Your personal spiderbox writeups

Danzer

Banned
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
30
Reaction score
1
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

Here is my unbiased review of my own Spiderbox 9000HD

I am not a Sat Techie of any kind my last box was a Humax and before that a Manhatton, many others, obviously had many Sky digiboxes.

Sat- Triax 90cm Disec 1.2 with best quad 0.1 lnb
Loc- Scotland East

Spiderbox price Paid - £251 direct from supplier
(included shipping, hdmi lead and homeplugs as I needed new ones anyway)

Before purchase I called the seller asking that the box be setup before delivery as was disabled and since having my strokes I have great difficulty following the forums, instructions, downloads and installing patches.
No problem I was told "just put a note on the purchase when buying" so I did I put the request on via google checkout. and again via an email... no response.
(item was sent a day late but still arrived fast I had purchased it early in the morning and expected it to go that day but it didn't it went the next day)

Box arrived
I unpacked it and immediately plugged it in swapping it over with my old box that I left positioned on 28e with a very strong signal.

To my disapointment they had done nothing to the box at all, no patch loaded no channels loaded, nothing.
Now remember most of you guys reading this are quite technical and know how the scene works and what to do with a new box.
Anyway I get the manual out and start reading, there is no info on the gift, where to get patches or how to connect, oh wait there is a slip of paper with a string of numbers on it so I decide to give the supplier a call to ask what to do with the numbers.
They must use an Indian call centre or something as they were very hard to understand. All I got asked was "have you installed the patch yet?" me "no" them "install the patch and call us back" click they'd hung up.
Luckily a friend of mine had bought one and was struggling with his as well but he emailed me the "patch" with instructions on how to load it on the box.

I decided to read the manual again and install the box and set it up as a clean install first.
I go into motor setup onto 28e where i'd left it and noticed theres no signal, (strange thats where I'd left it) so I position it again no problem, great signal in fact fantastic signal 84% on both signal and quality, so to make sure i'm on the right sat I change TP... no signal down to about 20% christ I must have been on the wrong sat, so I moved the dish again got another great signal changed the TP and bang off it goes again. To cut a LONG story short unless you save the sat position as soon as you get a lock or good signal the sat will move if you do anything other than save the position. This must be a new thing as my other sats never done this. Maybe i'm just not up to this new fangled stuff, but then again i'm a typical end user remember not a techie. (The Manual isnt very informative if you dont know what a feature is. Like I don't know what the Disecq section is for)
So after setting up the box and scanning all the sats I wanted to store I had a good look at it and a play around with it as a Manilla unit. (which it will be when the gift runs out)
As a sat receiver its good enough (ish) I've seen and had a lot better boxes.

In my opinion...
The box looks are spoiled by the the big chrome buttons on the front it ends up making the box look cheap like something out of Lidl but I can see past that, but guests in my house have thought it was a retro box of somekind.
The display is unreadable from across the room due to it being so dim, this is a feature that you would have thought you could adjust via the menu but you cant. (If you can I haven't found it)
That brings me to the internal menu...
Most of you will have seen the screen shots of the menus that are kicking around and can make your own opinion of the quality. I don't know if I have been spoiled by the boxes I've had in the past but I found them to be amateurish and lacking in something. To me there is a feeling of a lack of control, I must apologise I know this is meant to be a review but I can't pinpoint what it is, but there are definately a few things missing.
The channel manager, well there's not a lot to say about this other than if you have a LOT of time on your hands you can probably get a list of channels the way you want them, there are no auto sorting features of any kind. You can Rename, Move, Lock, Delete and add to favourites.
The favourites is one of the best or most useful features on the box as you are able to set the favourites up as categories but again this is available on other boxes. (I beleive with one of the patches there is a mass delete function, again I have not found it)
All the other features (apart from Network) are pretty standard for a box nowadays like mp3 playback, jpg slideshow and games via usb.
I cannot review the network as I have never had a box with this facility but this seems to be the bit everyone raves about, but other reviews I've seen say it is quite limited in comparison to Dreambox and Linux boxws but would be great for a beginner. Well I'm a beginner and its one of the reasons I bought the box and one of the reasons I don't like it... because I don't understand it, but the real problem is unless you've been on the sat scene for a while and understand all the terminology like ccam, newcamd, cline etc you end up clueless. But the worst thing of all is that everything is a SECRET and your not allowed to ask anything cos thats a bannable topic.

