB; 60Hz ~ 18kHz <+/- 0.5dB
• Sampling Rate 32, 44.1, 48KHz

A/V & Date In/Out

• RCA Output CVBS, L, R Output(Yellow, White, Red Jack) with Volume Control
• Component Video(YPbPr) Out
• S-VHS Output 4 Pin Mini
• SPDIF Dolby Digital Bitstream Out(Coaxal, Optical)
• Data Interface - RS-232, Bit Rate: 115,200baud
• Connector: 9-pin D-sub Male type
• USB: Type A Connector

RF Modulator

• RF-Connector 75 ohm F-Type
• Frequency Range VHF CH3, CH4
• TV Standard NTSC
• Audio Output Mono with Volume Control

Power Supply

• Input Voltage AC 90V ~ 250V, 50Hz ~ 60Hz
• Power Consumption Max 30W
• Standby Power Consumption <= 10W
• Protection Separate Internal Fuse

Physical Specification

• Size(WxHxD) 260mm x 50mm x205mm
• Weight 1.4 KG

Environmental Condition

• Operating Temperature 0 °C ~ 40 °C
• Storage Temperature -10 °C ~ 50 °C
• Operating Humidity Range 10~85% RH, Non-condensing
•  Storage Humidity Range 5~90% RH, Non-condensing

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Noteworthy FTA Receiver News

Lookout for SonicView in 2009, they have some interesting plans in the works.    According to internet rumors, Team SonicView is hard at work on a new “Magic Board” that promises to reduce the number of bin updates and somehow deal with the Nagra 3 (N3) updates.   The new magic board should also reduce the turn around time for ECMs with some type of new patch system.  The board is an actual piece of hardware that will fit inside the FTA receiver.   Currently the team is testing on the 8000 and 360 series boxes but they hope to get the card working on more boxes.   This will be sold, most likely, as an add-on optionally available.    If all this sounds mysterious, you’re right.   The announcement from Team Sonic View is most likely designed to keep people buying units without releasing enough detail to alert the other vendors to the secret details.   Given the track record from TSV in the past, I’m really excited to see what they have come up with.

While Team SonicView is hard at work on their hardware solution, other vendors are working on software solutions.   ViewSonic, who shares some software developers with other teams, is working on a solution called “EMU” or Emulation.   In very over simplified terms, this is software that tries to guess and run the decoding of an ECM without knowing ahead of time what will be in the ECM.    During recent ECMs several STB (Set Top Box) vendors were online within an hour and some never went offline due to “Partial EMU”.   ViewSonic’s programmers are on the verge, according to an announcement they recently made, of Full EMU offering even better protection against ECMs.    With little fan-fair, the Pansat SD3500 has been using EMU in recent builds with an amazing level of success and Conxsat has had EMU for a while.   EMU, Full EMU and Full Map EMU don’t help with the N3 switchover but it it’s still the next step in the evolution of FTA.

Finally, Sammy just learned about a new program from CaptiveWorks.   If you have a CW60s Premium or a variety of other receivers you may be eligible for a trade in credit.    Many users have noted that safely shipping a heavy receiver like the CW4000HD back to CaptiveWorks for the credit may cost as much or more than the actual credit so investigate carefully.  More information here: 

http://www.captiveworks.com/buyback.pdf

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