Been given a loan of a Spiderbox.

[witchy]

Many thanks to EuroSky.co.uk.

A quick opinion....

First impressions are very good, lovely quality packaging in super sexy black. Reminiscent of the Dreambox 800 packaging but much larger.

Connected it all up and tuned to Sky News SD. Wooah, Sky News has never looked so good, it's not amazing but it looks like the box has upscaled the image or is doing some sort of post processing on the image, it looks much softer, more rounded than on the Dreambox 500.

I think what I'm trying to say is standard definition channels appear less blocky, less artifacts than what I'm used to.

The OSD is nice, bright and clear and colourful, there is however a ghastly looking 'fanny pad' shaped thing at the bottom right hand side of the screen, it's fucking horrible, it looks like the front fascia of the Black Pearl receiver, lol.

EPG is shite, atleast it is on Sky channels. It only seems to support Now and Next, so that's a bit of a disappointment, again this is probably only on the Sky channels. I'll check out the foreign stuff later.

I've not added anything to the machine yet, so just now it's only FTA.

Like I said earlier, my first impressions of the box are very good, the SD picture quality is excellent and more refined than the Dreambox 500 and even the Dreambox 800. Ofcourse the HD image is immaculate too, but I'll look further into the HDTV stuff later today.

EuroSky had already done the initial setup of the box, I'll maybe ask them if I can do a factory reset on the box and see how easy it is to start from scratch.

I'm off back to my bed. I only got up as I heard the wife answering the door to the Postman and I jumped out of bed like a kid on Xmas morning.

I'll write more once I wake up.

Quick update...

I just added my c line, OMG, it is so user friendly, I can't believe how simple that was.

You go to a screen, using your remote you enter your servers address, port number, username and password, save the changes and voila it's all up and running, no creating files on a pc, no FTP'ing, so simple. There is room for 8 servers, this should be more than enough for 97% of users, maybe more can be added in other ways, I'm not sure.

One thing I have noticed is the zapping time is a little slower than what I found on the DM500 and DM500, but maybe that's a problem with my network/server? Oh and all the glitchy channels on the DM800 clone are working perfectly.

I'm away back to my bed...

 

[DEANOBOY]

Toalie i have just pmsl with that "fanny pad" quote. I have seen screen shots so I know what you mean - absolute top quality mate.

As long as the box aint a fanny pad though you should be good to go thats the main thing. Very interested in one of these boxes but no rush until nearer the football season. Mind you what opens on the patches (without registering the gift) is very good.

 

[JimmyP]

yes i can recomend eurosky a very friendly reliable supplier that cares ccheers mate

 

[witchy]

I've just done a firmware update and it was silly easy.

Download the latest version, copy it to a usb stick, plug it into the Spiderbox, press menu and go to the usb section and choose the firmware, you are given a choice whether or not to completely wipe the box settings/firmware etc or just replace the firmware, I chose to replace the firmware only, it took around a minute to flash then the box reboots itself and your back up and running in about 6 seconds.

The NuevoXstream server is surprisingly stable, so far I've not had any glitching whatsoever, everything on the box just seems to work, no farting about at all.

I feel like I'm gushing here like a uBer fanboy, but this box IS pretty damn amazing from what I've seen so far.

 

[fasda]

yes i can recomend eurosky a very friendly reliable supplier that cares ccheers mate

Well i have just been to their site and that is the first time i have ever seen a direct link of a Pdf file, from a government site, informing you of your legal rights under The Distance Selling Regulations. So looks good to me also.

 

[witchy]

Unbelieveable, the firmware includes code for a MAME emulator!

You just copy the compressed ROM files onto a usb stick, use the usb browser, select your game and voila!

Incase anyone doesn't know what MAME is, it is a Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, so you can play all the old Arcade machines from the 80's / 90's.

I also just found Penthouse HD available on the Gift server, I'll have a look at that later.

 

[Rodbouy]

unbelieveable, the firmware includes code for a mame emulator!

You just copy the compressed rom files onto a usb stick, use the usb browser, select your game and voila!

Incase anyone doesn't know what mame is, it is a multi arcade machine emulator, so you can play all the old arcade machines from the 80's / 90's.

i also just found penthouse hd available on the gift server, i'll have a look at that later.

c*ck c*ck c*ck c*ck c*ck c*ck c*ck

 

[witchy]

I'm no expert, but this box has impressed me from the moment I switched it on.

