Best box to upgrade to

[Markymark]

Hi,

Newbie here, however thinking of making the plunge into Linux based boxes as I like the sound of what can be done with them and the fact they are being constantly developed.

Not sure on what the difference between the vu+UNO and solo are? Then think should I go duo as the twin tuners would be a nice addition when it comes to recording. That said can these boxes easily record and does anything exist that can do series like like sky offer?

Then do these Linux boxes work well with motorised systems - as that's what I now have?

Can I stream anything from these boxes to my pc so that I can watch tv on the computer? Also do they support BISS keys / cc cam etc?

Finally should I buy one with a standard setup of or go for the vix image? What is the main difference?

Hope you can help me and sorry if these are really simple questions.

[jaylar]

Hi mate I just recently took the plunge my self from a tm500 I upgraded to a et9000 which is a real good box and am loving the vix software . Was going to get a vu duo but after a lot of reading decided that
et9000 had the edge over the duo which ever you go for you will be well supported here there all a good bunch

[obo110x]

As a newbie myself to this forum several months ago I would say:
1/ Go for the duo if you can afford it
2/ No problem with motorised systems
3/ Yes you can stream through Vu+ web control and they do support such cams (Please read the forum rules about talking about these though)
4/ Go with one with the Vix image, it's a very good GUI which will make things easier for you as the Vu manual will not make much sense after it is installed

[Larry-G]

Not sure on what the difference between the vu+UNO and solo are?

The Uno is a newer box and more powerful, it also has a removable tuner card so you can use either a DVB-S ( satellite ) DVB-C ( cable ) or DVB-T ( terrestrial ) tuner in the box, it also has hardware based blindscan which the solo does not have.

That said can these boxes easily record and does anything exist that can do series like like sky offer?

yes you can set timers although it's not as strait forward as with a sky box but it does the same job and once you know what your doing it's easy enough.

Can I stream anything from these boxes to my pc so that I can watch tv on the computer? Also do they support BISS keys / cc cam etc?

yes to all of the above

Then do these Linux boxes work well with motorized systems - as that's what I now have?

yes they work very well with motorized setups in fact most of us here have motorized setups of some decryption

Finally should I buy one with a standard setup of or go for the vix image? What is the main difference?

you can aks your supplier, i would recommend the sponsor

world-of-satellite.co.uk

to flash the box for you to get things going initially, then change or try other images when your confident enough.

Hope you can help me and sorry if these are really simple questions.

dont worry about it we all had to start somewhere and if you need help just ask for it.

[Markymark]

Wow thanks for all that feedback, so quickly.

Are these boxes quite sensitive on weak signals?

Also on the streaming front does it mean that on the UNO you can only stream what is on the tv at the time, where as twin tuner will just send out a separate feed.

Finally question. I know this is running before walking. Is flashing images easy to do? Can you add modules / plug ins via the on screen menu or is it all done the USB way?

[Larry-G]

i cant speak for the ET series boxes as i dont have one but i do have a Duo and a Uno and both are fine with weak signals for me. as for streaming as i understand it if your currently watching the Tv you can stream what is playing on the current channel or any thing on the same transponder / polarity. or if your not watching the Tv you can change the channel via the web interface and stream what ever you like

with a Duo you can stream or record upto 6 or more channels at the same time as long as there on the same transponder as one or both of the tuners.

flashing the images is the easiest bit, it's all done by USB stick and we have a server as do most teams where you can get most plugins with the exception of softcams but there easy enough to get hold of.

[Markymark]

So the difference between the UNO and Duo is basically the tuners? The software part that we can flash on the box and why it can do are the same?

[silverfox0786]

the DUO and UNO are very different boxes altogether

yes VIX is same for all boxes but due to differences you will find speed differences

care of World-of-Satellite.co.uk
DUO

Specifications:

•Open-source Linux operating system (Enigma2)
•Broadcom Mips processor m
•Twin DVB-S2 Tuner
•MPEG2 / H.264 Hardware decoding (DVB compliant)
•16 digit alphanumeric VFD Display
•2 x Common Interface slots
•2 x smartcard reader (Conax Embedded)
•10/100 Mbps Ethernet interface
•3 x USB2.0 (1xFront/2xBack)
•1 x internal SATA connection for HDD (not included) 
•1 x E-SATA
•1 x V.24/RS232
•HDMI Interface
•2 x Scart
•1 x YPrPb
•1 x optical S / PDIF for digital audio transmission
•Channel change <1 seconds
•EPG (electronic program guide)
•Plugin support (JPEG, MP3, XviD ...)
•Support of Bouquet lists
•Multi language OSD, Skin - Support
•Fully automatic, Manual Channel Search
•Videotext Teletext
•DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 including USALS
Video:

•Video resolution (720 x 576 lines), 576p, 720p, 1080i
•Video decoding MPEG-2, MPEG-4 compatible
•Input data rate 2-45 MSymb / s
•S/N> 53 dB
Audio:

•Decoding AC 3, MPEG-4 (AAC-HE), MPEG-1, Layer 1, 2 and 3
•32/44.1/48 kHz sampling rate
•S/N > 65 dB
Power consumption:

•<25W (in operation, horizontal /) 400mA LNB current
•<20W (in operation, without LNB)
•<1W (Deep-Standby-Mode)  
•100-240 Volts 50-60 Hz

UNO

Features:

