Help! What do I buy?

[aemous]

I need some advice regarding a new satellite receiver.

I've been using a Technomate TM5200D for a few years and it's done pretty much all I have wanted - general watching and a little bit of feed hunting too. Unfortunately it packed-up a week or two ago, so I've been using an old TM1500 CI+ Super (which was my first receiver), but the tuner sensitivity in it isn't great, so I'm in the market for a new, cheap receiver.

I can get a refurbished TM5200D for £25-ish off eBay, or I could splash out a bit more and get the much newer TM5402 HD M3 which looks nice. Whilst researching on the internet I came across a couple of interesting looking Linux-based receivers, i.e. the Technomate TM-Nano SE and the Vu+ Zero, which are both around my price range.

Unfortunately I know nothing about Linux but am quite prepared to learn and tinker if there's a good source of information and it doesn't take months ;-)

I have 3 fixed dishes - a 1.1m, an 88cm and an old Sky dish, which between them have 9 LNBs in all, feeding through a couple of diseqc switches, so I'd need a receiver capable of being able to deal with these, which I suppose pretty much any receiver can - just making sure ;-)

Also, my girlfriend's Norwegian, and on both my old Technomates she could watch NRK as I'd installed a softcam on them a couple of years ago. This softcam support for the Technomate receivers seems to have stopped now as they've got older, so can anyone tell me if there is an equivalent for the above Linux receivers? What are the "images" that I keep seeing mentioned?

Can any of the experts here advise me please as I really don't know what to get?

The easy way would be to just get the refurbished TM5200D or the new TM5402 HD M3, but I think there may be an opportunity here for me to leap into new territory, but I *do* need a "softcam" equivalent.

Thanks

[Suttsy]

Get yourself a Vu Solo2, you wont go wrong.

[aemous]

Get yourself a Vu Solo2, you wont go wrong.

Yes, but why would that be better than a Technomate Nano?

[aemous]

Well thanks so much everyone.

What a helpful bunch.

[Larry-G]

Well thanks so much everyone.

What a helpful bunch.

It is a large forum and some times posts get lost in the jumble, plus others may not comment if they don't have any particular experience to offer.

Most of the users here will have no or very little experience with closed source receivers like the ones you are used to, the last time I used one my self was well over ten years ago.

Both the Zero and the Nano SE will pretty much do every thing you want and can be setup with your existing dish configuration, we can't really help with the softcam bit though unless you have a legitimate subscription card for the services you want to receive (for legal reasons).

Feed hunting is not something most E2 boxes get used for or are really any good at to be honest, only some E2 based receivers have the ability to blindscan and even then results can wildly differ from box to box. As far as I am aware the Vu+ Solo2 has some of the strongest tuners for blind scanning although it is a good way out of your £100 price range.

[cactikid]

yes i was surprised when i replaced a vu solo with the single tm nano se a very fast little box,but if you want to record solo2 got that also excellent box also.still waiting on an update for my first tm 1000d

[manicscrewdriver]

If your going down the closed source route i would recommend the TM 5402HD its a good little receiver, although as said by the previous posters an Enigma 2 based linux receiver may or may not be a better option. If your feed hunting most Enigma receivers are not suitable due to the lack of a proper blind scan function although most Enigma 2 boxes have a lot more toys on them to plat with.

One of the main difficulties for new users of closed source boxes is that with a Linux receiver comes a very steep learning curve if your only used to closed source receivers, this sometimes completely stops new users in their tracks. There is lots of help available here so if your up for the challenge i would recomend an Enigma 2 Linux based receiver to anybody.