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Zack1uk

Newbie
Hi,

I'm a bit lost.

I want to drop Sky, and replace it with a combined IPTV and Sat Tuner. I recently took out an IPTV subscription to use on Kodi (on my combined media/file server/HTPC), and although it works well, the lack of decent EPG makes me realise that this is a bit of a heath robinson solution (provider doesn't offer a kodi epg...yet). I've been directed towards enigma 2 boxes, but am lost as to which one and also whether enigma 2 is the best.....I see Formuler boxes offer very good value.
Hoping that you can give me some good recommendations that will have the following, as I'm really lost as to which box to go for:

Essential:
  • IPTV
  • Twin Sat tuner (that I can use with my existing sky dish)
  • PVR / time shifting that I can use with both sat and IPTV (ideally using an internal HDD)
  • 1080P
  • A good EPG (ideally SKY Q like - assume firmware upgrade)
  • Manufacturer support
  • responsive User interface

Very Nice to have:
  • Ability to run Kodi (due to all my media being meta tagged suitable for Kodi)
  • UHD
  • Gigabit LAN to stream 4k from my server
I assume that I am going to need a box with twin satellite (do I need S2x?) tuners and also an IPTV subscription with two feeds / lines, to enable full PVR (ie watch one channel and record another).

From reading lots of posts here it seems that the Mutant HD51 ticks all my boxes (but with a 1Tb drive is a little outside my price range), and can run Kodi.

Does Kodi run as an app, or is it Kodi or the device EPG (OpenVIX I think). It would be good if the device operated like a skybox, but I could also fire up Kodi on demand?

Also, will the EPG seamlessly combine the satellite feeds and the IPTV feeds?

Thanks in advance
 
There is quite a few boxes what would do what your wanting to but pending on your budget for a box couldn't ideally say for example a zgemma h2s which is twin sat feed you could have remaining sly channels iptv on it able to pause record ect epg listing's for all channels kodi isn't supported by Linux boxes but you can have a plugin called iptv player which is very Simular to kodi but better in my opinion
 
bazcfc1 said:
There is quite a few boxes what would do what your wanting to but pending on your budget for a box couldn't ideally say for example a zgemma h2s which is twin sat feed you could have remaining sly channels iptv on it able to pause record ect epg listing's for all channels kodi isn't supported by Linux boxes but you can have a plugin called iptv player which is very Simular to kodi but better in my opinion
Click to expand...
4k boxes support kodi I have it on my Uno4k but like you said iptv player is better, kodi is becoming a pain to find available links.
 
I was originally thinking about Zgemma, but it seems many people here state they are replacing their Zgemma with vue or mutant boxes (or formuler F1 / f4), so I thought i’d Go straight to the better box. I know that if the UI is not smooth and slick I will go back to sky. I can afford the mutant, particularly when I consider the saving I make by getting rid of sky, just wondering if there were any cheaper alternatives, and tbh, looking for a bit of confirmation that the mutant box would do everything I need.

I don’t really want to run IPTV on kodi because of my current experience (xtream codes), lip sync issues and unreliable epg (only epg I could find that works is renegades and that is a bit flaky.....opening wrong channels, or sometimes black screen). How does an enigma box open kodi? Is it an icon / button in the skin, or do you have to go through settings etc, or is it like a dual boot type arrangement.
 
Zack1uk said:
I was originally thinking about Zgemma, but it seems many people here state they are replacing their Zgemma with vue or mutant boxes (or formuler F1 / f4), so I thought i’d Go straight to the better box. I know that if the UI is not smooth and slick I will go back to sky. I can afford the mutant, particularly when I consider the saving I make by getting rid of sky, just wondering if there were any cheaper alternatives, and tbh, looking for a bit of confirmation that the mutant box would do everything I need.

I don’t really want to run IPTV on kodi because of my current experience (xtream codes), lip sync issues and unreliable epg (only epg I could find that works is renegades and that is a bit flaky.....opening wrong channels, or sometimes black screen). How does an enigma box open kodi? Is it an icon / button in the skin, or do you have to go through settings etc, or is it like a dual boot type arrangement.
Click to expand...
Kodi used to be in the plugin section for you to download but don't know if still there as I use a plugin called iptv player with movies tv series cartoons for kids youtube i player pretty Simular to kodi but better as it tells you update available if you find the right supplier for iptv you won't need kodi as there's different ways you could install iptv and most providers provide epg
 
You don't need to spend a fortune on a box.

1. magbox is designed for iptv and very reliable. around £60.00
2. Of you want android go for a formuler 27+ around £95.00
3. If you want a sky look go for zgemma i55 arounf £50.00

All the above boxes will handle IPTV perfectly well the most important and hardest thing to do is find a reliable supplier
 
NazoDoop said:
If you get a premium iptv server you won't need Kodi. Hundreds or thousands of tv channels depending on which server you go with.
I have an i55 zgemma with the sly style skin and i have been impressed, only cost £50.

