Current most powerful/flexible box?

[realdannys]

So long story short my Dad has been taken terminally ill and has his own room for now with a TV - previously our setup is really simple - living room has a Sky box with no sub for FTA channels and we have an old Technomate TM-800HD which is is connected to a motorised dish and supplies the main TV when there is a game on and also my room the rest of the time.

So now there is a third TV in the mix and the original setup isn't all that great i'm looking to expand, money no object i want to get the VERY best box we can put as a central hub in the living room.

Ideally it'd have 4 sat tuners on it, that way 3 would come from the mini dish and one would come from our motorised dish. What I was hoping to do is have everything go into one box and somehow supply three TV's.

Now I realised we only have one feed from the motorised dish - I was hoping you'd be able to pair up bouquets with the motorised dish tuner only and thus clines which match that one tuner - then set the other tuners to only come into action if a FTA channel is selected. Is that possible?

95% of the time FTA channels will be watched in the main room. So in terms of features I know there are no boxes with dual HDMI feeds out, so id probably look for either streaming one of the tuners to the other room, or using the partner plugin ive seen in which you can use a second box to access the tuner on the first box and its HD recordings. The house is wired with ethernet so no problems connecting the boxes there.

So to do a bullet list id like


Most powerful box on the market right now
4 tuner inputs
Ability to access those tuners individually on 3 TV sets which some kind of solution
Ability to stream to iPad/Mac again with a different channel to that being shown on the main TV



Would the VU+ Duo2 still be the best for this or are there better more powerful options now?

[abu baniaz]

Sorry to hear about your father.

You can use the partner box plugin or RemoteChanenlStreamConverter plugin to stream the videos from one receiver to other receivers on the network. Even the TM800 will do so too. Your limitation, if any, will be the number of tuners.

Any receiver can stream within the local network. If on WAN, then you definitely need Transcoding. (You must set up your receiver properly to avoid compromising your network. There was lovely guide by Pembo, IIRC on how to do this.) Again, your restriction will be tuners.

You will have to consider how many Transponders will be occupied at any one time. If all your tuners are on different transponders, you wont be able to stream a channel on a differnt TP to another device. You will still be able to stream teh ones on the same TPs. You can add USB tuners for Terrestrial channels, that will give you a fifth/sixth tuner and ensure greater freedom.

Your options are likely to be the Mutant 2400, ET1000, Duo 2.

[tappari]

Sorry to hear about your father.

You can use the partner box plugin or RemoteChanenlStreamConverter plugin to stream the videos from one receiver to other receivers on the network. Even the TM800 will do so too. Your limitation, if any, will be the number of tuners.

Any receiver can stream within the local network. If on WAN, then you definitely need Transcoding. (You must set up your receiver properly to avoid compromising your network. There was lovely guide by Pembo, IIRC on how to do this.) Again, your restriction will be tuners.

You will have to consider how many Transponders will be occupied at any one time. If all your tuners are on different transponders, you wont be able to stream a channel on a differnt TP to another device. You will still be able to stream teh ones on the same TPs. You can add USB tuners for Terrestrial channels, that will give you a fifth/sixth tuner and ensure greater freedom.

Your options are likely to be the Mutant 2400, ET1000, Duo 2.
Not ET10000 since it doesn`t work with 4 C/T2 tuners.

[Sicilian]

Not ET10000 since it doesn`t work with 4 C/T2 tuners.

?? Op hasn't mentioned C/T2, this is about Satellite DVB-S/S2.

[DaMacFunkin]

Would the VU+ Duo2 still be the best for this or are there better more powerful options now?

Ive just been informed that the Solo 4k will be available from the 25th of October, this will be the most powerful box on the market at that time, if I understand how the FBC on that box works correctly then you would only need 2 feeds from the mini dish leaving you just needing a third tuner for the motorised.
Be careful, some retailers are taking orders without warning people that they don't yet have stock, one retailer defiantly insinuated to me they was in stock when they were not, I have now requested a refund.

[world-of-satellite.co.uk]

Ive just been informed that the Solo 4k will be available from the 25th of October, this will be the most powerful box on the market at that time, if I understand how the FBC on that box works correctly then you would only need 2 feeds from the mini dish leaving you just needing a third tuner for the motorised.
Be careful, some retailers are taking orders without warning people that they don't yet have stock, one retailer defiantly insinuated to me they was in stock when they were not, I have now requested a refund.

When official details including confirmed shipping dates are given to us we will start taking pre-orders, until then we won't be adverting them.

[twol]

Ive just been informed that the Solo 4k will be available from the 25th of October, this will be the most powerful box on the market at that time, if I understand how the FBC on that box works correctly then you would only need 2 feeds from the mini dish leaving you just needing a third tuner for the motorised.
Be careful, some retailers are taking orders without warning people that they don't yet have stock, one retailer defiantly insinuated to me they was in stock when they were not, I have now requested a refund.

