Zgemma recivers are a load of crap

[A nonymous]

I just thought i'd pass this on, although i'm sure i will get people who will disagree.

In the last 14 days i decided to try one of these Airsat Zgemma receivers just to see if some of the things i have read about them are true or not.

I first purchased a S2 model. It arrived quickly and didn't even make it out of the box as it had been supplied with the wrong PSU which only had an output of 2amps rather than the 3 amp needed by the receiver. This went back the same day it arrived.

I then decided to pay an extra £15 and go for a H2S model. It arrived with the correct psu this time. I set it up with Open ATV and initially was quite pleased with it. That lasted for about an hour when it froze which i thought OK its a firmware issue. I tried to restart the receiver by toggling the power button, and guess what, nothing, just a red light. I tried the PSU from another receiver which also didn't work. I tried it again the next morning, and it booted up, ran for a few minutes and then froze again.

These receivers really are not worth the hassle and certainly aren't worth bothering with. Cheap Chinese crap.

I cant be that unlucky to get two faulty receivers from two different suppliers. Fortunately as i paid through Paypal and my credit card it shouldn't be that much hassle to get my money back although i'm guessing that as the reply from the seller hasn't been favorable that i will have to get paypal involved again.

 

[Ghostleader]

Weren't these basically what Solo clones evolved into? Sound worse, I have a Vu+ Solo clone from what must be 6 years ago, still works fine. When you can buy a MiracleBox mini or a Technomate Nano 2 (or what ever it's called) for £90-£100 new which are both non STI based I.e. non crap I really don't think anybody who knows their chips would take a punt on one of these Zgemma boxes. I still didn't think they would be this bloody awful though Manic.

Sent from my thl 2015A using Tapatalk

 

[dankargo]

Phew, was going to upgrade my cheapo Openbox V8S to one of these. Glad I stumbled across this thread.

 

[Lazarus]

I shouldn't be at all surprised if the pile of poo under discussion, and the various Openbox variants, and many others, could be traced back to the same factory.

Mind you, I've got two Skybox F3s and, apart from bricking one (My own fault, but also easily fixed), have had no bother with them.

 

[dankargo]

I've never had an issue with my Openbox. I tried replacing it with an Icecrypt from Maplin but it was totally unreliable - it would drive the motor to the wrong satellites and would crash simply changing channel. The Openbox/F3s have the ugliest user interface but they are cheap and cheerful and tend to work out of the box. I like that

 

[A nonymous]

When you can buy a MiracleBox mini or a Technomate Nano 2 (or what ever it's called) for £90-£100 new which are both non STI based I.e. non crap I really don't think anybody who knows their chips would take a punt on one of these Zgemma boxes.

The two Zgemmas that i purchased had Broadcom chipsets, one had the same as a Gigablue UE Plus the other the same as my Formuler F3. I'd never thought i'd say this but i think if push came to shove i would rather buy an Amiko receiver over one of these Zgemma things.

To be honest as i need a twin tuner receiver for my bedroom i may consider one of those Venton Unibox ECO+ receivers. Cheap enough at under £100, not the fastest receiver granted but has HDD support and is still supported by most teams. I know Vix have decided not to support this box any longer but to be honest i have been using OpenPli and OpenATV on all my receivers as of late so no problems there

 

[digi247]

Had quite a few Zgemma's in various forms single tuner,Twin,Combo never had a problem although i made sure i sourced mine direct from AirDigital as believe it or not they do now clone the Zgemma's which from the sounds of it you have bought.

And for under £100 i would never touch a Venton either your basically buying Broadcom based tech that is now as old as the Vu Duo as that is the chipset it runs.

For £99 you can get the Edision OS Mini Twin tuner running the BCM 7362 Dual threading not dual core but will be way faster than the Venton, Had quite a few of the Edision for customers and never had a bad word back from any of them. Edision from sponsor WOS

 

[A nonymous]

I did get a Venton Unibox Eco+ for £50 in the end, its not a new one, but one that has little use from a friend in Germany.

To be honest it does everything that i want it to do, I.e watch TV on, Its just going to be a bedroom box, It ticks all the boxes for me, Twin Tuner and internal HDD, so theres no point in me buying anything else.

The Venton Unibox Eco+ maybe an older receiver but it runs a Dual Core 400Mhz BCM 7431 the same as my XTrend ET9500 which also fits my needs perfectly, The Duo runs a single core 400Mhz BCM7335 chipset.

I have long stopped playing the numbers game getting the best and newest receiver every time they come out as i see very little point in it if the receiver i already have does what i need it to do.

I watch TV on mine and the odd occasional MP4, AVI or MKV formatted film. I use my Amazon firestick for Kodi or my Tivo for Netflix.