It's still a 'Diddy' box, but it's a fucking great diddy box!

Perfect for people new to cardsharing. It's just so fecking easy.

From my own personal opinion, this is a good fooking box, which will suit almost everyone.

I love it.

lol

 

[Lost75]

hi mate have you tried streaming films from your pc yet? can it play HD films in mkv format? Does it have digital teletext?

Thanks

 

[witchy]

hi mate have you tried streaming films from your pc yet? can it play HD films in mkv format? Does it have digital teletext?

Thanks

Digital Teletext, unfortunatley not. Pressing the Teletext button brings up the usual 'Ceefax has been replaced...press RED Button..." on all BBC channels, and others simply remind you that subtitles are available on page 888.

So far I've only tried playing Divx ans x264 from a USB stick, the Divx played no problem but the x264 file wasn't recognised.

I'll try various other files and I'll also install the dedicated streaming software on my laptop.

 

[fes_786]

1 question

this box the channel list can u make favourites.etc

and when u scan for channels does it come up with a name e.g. sky1
or some random frequency code??

 

[chronoman]

1 question

this box the channel list can u make favourites.etc

and when u scan for channels does it come up with a name e.g. sky1
or some random frequency code??

you can make your own fav channels list in channel manager(10 i think).
The majority of channels comeup name but there are a few with numbers.Scan under 5 mins

 

[Rodbouy]

you can make your own fav channels list in channel manager(10 i think).
The majority of channels comeup name but there are a few with numbers.Scan under 5 mins

whats the channel manager like? is it network based to dl list or dump to usb?

 

[witchy]

whats the channel manager like? is it network based to dl list or dump to usb?

It's shite, and the PC editor software is shite too.

You copy the channel lists to usb and install then using the usb browser.

 

[Rodbouy]

are the channels sorted at all, or is it just every channel sorted alphabetically

 

[Curly]

........................................ I also just found Penthouse HD available on the Gift server, I'll have a look at that later.

Well??????? :hubbahubba:

Curly

 

[Parad0x]

Another member bribed for a good review...

 

[J]

Another member bribed for a good review...

ive got to be honest here
i would like to here from people that have bought the box,
as i think getting a free or loaned one clouds ur judgement.

 

[witchy]

Another member bribed for a good review...

Me?

Absolutely not mate.

Craig at EuroSky gave me a loan of it while I wait for my TM800 to be delivered. it's Craigs own personal box so I've not to let the kids pour piss into it or cover it in chocolate.

If the box was shit I say it was shit.

I quite liked the sound of it and I'm glad I've managed to get a wee play with one.

It's not all fun and laughter though. I've noticed one or two wee niggles as time passed. For example ccCam starts to glitch after an hour or so, nothing major, a wee 'click' every 20 seconds or so, but it will only go away if I reboot the box. The EPG is shit, showing only 'Now and Next', the Mediaserver feature is also shit, more than half of the movies I tried to play failed. The channel lists etc are shite too.

But these are fook all when you look at the quality of the picture, even SD images look great. It's ridiculously easy to setup, ccCam and Newcamd have never been as simple as this, everything is just so fecking easy, it boots up in seconds, patching etc won't be an issue to anyone, not even yer old granny.

They should rename it the EasyBox.

The market for this type of n00b box is bigger than the market for Linux boxes and IMO Darkman is on to a winner with this.

Right Bobi, can I get a free box now?

 

[witchy]

ive got to be honest here
i would like to here from people that have bought the box,
as i think getting a free or loaned one clouds ur judgement.

Possibly, but honestly I would buy one of these and I'd certainly reccommend them to family and friends.

When you look at what you get for the money, it's really hard to ignore it.

I guess some of you are saying "So why DON'T you buy one then, if they are so good?", well bottom line is I'd be bored shitless with it in a few days, it's just TOO easy TOO simplistic, there's no challenge, no learning curve, once it's up and running then that's it. Like many of you, I spend more time tinkering with my recievers than I do watching them, there's nothing to tinker with on this, it's just too nice and friendly.

Give me a clunky Linux box any day.