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Satellite Newbie Looking For Advice

_BAZ

_BAZ

Newbie
Ignore the prefix, I had to choose one.

I am still trying to get my head around all the available options and am slowly coming to terms with everything, but would appreciate some advice here. I’ve had a few helpful PMs but it’s hard to know who’s just trying to flog you something and who’s trying to help.

My TV deal ran out with “sly” so now my box is basically a freesat receiver. To be honest at the moment we only really watch cbeebies and The Chase (itv) because my 17 month old daughter is basically in charge. However, I do watch the football and rugby league at the weekends and the wife and I like to watch the occasional TV show – although at the moment I tend to just download whatever we watch from private torrent sites, so the TV package was a bit of a waste of money.

Life story out the way – I think I should get a Zgemma H7 box.

My brother and my dad each have a H2H box and it seems great. My wife’s finally come round to the idea because we can no longer pause or record our TV so I wanna get it boxed off before she changes her mind.

It seems the H7 boxes are the best around (feel free to correct me) and I’d prefer to get one I can keep for as long as possible without having to change anything. I’ve had various “android boxes” for running kodi builds off and they’ve never been much cop. The navigation is always cumbersome, it needs to update everything every time you boot it up, and the remote controls were always terrible quality.

I presume if I get a H7 box the menus will be snappy and hopefully the remote control will feel like good quality. I’m not expecting Sly remote levels, but not a flimsy piece of plastic that will break if my daughter gets hold of it.

So there’s H7C and H7S. I believe they're both £120.

At the moment I have a satellite dish and the correct wires (two of them) running to under my TV. I also have “fibre max” broadband with an Ethernet cable running to my TV too. I have never had VM internet or cable.

My broadband package runs out (and is set to do no renew) in late September, when I will be switching to VM internet. Still not sure which broadband package but it will be faster than my current one.

I’ve been told you can’t receive Sly Sports channels via satellite anymore. Because of this, and due to what I have in my home at present, I believe IPTV is the best (only?) choice I have in terms of being able to get all the channels I want.

However in September, could I then possibly switch to a “line” that goes through my VM internet? Or would I need to have had a VM TV deal?

Should I get a H7C or a H7S?

Or would a “lesser” box be adequate?

Sorry for the long-winded post but I just wanna get this right so my wife doesn’t mind that we don’t have a “proper” tv package. The EPG is going to be everything. If I can make it look like Sly or VM’s proper EPG, I’m laughing.

Appreciate any help, tips and guidance.
 
_BAZ said:
Ignore the prefix, I had to choose one.

I am still trying to get my head around all the available options and am slowly coming to terms with everything, but would appreciate some advice here. I’ve had a few helpful PMs but it’s hard to know who’s just trying to flog you something and who’s trying to help.

My TV deal ran out with “sly” so now my box is basically a freesat receiver. To be honest at the moment we only really watch cbeebies and The Chase (itv) because my 17 month old daughter is basically in charge. However, I do watch the football and rugby league at the weekends and the wife and I like to watch the occasional TV show – although at the moment I tend to just download whatever we watch from private torrent sites, so the TV package was a bit of a waste of money.

Life story out the way – I think I should get a Zgemma H7 box.

My brother and my dad each have a H2H box and it seems great. My wife’s finally come round to the idea because we can no longer pause or record our TV so I wanna get it boxed off before she changes her mind.

It seems the H7 boxes are the best around (feel free to correct me) and I’d prefer to get one I can keep for as long as possible without having to change anything. I’ve had various “android boxes” for running kodi builds off and they’ve never been much cop. The navigation is always cumbersome, it needs to update everything every time you boot it up, and the remote controls were always terrible quality.

I presume if I get a H7 box the menus will be snappy and hopefully the remote control will feel like good quality. I’m not expecting Sly remote levels, but not a flimsy piece of plastic that will break if my daughter gets hold of it.

So there’s H7C and H7S. I believe they're both £120.

At the moment I have a satellite dish and the correct wires (two of them) running to under my TV. I also have “fibre max” broadband with an Ethernet cable running to my TV too. I have never had VM internet or cable.

My broadband package runs out (and is set to do no renew) in late September, when I will be switching to VM internet. Still not sure which broadband package but it will be faster than my current one.

I’ve been told you can’t receive Sly Sports channels via satellite anymore. Because of this, and due to what I have in my home at present, I believe IPTV is the best (only?) choice I have in terms of being able to get all the channels I want.

However in September, could I then possibly switch to a “line” that goes through my VM internet? Or would I need to have had a VM TV deal?

Should I get a H7C or a H7S?

Or would a “lesser” box be adequate?

Sorry for the long-winded post but I just wanna get this right so my wife doesn’t mind that we don’t have a “proper” tv package. The EPG is going to be everything. If I can make it look like Sly or VM’s proper EPG, I’m laughing.

Appreciate any help, tips and guidance.
Click to expand...
with sly you are only going to get the freeview channels so the (h7c has 2 cable tuners and 1 sat) were the (h7s has 2 sat and 1 cable tuners) So if your going to get vm shortly i would get the h7c as you can have satellite for freeview on the box you can also get cable on the box when you get vm and you only need the internet you dont need tv deal and you can also put iptv on your box as well so i say that box covers every thing you need
 
gray1313 said:
with sly you are only going to get the freeview channels so the (h7c has 2 cable tuners and 1 sat) were the (h7s has 2 sat and 1 cable tuners) So if your going to get vm shortly i would get the h7c as you can have satellite for freeview on the box you can also get cable on the box when you get vm and you only need the internet you dont need tv deal and you can also put iptv on your box as well so i say that box covers every thing you need
Click to expand...
Thanks.

