Fisty McB
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- Joined
- Aug 11, 2012
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- County Tyrone, N. Ireland
Hi, I'm just asking if anyone has experience of using both the Octagon SF8008 & the Zgemma H7s?
I have the SF8008 (twin DVB-S2X tuners) and in general it's a good receiver with one major flaw apparent in both OpenATV & OpenVix - when recording on to an external HDD via USB, it's impossible to stop a recording without the receiver crashing during the attempt to stop it, and thus it can only be stopped by doing a reboot (either in the software or pulling the plug & putting it back in!). Also a minor flaw is the slow response - at times - when it hasn't received remote control commands for some time which sometimes makes me & others think that the remote control command didn't reach the receiver until we realise a couple of seconds later!
In looking at "upgrading" the receiver on the basis of keeping the twin DVB-S2X tuners but also preferably one built in DVB-T2 tuner (living near the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border, reception of ROI DTT signals that aren't FTA on satellite are important) and where the hard drive can be encased in the receiver rather than via USB, which I think is the main root of my current problem. And it looks like the Zgemma H7S fits the bill. What I'd like to know is the difference between the two...
* Tuner specs - inc. sensitivity etc. for weaker signals. The ability for the Zgemma to blind scan would be nice, but it's not a ball breaker.
* Overall responsiveness - I was given one of the first Zgemma receivers a few years ago (can't remember the model number, sorry) from someone that no longer wanted it (I suspect it was used for CS )and found it to be very much lacking. Do the later Zgemma receivers show an improvement to be good competitors?
* Can the Zgemma accept any 2.5" HDD by opening its lid or is it restricted to 7mm thick HDD drives that slot in at the rear only?
* FBC aka Full Band Capture doesn't really worry me as I've no experience of it.
* Is a multiboot system like that on the SF8008 available on the H7S?
The other alternatives are the Gigablue & Vu+ Duo 4K SE receivers, which are more expensive than the Zgemma but potentially more reliable in performance? I'd owned a Vu+ Duo 2 in the past that was a good performer in its time but is now a bit long in the tooth and I'm not sure the Duo 4K SE would be worth the money as a replacement, not to mention there doesn't seem to be much in terms of new hardware or software development from Vu+ in the past while. The Gigablues look like a decent alternative at a midway price point between the Zgemma & the Vu+ Duo 4K SE (specifically the UHD Quad 4K & UHD UE 4K), but I remember reading that Gigablue's DVB-S2 tuners were not the best and that while they in theory support plug-&-play tuners that support DVB-T2, they don't seem to be available anywhere at present (at least not from World of Satellite).
All opinions welcome!
I have the SF8008 (twin DVB-S2X tuners) and in general it's a good receiver with one major flaw apparent in both OpenATV & OpenVix - when recording on to an external HDD via USB, it's impossible to stop a recording without the receiver crashing during the attempt to stop it, and thus it can only be stopped by doing a reboot (either in the software or pulling the plug & putting it back in!). Also a minor flaw is the slow response - at times - when it hasn't received remote control commands for some time which sometimes makes me & others think that the remote control command didn't reach the receiver until we realise a couple of seconds later!
In looking at "upgrading" the receiver on the basis of keeping the twin DVB-S2X tuners but also preferably one built in DVB-T2 tuner (living near the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border, reception of ROI DTT signals that aren't FTA on satellite are important) and where the hard drive can be encased in the receiver rather than via USB, which I think is the main root of my current problem. And it looks like the Zgemma H7S fits the bill. What I'd like to know is the difference between the two...
* Tuner specs - inc. sensitivity etc. for weaker signals. The ability for the Zgemma to blind scan would be nice, but it's not a ball breaker.
* Overall responsiveness - I was given one of the first Zgemma receivers a few years ago (can't remember the model number, sorry) from someone that no longer wanted it (I suspect it was used for CS )and found it to be very much lacking. Do the later Zgemma receivers show an improvement to be good competitors?
* Can the Zgemma accept any 2.5" HDD by opening its lid or is it restricted to 7mm thick HDD drives that slot in at the rear only?
* FBC aka Full Band Capture doesn't really worry me as I've no experience of it.
* Is a multiboot system like that on the SF8008 available on the H7S?
The other alternatives are the Gigablue & Vu+ Duo 4K SE receivers, which are more expensive than the Zgemma but potentially more reliable in performance? I'd owned a Vu+ Duo 2 in the past that was a good performer in its time but is now a bit long in the tooth and I'm not sure the Duo 4K SE would be worth the money as a replacement, not to mention there doesn't seem to be much in terms of new hardware or software development from Vu+ in the past while. The Gigablues look like a decent alternative at a midway price point between the Zgemma & the Vu+ Duo 4K SE (specifically the UHD Quad 4K & UHD UE 4K), but I remember reading that Gigablue's DVB-S2 tuners were not the best and that while they in theory support plug-&-play tuners that support DVB-T2, they don't seem to be available anywhere at present (at least not from World of Satellite).
All opinions welcome!