Hey, what box?

[Jonny101]

Hi,

I'm a complete noob to all this stuff. My friend got a Zgemma Star h1 box and says its good and works through satellite or cable..

I want to get on the bangwagon and get a box but don't know what is available. Are Zgemma boxes good? What is available to me as I do not have a satellite, only cable?

Any advise would be appreciated!

Cheers

[Stanman]

Zgemma are crap.

What's your budget and requirements?

[Jonny101]

£100-150?

Whats crap about the zgemma? Sorry I'm just not familiar with any box.. Just want one that works with cable, a decent one.

[Roderik]

Xtrend 9500 much better working good more memory and the quality is far more better than Zgemma

[judge]

Are Zgemma boxes good?

Cheap & nasty clone box with no safety checks done.
Also, no ViX support.
Avoid it at all costs.

[Roderik]

Xtrend 9500 much better working good more memory and the quality is far more better than Zgemma and indeed a cheap clone box

[DaMacFunkin]

No official support for zgemma, imagine you have your box and there is a vix update, you install it and your box is bricked? Do you or your mate know what to do with it?

[Jonny101]

As I said I'm a complete noob so don't know what all this vix stuff is about. Is that the best skin/firmware or whatever?

Also just done a quick google on that xtrend box and its saying satellite receiver? I only have cable.

[casuk]

They also take cable tuners, zgemma is OK for a chepo box but it will get on your nerves and you will want to replace it, as a noob you should get something openvix supports as that would be the best image for your needs, xtrend and vu are solid, at £150 you only option really is a xtrend 9500 or gigablue

[Jonny101]

So if I buy an Xtrend 9500 off here even though it says 2xDBS satellite receivers, it's going to work with cable? Or do I have to request the receivers are changed? If so how?

Will happilly purchase an xtrend over a zgemma box, I only mentioned the zgemma one as my friend bought one and it was the only type of box that I'd heard of so was hoping for replies like this that point me in the direction of more reliable and supported boxes, so cheers!

[casuk]

http://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/...-2x-DVB-C-T-T2 this has twin cable tuners

[Jonny101]

Thanks, this looks like what id want. Also do these have the ability to record? I read somewhere that I'd need two cables for this? Sorry for all the questions, just wanna know what I'm dealing with and what they're able to do before I buy one! Also what about gifts how do these work and how do I get one?

[casuk]

Thanks, this looks like what id want. Also do these have the ability to record? I read somewhere that I'd need two cables for this? Sorry for all the questions, just wanna know what I'm dealing with and what they're able to do before I buy one! Also what about gifts how do these work and how do I get one?

Yes you add a hard drive and you will be able to record, to record two channels or watch one while recording another you need a splitter to split the cable and run it to the two tuners quite easy,

[Jonny101]

Fair enough, easy enough! I've already swapped my original cable splitter to add another output for the box that I get so I can just use the original splitter to split that cable again I think.

On the buying screen for the xtrend 8000 it's got options for wifi usb stuff do I need this?

[casuk]

No, i don't use WiFi just the Ethernet cable but if you are a good bit away from your modern and don't want a long ethernet cable I'd say get a WiFi dongle, on splitting cables the more you spit it the more the signal reduces, you will need two connections for the box and one for your modem so 3 in total, or one for modem and loop through the cables going into your box,