Micro M150HD - £150

Caravanning specialist RoadPro is now selling this 12V receiver suited to life on the move that provides high-defi nition reception and connectivity, and PVR-ready functionality for recording.

Coupled with a suitably sized dish for your destination, the Micro M150 HD can be used for TV back home or sampling more local delights – including HD.

Build and connectivity

The M150 HD is small, as you’d expect from a caravantype receiver. It will fi t into a space taken by a hardback book and weighs just 1.5Kg. This is partly because the power supply is external, contained in a mains plug adapter – or, of course, you can also run the M150 HD direct from a 12V DC supply from the car battery.

Although small, this receiver is pretty tough, and quite stylish too. The front panel has a four-digit green display for the channel number, channel up/down and power buttons, and a fold-down fl ap (with a very firm latch) that conceals a common interface socket for plug-in CAMs – although this receiver is likely to be used most for free-to-air channels away from home.

The back panel is crammed with sockets. There is an LNB input only – no loopthrough output (it’s unlikely to be coupled with another receiver in a caravan) but the input socket can connect to a DiSEqC 1.0 switch or a DiSEqC 1.2/USALS motor, so if your van is equipped with a complex antenna system, then the M150 HD will cope.

Key to the M150 HD’s performance is the highdefinition TV connections, and it sports both HDMI and component video outputs so you can make the most of a modern flatscreen TV in your van. There are Scart sockets for connection to an SD TV and recorder, and the M150 HD also provides a separate composite video output with analogue stereo audio, all on phonos.

For digital sound there is an optical S/PDIF socket. The back panel also includes a USB socket for both upgrading the receiver’s software and connecting solid state memory or a hard disc drive for the PVR facilities. The socket will be rather out of the way if the receiver is installed in a built-in AV setup inside a caravan, and a front panel socket as well would have been useful.

The remote control handset is festooned with buttons, but is not that well laid out. Bizarrely, there are three pairs of buttons to move through the channels – P+/-, CH+/- and Up/Down – although the P+/- buttons move between satellites and not a page of the channel list as you’d expect. The PVR function buttons are rather small and laid out in a plain grid with no distinction between the diff erent functions.

Setup

For dish alignment, as well as a good onscreen meter, the M150 HD incorporates the ‘EasyFind’ system seen on Comag receivers (the M150 HD is a clone of a Comag model) that is used with a special LNB (not included) with an LED mounted on it, which is addressed by the receiver in a special EasyFind mode. You select the satellite that you want from the connected receiver’s list and the LED pulses on about once a second, showing red when there’s no signal, orange when you’ve found a satellite and green when it’s locked on the correct signal.

It’s an excellent system that’s really useful for the frequent realignments required at each new caravan site. Setting up the receiver is also simple. The main European satellites are pre-programmed so you can just plug it in, confi gure it for any DiSEqC switch or motor used, and off you go. Or you can scan the satellites, either using the preset transponder database or the ‘auto-scan’ – a sort of rudimentary blind search that fi nds unlisted transponders and adds them to the database. Auto-scan is fast, finding 84 transponders on Astra 19.2°E in 5.5 minutes. You can also manually add or edit transponders or complete satellites in the database.

Basic use

The channels are displayed onscreen by satellite or all in one list. There is no facility for sorting or ordering the channels automatically, although the channel list can be edited by hand. There is a channel name search facility, using an entered character string and eight (user-defi ned and pre-programmed) favourite channels lists to help fi nd the channel you want, but overall channel navigation is very basic.

The EPG is elementary too, displaying a grid of fi ve channels’ programmes over two hours. A programme can be entered into the event timer for recording with just a couple of button presses, but moving about the grid to fi nd out what’s on requires a ridiculously complex series of button presses – not at all user friendly.

PVR and multimedia

Connect a memory stick (over 3GB) or hard disc drive to the USB socket and the M150 HD becomes a simple but adequate recorder. A channel can be recorded and another on the same transponder watched, and playback is reasonably versatile with fast-forward and rewind speeds of up to x24, slow speeds to 1/8x, bookmarks, and a handy user-defi ned jump forward or back. However, you cannot start to watch a recording until it is fi nished and there is no live pause facility.

Photos can be displayed from the memory, but only if watching via the HDMI or component video outputs.

Performance

Even viewed on a TV far larger than anything ever used in a caravan, the M150 HD produces excellent images from both HD and SD channels.

The sound is also well up to scratch. Via the HDMI and optical digital output, it’s clean and crisp and even from the Scart and analogue audio outputs, audio is bright and relatively noise and distortion-free.

Playback of recordings occasionally produced a few artefacts and brief blocking of the pictures but that seemed to be down to the hard drive used rather than the receiver. Playback quality was otherwise indistinguishable from broadcast and memory stick recordings were unblemished. Geoff Bains

Verdict

The M150 HD’s 12V operation, EasyFind alignment aid and pseudo blind search make it ideal for the travelling satellite viewer. While the everyday channel navigation is elementary and the very basic PVR functionality could be improved, the M150 HD excels at tuning to and displaying satellite TV signals. If you want to watch networks other than just Freesat, use a CAM, or record programmes, then the M150 HD produces excellent HD and SD pictures in a versatile, compact and 12V package.

Ratings
PLUS
■ 12V operation
■ Easy setup with EasyFind and
rudimentary blind search
MINUS
■ Poor navigation
■ Only simple PVR functions
supported
Build ★★★★★★★★
Setup ★★★★★★★★★
Searching ★★★★★★★★
Navigation ★★★★★★
Performance ★★★★★★★★
Features ★★★★★★★★
Value ★★★★★★★★

79%

Features
No LNB inputs: 1
LNB loopthrough: Yes
DiSEqC: 1.0, 1.2, USALS
No. channels: 5,000
Selectable FEC: No
Symbol rate range: 1000-45000
Blind search: Yes
Linux: No
CAM: No
Common interface: Yes
Teletext: DVB decoded
EPG support: DVB now-and-next,
7-day
Timer: 8 events, no time limit
Hard drive: Via USB
UHF modulator tuning: N/A
Software upgrade: Via USB
Data ports: USB
AV outputs:
SD out: TV Scart (RGB, composite),
VCR Scart (composite), Composite
video
HD out: HDMI, YPbPr
Audio out: stereo audio, optical
digital audio