Over the coming months there will be several "4K" boxes out there ... As ref the above quote, a few Web sites are alread advertising them ... Be they available or not:)
So I would suggest going with what is currently available or postponing any changes to late 4Q2015 so that we have feedback from early users:). .... And know which images are available and what truly works....... Having spent a lifetime in IT, never believe the marketing blurb:):)

[realdannys]

Sorry to hear about your father.

You can use the partner box plugin or RemoteChanenlStreamConverter plugin to stream the videos from one receiver to other receivers on the network. Even the TM800 will do so too. Your limitation, if any, will be the number of tuners.

Any receiver can stream within the local network. If on WAN, then you definitely need Transcoding. (You must set up your receiver properly to avoid compromising your network. There was lovely guide by Pembo, IIRC on how to do this.) Again, your restriction will be tuners.

You will have to consider how many Transponders will be occupied at any one time. If all your tuners are on different transponders, you wont be able to stream a channel on a differnt TP to another device. You will still be able to stream teh ones on the same TPs. You can add USB tuners for Terrestrial channels, that will give you a fifth/sixth tuner and ensure greater freedom.

Your options are likely to be the Mutant 2400, ET1000, Duo 2.

Thanks for that Abu and the other guys for bringing up the possibility of the 4k boxes.

I was wondering, if I were have a Duo2 as a main server and then perhaps a couple of VU+ Zero boxes in secondary rooms, will it intelligently match the available clines to channels selected etc? Is it possible to set bouquets to certain tuners, so for instance obviously the channels not on Astra 2 will only be accessed on the motorised dish and it wont be trying to tune in via the minidish. Is it possible to select a channel on a streaming device and have it move the dish to tune in to it too, as if this were a proper 2nd screen?

I'm mainly interested to see how well the main box would use the tuners/multiple dishes/clines when controlled from the secondary boxes, recording and streaming devices.

Also RE streaming over your internal lan, ive got everything linked up with gigabit ethernet, how does it compare to the HDMI output? I'm just thinking on a third TV if the quality is comparable to the HDMI out anyway, it makes as much sense to stream to one of the TV's as it does to have a slave box control it (at least financially)

[duoduo]

Surprised you missed the but about Clines Abu, not like you hahaha

[abu baniaz]

read it after a long day at work, so missed it

@op, we don't do line talk on the forum.

[realdannys]

Ok sorry about the non-allowed chat, I'll have to ask that elsewhere i guess.

So a couple of questions I had based on above. If i were to get the Duo2 and say two Zero's in other rooms. Is the RemoteChanenlStreamConverter output as good as the local HDMI on the main box if you're on a gigabit wired network? Or will it take some compression and thus loss of quality?

It seems the best idea really is to have a master box with 4 tuners (eg the Duo2) and let it manage all the signal routing for other boxes, rather than supply one box each, then at least you can also access your recordings from one central area too.

[DaMacFunkin]

There is no transcoding happening at all, so the quality of the picture you see on the slave box is the same quality you would have seen on the master box, bear in mind if you have 2 full HD streams going over your network at the same time this may bottleneck some of your time critical operations. Might do, I dont know how good your cables, router, upload speed are.

[realdannys]

Excellent, should be fine RE bandwidth, I imagine Sat feeds are no more than a few MB/s and everything is going over a gigabit network. So thats good news anyway, its effectively just sending the LNB feed around the other boxes.

The next question would be, is the EPG just as fast on the Zero boxes as the Duo2? The one thing I find horrendous on most Enigma2 boxes is the laggy EPG (and the hideous design even with most skins) but speed would be paramount, I just guess they haven't caught up with things like the Apple TV/Firestick/Chromecasts in terms of nav speed.

[realdannys]

Oh and also RE the tuners. If I have the Duo2 and three feeds are from the Sly dish, and the forth is from my motorised dish, will this work ok? Can I set it via one of the images to tell it which tuner has the motorised dish and also set it so certain bouquets will only try to access channels not on Astra 2 via the motorised dish/tuner?

[realdannys]

Can anyone give any feedback on the last two questions before I pull the trigger or might I be better off asking in the VU+ section?

[abu baniaz]

You've already been reminded not to make multiple threads for same issue. There is no need to start another thread. You are actually better off asking image questions in the image support question.

Services become available to tuners that are compatible with them. You do not assign services to tuners. The image decides what to use based on what is going on/being requested. You can set the preferances, it takes these into account. If you do not want to use the motorsied dish for the 28.2 services, you can set the dish to "Positioner selecting satellites". Do not enable 28.2. That tuner then becomes unable to receive 28.2 services and receiver will not try to use it for 28.2 services.

If you have four tuners, they are independent. The only time that this would nt apply would be if you had a multi port LNB and also had a cable direct from LNB to tuner, by passing the motor.

[realdannys]

Thanks Abu, I didn't want to buy the Duo2 box and find out that it wouldn't be happy at all with my motorised dish on one tuner and a static mini dish on the other 3. I only have a single tuner box at the minute, so I assume you can set three of the tuners to just Astra 2 (the static dish) and the 4th tuner I can set power and control the motor the way i currently do with my single tuner box?

