Hiya all , I currently use a tm600, bought it to cut my teeth using this kind of receiver (still cutting) , but managed to do with help from here, my choice now is do I upgrade to hd with openbox or should I save a bit longer and go for a duolabs with twin tuner, has anyone had a play with the duolabs and anyone know if they are sold at bowlers in Manchester . thanks in advance for any help given

dont know about duo labs, but got openbox yesterday and it is one of the easiest boxes i have ever set up. i had it up and running in 20 minutes, shame its not linux as its gonna take a while sorting them channels, ive tried the channel lists available.

Originally Posted by cheapcod

Hiya all , I currently use a tm600, bought it to cut my teeth using this kind of receiver (still cutting) , but managed to do with help from here, my choice now is do I upgrade to hd with openbox or should I save a bit longer and go for a duolabs with twin tuner, has anyone had a play with the duolabs and anyone know if they are sold at bowlers in Manchester . thanks in advance for any help given

id go for a Blade Media 7000s over an openbox @ £150 delivered

or save a bit more (alot!) and get a Vu+ Duo, they are the mutts nutts, awesome build and bulletproof imo

but you get what you pay for, if you want cheap and cheerful with uncertain future support then openbox works well

Hi Cheapcod,
Hope you are happy with your Openbox. You have made the right choice.

Originally Posted by cheapcod

Hiya all , I currently use a tm600, bought it to cut my teeth using this kind of receiver (still cutting) , but managed to do with help from here, my choice now is do I upgrade to hd with openbox or should I save a bit longer and go for a duolabs with twin tuner, has anyone had a play with the duolabs and anyone know if they are sold at bowlers in Manchester . thanks in advance for any help given

If by duolabs you mean the Q-Box mini HD, then from what I've read so far from people who own the box, it is very good. Although there's some doubt about firmware and images and whether it will have the support in the future. But for a £200 you could get one which would have two sat tuners and Enigma2 support for plugins. Which in my opinion is definitely worth considering. Even if you get ity with single tuner it will be in the £170 price range.

Here's a very brief shortlist of boxes in sub £200 price range, there maybe others. (Some of these boxes are hardware clones of other boxes)

£35-£70 - you're looking at Standard Definition boxes like DM500s clones and technomates. Perhaps other linux receiver like itgate. These are all standard definition and usability and support vary - depending on setup.

£85-£110 - Openbox S9 HD - a good box for beginners and if you can overlook some of the problems the box has, probably the Value for money buy especially if you're only interested in one satellite system setup. Firmware support is very good and sometime you see more than one update per month.

£130-£150 - In this bracket you could go for the Blade 7000HDs or Spiderbox 7000HD. The Spider comes with Gift+ which would only be useful if you're on more than one sat but even then i've heard it not very reliable. The Blade is relatively new, but seems to have the slickest interface I've seen. Again, I've only used it on one sat (28.2e) so not sure how it would handle a motorised dish or multi lnb setup. The Blade has little touches that make it better than the others in this price range IMO, although there's still room for improvement. Firmware support on these boxes is very good so far. The blade probably plays the most types of media files too and is 1080p making it a potential replacement for a standalone media player.

£170-£200 - This is the price range of the duolabs box you mentioned - Q-Box mini HD. I've not used it as it's only recently been released in the uk, but from a few reviews I've seen, it looks like a box with a lot of potential. The ability to have dual tuners is the biggest bonus, and with some retailers including a second tuner for £25 it seems like a good deal for twin tuner receiver. Probably cheapest around. Being Enigma2 it will also have many plugins to download which is useful. So far not much is known about any other teams who'll make images for the box, but time will tell.

Above £200 - you could get the VU+ duo or solo, or a variety of receivers with additional features.

Generally you get what you pay for, from that list, I'd say the Openbox is the best value for money but it does have some annoying problems which need to be fixed. Only when you start using another box do you realise how irritating those problems are. Personally I'm most impressed with the Blade 7000HD and if you can get one for £130 i'd definitely recommend it over the openbox at that price as in the long run and in day-to-day use it will make life much easier. Receivers with more support are generally the ones you need to consider especially if you're looking at multi-sat setup.

Originally Posted by simmo68

Hi Cheapcod,
Hope you are happy with your Openbox. You have made the right choice.

could not be happier love it great picture, fast scan and very easy to use for a mexican tash wearing person

Originally Posted by cheapcod

could not be happier love it great picture, fast scan and very easy to use for a mexican tash wearing person

What a fine TASh it is mate , something to be proud of !!