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Hardware Reviews
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User reviews -> BEC -> (BEC_DB6600CI)
| BEC DB6600CI |
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| Opinion No. 1 |
By enrico from Glasgow [ ] |
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| Pros: |
Pros: supremely good value, easy to use |
| Cons: |
Cons: variable customer support (see review)
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Points:
Perform : 8
Features: 6
Value/dosh: 9
Overall: 8 pts |
The BEC (formerly Benjamin Electronic) range always seems to pop up at the lowest end of many satellite retailers' budget range of receivers, but don't think of it for a minute as a last resort receiver for cheapskates.
The BEC 6600CI can be found for sale at well under 200UKP, but it gives nothing away in performance or features to other better known 2CI receivers.
Until the BEC, my main experience of digisat was with a Humax 5400 which, while it beats the 6600 feature wise (such as DISEqC 1.2 compared to 1.0 on the BEC) it gave me a benchmark to compare ease of use, picture quality, speed etc.
Both were tested with an 80cm/1m reflector and Cambridge Geo Platinum lnb and Aston 1.05 CAM. A Brainwave monobloc lnb was used to test DISEqC.
On all three counts the BEC beat the Humax. Auto setup on the BEC was simplicity itself, and the channel scan took considerably less time than the albeit notoriously slow Humax.
Picture quality on a JVC widescreen TV was more than adequate, and channel changing is quick to respond, even across two satellites when using the monobloc lnb.
The BEC worked well with the Aston CAM, although an occasional delay in decrypting the picture on a multicrypt transmission when moving from an unencrypted channel was experienced - the startled looking message 'scramble!' appearing white on a black background for a few seconds until the system caught up, but this was by no means intolerable.
The BEC also coped with the information from the 15 provider CAM, displaying it correctly in a scrollable menu, even when using older firmware (more on that later) which shows some foresight, or perhaps luck, on behalf of the software writers.
For the downsides, the receiver instruction book is 'basic' to say the least, but fortunately the user interface is self explanatory.
The 6600 also has a very pedantic method for moving channels through a strange channel submenu system.
Thirdly, my particular receiver exhibited a software fault related to channel editing when swapping the positions of channels where DISEqC switching was involved - often the receiver would crash, reboot and loose 200 or so channels from the end of the channel list.
This was resolved completely with a software update (from version 1.08 to 1.0A) but getting the update was not straightforward - my retailer originally supplied me with a DOWNGRADE to software version 1.06 which lost a lot of the preprogrammed satellite information and some of the menu options.
BEC advertise but do not publish software updates on their website (www.bec.com.tw), but an email directly to technical support in Taiwan brought a quick response with the latest software and a set of instructions on how to use the serial downlink to download the channel settings information to a PC as a text file and use a word processor to edit the channel list and upload - two problems solved in one go!!
A final mention must go to the the screen pause feature from one button on the remote, great fun to impress your friends but otherwise totally useless!
PS the DISEqC 1.2 version, the DB6800CI looks ever better value at just under 200UKP.
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enrico paid (approx.) €293 for the receiver |
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