My Review of the Traxis 6000 HD Receiver

[Hyper]

My Review of the Traxis 6000 HD Receiver!

Here is my review of the new Traxis DBS 6000 HD FTA Receiver.

I will test it as much as i can and report on the results.

If anyone has any questions just let me know and i will get an answer.

When i do reviews I like to start with a pic, and the description from the manufacturer, plus the list of features and specs from the manufacturer.

Here is that:





From the manufacturer:

Are you are tired of MPEG4 receivers designed for Europe with big useless SCART sockets on the back? Receivers that don't work well or have missing or poorly designed functions?

Here is your opportunity to own a receiver that just flat works. Built with the rock solid Fujitsu H60 processor that is well known for it's ability and features. Not only can this receiver do MPEG4 but it handles HD with ease and provides a sweet USB interface for PVR functions.

Traxis receivers have long been the gold standard in FTA and we now bring you the top of the line MPEG4 receiver with HD and PVR capability. From the moment you turn this receiver on you will realize that you have a quality piece of equipment

Features:

HD PVR Ready
Fujitsu H60   FTA + USB + PVR + MULTI CAs+ LAN(CC CAM, NEW CAMD, MG CAMD SUPPORTED)
Fully compliant with the DVB-S2 digital TV reception standards
Support DVB-S/S2 digital TV signal modulated in QPSK/8PSK
Input frequency range of 950MHz-2150MHz
Support HDTV/SDTV MPEG-2/MPEG-4/H.264 decoding Video format and 1080i,720p,576p,480p
USB2.0 high speed OTG controller (PVR/ Media Play/SW upgrade)
Ethernet 10/100 Base-T MAC interface build-in
HDMI/CVBS/YPbPr output
Support CA (CAS embedded option)
Dolby digital encoded bi-stream output via S/PDIF
DTS encoded bi-stream output via S/PDIF
Multi-language OSD (English, German, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Thai..more…)
Multi-Scan Mode (Blind scan, default scan, TP scan)
Support 7days EPG, Subtitle, osd teletext
Audio language, intelligent graphical user interface design
Support DiSEqc1.0/ DiSEqc1.1/DiSEqc1.2
Friendly channel selection, by sort/index/find/log
Favorite Channel edit, parental lock
Variable aspect ratio(4:3,16:9)4:3 Pan&Scan Letter Box modes
Support USB PVR, MP3,JPG photo playback
Support MP3,WMA, WAV format multimedia music file
Support JPG, BMP, PNG format multimedia picture file
Photo slideshow while playing MP3
Support MKV, FLV, avi, dat, mpg, mpeg, ts, trp, tp, m2ts, vob, mp4, mkv, motion jpeg format
Manual PID/Satellite and transponder/web search
Transponder parameters upgraded by internet
Sorts: Alphabetical, satellite, free/pay, parental locks, transponder, more
Dimension: 230 (W) x 140 (D) x 39 (H) mm
Weight: 1.5 Kg (Net)


Specifications:

 Receiver Standard
    DVB-S2 Standard (ETSI EN 302 307)
 Input
    Input Frequency 950~2150MHz
    Connector F Type
    Input Impedance 75Ω
    Input Level-25~-65dBm
    LNB Power13/18 V
    LNB Control 22KHz
    DiSEqC Ver 1.0/1.1/1.2/USALS
    Demodulation QPSK, 8PSK
    Symbol Rate 2~45Mbaud (SCPC/MCPC)
 Transport Stream
    MPEG-2 ISO/IEC 13818-1
 MPEG Profile Level
    MPEG-2 MP@HL, MPEG-4 MP@L4 H.264
 Aspect Ratio
    4:3, 16:9
 Video Resolution
    1080i 50/60Hz, 720p 50/60Hz, 576p 50Hz, 576i (PAL), 480p 60Hz, 480i (NTSC)
 Conditional Access System
    1 CA Card Reader Slot
 A/V Output ports
    RCA with CVBS, HDMI (HDCP), YPbPr w/ CVBS L/R analog audio output (RCA), Digital audio output (Coaxial)
 Audio Decoding
    MPEG1 layer I, MPEG1 layer II, MPEG1 layer III, MPEG2, AC3
 Audio Mode
    Stereo/MONO/Left/Right
 DVR Support
    DVR with USB HDD, Time shifting with USB HDD
 USB 2.0 High Speed Host
    1 USB 2.0 Port
 File System
    FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS (supports first partition)
 Media Support
    JPG, BMP, MP3, WMA
 Ethernet Interface
    10/100 Mbit
 Power Supply
    Input DC12V 2A
 Power Consumption
    28W Max / 1W Standby
 Dimension
    230 (W) x140 (D) x39 (H) mm
 Operating Temperature
    0°C to +50°C


