Complete satellite newbie hoping to learn.

[tomthered]

@cdy I have had an Openbox S10 and its great for the picture both on SD and HD, in fact I think the picture is better than sly, which I run in tandem for now. Running the external HD was easy, just remember it has to be formatted in fat 32 for it to see it. It will run as client and I have read it will run as server, not interested in that for now. The biggest drawback is the now and next epg, which is crap. For the price its a bargain to test the water, as they resell for about the same, sometimes for more! Oh and its only record the channel and watch the same channel.

I have decided to look for a twin tuner model as I am spoilt by sly+, also my missus is always moaning about the epg. I have also considered the Qbox mini and did look at the Azbox clones, although these seem to be more for the expert than novice. Have fun as they say if you need help these guys are the best place to come.

 

[cdy]

@cdy I have had an Openbox S10 and its great for the picture both on SD and HD, in fact I think the picture is better than sly, which I run in tandem for now. Running the external HD was easy, just remember it has to be formatted in fat 32 for it to see it. It will run as client and I have read it will run as server, not interested in that for now. The biggest drawback is the now and next epg, which is crap. For the price its a bargain to test the water, as they resell for about the same, sometimes for more! Oh and its only record the channel and watch the same channel.

I have decided to look for a twin tuner model as I am spoilt by sly+, also my missus is always moaning about the epg. I have also considered the Qbox mini and did look at the Azbox clones, although these seem to be more for the expert than novice. Have fun as they say if you need help these guys are the best place to come.

Thanks for this, pal. It's a shame about the now and then only EPG, but I suppose for the price one can't really complain! I think I'm going to spend a bit more and go for a BM7000.

 

[chrispeters]

i have not long since made the change to sat ...
belive me..ive had a few boxes and dishes too in the time .
i had a motorised setup...but ended up binning the motor (the wife hated all the channels lol)
Now i have a fixed dish to (28.2 sky)

Boxes...if you go for a NON linux box eg spiderbox and others ... they tend to have a very poor epg although the boxes are simple to use .
I had a spider and loved it apart from the EPG !
i currently own a few boxes ..but i love my VU+ uno (£249) its brill ! But its single tuner , i find no need to watch one channel and record another.
Bear in mind you will need to BUY a laptop hard drive and install it in the box yourself.
I also love my dreambox 800HD ..its a beltin little box and can be bought brand new for £150 on ebay(clone)
Just be sure what you want out of your box ... i wanted ,HD,Record,and a GOOD EPG , so that narrows your search down .
Then be firm with the max spend on the box which will narrow down even further .
DONT rush into it otherwise you will end up with loads of boxes that you wont like lol .(like the TM800 at the bottom of my wardrobe)
The obvious problem i see to a BM7000 would be the EPG (which would be a big no no for me) unless its vastly improved ... i would want CROSSepg on my boxes because it is the best EPG proggy out there , and updates by itself ! not sure you would get that on the blade ? i may be wrong though , i never had one.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin.]

Blade 7000/spiderbox/tm5402 have a epg of sorts for 28.2e and more.

 

[chrispeters]

Blade 7000/spiderbox/tm5402 have a epg of sorts for 28.2e and more.

if the blade7000 is as flakey as the spiders epg then it would be a no go for me ... where as linux boxes epg is fab because of the proggys out there , just wanna make the op aware of that , if it is a dealbreaker .

 

[abp1873]

I have to say guys i have used both dreambox 800 HD and spiderbox HD and severe headache and aggravation with dreambox set up, and easy USB set up for spiderbox 9900 and if all you need to worry about is EPG and now and next then read the tv mag, also hearing lots of good things about eaglebox mini HD for £84 but not sure if lot of support for them yet. so I was looking at this as a second box as guy I use for CS gives second calvin cline half price. ( In fairness not had any luck with dreambox as mine came pre-loaded from topboxes.biz and we know what happened to him )

 

[IANB]

you might want to remove the link in your post mate. Against forum rules

 

[chrispeters]

haha read the tv mag for a good epg ?? no thanks.
The poster wants a good pvr too...what use is a pvr without a decent EPG ?
i always setup my recordings off the epg guide , with the spider or my other non linux boxes i did not have that luxury..
with the VU or dreams its a piece of cake .
I understand flashing is easy with the usb stick , but thats the ONLY advantage.
Linux is easy to the the basics like flashing and FTP and stuff after a bit of practice...and it is well worth it in the long run .
ALL the info u need is on here .

 

[thadon]

I got my box sorted, connected it to the sly feed to my gf's house. I gor the fta channels, what should I do next? Cheers

 

[cdy]

haha read the tv mag for a good epg ?? no thanks.
The poster wants a good pvr too...what use is a pvr without a decent EPG ?
i always setup my recordings off the epg guide , with the spider or my other non linux boxes i did not have that luxury..
with the VU or dreams its a piece of cake .
I understand flashing is easy with the usb stick , but thats the ONLY advantage.
Linux is easy to the the basics like flashing and FTP and stuff after a bit of practice...and it is well worth it in the long run .
ALL the info u need is on here .

Thanks for you input, chrispeters. EPG is important because I too like to set my recordings off it. That's whay I've decided against an Openbox. It is my one concern about the BM7000. I'm quite confused by the EPG situation really. Not sure how a box like the Dreambox 8000 can have such a relieable EPG while a non-linux box such as the BM7000 doesn't?