HD receiver advice

S

ShinyAndy

Member
My Satellite Setup
Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB
My Location
Marbella, Spain
Already have a fixed 1.3m dish with quad LNB hooked up to a Humax HD PVR but am looking for a couple of cheap HD boxes to put into spare rooms, so far I think I've narrowed my ideal requirements to the following:

Easy to use for stupid guests and non nerdy to setup
Small
HD
FTA channels only
some form of an EPG (not just now and next)
pause/rewind live TV to USB stick/drive
If it could stream media via LAN then even better
Available in Europe

I keep ending up back at the Megasat 550 CI which I can get for about 79€ but can't really find out much about it other than a few vague German forums, the S10 that is often spoke about here worries me in the easy to use/setup department and believe no EPG?
 
If it's the UK Freesat stations you want AND and EPG then you're limited to the Freesat branded boxes. I doubt if the Megasat will satisfy the last requirement.

You can see the range of Freesat boxes here _http://www.freesat.co.uk/products/hd-digital-box-range. It's not a large range and I'm fairly sure that the Grundig/Bush/Goodmans boxes don't have pen-drive PVR capabilities. You'd have to visit the web sites of the other two to find out if they can although I doubt it. You could check for streaming bcapability as well.

The UK is in Europe and that's where you'll find your best choice of suppliers.

EDIT

Nearly missed the Technisat at the bottom of the page which does have PVR with external disc function. It's not what you'd call cheap though.
 
Thanks Paul

The tech spec for the Megasat says it does have an EPG but I can't find anything to verify that either way

Apologies, I typed Europe but I meant to say outside the UK (lot of places won't ship outside the UK)
 
ShinyAndy said:
The tech spec for the Megasat says it does have an EPG but I can't find anything to verify that either way
Click to expand...
That means that it'll do the EPG for channels on other satellites where the EPG information stream is carried as part of the channel data. Freesat uses a dedicated channel stream for the EPG.

ShinyAndy said:
Apologies, I typed Europe but I meant to say outside the UK (lot of places won't ship outside the UK)
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Always a problem and one of the reasons I would stay away from the very cheap boxes as they're more likely to go wrong (sometimes straight out of the packaging!) with consequent hassles in returning stuff.
 
Sorry to be a complete luddite here but as all I'm really interested in channel wise is BBC, ITV and CH4 does that have any bearing on the EPG?

If I can get it from Amazon it´s not normally an issue but Spanish supplier (can get the Megasat here) is better obviously!
 
ShinyAndy said:
but as all I'm really interested in channel wise is BBC, ITV and CH4 does that have any bearing on the EPG!
Click to expand...
Only insofar as you said you wanted an EPG, not just now-and-next. Now-and-next info is carried by all channels that I can think of on all European satellites. Dangerous assertion but I think it's true if they are transmitted to the DVB standard. A full EPG for BBC, ITV and CH4 is only carried by Freesat and (separately) $ly.

ShinyAndy said:
If I can get it from Amazon it´s not normally an issue but Spanish supplier (can get the Megasat here) is better obviously!
Click to expand...
That's a decision only you can make. I would be astounded if the Megasat did give you an EPG for BBC, ITV and CH4 though.
 
Can be sent - often isn't.

It varies: DVB S actually allows up to 14 days in principle but, as you say, those that bother at all tend to send Now & Next only, apart from a few German Channels that send more. But far more Channels send nothing at all.

Other than OTA comprehensive EPGs carried on eg BSkyB and Freesat default Transponders, there are also importable EPGs available via web sources that are used to good effect by users of some Media Centre systems, Linux boxes etc.
 
I didn't realise that so many didn't bother with anything. There was me thinking that the DVB standard required now-and-next as a minimum!
Tivù said:
there are also importable EPGs available via web sources that are used to good effect by users of some Media Centre systems, Linux boxes etc.
Click to expand...
I didn't go down that route because:
ShinyAndy said:
Easy to use for stupid guests and non nerdy to setup
Click to expand...
 
Ha.

I find that different people have totally different ideas of what they consider easy to use.

I don't even send SMS messages.
 
To make life easier (already have my days full of NAS + htpc + xbmc for all my media needs) seems I need to go down the Freesat route again, any experience of the TechniSat HDFS? Seems to tick all my boxes (including streaming over LAN)
 
Tivù said:
Other than OTA comprehensive EPGs carried on eg BSkyB and Freesat default Transponders, there are also importable EPGs available via web sources that are used to good effect by users of some Media Centre systems, Linux boxes etc.
Click to expand...
You can get a Linux receiver to read the Sky and Freesat OTA EPGs as well (instead of using the web based data).

Apart from Linux ones no receiver other than the Freesat and Sky ones is going to have anything that you could recognise as a proper EPG. The ones that say they have EPG just have a table that fill in the blanks using the "now and next" information when zapping from transponder to transponder.

If you can put up with "now and next" a receiver like the Ibersat 4500 (freely available here) does all you want and reads Sky cards. It got a pretty good tuner too.
 
Hi Huevos
The Ibersat 4500 you mentioned i cant find any info on. Can you tell me where i can get some info?
Many thanks Richard
 
ShinyAndy said:
To make life easier (already have my days full of NAS + htpc + xbmc for all my media needs) seems I need to go down the Freesat route again, any experience of the TechniSat HDFS? Seems to tick all my boxes (including streaming over LAN)
Click to expand...

The Technisat is a superb receiver, in my opinion better made than the competition and also handles other satellites much better, with a proper menu structure.
 
RichardinSpain said:
Hi Huevos
The Ibersat 4500 you mentioned i cant find any info on. Can you tell me where i can get some info?
Many thanks Richard
Click to expand...
It is pretty similar spec to the Ferguson Ariva 100e. Both are pretty popular on the Costa Blanca at the moment and around the same money.

_http://www.ferguson-digital.eu/en/hd-ariva-receivers/214-ariva-100e.html

I use the Ibersat more because that is what my main supplier sells, but I probably prefer the Ferguson, especially for the user friendly remote, intuitive menus and colour scheme. Both have good tuners.
 
I think I have given up on needing an EPG now, doesn't seem worth it for a spare box. The Technisat seems to get slated everywhere; terrible tech support, no Windoze7 support and only streams MPEG so a pointless addon. The S10 is tempting but starts to creep well over 100€ when you add shipping

The Ariva looks good though, I assume there are channel lists available? Any idea what is the going rate for those (have found a German place selling them for 79€) ?
 
ShinyAndy said:
The Ariva looks good though, I assume there are channel lists available? Any idea what is the going rate for those (have found a German place selling them for 79€) ?
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Not sure what the retail is but the trade price here is dearer than that. I buy them with the channels already loaded (and in logical order) for UK TV.
 
Huevos, Thanks for the info on the Ferguson receiver
I was origionally looking at the Openbox s10 as my first hd receiver. I must admit i like the look of the ferguson better..It seems to have the same functions and seems to have the same ali3602 chip inside. One of my priorities is the sensitive tuner for obvious reasons, thats why i was looking at the openbox but as you said the ferguson seems to have a good tuner too..Also i have just seen it for 64e which seems a very good price
 
Can you share where you found it for 64€, I would much rather buy from Spain if possible as I can claim the IVA back! I realised that the one I found was the 100 not the 100e so has a few more connectors and is a bit more expensive I believe
 
Why did my post asking where I could find the Ferguson receiver for 64€ get deleted?
 
ShinyAndy said:
Why did my post asking where I could find the Ferguson receiver for 64€ get deleted?
Click to expand...


The log shows no post being deleted. However, your posting #15 was placed into a moderation queue which was approved sometime earlier.
 
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