Review of Xtrend ET5000

[Sicilian]

I’ve been testing out the Xtrend ET5000 for approx a couple of weeks now, using a Beta ViX Team image, so thought It was about time I posted a quick review.

I was pleasantly surprised with the receiver styling and looks when I first opened, the pictures I’ve seen floating around really don’t do it justice. Looks great in my opinion. I’ve attached some photo’s too, sorry I’m no great photographer.

I was glad to see that the Xtrend ET5000 has an external PSU, this would result in less heat being generated inside the receiver.

Build quality is excellent, just as good as any Dreambox or VU+ receiver. Remote control feels nice, more or less like the ET9000 remote.

Connected receiver to Diseqc motor, had no issues with a Techomate TM-2600, just sent across my usual Enigma2 settings and away it went.

Tested Oscam, CCcam and Mgcamd, all work well with my official cards, card readers are spot on, as good as any Smargo in my opinion.

Picture quality is fantastic, comparable to any VU+ or the ET9000.

Tested full scanning and worked as good as anything else I’ve tested. This receiver is Blindscan compatible, so if anyone wants this tested please post, providing I’m able to tune the satellite in question in the south east of the UK I’ll try for you.

One thing I noticed it that this unit it missing a scart socket, but to be honest its no big deal as you can use a A/V to scart adapter. Video outputs can be seen in the photos, it has HDMI, component (which can be used @ 1080i) and standard video. So plenty of choice for most people.

F type loopthrough works spot on providing the receiver is in deep standby.

Recording to USB drive worked flawlessly.

It’s fanless design means that it runs silent too, does not get too warm either due to PSU being external and no internal HDD in a compact space.

Overall I think this is a fantastic little receiver that will give any linux Enigma 2 a good run for its money with its dual core Broadcom CPU and 256mb of DDR ram its works really fast! Faster than any DM800 I’ve tried and just as fast as its bigger brother the ET9000!

I think the only negative thing I can find to write is that its does not have any CI slots, but to be honest with it being able to use the popular softcams and great performing card readers, I really don’t see that being a great issue.


Want anything tested? Go ahead and I'll do my best to test for you. Got any queastions? Go ahead and ask


Available from our sponsor here very soon http://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/...llite-Receiver

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[bassethound]

Thanks for the great review Sicilian and the price dont look to bad for a quality E2 box

[pooface]

lmao at those photos Sic... Come on, look worse than many I've seen taken with a mobile phone

Very nice to see that the psu is external... Must prefer that personally. A shame that there's no e-sata port though. I think for adding a hdd, would be much better to have e-sata rather than a usb. All in all looks a nice box!

[pixicom01]

i test the Boxsince 5 weeks with PLI and SiF Image. No Probs. Very good. Now we are all waiting or the VIX Image. I hope this Image will support PVR and WiFi.

[wte]

The USB is fast enough for 7HD records at the same time. (tested)

So in my opinion e-sata is not needed. Most devices are USB anyway.

[pooface]

The USB is fast enough for 7HD records at the same time. (tested)

So in my opinion e-sata is not needed. Most devices are USB anyway.

Not all to do with speed ... just gives user a free usb device that they can plug in, without it having to be used for hdd... But that's just how I prefer it

[Sicilian]

Not all to do with speed ... just gives user a free usb device that they can plug in, without it having to be used for hdd... But that's just how I prefer it

Use one rear USB port connected to HDD, then connect a hub to the second

[Sicilian]

Another update, been using a 16GB Trancend USB memory stick for recording, working spot on, will try timeshifting to it next.

[Stanman]

Formatted as ext? In which case cant add picons and epg?

[pooface]

Formatted as ext? In which case cant add picons and epg?

Y can you not add picons and epg? ext doesn't stop you adding them in...

[Stanman]

Lol was typing on phone and should be "can you"

[Sicilian]

Formatted as ext? In which case cant add picons and epg?

Yes you can, that wont stop you.

[silverfox0786]

the hdd is ext and in ftp that detects just fine so why should usb not

just u cant plug it in directly to pc must be done via ftp or in a linux machine

[pooface]

Lol was typing on phone and should be "can you"

lol, cheers for clearing that up

[punisher]

ext format doesnt get picked up on a windows pc does it? or am i doin suma wrong cuz my usb that was formatted on ext, when plugged into pc asked me to format it constantly as there was something wrong with it lol