Xoro HRS 8500 - cheap HD receiver

[hexah]

I was looking for a cheap box to replace my deaf and crap SD generic box. One with HD and an IF loop-through so it can also be used as a positioner for my pc card.

Enter the Xoro HRS 8500.

On the flyer it looks good:

HD, USALS, records .ts to USB, 5000 channels, IF loop through, HDMI, looks sexy in black. Also plays mpeg, h.264, mp4, vob, jpegs, etc, from the USB , which might be useful at times.



On to the user manual to see if the user interface is usable, etc.

So what do we have?



No transponder edit - my crap SD box has that.

No menu to add new satellites - my crap SD box has that.

No menu to add lat and long for USALS - my crap SD box is 1.2 but DVB Viewer has 2.X.

Crap implementation of disecq 1.2 - O-no

No signal strength, only quality - my crap SD box has both, and it is useful for estimating the relative weakness of signals, the relative conversion gain of LNBs, for troubleshooting switches and cable problems, etc etc.

No easy scroll or favourites to tame the thousands of channels - my crap SD box had that.

EPG is now and next - my crap SD Box will show 7 days for many non UK channels.

The timer is dependent on the EPG - my crap SD box will allow 8 arbitrary timers so you can record any channel at any time to the DVD HDD recorder.

USB sticks must be 8GB to 16GB, HDD apparently not supported.

I could go on, but that is enough.

Diabolical! :-lan2


Not up to the level of the crap SD receiver - who would have expected that? The manufacturer should have thought of these issues!

:-bang


Perhaps I have to wait until the Technomate 5402 HD drops to €100 or less. That will be decent all round (though I am not sure about the EPG or timer provision yet). But it is is not going to be €58 for a long time. :-Nooo

 

[sonnetpete]

My German language skills are poor to non existant but this seems to fit your requirements,

_http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/en/hdd-receiver-hdtv-edision/edision-argus-piccollo-hdtv-receiver-silber.html

 

[hexah]

Fortunately my pc card is DVB-S2 so I can afford to hang on until the prices drop.
Hopefully it won't be too long as Technomate will introduce a cheaper version without the card slots that will soon be below €100. The Chinese factories are churning out HD receivers by the millions now.

 

[World-of-Satellite]

Perhaps I have to wait until the Technomate 5402 HD drops to €100 or less. That will be decent all round (though I am not sure about the EPG or timer provision yet). But it is is not going to be €58 for a long time. :-Nooo

LOL, doubt that the TM-5402 will ever be that cheap! If you want decent EPG look at Enigma 2 HD receivers, but then you'll pay a lot more money ;)

 

[Channel Hopper]

No transponder edit -.....snip.....HDD apparently not supported.

I could go on, but that is enough.

Most of the failings you have discovered can be fixed by a software upgrade. If you know who is the parent company manufacturing the box there might already be an alternative version that does the job.

Post a picture of the internals and I'll have a look around.

*edit* - it's a Comag clone, and a beta version of firmware is out

_http://www.comag.tv/board/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2192

 

[rolfw]

Got one of these on the van, must open it and have a play.

 

[hexah]

*edit* - it's a Comag clone, and a beta version of firmware is out

_http://www.comag.tv/board/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2192

Well spotted, the beta looks like it is a fair improvement, though still a bit lacking.

What caught my eye was a post a few days ago announcing the Megasat HD550 would be arriving soon. It looks to have improvements to the timer, favourite groups, and USALS.

At any rate it means competition is picking up, and the Chinese will be trying to outdo each other, which is good news for the consumer.

As for the Comag clone, I had a look at the user manual. Sadly Comag have not used their own user interface on the SL40 so it is not as good as the other Comags. A bit disappointing as Comag / Silvercrest are usually basic but good and reliable, and don't have the shortcomings of the Xoro 8500 / Comag SL40.

 

[Channel Hopper]

As for the Comag clone, I had a look at the user manual. Sadly Comag have not used their own user interface on the SL40 so it is not as good as the other Comags. A bit disappointing as Comag / Silvercrest are usually basic but good and reliable, and don't have the shortcomings of the Xoro 8500 / Comag SL40.

Are you sure about that, from memory Comag is one of the few manufacturers that does everything 'in-house'.

 

[hexah]

LOL, doubt that the TM-5402 will ever be that cheap!

The number of ever improving cheap boxes and competition among retailers means the price will soon drop on the continent. I should have said 'TM 540x' as I was thinking of a version without the CI+ or multicrypt, which will be a good few € less.

If you want decent EPG look at Enigma 2 HD receivers, but then you'll pay a lot more money ;)

DVB Viewer with the pc card gives the best EPG, all channels plus SiehFern Info are easily searchable. It can be exported to html and xml so you can look at it during lunchtime in work, etc, and plan what you want to watch. Its also easy to add new data streams if they become available.

 

[hexah]

Are you sure about that, from memory Comag is one of the few manufacturers that does everything 'in-house'.

Yes, that is what has been the case, they were a cheaper, more basic version of Technisat, but essentially the same kind of company organization and practices.

I suspect cost and time-to-market pressures has lead them to taking what an OEM had already produced and putting it into a Comag case, a re-badging exercise. Hence the number of identical or near identical user interfaces in clones.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I an (almost) certain COMAG has a base in Korea, Technisat does not.

 

[hexah]

Now I have had some more time to look at the user manual (while I should be doing something else).

It appears to me that the Xoro manuals have been produced by the famous monkeys with the typewriter.

​

It seems that although most of the top level menus are covered in the user manual some of the sub menus are missing. At least, that is what is implied looking at the photos of the menus, as there are some unexplained options clearly visible.

The earlier SD model, the HRS 3000, has a better interface all round and they should have kept it or produced something nearly identical.

According to various forums both models can use HDD including USB powered 2.5".

That HRS 8500 has the option to dump the channel database to usb. Xoro provide a channel list editor so you can edit all the parameters and add transponders and satellites. This is the same as every other such program. Opening up the database they provided, 0.8w, 5w and 4.8e are missing, among others! :mad: But its no problem to delete the useless Asia and USA region satellites, add the missing satellites, blind scan, fiddle and back it up on the computer.

The mystery is over the timer recordings. The HRS 3000 allowed arbitrary recordings to be directly input. The HRS 8500 appears only to allow recordings to be made from the EPG (assuming no unmentioned sub menu). However, it has the same fields as the HRS 3000 but with different labels which mean the same thing! It seems that you can alter these fields so perhaps the EPG can be used as a start point and then change the channel, date and time to what you want. Perhaps not. Needless to say this is the generic DVB EPG, not Freesat or SiehFern Info, etc. So it may not work on some satellites. Who knows?

So the conclusion is clear, the HRS 8500 manual was produced with the assistance of certain substances :-flash. Of that I have no doubt.

Here are a few high points from the manual:

"If you want to connect or disconnect the satellite dish and the receiver please switch off the device and unplug it. Otherwise back coupling and damaging the device is possible."

"Note the diameter of the dish. Is this too small, then it can come in bad weather disturbances."

"No other use are not allowed."

"Of the motor's staff was also a record producer (rod USALS) defined which is to find the satellite position is particularly simple. With the appropriate receiver is sufficient to enter the geographical position and the satellites are found automatically - provided that the curved path of the rotary engine has been correctly set mechanically."

 

[Lazarus]

"My Hovercraft is full of Eels"

 

[hexah]

Come home Rod Usals, all is forgiven - your record hit number 1.