It all starts just as usual from the OSD language. 12 languages to choose from, with a strong Latin and Nordic lead plus Arabic and Turkish.
TechniSat TechniBox Cam 1 Plus doesn't have any motorized options. It's specifically built to support DiSEqC 1.0 and 12kHz switches, serving, just like the rules of engagement require - a maximum of 4 satellite positions.

Heading for the Audio/Visual menu we found TechniBox although gifted with only one type of Video output offers all common systems used with SCART including S-Video. Right below the user can disable AC3 optical output comes useful in case your AV amplifier didn't support automatic digital/analog switching. Last but not list on the menu is ON and OFF setting for TechniLink function.

TechniLink is yet another custom VCR control standard allowing you to automatically switch on recording using pin 10 of a SCART socket and timer in your receiver rather than on the VCR.

Switching DiSEqC 1.0 on from the LNB menu allows a user to pick either two or four LNBF configurations and assign predefined satellites from the European horizon to each converter.
Considering the Cam 1 Plus could be perceived as a budget box; the design of each and every panel has never the less been carefully thought out. In case of DiSEqC settings we were pleased to see an LNB test option next to each position just to assure the user his settings are correct.

And it's not just something roughly slapped on the menu but a proper box with a signal level indicator and a panel where optional changes to LNB settings can be done at any point in time without wandering through the menus. The reason why we mention this is because we could name at least a dozen receivers in the over £350 range that could learn a lot from this simple yet effective design.

Having our LNBs on the switch setup it was time to proceed with a channel search. Channel search though Astra and HotBird separately takes about 13-16 minutes per satellite. During the search the user doesn't get to see what channels were found or what transponders the box is going through, the once very live and dynamic panel stays quiet with progress bar slowly scrolling on the bottom. With a little worry about the outcome we let the receiver take it's time and show us the goodies it found.

And the outcome was not too shabby after all - in fact we were quite surprised to see some of the non-standard data channels and temporary feeds found and listed. Not at all bad. Newfound channels are marked with a different colour on the list to make them easy to find.

Yet there were two issues that we spent a little more time checking and repeatedly testing.

The First issue was the bouquets - yes surprisingly this box supports bouquets. They don't appear on the banner and don't bring any extra functions, but become useful at a later stage during channel selection (more about this in a moment). We found that the box has difficulties grouping channels in bouquets (Canal+ strikes back again). However, after a long discussion we came to the conclusion that this is not as much a bug in design but more likely other receivers use a workaround to cater for lazy providers. TechniSat unlike most providers does carefully search transponder by transponder, leaving out whether this is done by reading signal or based on the predefined list - the workaround in the other receivers is assigning a network name to a list of transponders. This way the search is automatically grouped in bouquets using a network from memory rather than trying to work it out from the satellite. TechniBox Cam 1 Plus is most likely doing it the proper way, hence the troubles with grouping channels not carrying a provider's info. Fully excused. Another issue was that automatic search stored few single channels as, for example, Cinedoms in Premier World package, as "Unknown". Strange but since this bug is visible most of the time only on BataCrypt and PowerVu scrabled channels it suggests it has something to do with both encryptions.

With a full list we could now select channels to view and move them around. Selecting is done simply by marking bouquets and channels you wish to keep for everyday use from the separate menu. Both menus used for selection and moving/deletions has all the functions clearly described on the bottom of the screen.

Go to menu	Move them around	Choose what you want to see

Obviously the whole moving around and selecting thing was only to test our options - TechniSat TechniBox Cam 1 Plus is extremely well supported in the trade as both commercial and GPL settings editors are available for grabs on the internet. 999 channels to browse though is not a tragedy but trust our word - grab a serial cable and let your fingers rest for once.

The clacker's applause goes separately to Lostech, Helmut M and Wolfgang Litzinger for the software.