Back to the box, everything is working ok I have good strenth signals like before excluding the ones outside the footprint for my area as usual.
So I install the patch, well that was painless... but nothings changed no extra channels, no difference, what next? I decide to search google as by this time its too late to phone "the seller" I find this site obviously but with no info that I was looking for but manage to find reference to the main spiderbox site, well thats no good as you cant read anything unless you log in and it was asking too many questions for me.
I went to the sellers website and found they had a forum and you didnt have to reg to see the info well some you did but at least I found a setup guide for the network and found a use for that slip of paper that was in the box. Aah! there's a secret menu (1111) and you have to activate stuff.
There was also a softcam file my mate had sent over so I now installed that.
I followed the instructions found the list of channels the gift was supposed to open however a lot of them were not opening or had gone off air.
The softcam was working fine though.
I called the supplier the next day, THIS IS NOW WHY I REGRET BUYING THIS BOX.
Me "Hi there I've just bought a spiderbox from you and I am having problems clearing channels, its like the gifts not working" them "do you have the latest patch and softcam installed" me "Yes" ok he takes me through a few things most of which are your std IT questions you know the type.
I'm then asked about signal strengths and I tell him I have great strengths so we go to Thor check a few channels great strengths again we check digi they clear, we check fta they clear, we check a gift channel... nothing. He asks if I have fixed or motorised I say motor and we move to either 16e or 13e and start checking gift channels, now all these gift channels strengths are all between 74% and 84% for signal and quality but are not clearing just says scrambled channel, so he tells me to go to an fta channel *****TV and I get No Signal he then says that your problem you need to get an engineer out to fix your dish, your dish is the problem. I say what about all the others that had a signal and he says "not our problem its your dish" we then have a back and forth where he becomes very rude and at one point calls me an idiot and hung up on me. Everytime I tried calling back it was hung up immediatley or not answered.
I decided to do a bit of investigating and if he had know anything about the product he could quite simply have told me that they were having problems with 13 & 16 east at that time and they were working on getting it fixed. (Which I found on their website)
I have also since found out that Yes they have been able to clear more channels and more are coming soon. What they haven't told anybody is that they are losing them as well some are gone for good others by changing their encryption method.
As far as I am aware if you have a Linux or other net box you should be able to get the same if not more than the spider. But I look forward to the reviews of the professionals.
I was always told to end on a positive so I will try...

Cons:
Front Buttons
NO CARD PAIRING - your "Official" card wont work properly
Channel Manager and Editor
Menu Features
Only 1080i
Navigation
Initial Setup
I don't think the price is that good

The Gift is good but it is NOT as fantastic as the sellers make out

Pros:
2xUSB
MP3 Playback
Seemingly "beginers" network
PVR of your choice
Nintendo Games
Blind Scanning (Really is Good)
Fast Channel Change
The Remote Control

Now remember this is just my opinion and it has obviously been soured by my contact with the "Support Call Centre" whereever it is. And I am just a non technical end user with no knowledge of the network stuff, and if they change the servers I'll never know, because I am not online enough. That and the fact I have a brain injury makes it hard to trawl through the forums to try and piece together the secret info.
Seemingly this box was aimed at the beginner like me with simple network setup. I'll wait to see the techie reviews from Digi etc.
If I had my choice again I would wait on one of the more technical HD Linux boxes to come out and pay one of you lot to set it up.
 
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

I missed out my after sales support from the store directly in my review.

But I too didnt have the best of luck, 1st box I brought I asked the chap does the box have a key... hes says yes so I take it home access the hidden menu and well nothing no key or anything in there.

Quick phone call the next day too ask if I can have my key and the guy at the store was just plain rude and unwilling too help, he just said you dont know what your doing so bring it back to the store which is fun since all I did was switch it on.

So I said right back to store, this time I wont make the same mistake twice ill get him too check the keys on the box and its in front of my eyes...

I was in a rush anyhow but that same guy luckerly saw me and said what you done too the box? I said I dont know but theres no key/code he didnt know what I was talking about so he had a quick check of the boxs serial and he swapped the entire unit, which is very good customer services but could have been avoided in beginning with less headache!

So lesson learned, if your there buying take your time make sure the keys on your box before taking it home or parting money !

Some guys have foned the store and managed too get the key, or from other team members but didnt have much joy sadly so returning to the store was best bet.
 
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

I have a Spiderbox 9000HD.

While it is not perfect by any means, for me, its good value for money.

The "gift" channels" have been going for four months now and the HD picture quality is excellent. When channels go down, its normally fixed reasonably quickly.

I am also running Cccam glitch free. Maybe I am a lucky one, but apart from the occasional box reboot, it never freezes on Cccam.

All that being said, I am looking at buying TM-600 to start to learn the capabilities of linux receivers.
 
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

I have bought one of these boxes without the gift as i bought the two box deal with the eagle box.
I have setup dreamboxes myself but seeing as this was a different box my mate set it up as he has setup many different boxes before.
What i have found is it works fine for half an hour it then starts freezing then it just comes up no signal the signal when you first put the box on is at 85% then it just drops to 2%.
I am on his server and it runs perfect on my dm500 in my house and in my bar so no problems there.
I have read on other forums that it doesnt like a newer version of cccam on the server with an older one on the spiderbox but not sure how true this is.
I was testing this on sly with his server having the new white card.
The patch he used was the magic hd patch 13/4/10 i will have a play myself tomorrow see if any different but maybe other testers have got an answer for why this is happening?
My friend was also testing the mvision hd box as well and this was the same after half an hour and also the mvision remote can change the channels over on the spider and viceversa almost identical.
 
