My initial impressions of the Vu+ Uno

[Larry-G]

i was going to post this on the open forum but dont know if i'm allowed to LOL. comments and questions are welcomed

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This is not a technical review and I will not go into specifications etc with this review,
also bear in mind that prior to this receiver I have not used any other Vu model or any Enigma 2 based receiver for that matter. My satellite experience is with enigma 1 receivers for the past 9 years or so and before that analogue receivers going back to the late 1980's

Ok so ive had the box for about a fortnight what can I say ?.

I honestly never thought there would be such a notable difference between using the enigma 1 and enigma 2 systems. Boy was I wrong on that score.

A few little titbits about this receiver

Single tuner ( interchangeable ) DVBS2 / DVBC / DVBT etc

when I saw that bit I had a feeling of dread come over me because I also have a Dreambox dm600, and while i like the receiver it self in my opinion the tuners in that box are dreadful, they are plug and play and very prone to movement at the slightest nock meaning you have to take the lid off the box and re-seat the tuner card every so often.
This is absolutely not the case with the Vu+ Uno, the tuners this box uses are very solidly built and because of the way they are seated in the box they should not be prone to movement as with the dm600, The Vu Uno like it's older brothers the Vu+ Duo and the Vu+Solo can also use a USB stick style DTT ( digital terrestrial ) tuner essentially turning this box into a dual tuner receiver.

The Vu Uno also comes with 2 card slots and 2 conditional access or cams slots. This should please the die-hard hobbyists such as my self as I usually find I need as many card and cam slots as possible when using a motorised system.
It has 3 usb ports ( 2 rear 1 front ) 1 E-SATA port and the usual rs232 / SCART / hdmi ports etc

So far I have tested this box with a 50 in LG plasma HD tv and a 32 in Toshiba LCD HD tv, comparing the picture on both using my Samsung sky +HD box as a reference. I am very happy to say that the picture quality on the Uno far surpasses that of the SKY box on both SD and HD channels with no breakup or blotching noticed in the 50 or so hours viewing I have done on this receiver.

In the box I am using I have fitted a 320 GB 2.5 SATA hard-drive for use with PVR functions etc, this was very easy to install. I was also quite impressed with the hdd cradle employed by Vu for this purpose.


Flashing a image to this box just as with other Vu+ models is very quick and easy to do, all that is needed is a USB stick formatted to FAT32 a image to flash the box with ( VIX is my preference ) and 5 minutes of your time.


General use
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While comparing the remote control for the Vu Uno with that of the sky hd box and my trusty old dreambox, I found that I favoured the remote control of the Vu Uno which is very well built and quite easy to use. Plus it does look a lot better than the remote control’s of the other two receivers.
Setting up the box once I had loaded the VIX image to it was a doddle, bouquet packs and picons took a minute or so to load up, I never really saw the point to picons my self while using my E1 boxes but now that I am using this box I can see what I was missing out on for all those years.

Obviously being a VIX beta tester I favor the VIX image even though i have tested several others including the BH images, VIX has not let me down at all even though the image i use is the beta version and as such updated daily with various fixes and experimental addons etc. This image is very responsive and quite intuitive in its design and layout. I have had no issues with this image save for one green screen which was sorted very quickly by andyblac ( many thanks andy ).

I would also like to add that the build quality of the Vu Uno is exceptionally high in my opinion, even higher than my Samsung SKY HD box.

so there you go. Ive only been using the box for a fortnight or so and in that time I am immensely impressed with it's performance / build quality / looks day to day operation ( thanks to VIX for the excellent image )..

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Cant really think of any thing else to add for the time being.
If you have any questions please do ask. I'll do my best to answer them.

Please note though, all testing was done on 28.2 sky uk as my motor is not functioning and i'm waiting to set up a new one. Many thanks to silverfox0786 for providing a new motor free of charge and many thanks to the VIX team for the excellent VIX image all your hard work is very much appreciated.

[Larry-G]

ok so it's taken me a while, but i now have a fortnight off work so i decided to try the Uno on my 50" LG plasma tv via scart rather than the usual HDMI port.

In all honesty it's not any where near as bad as i was led to believe it would be. i'm currently skipping around the various HD channels on SKY UK and yes there is a little fuzzyness( the picture is not as sharp as i'm used to when using it via the HDMI port but it's really not bad at all.) i could very easily watch this with no problems. in fact for this fortnight while off work thats where it's staying. got my xbox 360 sat next to it, as well as my SKY HD box and a TM600.

i'm actually quite impressed with the picture considering its using a scart cable.

[silverfox0786]

Mine only runs on scart and it aint bad at all me thinks

the only thing i will say is the skin needs to be optimised for SD as its only HD at the moment