If I get the H7C (with a view to switching to VM eventually) I can plug one of the two satellite wires into it (is it safe to just have the other wire hanging loose?) and presumably it will pick up any free to air channels (all these?) and then I can buy an IPTV sub to make all channels available. Do they run side-by-side? Like if I choose Cbeebies for example can I set it to run from the satellite, rather than IPTV, but all in the same EPG? I don’t mind if it takes hours to set up the EPG because once it’s done right once it’ll hopefully be okay for a long time.
 
_BAZ said:
Thanks.

If I get the H7C (with a view to switching to VM eventually) I can plug one of the two satellite wires into it (is it safe to just have the other wire hanging loose?) and presumably it will pick up any free to air channels (all these?) and then I can buy an IPTV sub to make all channels available. Do they run side-by-side? Like if I choose Cbeebies for example can I set it to run from the satellite, rather than IPTV, but all in the same EPG? I don’t mind if it takes hours to set up the EPG because once it’s done right once it’ll hopefully be okay for a long time.
Click to expand...

I have mine setup so I have Freesat entertainment, Freesat kids, then IPTV bouquets, entertainment, factual, sports, movies etc
 
_BAZ said:
Thanks.

If I get the H7C (with a view to switching to VM eventually) I can plug one of the two satellite wires into it (is it safe to just have the other wire hanging loose?) and presumably it will pick up any free to air channels (all these?) and then I can buy an IPTV sub to make all channels available. Do they run side-by-side? Like if I choose Cbeebies for example can I set it to run from the satellite, rather than IPTV, but all in the same EPG? I don’t mind if it takes hours to set up the EPG because once it’s done right once it’ll hopefully be okay for a long time.
Click to expand...
with that box you can have sat running cable ruunning and iptv running at the same time (autobouqet maker) does your epg for sat and cable and your provider for iptv does there own epg i have cable and iptv running on my zgemma h2h the epg for cable is first then when i scroll down my iptv epg is underneath my vm and you can just connect your sat cable and get iptv then when you get cable connect a splitter from main line coming in then from splitter 1 cable to box using rf connector on the end and the other cable from splitter to your modem and also ethernet cable from modem to box which will do both iptv and cable
 
Thanks for all the help so far. Seeing as the H7C (which it seems like I’ll be getting, presuming it’s safe to have one of my satellite wires hanging loose?) has room for a hard drive, I might as well put one in there when I first get my box so everything’s set up for the foreseeable then.

Seeing as I’m going down the IPTV route, which offers a lot of VOD, I doubt recording will really be needed so am I right in thinking a 256GB SSD will be adequate?

Also there seems to be a lot of choices in terms of front end. Is OpenATV or OpenVIX the most preferred choice? This post seems to suggest I’d be better off with OpenATV if I wish to use the SkyNEW skin?

Can you SSH into these boxes by the way? Or is everything done by plugging in a USB drive?
 
I dont see why you would need to spend the extra on a ssd, just get a normal HDD.
It will depend on what your suppliers VoD is like, some take UK content I to account, other dont. so you may have a need to record some weekly shows
 
Comparing openatv and openvix usually ends up in a willy-waving contest as there's exponents of both who swear blind theirs is the best:can_of_worms.jpg
 
j1mgg said:
I dont see why you would need to spend the extra on a ssd, just get a normal HDD.
Click to expand...
SSDs have come down in price a lot lately, and the read/write speed (and cooler running temperatures) mean I'd prefer to get one.
Willo3092 said:
OpenViX is very popular and there are other skins available
Click to expand...
Amazing. Your build looks fantastic. I guess that's my mind made up for OpenViX then lol
 
I always use SSD's because they don't generate heat.
I've set my boxes up to record to a NAS so could have used an 8gb USB though.
 
_BAZ said:
SSDs have come down in price a lot lately, and the read/write speed (and cooler running temperatures) mean I'd prefer to get one.

Amazing. Your build looks fantastic. I guess that's my mind made up for OpenViX then lol
Click to expand...
you can have that skin for open atv and open atv is for zgemma boxes not open vix
 
Zgemma H7 is a good choice. For IPTV some you could use Xtream Editor with 7 day catch up on every channel so it saves the need to record anything. Not all suppliers do this but there are ones that do.
 
formandvoid said:
Zgemma H7 is a good choice. For IPTV some you could use Xtream Editor with 7 day catch up on every channel so it saves the need to record anything. Not all suppliers do this but there are ones that do.
Click to expand...

This is the maze I am currently going through, suppliers saying they do, then when you try and set up using hienz/french, it doesn't work and they don't want to know.
 
I just found out my house has had VM before, before I bought it. Will have to look what connections I’ve got near the TV. Am I right in thinking I could get a wire to plug into the existing socket (presuming I can find it) and it’ll possibly be “live” and I won’t need to wait until I get VM broadband in September? If so, what will I need?

Good news - you're in a Virgin Media connected area.

That means we'll be able to bring our services to you by fibre optic cable, specially designed for our digital services.

Our system verified your address as eligible for QuickStart (self installation).

As the property is already pre-wired with Virgin media. ☺

Meaning there's already Virgin media before on the address.
Click to expand...
Interesting.
 
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