The Samsung 9000Via CI was designed to be very simple. The Fascia, made mostly of greyish silver plastic has two metallic painted buttons on the front to power it on and manually change channels. Next to the buttons on the front of the receiver there is a hatch hiding two PCMCIA slots for CI expansion and two Viaccess card readers. Above the CI slots is a standard four-digit channel display and Infrared Remote receptor. Characteristically the IR is fitted in a huge, open hole making the 9000ViaCI look rather rough without the front panel on. Yet the whole lot actually feels more robust than it looks.

At the back there is no technological revolution either. Unlike upcoming Samsung products the 9000Vi CI has no digital audio output nor S-Video. Simplicity is the key and all outputs are limited to standard RGB, two SCRT sockets, two F type LNB connectors and two RFs (both input and loop through). Additionally there are two RS232 ports - female marked as 'Data port' and male dubbed 'Ext.modem'. There is no mains button at the back, which as we had a chance to find out soon enough may be a bit of a problem...

The CAM comes in double. Twin card readers work separate or together. On initial testing we found that the card detection mechanism was a bit temperamental and we had to do few swift manoeuvres with a card for the reader to finally let it in. However, after few days of removing and reinserting the card everything seemed fine. Although the Viaccess menu offers 'advanced properties' viewing we were not able to read anything but provider details from both the original and a gold wafer card. The CAM has a slight tendency to lag a little with card response from time to time, but it's not a big issue. We had no problems whatsoever logging data from the CAM using a standard active Season interface or attempting test emulation via third party software at standard baud rates.

The remote control is also pretty much standard, no fireworks there - predefined functions are positioned to the right with a line of coloured multifunction buttons and just above is a scroll set with OK fitted in the centre. The remote responds very well to presses and we had no problems whatsoever operating the box in a room 4 x 9 meters even with IR bounced off the walls.