To be continued ...........


 

[Hyper]

OK. For the next part of the review i would like to show you the actual item.

What you get, the packaging, etc..

Here are some pics.

I took these myself.  

The gift box it comes in:






Here is what comes in the box:






As you can see this is a "mini" receiver. This picture Below shows it sitting on a full size Openbox S9





And the pic below shows the back of the receiver





To be continued ...........

[Hyper]

OK. Back to the review ........

My first impressions of the Traxis DBS 6000 HD

I thought the packaging it came in was fine. Really just like any other receiver, nothing special, defenitely appropriate to get the box to the end user in great shape.

The receiver itself looks like it is a quality product. This one is made in China.

Now my experience is that receivers made in Korea show the best quality. Some receivers made in China look pretty cheaply made. This one looks like pretty good in my opinion.

The display panel has a plastic film over it so it arrives to the customer in perfect condition.

As you can see in the picture above of the box, this has no On/Off Rocker Switch on the back, and also no RS232 connection. I personally like to have an On/Off Rocker Switch on my receivers so i didnt care for this. Also it is important to me to have a RS232 connection in case something goes wrong updating the receiver, it is nice to have RS232 to connect to your PC to run a recovery tool. On the plus side it does have a LAN connection so you can use that i suppose. Right now a recovery tool has not been released to my knowledge.

This comes with the following:

Traxis DBS 6000 HD Receiver in the gift box
Remote Control and Batteries
Power Adapter
RCA Cables
User Manual
FREE EV1-41A 4x1 DiSEqC Switch*

*Only if you purchase from HypermegaSat.com

Now the power cord is actually an external AC Adapter. I have seen this with other "mini" receivers like the Optibox Gekko HD for instance.

The Remote Control looks pretty standard, similar to the remotes on most recent FTA boxes.

The User Manual is 15 pages long. I would say its a little thin compared to others. It looks like it covers most topics but it only touches briefly on recording. Otherwise it looks good.

Now when i first connected the Traxis 6000 HD i thought the menu looked a little different than what i was used to but its really similar to other receivers in its class actually. Just all the menu options are organized into a different layout. For those with experience with FTA receivers you will have no problem finding your way around.

I will post a screen shot or two to give you a taste of the look and layout.











Straight from the factory this has a weird mix of Atlantic and North America sats in it. Traxis has an America sat list so i loaded that by the USB and that was pretty easy.

That made the sat list a whole lot better but still not very good. I think i counted only 21 satellites in the list. One thing i will need to check is how many it can hold. The sat list is defenitely something that will need to be improved.

The receiver responds to the remote very well, no problems there.

The signal and quality on this receiver shows lower than my other boxes. On Galaxy 19 for instance the S is 76% and Q 66%. On my Pansat 9500 this same sat shows S 98 and Q over 90. So im not sure why it shows so low on this box, but all boxes measure this differently so no reason for concern.

I first scanned Galaxy 19 97.0W Ku and used the blind scan and it went very fast.

2 minutes 52 seconds

265 TV, 147 Radio

It scanned fast and did not miss anything from what i could see.

