[bulldog]

Product History:

After speaking to Technomate, I have understood their philosophy to bring to the market the best product in a category (in this case, the TM-1500CI+ which is the only receiver with a Omnikrypt cam and CI slot built in on the market today). They told me that they spent a year implementing and testing the TM-1000 range to produce the best. It doesn’t stop there as they are constantly releasing updates to provide ongoing support which lacks in some brands. They also told me that they use market research to find what consumers want and produced a receiver to meet their demands and more.

Build:

The TM-1000 range is much smaller than your conventional satellite receiver. The casing has a solid feel and a shiny, silver metallic coating on the front panel which looks really good. Furthermore, the receiver does not get too hot as quickly as other brands. The removable figure-8 cable is also a nice added touch.

Software:

Having tested many receivers, I can emphasise that the Technomate menu system is by far the simplest and easiest menu system you can use. Forget the manual (which can still be improved upon), use your initiative! I can praise their level of English and specifics (let me explain this more)- if you look at other brands’ software, for example, you see the word “Antenna� which is Kinglish (Korean-English) for “Dish�. These types of menus are “off-the-shelf� menus, whereby brand names like Manhattan, Echostar, Fortec, etc do not adjust their language for the English market. However, Technomate has suited the language to English so that it is easily understandable in comparison. Kudos to them. They also have some games like Snake to keep you busy.

Hardware:

Technomate use a Protection Chip which finds satellites by locating signal…they told me that this ‘super’ chip adds to the manufacturing costs, making their products unique in its accuracy and reliability. The tuner is very sensitive when compared to my old Humax 5400. Even though the manufacturing costs are high, they still have managed to retail a value for money product at £129. bulldog