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

my experience and review of the spiderbox 9000 HD


I purchased a spiderbox 9000 HD back in march this year, i will stress i was very much aware of potential problems after reading many posts on different forums, but this did not deter me first impressions of the spiderbox was of a well packaged and what appeared to be a well built sat reciever with remote control and hdmi lead and of course a user manual.
set up was very easy although i had read and read again how to enable the gift and update by certain patches i found once switched on and connected to the dish and of course the ethernet cable attached the gift patch was already enabled.
the dish was already set up i had been using it with an eagle linux box so it was quite a simple task to add my long / lat details and after loading a channel list etc the dish tracked just fine with usals.
the next task was to bring the stb upto date with the patches which are readily available and so after about 30 mins or so i was ready to have a play.
the gift channels provided worked without any issues what so ever, and with fisrt impression with those alone if i had to take subscription for what was available the box would have cost an awfull lot more than what i had paid so on that basis the spiderbox is worth its money time and time again.
next was to try out Cccam and a cline unfortunately this was the spiderbox's waterloo what had worked 100% with the eaglebox was freezing glitching etc.
after further in depth research and being told it was a server issue or my netgear router use an earlier patch turn off ucas etc etc etc. it transpired that the spiderbox is not fully compatible with Cccam only with a much earlier version 2.1.1 and below.
now support given for the box is excellent providing you dont question Cccam issues or rebooting which my spiderbox decided one day out of the blue when viewing a HD channel
there is a dedicated spider forum for run of the mill known problems and where to obtain the latest patches softcam keys and retro games if you wish.
but be warned dont ask any arkward questions or dare to complain because it will be your fault with setup if there is an issue with the gift surprise surprise all the moderators / admins boxes work fine.
as i stated above i some how got a rebooting problem when watching HD channels but with help and an explanation why this happens from bobi this was resolved ( you will have to ask him the reason ) basically reload earliest patch through to latset, to be fair it worked.
however the latest patch available 20/04 makes my box go beserk it reboots itself at will no matter what you are watching, to resolve that i rolled back to the earlier magic patch.
i have tested a server out for one member here on this forum results are in another thread
and i stated there although now the spiderbox has been updated to Cccam ver 2.1.2 it is a lot more stable but there is a lot of work to bring it up to the level of say a dreambox or even the same main dealers eaglebox
it has been promised updates to allow Cccam ver 2.1.3 & 2.1.4 and even as mentioned earlier in this thread maybe the facillity of becoming a server.
on reflection i have no regrets buying a spiderbox and have even recommended it to potential buyers and still stand by that. there is good surport on the stb and it does seem to be getting better and better and at £189.00 you can not go wrong

as a follow on contacted bobi about the latest patch problem and was told to exchange it for a new box, again i have no complaints about after sales service excellent
the new spiderbox works just fine thanks
 
Last edited:
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

Thanks for replies,
Just been having another play and still freezes after say 30 mins or if box been on before say 20 mins freezes quicker.
I as i say dont have the gift ++ as it doesnt matter to me as i have cards in a different location which work fine but not on this box in my house.
Do you think as not as experienced as you guys just a thought with cccam if i have the latest on the server to keep sly ok on 2.1.3 then feed to my house on a dm500 using an older cccam then having a newer cccam on the spider would that work?
My server uses c and nline? port 14000 could that be a problem?
Looks like it could be a good box but with a few problems as i said i have setup dm500s only but this could be a nightmare with people with no experience what so ever.
sorry didnt add
there is no problem with the lnb, dish, cable channel lost when watching tried few times and same things happening no problem when i put in my dm i think if this is the case a very large fly must be landing on it at night time knocking it off :}
 
Re: New Spiderbox - What are thoughts on this box?

Hi all,
Had another play today with the box and yes if you do use an older cccam rather than 2.1.3 or 2.1.4 it does work.
I have on my server 2.0.8 and put a line into the spider from this and must say freeze free since which has been about 6 hrs and a good picture.
It probably will be a great box for beginners as i have used dm's before and from scratch found it hard to setup as new nothing about them or computers to be honest and with this thought it would be harder than it was but couldnt get more simple.
Think the remote could be better as the ok button is what brings the proper channel list up so for beginners would probably be looking for a tv button as in for tv channel listings, it does have a tv button but it is for literally to turn the box on other than that i can say i will be happy with it.
What i would like to know now is what is open channel wise without the gift and how long the channels are open for e.g are you having to update keys etc every few days.
Thanks all hope this helps someone.
 
Have now set up and tried spiderbox and will write full review later.
All I can say briefly for now is, I am very impressed.
Worked 100% on cccam 213.
Box is solid.
Gift so far 100% stable and all round quality excellent.
Streamed from pc to stb simply.
Set up could be done by a Welshman it's that easy! (soory digidude had to do it lol)
Everything about the box is simple to use.

Will give more info when I have time sorry.

All in all so far a bargain for the money.
 
Last edited:
When are you gonna give us a review of the Spiderbox Digidude?
 
PMSL, you've got too many receivers to review!

Send it to me and I'll do it tomorrow, I promise I'll return it ;)

I think it looks like a pretty decent machine TBH.

Hey Bobi, can I have one too? :)

:Cheers:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top