Hello to all, newbie poised on the brink...

[BB Baboonface]

Hi folks,

Just checking in as a matter of courtesy, the fact is that i'm not sure if the sphere of enthusiast satellite is the right direction for our odd little household. That said, we are tiring of paying vastly inflated bills for our TV while not using much more than the basics offered by the package we are paying for (Not looking to ask about defrauding paid services btw!)

While numerous work colleagues recommend various dubious "boxes" that can be found on the web, and there is the possibility of Freesat, as someone into customising/modifying things to personal tastes elsewhere in life (cars, albeit not so much fast and furious style) the lure of some quality hardware like a VU+ is quite appealing.

However, the reality seems rather daunting right now. Hope to continue reading your resource and learn a thing or two along the way.

Cheers!

James

[BB Baboonface]

You're not inviting us round for dinner you know ;)

Haha! Sorry about the long winded post, a couple of beers and things tend to get out of hand! :rolleyes: :)
Thanks for the advice though, being a little tight on budget has led to considering a few options, even a Prismcube Ruby seemed tempting at one point.

The daunting thing about the VU is that it almost seems more akin to building something from scratch rather than customising.

[Huevos]

No need for anything expensive. Edison boxes are really good value for money.

Also Et8500 is reduced at the minute and takesinternal hdd.

Vu boxes generally cost a bit more but only have more or less the same features.

[Ford1]

1st thing, DONT BE SCARED, these box's, as in any enigma 2 brand, are very appealing, imensivly customisable, fairly easy to set up to get you running in a little over an hour (first time) BUT can give you great headaches if you get out of your depth.
However, from someone who knew nothing a little over a year ago, I have found great hep on this forum, to get the root cause of any issue.

If you come from a sky setup, there is a skin for that, from virgin, no problem, there is a skin for that. no matter what you used previously and have become comfortable using any enigma based box can be configured to replicate that LOOK, however providing all the things you wished you could do, but they wouldn't let you.

The only thing I am truly missing on my setups, is a decent form of "Catch up" viewing, as in freeview play. there are 3rd party addons that get you access to the bbc iplayer however they will never be as good as what is available elsewhere.

Anyway im rambling now, just be assured, it will be the best thing you ever did, and there will ALLWAYS be someone willing to persevere and help with ANY problem you stumble upon.

Good luck

[BB Baboonface]

Thanks guys :cool:

Appreciate the benefit of insight from those in the know, still very new to the field all in all. Hope it is not too cheeky of me discussing options in this thread.

Having a standard fixed dish with dual LNB i'd guess a twin tuner setup would be beneficial to some degree, ready to stand corrected on that mind.
Going to look into some of your suggestions without doubt, but as things stand the Solo SE2 with S/S2 looks pretty tempting without breaking the bank...

[BB Baboonface]

1st thing, DONT BE SCARED, these box's, as in any enigma 2 brand, are very appealing, imensivly customisable, fairly easy to set up to get you running in a little over an hour (first time) BUT can give you great headaches if you get out of your depth.
However, from someone who knew nothing a little over a year ago, I have found great hep on this forum, to get the root cause of any issue.

If you come from a sky setup, there is a skin for that, from virgin, no problem, there is a skin for that. no matter what you used previously and have become comfortable using any enigma based box can be configured to replicate that LOOK, however providing all the things you wished you could do, but they wouldn't let you.

The only thing I am truly missing on my setups, is a decent form of "Catch up" viewing, as in freeview play. there are 3rd party addons that get you access to the bbc iplayer however they will never be as good as what is available elsewhere.

Anyway im rambling now, just be assured, it will be the best thing you ever did, and there will ALLWAYS be someone willing to persevere and help with ANY problem you stumble upon.

Good luck

Many thanks for the inspiration, it is heartening to read.

Back to the cars thing, i knew nothing at all about automotive stuff a few years ago and had not picked up tools for more than the odd wheel change. Since then have installed a full suspension setup and a few other bits, and being a 12 year old car, the old stuff fought hard when removing it!

As such it is overcoming challenges like that that bring confidence in all walks of life, nothing beats knowing you have something tailored to your exact needs and that you did it all yourself.

[Ford1]

and that my friend is exactly the attitude I had, and you need to be able to to get the best out this chosen method of viewing you content. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[BB Baboonface]

Many thanks again folks, getting fired up to look at some of these alternative suggestions.

My Daughter, Father and myself all live under the same roof, was looking at separate setups for me and the old man, but at 76 years old he does not need to be constantly tinkering with his TV. Thinking a Humax or similar for him, and something more hands on for me.

Truly grateful for the input so far. Cheers all!

[Ford1]

honestly, if you set up a Edison os mini, it will be far superior to the humax, and it needs little maintenance, you could have one set up in half a hour, and never need to touch it again for a long time.


And on the snap-on Halfords side of things, as a technician of over 20 yrs, nothing comes close to snap on and their warranty. I use nothing else. and never have since i finished my first year with busted knuckles and missing skin from failing tools.

just my personal preference of course.

[BB Baboonface]

Plenty to be looking into, it has been tough to know where to find info. Very glad to have joined up and have some direct input from folks in the scene.

As for tools, even the Halfords pro stuff is a little out of reach, but at least a half decent torque wrench is better than rattle gunning everything in sight :)

[Ford1]

I suggest you start with a budget in mind to "test the waters" start with something you can afford to play with, the Edison is idel. then if you like it move on to more expensive hardware, and give the Edison to your father once setup?

I bagan with an openbox v8s to cut the teather of using sky equipment, and quickly saw the error of my ways. closed os and very dodgy hardware, then after some research and a budget moved on to a xtrend et8000. Mainly because of the cost and internal hdd. once I was completely happy with that, I removed all the sky box's and installed Edison osmini's in the rooms where tv was only used occasionally, when the technology sorts itself out, I plan to upgrade to a 4k reciver.

So easiest way, start with a "disposable budget" chose your hardware based on current infrastructure and immediate needs, then once your are happy you know what your doing, you can invest more money and time, getting the best setup you can afford.

[BB Baboonface]

Thanks again bud, more food for thought :thumbsup:

Like the look of the Edison, plan is to get something to tinker with for my own setup and hopefully learn the ropes. Guess the Sky box could always be plugged back in to catch any FTA stuff if it takes a while getting up and running.

Finalising ideas may take a little time, as we are all up for a shakeup of the whole system, fibre broadband service, and possibly a cascaded VPN router are up for consideration. Exciting possibilities. Will keep me from insane plans to stick a Toyota V8 in a Mazda.