Advice sought; which STB would be best? Vu+ Duo2 or Xtrend ET8500 (or anything else)?

[lippo]

Hi,

I've been reading the forum for some time now, and have just registered to get advice from forum members.

I'm looking to buy a new STB to replace my Amiko A3 which is pretty good, but only has 1 tuner and is a bit slow. The missus is alos technologically challenged and can't work anything more complicated than a Sky remote.

I've been boggled by the variety available; I looked at the Wetek Play box with twin satellite tuners, the Gigablue HD800 Quad Plus, the Edision Optimuss OS3. The Vu+ Duo2 seems to be an excellent choice, but then I noticed the advert for the Xtrend on this site and this looks really good, as well as being quite a bit cheaper.

I have a couple of questions - I have 2 satellite feeds which will go into the DVB S2 ports. I also have a feed from my aerial for Freeview. Can I plug this into a DVB T port and have a feed from the STB to the back of the TV to feed that as well?

Secondly, I have a Humax Foxsat HDR which I've modded using Raydon's firmware so that I can see it on my network and use Kodi to play recorded programmes. Will I be able to do the same for these boxes as well?

I'm also not sure what the transcoding function is on the Duo2, is it similar to watching the programmes on the network?

I'm interested in the Kodi function with the Duo2, but I already have a Fire Stick, Apple Mac Mini and a few other things to use for that so it's not essential.

Is the Duo2 faster than the Xtrend?

Finally, is there anything else that I should consider? I don't want to spend more than the Duo2, but happy to look at anything else.

Sorry if the terminology isn't quite correct!

Thanks, Craig

[cactikid]

duo 2 very nice box as is the xtrend,went for the xtrend 10000 with 2 x sat tuners and 2 x dvb/c/t/t2 tuners using dvb/c.that box was cheaper for me and well supported.
possibly dvb/t tuners can be linked with one feed but may need a splitter before box to supply tv side.
box will need internal hdd wos max size is 1tb but bigger ones out there.
worth getting a 8gb usb kingston stick for flashing box or for setting up epg to.
yes these boxes can be seen on network once mounted.

[lippo]

Thanks Cactikid.

Do you know about the transcoding? Is it a big plus?

[cactikid]

to be honest i dont use it and i probably read up about it and forgot it

funny what google brings up.

http://www.world-of-satellite.com/sh...ma2-Transcoder

[lippo]

Thanks once again. I did do a search prior to asking, clearly my skills weren't up to the job!

[Andy_Hazza]

Personally I would go with the Vu+ Duo2. Excellent receiver.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lippo]

Thanks Andy. I wonder if it's £100 better though?

[Ford1]

cant fault the xtrend models, running a et8000 and it excellent, especially for a first timer. had a look, and couldn't justify the vu money when compared to the xtrend models. its really down to personal preference.

[lippo]

Thanks Ford1. The Duo2 has more options, it seems you can stream live channels to Kodi as well. Also it has Airplay, although I rarely use it.

Is your Xtrend fast to boot and change channel?

[Ford1]

as far as I know, the xtrend can live stream, I have it set up to live stream to my mobile when im out of the house, so I know that works.
as for airplay, from what I understand that no longer works on any e2 receiver. the main advantage to the vu, is they run a full version of kodi, however if you read some posts, its not as responsive as a fire stick. so is it worth a £100 more, not in my opinion. but that is just my opinion.

[lippo]

Thanks to everyone who helped me. I rang WOS and got some more info and plumped for the ET8500 with 2 S2 and 2 T2 tuners.

[Larry-G]

Thanks Andy. I wonder if it's £100 better though?

the duo2 was vastly over priced at launch and is even more so now. So no it's not worth paying a extra 100 quid for it.

all E2 receivers can live stream channels although only a select few can transcode the stream.

Yes kodi is available for some select Vu+ receivers but I would not buy one just on the strength of that feature when a 30 quid fire tv stick still vastly out performs all E2 boxes when it comes to kodi.

[Sicilian]

Yes kodi is available for some select Vu+ receivers but I would not buy one just on the strength of that feature when a 30 quid fire tv stick still vastly out performs all E2 boxes when it comes to kodi.

Many peeps just want an good quality all in one box where they can stream stuff through Kodi and have the TV set top box. Many just want to play streams and install some wizard... VU+ can, yes might be a little slower loading (sure those users wouldn't mind as they got rid of a box under their tv) some stuff compared to an android box, but it still loads and plays most stuff.

[ALIEN1X]

Thanks to everyone who helped me. I rang WOS and got some more info and plumped for the ET8500 with 2 S2 and 2 T2 tuners.

I received my ET8500 last Friday, its a bit of a learning curve for me as IO never use E2/ Linux before. Im still tinkering with the box to get things right recording wise and exporting recordings. have 3 x DVB T2

[Larry-G]

duo 2 very nice box as is the xtrend,went for the xtrend 10000 with 2 x sat tuners and 2 x dvb/c/t/t2 tuners using dvb/c.that box was cheaper for me and well supported.
possibly dvb/t tuners can be linked with one feed but may need a splitter before box to supply tv side.
box will need internal hdd wos max size is 1tb but bigger ones out there.
worth getting a 8gb usb kingston stick for flashing box or for setting up epg to.
yes these boxes can be seen on network once mounted.

Yes the duo2 is a nice box but insanely overpriced, there's far better on the market now with better specs for less cost than the duo2.