AB-COM Pulse 4K Enigma2 FTA Receiver

[el bandido]

Finally towards the end of 2021, we start seeing some new fta receivers. The new Pulse 4K will be available at retail soon. It looks like the Pulse 4K will cost somewhere between $250 and $350.00, depending on what options you want and who you purchase it from. The Pulse 4K is supposed to have hardware satellite blindscan, and should be able to support up to 3 internal DVB-S2X tuners.

The build of the Pulse 4K looks promising for North American fta needs, and includes an internal hard drive option. The Pulse 4K may be the perfect receiver for those wishing to replace the Vu+ Duo2. The suggested price of the Pulse 4K is 189 Euro. The suggested price would put the receiver somewhere in the 250-350 U.S. dollar range when shipping charges are included. The cost of a Pulse 4K with 3 internal DVB-S2X tuners could be in the $400 U.S. dollar range, depending on additional tuner costs. We will see...

Here is a link to the Manufacturer: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Below is a short unboxing video.

[eastof111]

Good simple attractive receiver. If the three tuners will be available with blindscan, I will definitely have to try one. It will be interesting to see which images will be supported. I see they posted a plugin for viewing church services but no e2 support images yet.

I wish them luck.... we need some new entries out there.

Too bad Edision has not produced a three or four tuner model.

[Megatron817]

Good simple attractive receiver. If the three tuners will be available with blindscan, I will definitely have to try one. It will be interesting to see which images will be supported. I see they posted a plugin for viewing church services but no e2 support images yet.

I wish them luck.... we need some new entries out there.

Too bad Edision has produced a three or four tuner model.

OpenPli has got an Image for it and Looks like a mini model coming. I think the plugable tuners wont do blind scan. haven't seen any but I don't know.

[el bandido]

The Pulse 4K advertises DVB-S2X blindscan, and the receiver's build features show blindscan. But this does not mean that DVB-S2X blindscan actually works, Or works good enough to be useful in North America. Someone will have to pay the price of the box and test it here in North America before we will know the real answer to blindscan. What someone blindscans in Europe on a pizza pan dish aimed at a provider will mean nothing to us.

Anyone wishing to purchase the Pulse 4K that lives in North America will probably have to buy directly from Europe.

Here are the machine features for the Pulse 4K Mini in OpenPLi build recipes:
MACHINE_FEATURES += " blindscan hisil mali transcoding dvb-c emmc wol"

Here are the machine features for the Pulse 4K in OpenPLi build recipes:
7segment textlcd blindscan hisil mali transcoding dvb-c emmc wol

Chipset for both receivers is the same:
CHIPSET = "Hi3798Mv200"


This has the makings for one helluva fta receiver. But we will need support from the manufacturer for blindscan, ATSC usb devices, and other small items that makes a great receiver here in North America. Considering there are probably less than 300 people that would actually buy this box if it were available in North America, it will be hard to get the manufacturer to show any interest for what we want or need. Not trying to be negative, but it is what it is when it comes to fta in North America.

[eastof111]

EB, why the mmc and emmc file designation in the two files below?
openatv-6.4-pulse4k-20210822_mmc.zip
openpli-develop-pulse4k-20210822_emmc.zip

[el bandido]

I guess OE Alliance wants to use a different storage type??? Other than that, I dunno.

[el bandido]

Per Request, DVB Market is selling this receiver (2 DVB-S2X tuner).

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

We will see soon...

[el bandido]

Review of the Pulse 4k:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

English translation:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[el bandido]

Here is another review:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

It looks like More or Less, This receiver is pretty much a collection of 4-5 year old parts. The usb ports are 2.0 instead of 3.0. The internal hard drive will sort of make for the somewhat slower 2.0 usb ports. Plus there is the option to run a sd card on the front. The Pulse 4K will be Android in nature, which could give other options in the future. Enigma2 image support from OpenPLi is also a plus.

The DVB-S2X tuners in the Pulse have been around for a while, so nothing new or cutting edge in that area. And it looks like the Hi3798Mv200 chipset was introduced in 2015. So more or less, a collection of old parts in a new package. The positive side to this is the parts have been around long enough for most of the bugs to be worked out of them.

The future of fta receivers does not look good right now. There has been a chip shortage and some difficulty in obtaining other parts that are needed to manufacture fta recxeivers. It will probably be well into 2022 or even sometime in 2023 before we start seeing new fta receivers that are not made out of old parts. Broadcom seems to be losing interest in the fta industry, and this would explain why we get mediocre or poor support from Broadcom. The future fta receivers will probably have Android type chipsets and it is possible that Broadcom leaves the fta market.

For the current moment in time, we have the Pulse 4K as a new fta receiver so efforts will be made to make it useful in North America. In the next week or two, we will find out how well it works.

[eastof111]

I emailed them twice regarding blind scan capabilities and have yet to receive a response. Kind of reminds me of the PrismCube back in 2014 when I emailed them requesting blind scan info and never received a response.

Will try one more time, hopefully they will respond.