The picture looks just great to me. (For this test i was using the RCA cables out and an old analog type tv).

No freezing, stuttering, pixelating, etc..  Picture looks just great.

One thing i did not like is that when you press the info button you can get the TP and Polarity for any given channel along with the PIDs but it does not show the symbol rate. You can see this in the picture. That sucks if you are scanning for feeds and want to share that feed with others. Maybe i am missing it, but that info doesnt seem to be displayed.

One thing i liked is the EPG. Now we all know most all FTA channels do not show anything on the EPG but on the channel that does namely Russia Today the EPG on this receiver works great. And a real nice feature is just press info while watching and you get what is on and what is on next on the display (see pic)








Anyways, so far i like this receiver. Much testing to do yet but it is looking pretty good so far.

Normally all new receiverss have a few bugs, the real question is will they be fixed - what we call support.

Traxis has already rolled out new firmware just a few days ago that is supposed to give you the ability to manually input PIDs and also improved DiSEqC motor functions. Plus they have sat lists available for North America, Asia, Europe, Atlantic. So that seems like a good start for support.


Next i will be testing it using the HDMI cable and a HD TV and i will scan some C Band, and test the AC3 sound, etc.. then move on the the PVR functions.


To be continued .......

[Hyper]

OK. Back to the review.

I decided next to do a scan of C Band so i chose Galaxy 17 91.0W.

The Signal was 79S and 97 Q on this sat.

The scan took just under 10 minutes, 9 min 50 seconds

Blind Scan = All

140 TV and 55 Radio

It found everything.

Plays AC3 sound through the RCA cables directly to the TV no problem.

One note: I was using the 06/15 software.

The previous version, the one that came from the factory in the boxes, had a rolling picture problem. Basically anytime you selected an encrypted channel the receiver would go to PAL mode.

This was fixed with the 06/15 software.

It should also be noted that the box scans in and plays the GDMX music channels on TP 3927 V!

One wierd thing.

On my first scan i noticed that TP 3720 with the CW channels was listed correctly after the scan.

Most if not all other channels had the wrong TP info. For instance Reelz was listed at TP 6146 or something?

I checked the TP list in the receiver and it had a whole bunch of TP's listed in the 6000's which is not correct. All the channels still scanned in but were showing the wrong TP info.

So i deleted all channels, then deleted all TP's and then did a new blind scan and evrything came in as it should with the correct TP info for each channel.

So, a few conclusions:

AC3 audio works through RCA cables, no need for a stereo hooked up.

Blind Scan works and works good.

The TP list in the receiver defenitely has some bad info, i suggest deleting all TP's before you scan.


To be continued ......

[jdelanos]

Hyper, could you please tell me how to get USALs on this Traxis 6000 receiver?
Thanks

[Hyper]

Hi jdelanos, it looks to me like there is no USALS setting anywhere in the menu. I believe Traxis knows about this and they will be adding it in a future factory software release, but i will email them tonight just to be sure. So for now, you will have to use DiSEqC 1.2 to move the motor and save positions.

[Hyper]

Got a reply from the owner of Traxis already and here is what he says:

"USALS is planned for a future release."


 

[jdelanos]

Thank you Hyper. Also where do I find the North American satellite list, both C band and Ku Band, if it isn't there, please tell Mr. Tim to please work on that one too. Also tell Mr. Tim that the Traxis 6000 HD has a beautiful picture! Thank You

[Hyper]

You can get the Americas Sat/TP list right here:

http://legalfreetoair.com/index.php?topic=16959.0

Although, i will say this needs some work.  

 

And i agree, its a beautiful picture.

I now have it connected to a 1080P HD TV and the picture is just great.

I have already told Mr Tim about that.


 

[sprig]

Have you used usals with this box now that it has been added? Any problems?

[FTAGardener]

No problems with USALs with the two most recent firmwares. I do have problems with DiseqC 1.1. Only the first 4 switch positions work and not on the right setting .