However if you want the PVR functions i would go with a formuler z+
Click to expand...
I need kodi for my own media, mostly Blu-ray rips with full HD audio plus a few torrent downloads. Audio Quality far exceeds that of any iptv stream I’ve found and the picture quality is generally better as well.

Formula Z+ doesn’t have sat tuners, so no good for me, but thx anyway.
 
Zack1uk said:
I need kodi for my own media, mostly Blu-ray rips with full HD audio plus a few torrent downloads. Audio Quality far exceeds that of any iptv stream I’ve found and the picture quality is generally better as well.

Formula Z+ doesn’t have sat tuners, so no good for me, but thx anyway.
Click to expand...
You can plug a personal hdd into a zgemma or most boxes and watch them from your hdd off the box if that's what you mean its called media player plugin I use it a lot
 
bazcfc1 said:
You can plug a personal hdd into a zgemma or most boxes and watch them from your hdd off the box if that's what you mean its called media player plugin I use it a lot
Click to expand...
I have about 12Tb (20 years of CD, DVD & BR Rips) on a server all with kodi compliant metadata. Even changing to Plex would be a big effort due to some changes in the metadata. I’m possibly one of the few people who still use kodi as it was intended in the days of the original Xbox!
 
Zack1uk said:
I have about 12Tb (20 years of CD, DVD & BR Rips) on a server all with kodi compliant metadata. Even changing to Plex would be a big effort due to some changes in the metadata. I’m possibly one of the few people who still use kodi as it was intended in the days of the original Xbox!
Click to expand...
just change the format of your HDD to ext4 and any E2 box will play it,
but, if you use windoze then thats the problem, they MAKE you use their filesystem
if you have another HDD transfer the stuff over to it on ext4 format removing the kodi extensions as you do and it will all be fine

Zack1uk said:
I have about 12Tb (20 years of CD, DVD & BR Rips) on a server all with kodi compliant metadata. Even changing to Plex would be a big effort due to some changes in the metadata. I’m possibly one of the few people who still use kodi as it was intended in the days of the original Xbox!
Click to expand...

correct me if I'm wrong
but, isnt Kodi Linux based, whereas an xbox is windoze based.?
yes, microshite took the *nix kernel and bastardised it to run windoze,
but I dont see how Kodi is windoze based and not *nix based,
after all, it runs natively on RPi and *nix based PCs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
steptoe said:
correct me if I'm wrong
but, isnt Kodi Linux based, whereas an xbox is windoze based.?
yes, microshite took the *nix kernel and bastardised it to run windoze,
but I dont see how Kodi is windoze based and not *nix based,
after all, it runs natively on RPi and *nix based PCs.
Click to expand...
I have no idea.

steptoe said:
just change the format of your HDD to ext4 and any E2 box will play it,
but, if you use windoze then thats the problem, they MAKE you use their filesystem
if you have another HDD transfer the stuff over to it on ext4 format removing the kodi extensions as you do and it will all be fine
Click to expand...
All my media is on a windows based server, and for various reasons it has to stay that way. I would use kodi to access it via samba share.

Maybe I’m asking too much for a single box to do the job of my Sky HD box combining fta sat, IPTV and PVR as well as run Kodi as a front end for my network media collection.

mike123 said:
You don't need to spend a fortune on a box.

1. magbox is designed for iptv and very reliable. around £60.00
2. Of you want android go for a formuler 27+ around £95.00
3. If you want a sky look go for zgemma i55 arounf £50.00

All the above boxes will handle IPTV perfectly well the most important and hardest thing to do is find a reliable supplier
Click to expand...

Cheers but magbox nor formula z7 (other than that the formula seems to fit the bill) have twin sat tuners, and the reviews that I’ve read of the Zgemma i55 don’t fill me with enthusiasm that I’ll get the same smooth and slick experience that I get with the sky box.
 
There's a plugin for E2 called MovieBrowser that I use for the movie collection on my NAS.
Similar to Kodi it will scrape movie info and artwork from the internet.

My recommendation would be for the HD51 if your budget will stretch.
It's one of the fastest boxes out there and you won't need to upgrade when you decide you have a need for speed.
 
just get a zgemma H9s and that will do all you need

1. sat tuners
2. iptv
3. connect to your personal media using mount points
4 has the sky look
5. it is also 4k
6 connect a usb drive for recording

If you have not set up one of these boxes before you will have to do a fair bit of research . you seem to be intent on spending a lot of money when you don't need to. it dose not matter how much you spend on a enigma 2 box they all do the same thing. in the old days we used to spend a lot of money on the VU range as these were the only boxes that had twin tuners and a 7 day epg.
 
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The Vu solo 2 will do everything you need. Plenty on ebay cheap enough!

•twin sat feed
•iptv
•pvr
•1080p
•sky look
•kodi

I use openvix, you can download kodi from the feeds that works fine but not as smooth as android!

Mutant hd51 is quicker though and supports 4k!
 
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