• HD/SD H.264/AVC Main and High Profile to Level 4.1 (HD),Level 3.1 (SD)
• HD/SD AVS Jizhun Profile Levels 2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 (720p and 1080i for HDTV)
• VC-1 Advanced Profile @ Level 3, Simple and Main Profile
• HD/SD MPEG-2 Main Profile at Main and High levels
• MPEG still image decode
• SD MPEG-4 P2 SP/ASP
• HD DivX 3.11/4.11/5.x/6x/Home Theater
• Advanced audio processor supporting the following:
• AAC LC, AAC LC+SBR Level 2, AAC+ Level 2, AAC-HE
• Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus
• MPEG I layers 1, 2, and 3 (MP3)
• Windows Media®and Windows Media Pro audio
• One pair of on-chip stereo high-fidelity audio DACs
• 3D SRS audio support
• One I2S input port and one I2S output port, plus S/PDIF output
• High-performance 2D-effects graphic engine
• Studio-quality text and graphics at HD resolution
• Supports multiple layers and windows
• Digital noise and contour reduction (DNR/DCR)
• Reduces artifacts such as block/mosquito noise
• Picture-in-picture
• Supports simultaneous HD+SD display
• Mosaic Mode
• Supports up to 16 video decode/display for video-rich navigation
• Motion-adaptive deinterlacer with reverse 3:2/2:2 pulldown
• OpenCable™ ready with on-chip MPOD support
• 400-MHz Dual-Core CMT MIPS32®/16e class processor
• 64-bit DDR2 DRAM controller
• Dual SATA-2 interfaces for DVR and DVD applications
• HD analog video encoder with simultaneous SD outputs
• NTSC-M/J, PAL-BDGHIN/M/Nc, SECAM analog outputs
• 480i/480p/576i/576p/720p/1080i output formats
• Component RGB/YPrPb HD/HD-DVO outputs
• Macrovision® 7.1/NICAM support
• SCART 1 and 2
• Component, S-Video, and composite via six on-chip V-DACs
• VBI encoders for CC/TTX with NABTS/CGMSA/WSS/ Gemstar®, AMOL I/II standards and dedicated TTX sideband
• RF modulator with BTSC encoder
• ITU-R-656 input and output ports
• HDMI 1.3/DVI 1.0 Mac and PHY with HDCP 1.1
• Broadcom security processor
• AES/1DES/3DES/CSS/CPRM/DTCP copy protection
• MPEG-2/DIRECTV/DVB/ARIB data transport demux with 1DES/3DES/DVB/Multi2/AES descramblers
• V.92-capable soft modem with integrated SiLab Si305x system side device
• Dual USB 2.0 host controller with host transceiver
• Additional host/client USB 2.0 controller/transceiver
• Dual Ethernet MACs with integrated single PHY and MII
• UHF remote control receiver
• Dual SmartCard support

CPU Specification: -


Multiformat HD Digital Video/Audio SoC with DVR and 3D Graphics
The BCM7413 is a multi-format IPTV SoC that is optimized to support SD and ED output resolutions, HDMIv.1.3/HDCP1.2 (up to 480p/576p) and video DAC support for S-video and composite video. It also supports dual-SD decode with picture-in-picture (PIP) output. 

Integrated in 65 nm technology, the BCM7413 offers one of the highest levels of single-chip system performance available for STB applications. The BCM7413 combines a fast MIPS CPU, high-speed 2D and 3D graphics processing, including video scaling and motion adaptive deinterlacing, a very flexible data transport processor, an HD multi-format digital video decoder, a programmable audio decoder, six video DACs, stereo high-fidelity audio DACs, dual Fast Ethernet ports, triple USB 2.0, a PCI 2.3, a high-speed DDR2 800-MHz memory controller, and a peripheral control unit that provides a variety of set-top box control functions.

[Larry-G]

The Uno is far newer than the Duo and as such the Uno has more flash memory and ram, and yes newer interchangeable tuners that are capable of blindscan, all together the Uno is a very different box to the Duo. as for the images there box specific but with regards to the ViX images there pretty much universal in operation across all the receivers we cover meaning the layout and general functions are the same etc.

if you want a dual tuner box with the latest features and best hardware have you considered one of the ET receivers such as the ET9200 ?

[Markymark]

That looks smart. Will that do all what I was asking initially? It doesn't mention MPEG4 - is it capable of that?

This may be a stupid question, but are the vix images massively different from the clark tec ones? I'd there an online manual / tutorials to use the vix images? If I wanted to in the fixture could I flash the box back from the vix image to the Clark tec on, let's say? I know this was always difficult when flashing android phones, going back to the original.

[Larry-G]

You can flash between images at any time you want with no problems providing that the images are of the same Linux kernel version, as you can't go to lower kernels without risking bad things happening

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Markymark]

The other reciecer I've seen is this one.

http://www.icecrypt.com/products/satellite-receivers/s3500hdcci.html

Now I can't find anything on vix images or info on it via WoS. It does say its Linux based. Is it any good?

[Sicilian]

The other reciecer I've seen is this one.

http://www.icecrypt.com/products/satellite-receivers/s3500hdcci.html

Now I can't find anything on vix images or info on it via WoS. It does say its Linux based. Is it any good?

These run an embedded closed source linux OS. Their operating systems wont be anywhere as customizable as the VU+ or Xtrend receivers running ViX Stick with VU+ or Xtrend running true opensoure Linux Enigma 2 OS.

[Larry-G]

The icecrypt boxes are off the top of my head closed source meaning no team images only factory images.

To be honest its been a very long time since I looked towards one of those boxes so I know very little about them. I do however know and can recomend the Vu boxes.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Rob van der Does]

And as you didn't tell us the amount of money you are willing to spend, I can also recommend you the VU+ Ultimo.

And regarding your question about the differences between images: there are indeed massive differences between most images and ViX. Best way is to start with a preloaded image (for which I suggest ViX, but up to you), take some time to get comfortable with it, and then try one or more other images to see what suits you best.