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A Buyers Guide To The Best Box

bees

bees

VIP Member
Hi,

I have edited out the sat boxes as most sat users have jumped ship to IPTV
due to the new sky encryption.

I have noticed lots of requests on this subject so to try and help anybody
just starting I am posting this as an outline of what you can expect for the budget
you have got.

(Please don't give me hassle over the prices for a couple of quid here and there, this is just a general outline as I see it at the mo)

Sat Boxes DVB-S/S2

I would have expected the sale of new boxes with sat tuners would be nearly non existant with the new sky encryption.

All Enigma 2 (E2) boxes can be converted to run IPTV regardless if they are sat, cable
or both. There are a few others but in general if it's a closed source box,
i.e. comes with the box manufactures firmware it probably won't run IPTV
One particular exception I know about is the Openbox V8SE.

See the IPTV section for more information

Here is a handy little video if you need to get your head around IPTV

Single Tuner Cable Boxes DVB-C/T/T2

Buy a box, buy a line, and VM broadband package is needed

Single tuner so if you want to record the box basically locks itself to the channel while recording is taking place. Edision OS Mini is about £80, Miraclebox Mini about £70
E2 boxes, so they have good EPG's.

You can add skins, pecons to cusomise the look of the menus if it floats your boat :D:D

HD channels with cable, yes glorious HD !!! yeehaa

Twin Tuners and Above

Buy a box, buy a line, and VM broadband package is needed

All mentioned are E2 boxes, You need a twin or above if you need to record one and watch another, so if you have a triple, record two and watch one etc.

Gigablue, Mutant, Edision OS, XTrend, VU+,Technomate, etc,

These boxes have various models and can come with switchable tuners, 2,3,4

They start at about £120 for a twin tuner and can go up to about £350 plus a HDD for recording.

Any combination of sat or cable tuners, they have faster processors and can take internal Hdd's as opposed to external.

All the boxes mentioned above have official support from Openvix.

Zgemma boxes

Used to be slightly cheaper than the boxes above. However if you ignor the sat side, the H7 comes in at £150, which is more expensive than a twin cable VU or Technomate or Gigablue.The H5.2 is twin cable and is still cheaper at £85.

Zgemma are E2 boxes like the ones above but I have singled them out due to the Openvix issue.

They are not supported by Openvix. Some models can take a modded Openvix image.
But using facilities like online updates and plugins could give you issues.

They are however supported by OpenATV, so my advise would simply be, if you want to run Openvix buy a box with official support.

If you want to use a Zgemma then run an OpenATV image.

Finally 4K,UHD,H.265, HEVC capable boxes.

Various makes and models, generally faster processors which helps flicking through the EPG and switching between channels. UK card share does not broadcast any 4K.

You will need to use Oscam to run your line, if it's not a 4K box you can also use CCam or Mgcam which is slightly easier to set up.

So if you want it, stream it off the net or get a motorised dish and a Euro sat subscription or dare I even mention getting a genuine subscription for your new shiny 4K ready TV. :D:D


Oh !

You can request recommendations for a sat line in the general sat section, there is a similar thread for cable in the general cable section and also in the IPTV section

Please read the advisory on the first page before requesting ;)

I hope that this will help any newbies starting out to sift through the the info quicker, there are plenty of other boxes out there
but I have just tried to narrow down the field a bit.

Finally, don't buy a box nobody has ever heard of, if you get stuck you may be on your own, all boxes mentioned above have plenty of support on the forum,

good luck, there is plenty of help about if you take the plunge !!! :👍:

Edited 27/10/17
 
Last edited:
You missed out building your own and boxes like the wetek

It is good to have this laid out but I can't see people looking at it I haven't been here super long but i see people still asking the same questions when there is clearly topics with them so unless they start getting strict here it will continue.
 
mortmaru said:
You missed out building your own and boxes like the wetek

It is good to have this laid out but I can't see people looking at it I haven't been here super long but i see people still asking the same questions when there is clearly topics with them so unless they start getting strict here it will continue.
Click to expand...
So why not write it here yourself? At least it will be in the right thread for others to find.

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Bees you say

Combo Boxes
Buy a box, buy a sat line, buy a cable line, use an existing sat dish and VM internet.
These have a cable tuner and a sat tuner so basically a twin tuner, HD on the cable side,
record one channel and view another on sat or cable or vise versa. Approx £150 - 200 plus HDD.

Can you you run 2 softcams at the same time in a Zgemma H1 or H2 or Mutant HD2400?
I can only run one softcam in my current Amiko Alien2 Triple with HDMU.
I have put a cline(sat) and nline(cable) in mgcamd but the cline goes to sleep and stops working if not used by viewing a sat channel.