Any idea of the EPG speed differences between the VU+ boxes, if any? Or do they all have enough power to make EPG browsing and channel zapping just as fast as each other these days? (The Technomate TM800 even with the best image is still sluggish, slow and dated looking)

[abu baniaz]

It has already been mentioned that tuners are independent. You can even have four motorised dishes if you wanted. Receiver might not have enough power, but with a positioner, you can do it. They'll be independent.

The TM800 is poor. It does not even do OpenTV epg and is stuck on pli 2.1 IIRC. Not worthe comparing it with otherreceivers although it has superb picture quality owing to the Phillips chip.

Some people find the Duo2 is slower on chanenl changing than other receivers in its class owing to the LCD screen. It is one of the most powerful receivers out there. Best wait for feedback from owners before accepting this view.

[Huevos]

@realdannys.

Everything is handled on the server box as if you were viewing from that box. Everything, meaning tuner selection, dish selection, subscription card selection, service entitlements. And all this is handled completely automatically.

Then the client box, using RCSC, creates an identical duplicate channel list, and any resources that are available on the server become available to the client. If any resource is only available once (in your case the motorised dish) it will be allocated on a "first come first served" basis.

[Huevos]

if I understand how the FBC on that box works correctly then you would only need 2 feeds from the mini dishThat is not true. Each feed can only carry one block at any one time. So to be able to access transponders from all four blocks at any one time would require four feeds and four tuners.

So in the case of the Solo 4K the maximum it will be able to access at any one time (if it has a DVB-S2 twin tuner card installed) is 2 blocks + 2 transponders.

[DaMacFunkin]

So how foes the fbc work then I thought you should already be able to access all transponders in one block at the same time now, the only way it can work and be any different is to provide horizontal on one tuner and vertical on another therefore only needing 2 feeds, if it doesn't work like that then it is no different to how it works now so wouldn't need the title of full band capture ???

[2stein]

So how foes the fbc work then I thought you should already be able to access all transponders in one block at the same time now, the only way it can work and be any different is to provide horizontal on one tuner and vertical on another therefore only needing 2 feeds, if it doesn't work like that then it is no different to how it works now so wouldn't need the title of full band capture ???
we've already had that discussion in the solo 4k thread, and the conclusion was afaik: 1 fbc tuner can decode the frequency spectrum of 1 block... all transponders of the block simultaneously. however due to the limitation of demuxers to 8 it can only support 8 transponders simultanously. so, 1 fbc tuner is equivalent to 1 conventional tuner plus 7 loopthrus.

[realdannys]

@realdannys.

Everything is handled on the server box as if you were viewing from that box. Everything, meaning tuner selection, dish selection, subscription card selection, service entitlements. And all this is handled completely automatically.

Then the client box, using RCSC, creates an identical duplicate channel list, and any resources that are available on the server become available to the client. If any resource is only available once (in your case the motorised dish) it will be allocated on a "first come first served" basis.

Thanks Heuvos thats very helpful info. In terms of the first come first served basis - I was wondering about that, if you have a channel active from the motorised dish on the main box and you try and change it one of the slave devices will it give you an error message, or it will it just change the channel as if you've selected it on the main box?

[realdannys]

So, i'm pretty sure i've settled on the Duo2 for my server box - the bit i'm stuck on now is the best client boxes to run off it. I was thinking match everything up VU+, run OpenVix on all of them and probably the same skin i choose across all. Question is, if I do that, will the EPG and channel zapping work as well off something like the VU+ Zero as a client box as it does on the Duo2 server? I don't want to cripple the 2nd and third room with a less enjoyable channel hoping experience?

[Willmoore]

I have a Zero as a second box and it is an excellent piece of kit - bit slower than my Solo2 when loading the EPG, (no big deal). Everything else seems to be just as fast.

[realdannys]

I have a Zero as a second box and it is an excellent piece of kit - bit slower than my Solo2 when loading the EPG, (no big deal). Everything else seems to be just as fast.

Thanks for the feedback Willmoore - as long as its not too bad I think i'll go for it, just saw a video on Youtube and it felt pretty rapid navigating, thats what i'm mostly interested in it doing. I was considering a Solo2 for one of the rooms second boxes but I think the Zero will probably be enough as I don't plan to use it for anything but the satellite feeds fed from the Duo2 as I used Plex on a Mac mini for all my other media. It will be nice to use the Duo2 to record programs I don't particular want to collect, stuff that dates or one off shows I want to try, and in Plex I stores the shows I want to own as box sets etc - so I think the combination will work well.

[realdannys]

Just to let people know I went for the Duo2 and a Zero for a second room from WOS. Haven't fired up the Zero yet but have the Duo2 up and running 3 with Sly dish feeds and one from my motorised dish and so far i'm over the moon with what its doing, the speed, the options are fantastic. Haven't bothered with anything except the OpenVix 3.2 it shipped with.

Couple of early teething problems and just trying to figure out how to get it the way I want, but I really am super impressed so far, and i'm not an easily impressed person!

Thanks for the help in this thread.