buying advice on a new satellite receiver

[sea beesty]

Hello Everyone,

After spending hours reading the advice on here it is my turn to ask for advice/guidance on some satellite boxes.

I dont want to spend more than £200 really, want a really good picture to go with my plasma tv and like the idea of linux although i have no programming experience in this but sure I can pick it up ok. i dont have a terrestrial ariel and so everything comes through a dish

i have tried 2 dreambox 800s (clones) and both were faulty and had to be returned so i have lost confidence in them.

The 2 receivers that stand out are the Qbox mini hd and icecrypt s4000. i have looked at technomate tm 800 that appears to be very good but the software support may be too limited. I also like comments that i have seen about the blade bm 7000, although this is not a linux box but cheaper that the others.

would appreciate some comments and guidance on this to help me make a decision

[Stanman]

Qbox is not a "opensource" linux like the Et or VU boxes and image support is not as wide on the plus its a cheap twin tuner.

My personal preference is to get a box that is supported by many teams that way you always have a fallback. I would steer clear of the TM800.

My recommendation would be to find the extra £30 and get the ET5000 for your price point, pick up a cheap WIN NOVA T from fleabay and you have a twin tuner albeit one of which is not HD but for than you have a truly versatile box that you can customise to your hears desire.

Check out the forum sponsor as he currently has special offer for forum members and service is fantastic, I dont say that just because I am a beta tester here but have bought all my kit from him bar the VU.

[Larry-G]

also worthy of note, while the linux boxes can not be considered as plug and play and they do require some setup and input from the user. you need no programming knowledge or linux experience to use one, the linux part merely refers to the operating system the box uses and because of that it is infinitely customizable.

[sea beesty]

thanks stanman

if i go another £30 then i am into vu+ solo price range. in your view then is the et5000 better than the vu+solo ?

[Stanman]

There is a long answer and short, will give you the short one and YES it is.

PSU is on the outside so no heat issues - at least for me. There is a comparison of the boxes HW but cant find the link.

It's slimmer and aesthetically more appealing to the eye, the remote is better laid out but not the same quality build as the SOLO.

Just to confuse you even more, If your going to go to £250, the DUO is only ££69 more and has twin tuners as well

[sea beesty]

thanks, dont confuse me any more, my shortlist is a long list !

[Stanman]

In that case buy the ET5000 you wont be disappointed, imho its a very nice box.

[sea beesty]

thanks stanman

I like the sound of the et5000. one alternative i have looked at is the openbox s10 which while it may not be fully opensource linux does seem have many positive features. It looks very good value for money. Do you have a view on the openbox ?

[Stanman]

Never used one mate and no idea what its capabilities are but I would never buy a box that you could not upload your own channel settings to and was versatile enough to use any softcam.

[boxer29]

you can do this with the vu uno or solo as well

Qbox is not a "opensource" linux like the Et or VU boxes and image support is not as wide on the plus its a cheap twin tuner.

My personal preference is to get a box that is supported by many teams that way you always have a fallback. I would steer clear of the TM800.

My recommendation would be to find the extra £30 and get the ET5000 for your price point, pick up a cheap WIN NOVA T from fleabay and you have a twin tuner albeit one of which is not HD but for than you have a truly versatile box that you can customise to your hears desire.

Check out the forum sponsor as he currently has special offer for forum members and service is fantastic, I dont say that just because I am a beta tester here but have bought all my kit from him bar the VU.

[Sicilian]

you can do this with the vu uno or solo as well

Are you questioning if you can use a USB tuner on the Uno or Solo? If so yes you can.

[boxer29]

yes thats right for solo and uno and also for the vu+duo but it has already got 2 tuners in it

[Larry-G]

yes thats right for solo and uno and also for the vu+duo but it has already got 2 tuners in it

that makes no difference about the duo having two tuners you can still use a DVB-T stick with it or any other E2 box where there is driver support for that matter.