Thanks.
 
No you can't run two softcams at the same time in any box that I know of.

It is best if both lines are the same type i.e. N lines run using MG Cam 1.38 seems to be the most common setup.

However if you end up with a C line and an N line, it's not the end of the world, you can run both lines using CCcam 2.3.0

Generally the first option is preferred.
 
Last edited:
bees said:
No you can't run two softcams at the same time in any box that I know of.

It is best if both lines are the same type i.e. N lines run using MG Cam 1.38 seems to be the most common setup.

However if you end up with a C line and an N line, it's not the end of the world, you can run both lines using CCcam 2.3.0

Generally the first option is preferred.
Click to expand...

Bees, thanks for the reply.
I have put a cline and an nline in mgcamd and they both work but as I say above the cline for sat can go to sleep while watching a cable channel. After a restart the cline will work ok again.
If I could just stop the cline going to sleep it would be fine. Sadly I don't know of a way to do this.
 
Philip1 said:
I have put a cline and an nline in mgcamd and they both work but as I say above the cline for sat can go to sleep while watching a cable channel. After a restart the cline will work ok again.
Click to expand...

you nee to add them to ccam not mgcamd for them to work together
 
Sorry about the noobness of this question but with a cable box can you get all the channels you can get with sat box? But in HD. If so what's the vu+ solo2 equivalent on a cable box. And how do the servers compare I price?

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You get the same on cable as you do with sky, but with the HD channels,

Servers are £60-80 per year (ball park) so it's more expensive than sat
 
Can someone please clarify something for me. In the OP under combo boxes. It says existing sat dish and VM broadband. I basically have a sky dish at the moment with a sat cline, however due to cable getting the HD i would prefer that. Can i get combo box and plug in my sky dish with a cable line. I assumed to get cable lines you would need a cable dish or whatever it is you get. I have VM broadband.
 
reddevil1, you are nearly there!
Satellite: Dish needed + typically a sat cline usually run in a cccam softcam emu.
Cable TV: Active Virgin Media TV coax cable coming into the house - you will have that as you have VM broadband + typically a cable nline usually run in an mgcamd softcam emu.
So then yes you would use a combo box. An E2 enigma based box is best as you can get good epgs for your channels. A low cost example is the Zgemma H1 or H2. A better box would be a Mutant HD2400. There are lots more out there.
Regarding running the lines together see early posts in this thread.
 
@Philip1, put both your line in a CCcam.cfg file in the ETC folder.

Run them in CCcam2.3.0 instead of MgCamd, that will
keep both line working all the time.
 
bees said:
@Philip1, put both your line in a CCcam.cfg file in the ETC folder.

Run them in CCcam2.3.0 instead of MgCamd, that will
keep both line working all the time.
Click to expand...

Bees, thanks for pointing it out again. My problem is that my cable nline supplier says cccam users will be banned!. Don't know why - will ask him.
 
Oh, I see now, most supply N lines on the cable side and I have seen a few
mentioning the CCcam thing, not sure as to the reason why myself.

Seen one go bust in the first few months of cable re starting on the c/s side.

I got the impression his lines where being re-shared using CCcam by his customers.

Then he got loads of stick about a crap service and went bang.

That was just reading between the lines though, i'm not certain.
 
Hi all.

I am looking for a recommendation for a box.

Looking through this thread. I was originally considering a vu zero.

I saw a lot of good things about the xpeed lx2. I don't necessarily need two tuners, although I liked that one was a hybrid and I may use it for terrestrial.

I have concerns about the processor though, I would prefer something maybe one step up without vu duo2 prices.

So preferably (in this order)

1 sat, 1 hybrid
2 sat
1 sat

Enigma 2 and PVR capable.
Faster than 700mhz processor.

And a separate question, are there channel lists that will just show the freesat channels. I am not interested in any lines just yet. Or would I need to just edit lists myself?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
Well this thread is an absolute bust...

Would have been better off doing the 'wrong' thing and starting a new thread.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
moleyv said:
Well this thread is an absolute bust...

Would have been better off doing the 'wrong' thing and starting a new thread.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This thread is to give you an idea but if you want certain questions asked try the search feature to see if your question has been asked and answered already. There are loads of topics on hybrid boxes but you have to accept low cost equals low power you can't have both low cost and high power so decide what you want, low cost or high power.
 
So you are saying there is nothing available on the market in between a lx2 and a vu duo2.....

A condescending tone doesn't help either.

I can easily search and research boxes if I am given a few options.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
My tone wasn't condescending, I was simpling offering some advice to help you find the answers you needed as I didn't have an exact answer for you

but hey sorry for trying to help out, I'll know for future lol
 
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