Confused about Boxes

IPFreely

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Afraid this is another "what box should I buy" thread but I'm a little confused on what direction to go.

The consensus seems to be a Mag 254 but it doesn't appear that you can set up a VPN with it if needed. The main purpose of this box is for Premier League football and with the problems that some of the IPTV services appear to have encountered so far this season with channels going down on weekends caused by certain ISP restrictions a VPN may become a necessity in the not too distant future.

So with that said, it seems to be either go for an Android box or go for something more like a conventional set top box thats based on another operating system yet open enough to use VPNs. It's for someone who isn't tech savvy in the least and so I was thinking something along the lines of a Zgemma H2S where you can install a Sky like EPG and interface that will be easy to use. But then on the other hand is a box like this overkill since the sat tuners etc. won't be used and would a cheaper Android box with Kodi (or a better App to set up an EPG) suffice?

Also, I'm a little confused at appraising specs of boxes when people recommend a Mag 254 with a 512 MB RAM but then say an android box with 1/2 GB like this may struggle?

Anyways, thanks for the patience, this post wasn't meant to be this long.

TLDR; if not a Mag 254 should I go for a Zgemma or android box?
 
Choices , choices eh? :)

If you have a decent supplier that can overcome the EPL blocks then that's a start. A VPN will not necessarily sort that out irrespective what box type you use.

Now, for satellite enigma2 boxes - the benefit of these is that you can use them for recording of freesat/limited card-sharing ; you can also add plugins such as IPTV player to complement your other services.

Mag box are great but you're limiting yourself to that providers content.

Android boxes offer mag box emulation via a app and also you can add other streaming aps official (Netflix, Amazon etc.) and non-official such as Mobdro, showbox, Kodi etc.

Personally if you have satellite or cable in the home then go via that route

Then android box

Then mag box (the only reason I put that third is because the complexity of transferring Mac address if supplier has issues. At least with an android box you can run aps mentioned above giving you reslilience)



So you need to decide what's best for you .

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
Oh god, I hope it's not going to turn into another you need a VPN......no you dont need a VPN thread :)

Personally, I would go for an enigma2 based box for the reasons given above, you can still record FTA channels and have extra plugins etc.....IPTV runs really well on these, with the right provider/setup. You also get the Sly look, full epg, really simple to use.

Mag boxes, not a fan personally, I dont like the 80's look of the interface.

All down to personal preference really. Depends what you want out of the box, if you are just running IPTV then you could get away with a Firestick or a cheap Android box.

Comes down to requirements, budget etc.

Do you know anyone who has their own setup, it would be good to have a look at the different boxes in use to see what you think, before you start spending money or have a look on YouTube, there are loads of different videos on there showing the setups and how they run.
 
I can only go on what I have and can assure you no VPN required for my IPTV services , including 3pm kick offs :)

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
I can only go on what I have and can assure you no VPN required for my IPTV services , including 3pm kick offs :)

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

No I totally agree...im the same....no VPN here. Oh no the VPN conversation is starting that's what i was afraid of!!
 
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