Looking for the right box

B

biged670

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky+ subscription with multi room and a core 2 duo, 500gb pc with 20mb connection. Looking for more advanced satellite system.
My Location
cardiff
Hiya guys, complete newbie here and I've been reading a fair bit of info on dream boxes and card sharing for a couple of weeks now, just wondering if any of you more experienced members could recommend a good box to use as my first project. I don't want to go out and blow a lot of money straight away, so just something to keep me busy and see if I can get to grips with things for now. Obviously if all goes well I'll be looking at a more expensive box

Cheers, Steve
 
Have you ever used a proper (none Sky) satellite receiver before?

BTW - your profile says you have an 800 - is this correct or wishful thinking? We ask you fill your profile in correctly as its an important point when folk come to answer questions :
 
No mate I dont have an 800, I typed it in to set my profile up but it seems I dont have the privlages to edit my profile, I have attempted to change it since but I cant. My system is a sky+ subscription with multi room and a core 2 duo, 500gb pc with 20mb connection. No non sky boxes, no non sky dishes, I am brand spanking new to this

And to answer ya question, No I havent used a non sky receiver before, I'm a complete newbie as I said, just getting into all this and looking for help
 
Ok thats fine. Ive changed your profile - when you have been on the forum a while and made a few posts you will be able to edit your profile & send pm's. We had a plague of spammers a while back and had to restrict what new members could do.


I'll be honest with you as I have been with dozens of other members in the last couple of years - dreamboxes are not really suitable as starter boxes for folks new to the hobby. They are high end enthusiasts receivers that take weeks if not months to learn how they work and get the best out of them. If you expect to get a db take it out of the box and be using the advanced functions the first night forget it - things dont happen like that in the DB world. Theres hours of reading, headscratching, frustration and at least 2 times of wanting to open a window and throw the bloody thing out of it into the yard to suffer first!

Dont get me wrong - DB's are fabulous receivers, but theres no shortcuts to learning "how to drive them" If you are serious about owning one (or more!) we will welcome you with open arms to the DB fraternity, give you advice when you get stuck, and point you in the right direction. HOWEVER you have to be willing to put the work in as well - we dont give step by step guides.

You can get non linux boxes fairly cheap - around 50 quid, maybe less on ebay. Personally Id suggest you start with one of these simple boxes, this has 2 advantages:

1) if you decide the hobby isnt for you then you havent invested a huge amount of time effort or money into it.

2) when the DB gets too much (and it will) you can set it aside for a few nights, watch a bit of telly and tinker with an easy box until the enthusiasm returns.


To finish off I'll tell you a true story. A couple of years ago we had a guy join up, offering money to anyone who would go round and set his two new DB500's up for him. He wanted to cardshare between them, and had just got them that afternoon. We gave him basically the same info as above and he was almost begging someone to sort him out as "his kids were screaming at him as they wanted to watch their telly programmes" We suggested a good clip round the ears for the kids and to forget any ideas of c/s for several weeks. He didnt like that answwer :-rofl2 although everyone who joined in said the same. :D
 
Lol no worries mate I appreciate ya reply. Yeah I'm defo in this for the long haul and not just to piss people off and waste there time. You mentioned the other boxes that I could use, but all the research I have read up on has been about DB's? I was seriously thinking of getting a 500 to start. I've looked around on various sites and seen a few prices, they defo look the cheapest. HD isn't really an issue right now, although I understand the 500 models have clones floating about, and they don't work too clever if I'm right to believe what I've read. Hit and Miss was the term I think

Like I said I'm only dipping my toe into the water at this stage, so I don't really want to break the bank and get a fancy DB right now. I understand I'll need to put the leg work in myself and nobody is gonna hold me hand through it all, I'm ready to read read read, I feel Like I have been already lol, just really wanna see if I can do this.
 
Fair enough. I tell it how I see it - I would never want to be accused of misleading anyone about how easy they are to use. You seem to have done the background reading and realise the possible pitfalls. :) We like that - what we dont like is someone saying Ive just bought 4 500's and I want to card share round all of them and I want it now....

500's are cheap and a good way into the linux side of the hobby. Probably best used on fixed dish installs - all new 500's are clone boxes and some of them have problems driving motors due to power supply problems.

However they are cheap and cheerful, and if you buy from a reputable source you have some comeback if it turns out that particular one is a lemon :)
 
No worries mate I appreciate ya honesty. You mentioned the other non linux boxes, just out of interest, which would u recommend?.... If I did go down the 500 route I was probably looking at using my fixed sky dish which is already installed, would this be viable?
 
Yes I would have to agree with Analoguesat. A clone 500 is a great way to start without blowing a load of money and yes, a fixed sky dish is ideal. You might struggle with a full 7 day epg on a 500 due to the lack of memory but otherwise its great.
 
biged670 said:
No worries mate I appreciate ya honesty. You mentioned the other non linux boxes, just out of interest, which would u recommend?.... If I did go down the 500 route I was probably looking at using my fixed sky dish which is already installed, would this be viable?
Click to expand...

Have a look in the local skips - you can get decent dishes out of them. As long as they arent badly deformed they will do fine for experimentation or for the high power european sats so you can see whats out there without disturbing the SKy dish...

With a bit of ingenuity temporary mounts can be knocked up out of all sorts of household objects :D
 
Yeah thinking the 500 route is the way to go defo. Are there any differences between the images I could use to flash the box??? I was thinking of using Nabilosat black hole???
 
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