Triax

TEST REPORT TV via IP
Triax
TSS400
• Simple way to stream satellite channels to
Smartphones and Tablets
• Comfortable menu operation
• Compatible with HDTV
• Its four tuners make it compatible with all
four polarization levels
• Multiple users can watch programs at the
same time
56 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication — 11-12/2014 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 11-12/2014 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志57

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that this is also supported by
the TSS400. In the Diagnose
section a static frequency
can be set up on each of the
four tuners which can then
be transmitted through the
local network as an IPTV
stream via freely selectable
Multicast addresses and in-dividual
ports. This will also
help to solve the problem of
so many different PIDs on
one transponder; the user
can individually determine
which PIDs should be carried
and which should not. If a
11-12/2014
TEST REPORT TV via IP
TV & Radio Distributed
Throughout the Entire House
Using Your Own Network
www.TELE-audiovision.com/14/11/triax
A new and especially in-novative
solution for distrib-uting
satellite signals is the
Triax TSS400 satellite-IP
converter. It converts sat-ellite
signals in such a way
that they can be carried via a
network. The metal housing
is very durable and suitable
for installation in the attic or
basement. It is not water re-sistant
and therefore should
not be mounted outside. It
should also be installed in a
location where the surround-ing
temperature will be be-tween
0°C and 40°C (32°F
and 104°F).
There are a total of four
colored LNB ports available
for connection to a Quad
or Quattro LNB. In this way
the maximum of four users
will all have access to all the
transponders of a satellite at
the same time. The TSS400
is connected to the local net-work
through an RS-45 net-work
interface (Gigabit) plus
there is also a USB port on
the converter for software
updates as well as a jack
for the external power sup-ply
and a main power switch.
Two LEDs on the top of the
converter provide current
operational status informa-tion.
The TSS400 can be config-ured
and controlled through
an integrated web server.
Since in the basic settings
it gets its IP address from
the router via DHCP, you
initially have to locate the
IP address. For this purpose
Triax recommends the free
software „Developer Tools
for UPnP Technologies“ that
can be downloaded via the
Internet from here: http://
opentools.homeip.net/dev-tools-
for-upnp.
Once the IP address has
been identified, it merely
needs to be entered into the
PC‘s web browser and just
like that you end up in the
password-protected TSS400
web server. After entering
„satip_admin“ (the password
can, of course, be personal-
58 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication — 11-12/2014 — www.TELE-audiovision.com
Triax TSS400
Very easy way to distribute and view
FTA satellite channels through
your own network
ized later on), the options
Network Settings, Software
Upgrade, LNB Settings, Di-agnose
and System Status
all become available. Now,
for example, the TSS400‘s IP
data can be modified. In the
LNB Settings the local oscil-lator
frequency (LOF) for the
low and high band can be
manually entered. Even the
switching frequency (from
low to high band) can be en-tered
here. Those of you that
have SCR single cable solu-tions
will be happy to know

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tuner is occupied with a pre-defined
transponder it is no
longer available for individu-al
reception via Smartphone,
Tablet, PC or IPTV receiver.
This option is therefore es-pecially
suitable for presen-tation
applications or IPTV
receivers that will always
show the same channel.
In the status menu the
user will get an overview of
the signal levels for all four
tuners and it will be listed
in detail which transponder
is currently active. Once all
of the settings have been
individually taken care of,
exporting the settings to
a recovery file would be a
practical move. In this way it
would only take a few mouse
clicks to return the system
to a functional configuration.
Since the Triax TSS400
doesn‘t have its own audio/
video outputs, the display
of the TV signal would have
to take place via a compat-ible
device. This could be, for
example, an IPTV receiver
but at this point we aren‘t
going to go into any more
detail about that. We‘re far
more interested in the pos-sibility
of receiving TV sig-nals
via Smartphone, Tablet
or even laptop or PC and for
this purpose the TSS400 of-fers
a variety of capabilities.
For around 0.89 Euros you
can download the „Elgato
Sat>IP“ App for an iPhone or
iPad from the iTunes store.
This would convert your iOS
device into a fully functional
TV. This App is also avail-able
for download for An-
1. The Triax TSS400 Webserver
2. Many of the TSS400's
functions and settings can
be set up directly via the web
browser
3. Network settings
4. Software Upgrade via USB
Stick
5. LNB settings - even SCR
single cable solutions are
supported
6. The four TSS400 tuners can
be fed with static transponders
in the Diagnose menu
7. TSS400 System Status
droid devices in the Google
Play store for 0.99 Euros. In
general, the manufacturer
recommends using a 5 GHz
router to communicate with
the mobile device although
in our tests we had no prob-lems
using a more typical
2.4 GHz model.
When the App is started
for the first time, you have to
tell it in what country you are
located and also what satel-lite
the TSS400 is receiving.
There‘s a preprogrammed
list of 200 entries available to
choose from but the data it-self
is not all that up-to-date.
But we really don‘t want to
be too critical here; in the
end hardly anyone would
consider using the TSS400
for satellite DXing and with
the classic DTH positions the
software actually has a very
different function, and that
would be the download of
preconfigured and very up-to-
date channel lists from
the Internet. In this way the
user not only saves time by
not running a channel scan,
the user also instantly gets
a channel list with the most
popular channels all in one
place. Naturally, the channel
order is not fixed; the user
can change the order of the
channels in the list at any
time. A total of four satellites
can be set up and shown in

