Take a look down the page to see the Satellite Traders' unbiased review of our particularly special d-box.
Bentley Walker Ltd. is a main distributor for the Nokia D-Box special. Our version can handle KU and C Band channels including MCPC and SCPC. We are also able to offer a service of upgrading software on Italian and German versions. The special D-Box we have, has access to virtually all MPEG2 digital satellite signals. For further details and an up-to-date price please EMail us from our home page or phone us on the number provided.
With our particularly special software upgrade and changes our D-Box accepts all Irdeto cam based cards including Multichoice Holland, Multichoice Scandinavia, DF1 German channels, Telepiu Italy etc. etc. See below to see a selection of the cards you could use with our D-Box.
Astra and Eutelsat are the two satellite operators which are leading the
way in providing broadcasters with digital transponders. On Astra at 19.2°
east (where SKY broadcast analog) DFI-German, Nethold-Scandinavia and
CSN-French all broadcast services. However some or many of the channels
are encryped so you will need to subscribe to them to watch their
services. Astra does carry clear channels as well. Turner has started
broadcasting TNT, Cartoon network and CNN as digital in the clear. It is
expected that spin-offs such as CNN/SI and other Time Warner channels will
come along in the near future. Nethold carries a handful of channels
broadcast in the clear.
The DVB9500 S is a multimedia terminal for digital
television. Designed to be future proof, it includes connectors for all
consumer electronics products, a data interface for connections to a PC,
printer or CD-ROM and the ability to receive new software that can be down
loaded via satellite or cable.
Designed in association with the programme and service provider Beta
Technik, the DVB9500 S is the first in a new range of multimedia terminals
from Nokia. It can flexibly receive any bandwidth from 2 to 54 MHz and
decode video streams that are dynamically and continuously variable from
1.5 to 45 Mbits/second.
It is expected that broadcasters will continuously increase and improve
their offering of programmes and services to make them more attractive to
viewers and make them easier to use. As consumers are not expected to want
to install this new software themselves, Nokia has developed a solution
the multimedia terminal will recognise new versions of software being
transmitted over satellite or cable and down load them automatically.
The Nokia DVB9500 S offers a whole host of other features including: an
electronic programming guide, an in-built modem, data connectors and
recording facility.
Nokia believes the DVB9500 S is the most advanced product of its kind to
be demonstrated. Its flexibility means that it can be adapted to different
needs - the optimised use of different bandwidths offers customised
solutions for both programme providers and consumers.
Bentley Walker has transformed the d-box beyond all recognition Malcolm
Titmus of the Satellite Trader revues the difference.
Many Nokia d-boxes have found their way into the UK from Germany and
Italy, which in theory is the designated market. As the boxes were
designed to work with the DFI and Telepiu digital services they had only
German and Italian menus, which made operation somewhat fun for the first
few days/weeks depending on your command of the foreign tongue.
A big disadvantage with the Nokia d-box is that it is no longer able to
cope with the popular Dutch Multichoice package from Astra, following an
over-the-air upgrade which prevented the Dutch from nipping across the
border and purchasing the subsidised d-box, instead of using the Nokia
Mediamaster intended for their own market. That's the history lesson, now
lets cut to the chase.
When is a d-box not a d-box? When its had its software changed, of
course, the Bentley Walker d-box is a perfectly innocent looking device
intended for reception of Italian or German programmes. But inside, this
baby has had a serious change of heart. Gone are the dull blue menus in a
foreign tongue. Instead you are greeted with pleasant grey screen and the
words "Welcome" in five languages when you first turn it on.
Immediately its broader appeal shines though, if it says hello in English
then surely the menus will be, and indeed they are. The box is very
different from its older German brother and the changes are immense. Not
only do you get a choice of languages, but the whole structure of the
software is different. The original box had many more menus and options
which were fairly intimidating on first inspection. This one, however, is
very simple. First pick your country, language and LNB type (Universal or
Quadband ), then choose which satellite you wish to scan - the defaults
are, unsurprisingly, Astra and Hot Bird. Then away it goes downloading all
the datastreams it finds on the pre-designated transponders. After five
minuets or so on Astra, it retrieved in excess of 150 TV channels, not bad
considering the unit was bare when it started.
Whilst its looking for TV stations, the Bentley Walker decoder also finds
radio channels and lists all that it sees as it goes along, giving the
user a complete picture of the available programming.
When the scan is complete, you are able to pick the desired channel by
simply highlighting it and pressing OK, that's it. If you have a viewing
card, since a lot of the digital Astra channels are encrypted. The
original d-box failed in a big way in the UK market as it would not decode
the Multichoice package even if you had managed to get your hands on the
Multichoice card. But this one will do the business with any suitable card
providing its scrambled by Irdeto. So if you're as rich as Leo Kirch and
can afford cards for the Dutch, German and Italian programmes, the world
is your Oyster.
Digital picture quality quality is a fiercely debated subject at the
moment and I am not prepared to put my head on the block. But , if the
transmission is good, this d-box will give the great pictures and only the
trained eye will spot that it is from a digital unit. If, however, the
source is poor, don't even look at it - it's CD-I all over again. But the
Audio is superb and cannot be faulted unless your being picky.
Moving my dish to Hot Bird, I scanned again and brought my tally of
channels to over 250. The Bentley Walker box will only scan automatically
on its pre-programmed channels, so it's up to the user to enter
frequencies symbol rated etc. for new data streams as they start.
You can also use this manual scan function to find more obscure channels
not intended for DTH viewing. I tired this out on a number of channels and
had a large degree of success, only limited by two factors. Firstly the
channels information has to be precise, there is no room for error with
Forward Error Correction (FEC) rates. There is a choice of several and
only one is correct. If the wrong one is entered you can search away and
the box won't find a thing, the frequency and symbol rates are a little
more forgiving and will to a large extent tune themselves as long as they
are more or less correct.
Second, this box will only allow one SCPC channel at any one time. So. If
you program TMF at 16 degrees East and swing the dish around to take a
peek at the Reuters Washington feed on Intelsat K, Reuters will overwrite
TMF. To be fair, the d-box is not intended to receive the SCPC channels,
but satellite enthusiasts will want to look at everything.
The operation of the Bentley Walker d-box is simple, once programmed, but
it does take a while to grasp the technology. As everything is very clear
on-screen, there is no need to read the sixteen-page manual except for
interests sake. If you're lucky enough to find a Multichoice/Kirch viewing
card in the slot, the on-screen programming guide will be very useful,
current channel information is displayed as well as what's on next.
With the unit finding and placing the channels, finding out what's where
and so on can get confusing. Fear not, there is an edit function. This
enables you to drag and drop channels wherever you desire.
The specification is impressive: variable symbol rates; C Band
compatibility; built-in modem and so on means it has all you need for the
foreseeable future. Overall the modifications carried out on this machine
are a great improvement on the standard d-box and along with its
acceptance of all viewing cards certainly make the unit more friendly to
use.
Bentley Walker's d-box is, however, remarkably similar to the Nokia
Mediamaster box which is due out in the Benelux countries. This may be no
bad thing, as the version of the Mediamaster available in the Benelux will
only decode the Multichoice package, which seems a little silly - but
that's broadcasters for you.
So the choice is your. But I know which one will sit under my TV - the
only one that gives me the most choice.
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