compufunk
Regular Member
- Joined
- May 7, 2008
- Messages
- 1,658
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 38
- My Satellite Setup
-
DM 600-S, VU+ Duo,
Moteck SG2100, Fracarro Penta 85 dish, LG LH3000 42" TV + some computers
- My Location
- NW, Ireland
I took delivery of a shiny new VU+ Duo on Friday and all I can say is, the hype is all true. I'm a very happy bunny at the minute. 
Now that I've had 48 hours to play with it, I thought I'd share my experience.
For those who dont know, the VU+ Duo is competing directly with the DM8000. The hardware is very similar with the exception the the VU+ Duo has two tuners rather than a possible four. It uses the same processor type as the Enigma2 based Dreamboxes. This means that can run CCcam 'proper' rather than a client that connects to CCcam. Also, any plugins that are available for the DM800/8000 can be installed.
It can run any of the DM8000 images on a USB drive via Barry Alan. I've not ventured down this route and yet because I've read that its not stable yet.
Currently there are three teams developing images for it (that I know of), Open Pli, VTI and HDFreaks. Supposedly Dream-Elite are developing a Black Hole image for it too.
I never owned a DM800/8000 so cant compare directly with these boxes. The VU+ is replacing my AB IPbox 9000HD running PKT and/or AAF enigma2 images.
Picture wise, this receiver is at least as good as the IPBox 9000 on both HD and SD. I honestly cant see any difference.
So far I've tried the Pli and VTI images. Both are stable with regular new builds. Both can also be updated without the need to reflash your box. The updates can be downloaded and installed via the software upgrade menu without effecting your settings/preferences. I did notice some audio syncing problems with Pli, but these were minor and will be fixed in time. Both images are fairly evenly matched with Pli winning out on available plugins.
As normal, detailed EPG is available through Pli's EPG system. I've not tried this out. Instead I installed CrossEPG on both images and use a script to download and import an epg.dat file. I have yet to test downloading the EPG data OTA.
This box blows the IPBox 9000 out of the water in more ways than one. The images are stable (I've yet to see a green screen) and you can fly through the menus where the IPbox response time was sluggish.
With the IPBox, recording a HD channel made it slow down completely in my experience. With the VU+ Duo, I managed to record 5 HD channels simultaneously without experiencing any lag. This was all while CCcam descrambled them using a remote server.
It plays all of my library of DivX, Xvid and MKV movies without any problem. The one thing it lacks here is DTS audio playback, but that's easily cured with a quick audio format conversion.
The only cons so far are aesthetic. The receiver itself doesn't look very good. It reminds me of Johnny5 from the Short Circuit movies head.
The remote is white and looks like it was designed by apple about 5 years ago (not my cup of tea). The layout of the buttons is a little awkward. The buttons you use most are positioned in a bad way which forces you to either stretch your thumb reach or move the remote around in your hand. (Small grievances).
The price is the best thing of all. I paid €520 for mine which includes a 320Gb HDD . This included shipping from Germany. At half the price of a DM8000, I can happily live without the 4 tuners that I'd never fully utilize.
Overall 9.9 out of 10. (-0.1 for the bad layout of the remote.)
Images shamelessly stolen from another website.
Now that I've had 48 hours to play with it, I thought I'd share my experience.For those who dont know, the VU+ Duo is competing directly with the DM8000. The hardware is very similar with the exception the the VU+ Duo has two tuners rather than a possible four. It uses the same processor type as the Enigma2 based Dreamboxes. This means that can run CCcam 'proper' rather than a client that connects to CCcam. Also, any plugins that are available for the DM800/8000 can be installed.
It can run any of the DM8000 images on a USB drive via Barry Alan. I've not ventured down this route and yet because I've read that its not stable yet.
Currently there are three teams developing images for it (that I know of), Open Pli, VTI and HDFreaks. Supposedly Dream-Elite are developing a Black Hole image for it too.
I never owned a DM800/8000 so cant compare directly with these boxes. The VU+ is replacing my AB IPbox 9000HD running PKT and/or AAF enigma2 images.
Picture wise, this receiver is at least as good as the IPBox 9000 on both HD and SD. I honestly cant see any difference.
So far I've tried the Pli and VTI images. Both are stable with regular new builds. Both can also be updated without the need to reflash your box. The updates can be downloaded and installed via the software upgrade menu without effecting your settings/preferences. I did notice some audio syncing problems with Pli, but these were minor and will be fixed in time. Both images are fairly evenly matched with Pli winning out on available plugins.
As normal, detailed EPG is available through Pli's EPG system. I've not tried this out. Instead I installed CrossEPG on both images and use a script to download and import an epg.dat file. I have yet to test downloading the EPG data OTA.
This box blows the IPBox 9000 out of the water in more ways than one. The images are stable (I've yet to see a green screen) and you can fly through the menus where the IPbox response time was sluggish.
With the IPBox, recording a HD channel made it slow down completely in my experience. With the VU+ Duo, I managed to record 5 HD channels simultaneously without experiencing any lag. This was all while CCcam descrambled them using a remote server.
It plays all of my library of DivX, Xvid and MKV movies without any problem. The one thing it lacks here is DTS audio playback, but that's easily cured with a quick audio format conversion.
The only cons so far are aesthetic. The receiver itself doesn't look very good. It reminds me of Johnny5 from the Short Circuit movies head.
The remote is white and looks like it was designed by apple about 5 years ago (not my cup of tea). The layout of the buttons is a little awkward. The buttons you use most are positioned in a bad way which forces you to either stretch your thumb reach or move the remote around in your hand. (Small grievances).
The price is the best thing of all. I paid €520 for mine which includes a 320Gb HDD . This included shipping from Germany. At half the price of a DM8000, I can happily live without the 4 tuners that I'd never fully utilize.
Overall 9.9 out of 10. (-0.1 for the bad layout of the remote.)
Images shamelessly stolen from another website.
