Talk to me about the AZBox....or the IcecryptS4000

[Twigman]

While getting frustrated waiting for the Vu+ I am looking around at other boxes..

Two have caught my eye:

The AZBox - native 1080p - able to read 4:2:2 feeds with a sensitive tuner, runs Linux.....

The S4000 2 tuners in a Linux box ?100 cheaper than the Vu+

So why haven't these tuners captured the imagination of the punters like the Vu+?
What are they better at?
What are they worse at?
Why should I not buy one of them instead?

[bobonthejob]

I was suggested the Icecrypt box...but the Vuplus came during my search and decided to go for that. vuplus for me :)

[kingy29]

Too many things don`t work on the Azbox Premium and its not open source, the image updates are a joke.

[grtmoby]

I have read and searched about the azbox for almost a month, downloaded the owner manual....etc
finally i found that it has so much draw backs and issues. its software is still in beta although it has been over the year since been in the market. I tried to look for another receiver till i found the vu and read about it.
I made up my mind and decided to go with it rather than a dreambox (dm800 is basic compared to it while the dm8000 is so much over priced).

keep up reading and searching but, i think by the end, the vu is a winner...

[renwich]

Dont buy an AZBOX they are great media players, but the support is sh%t, I wish I'd had the choice of the VU+ Duo, , but then again I mainly use the media player functions of the box, how does the VU+ duo do on the media side of things. can you play content i.e divx or mkv's directly off the box..? or is it all streaming

[Sicilian]

Dont buy an AZBOX they are great media players, but the support is sh%t, I wish I'd had the choice of the VU+ Duo, , but then again I mainly use the media player functions of the box, how does the VU+ duo do on the media side of things. can you play content i.e divx or mkv's directly off the box..? or is it all streaming

Tested playing 720 & 1080 mkv's from network mounted HDD and they played perfect. Both had DTS audio :) xvids played stretched though for some reason, not sure why atm.

[reddishd]

Go for the VU+duo wins every time I have tested both receivers and they are miles apart. Go with the Duo you will not be disapointed.

[paul362]

Got my m8's Azbox premium here @ the mo and im playing with the E2 patch files but they are very very Alpha at the moment ! My advise is DO NOT BUY AN AZbox if you want reliable viewing go with the solo or duo and you will be a happy camper.

[irishchris]

Hi I owned and struggled with my azbox for over a year and was let down again and again and again as opensat promised and failed to improve it with shocking support. Its not open source and is like a stone age piece of equipment compared to vu+. Media side of azbox was ok but rest was disaster - made a huge loss on it just to get rid of it and buy a vu+ which was only out a week at the time. But have never looked back since as iS excellent piece of kit and support has grown and grown both official and 3rd party and the VIX image is testament to that as its outstanding also. My advice for what its worth is just wait till you can get a vu+ duo :)

[sivhead]

For me it depends on your budget in order I would go for the following. THE HTPC you would need to build yourself from scratch. So you can probably rule that out.

for £900 you can have a dreambox 8000
for £600 you can build your self a media centre to the same spec running (mythtv, media portal, WMC). this will give you the most working solution for satelite iplayer, internet, email, playing HD content as all codecs can be installed.
for £400 Vu+ duo
for £350 DM500HD

This is just my opinion and everyone has there point of view but I would dismiss the AZbox

cant comment on the s4000 looking at the specs it looks a little better than the VU+ duo as it has picture in picture, although specs mean nothing support is everything, If you can wait a few months then wait if you cant wait get what you can afford from the above. This is just my opinion.