Recordings, Guide and Set-tings.
find the complete chan-nel
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channel list.
The App‘s Main Menu in-cludes
the headings Live TV,
Under Live TV you‘ll
list and, if it was loaded
from the Internet, it would
include the broadcaster
logos and also, if available,
the EPG information for the
current program. A gentle
touch on the touchscreen is
all that‘s needed for the App
to start streaming the se-lected
at the bottom of the screen
appears after each channel
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change and shows the title
of the current and upcoming
program as well as whether
or not the current channel
can be recorded.
Interesting were the but-tons
for social networks like
Facebook and Twitter; they
can be used by users to tell
their friends about the pro-gram
they are currently
watching. If available, the
user can also select between
different audio tracks and he
can also set up the video dis-play
to his personal tastes.
Thanks to the Timeshift
function the program that is
currently being watched can
be paused at any time and
then restarted when needed.
It turns out though that the
amount of space that can be
used by the Timeshift func-tion
in the initial settings is
only about 100 MB and this
corresponds to about four
minutes of recording time in
SD mode. Depending on the
available memory in the end
device, this space can natu-rally
be increased.
We really liked the EPG
function in our tests; it can
be found behind the menu
heading Guide and proved it-self
to be very practical. The
App displays the program-ming
information for up to
12 different channels for the
next seven days. And again,
just a single push of a button
provides more detailed in-formation
on a specific pro-gram.
And just like before,
the same social network
buttons are available here
as well so that you can post
interesting programs on Fa-cebook
or Twitter.
And lastly there‘s the Re-cordings
section from which
the user can access the pre-viously
recorded content on
his mobile device. It‘s impor-tant
to note here that these
recordings are stored locally
and are therefore not avail-able
to other devices via the
network.
During our tests we re-ally
enjoyed being able to
sit on a couch with an iPad
and have access to our fa-vorite
TV channels through
our WiFi network. All of the
channels were played back
without any problems and
there was no noticeable in-the
channel. The Infobar
8. HDTV on a PC via DVBViewer
9. EPG data is routed from the
TSS400 to the end device
10. Insert upper right: recording
of multiple broadcasts in HD or
SD is possible on a PC
11. Since more than one TSS400
tuner can be simultaneously
accessed, you can use
DVBViewer to record one
program while recording or
watching another program live
12. Thanks to the detailed
instructions on the Triax web
site it is very easy to configure
the DVBViewer software to work
in conjunction with the TSS400
13. The DVBViewer
automatically recognizes the
TSS400 address
14. Tuner 1 was connected
to a fixed transponder while
the three other tuners were
controlled variably by the end
devices

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15. Settings for the Elgato
Sat>IP Software
16. The audio from the current
channel can continue to play
in the background while other
Apps are being used
17. The size of the Timeshift
cache memory can be set as
needed
18. The channel list
downloaded from the Internet
can be modified to your
personal tastes
19. If the prepared channel
list is used, then many of the
broadcaster logos will also be
displayed
20. Country selection in the
Elgato Sat>IP software
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terference or any other kind
of interruptions. Only when
we performed a really heavy
load test using an iPhone and
an iPad while simultaneously
running two recordings on a
PC were we able to detect
some sporadic interference,
but they weren‘t really both-ersome.
And regarding a PC: natu-rally
you can also access the
four Triax TSS400 tuners via
a PC using, for example, the
DVBViewer software. Thanks
to the freely accessible in-structions
available on the
Triax website it is extremely
easy to correctly set up all
the necessary parameters.
And, of course, it doesn‘t
matter if you‘re dealing with
HD or SD content plus there‘s
features like EPG or multi-ple
recordings at the same
time. Thanks to the practical
DVBViewer‘s PVR functions,
the user has the ability to
store his favorite programs
directly on the PC. Convert-ing
them to DVD or Blue-Ray

21. Over 200 preprogrammed
satellite entries are available to
choose from
22. An automatic channel scan
of the desired satellites is also
available
23. The Elgato Sat>IP software's
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channel list
24. Thanks to the integration of
social networks, you can keep
your friends up to date about
interesting programs
25. Video and audio settings

expert
OPINION
● Up to four devices can be used at the same time. Thanks to
the four DVB-S2 compatible tuners, all the transponders of a sat-ellite
are available in parallel. It has no problems handling HD and
SD channels and it‘s very easy to put into operation thanks to the
prepared channel lists.
● There‘s no CI slot or card reader so PayTV reception is not
possible. HD channels can only be viewed on PCs or laptops.
ENERGY
DIAGRAM
Apparent Power
Active Power
Mode Apparent Active Factor
Active with Streaming 28.5 W 16 W 0.56
Active without Streaming 28 W 15.5 W 0.55
+
–
RECOMMENDED
PRODUCT BY
Thomas Haring
Test Center
Austria
Triax TSS400
SAT>IP Converter
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The first 15 minutes active streaming operation, the second 15
minutes no streams were accessed
would then not be a problem
at all and you save the ex-tra
work of transferring the
recordings from the receiver
to the PC.
So, what‘s the final word?
The TSS400 is an interest-ing
alternative to a classic
satellite receiver. However,
because of the required
four satellite connections,
installing it in a living room
environment might not be
the best solution. But if
you have connections avail-able
for your local network
near the LNBs or your mul-tiswitches
then the TSS400
would give you many prac-tical
and easy-to-use fea-tures
for mobile TV and ra-dio
reception throughout the
house. But keep in mind the
TSS400 does not come with
26. Of course, radio channels are
also available
27. Info bar with the titles of the
current and upcoming programs
28. Channel selection while
watching a program
29. Expanded EPG information
and links to social networks
30. Thanks to recording
functions, the current program
can be stored directly on the
mobile device
31. Overview of all prerecorded
content
a CI slot or internal card
reader so reception of PayTV
programming is not pos-sible.
And one other thing,
HD channels can only be re-ceived
via PC or laptop, not
via mobile devices (iOS or
Android).

Triax

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