Recommend a Linux Box

iba

STB wrote: »

Check with user SalteeDog.

I posted about this box when it came out. I have it in my head that there were issues with this box, but that may be people comparing its speed with the VU+ range.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056548614

Hi STB,

Yeah I read that thread earlier and I note you mentioned that this box had the same broadcom chip as the VU+ Solo - so I thought that that probably meant speed was about the same.

Secondly this is what Salteedog wrote (and bear in mind its 8 months old so software/drivers would I guess be better now):

@RURS. I find Vix on Gigablue to be very stable - more so on than on the Vu+ duo. Reason for that is that the inbuilt DVB-T tuner is inherently more stable than the extenal DVB-T USD stick I need to use for the Vu+.

Generally the only crashes I get are when I'm stressing the box by streaming from a remote drive over the network. My Gigablue is connected to a wireless bridge which I made using an old Linksys router running Open WRT.

@dazbaz. Yes all my channels (DVB-T and DVB-S) are mixed up together in a custom favourites bouquet in my EPG. Use dreamboxedit to set it up.

And third, and this part I could be wrong about, but I figured that the difference between this box and the VU+ Solo is that you can use this box for Saorview and Sat but the VU+ Solo only works with Sat.

So on that basis, being able to get Saorview, and the boxes being about the same price, that the gigablue is better.

But of course I could be way wide of the mark.

Cheers

STB

No you are not wide of the mark.

One of the biggest issues I have with using the Vu+Uno is that the dvb-t stick is not sensitive enough - it is not as stable as a fixed tuner. I am thinking of changing to one of these or something else myself.

At that price its pretty good. I have seen them in Germany without the DVB-T tuner module for €135. Given you can get the tuner module for €23 thats cheaper again although postage from Germany is possibly dearer.

iba

STB wrote: »

No you are not wide of the mark.

One of the biggest issues I have with using the Vu+Uno is that the dvb-t stick is not sensitive enough - it is not as stable as a fixed tuner. I am thinking of changing to one of these or something else myself.

At that price its pretty good. I have seen them in Germany without the DVB-T tuner module for €135. Given you can get the tuner module for €23 thats cheaper again although postage from Germany is possibly dearer.

And they have two types, one with an LCD front panel and one with a VTF (or something like that) (one called the UE and one called the SE) and the one with the VTF is about €20 cheaper than the LCD one.

And right now I actually only need the Sat tuner - but maybe later I will need the Terrestrial tuner - so I was thinking I could just get the one with sat tuner now and then buy the Terrestrial tuner later if needed. But as GBCullen mentioned earlier, and this part Im not sure about, are they two seperate Tuners or one tuner combined?

STB

iba wrote: »

And they have two types, one with an LCD front panel and one with a VTF (or something like that) (one called the UE and one called the SE) and the one with the VTF is about €20 cheaper than the LCD one.

And right now I actually only need the Sat tuner - but maybe later I will need the Terrestrial tuner - so I was thinking I could just get the one with sat tuner now and then buy the Terrestrial tuner later if needed. But as GBCullen mentioned earlier, and this part Im not sure about, are they two seperate Tuners or one tuner combined?

Yes, you got it right. The UE is the LCD. The SE, the non LCD. (be aware that world of sat are selling the SE!). You would really want to be getting the UE - €183 in Germany - postage extra.

But the DVB-T tuner module can be used in either.

Because the tuner is a module it can be added at any stage. You take off the lid and it slots onto the board.

The prices vary between 20-35 euro for this module. Sometime you will get a deal with it added when you buy the box.

iba

STB wrote: »

Yes, you got it right. The UE is the LCD. The SE, the non LCD. (be aware that world of sat are selling the SE!). You would really want to be getting the UE - €183 in Germany - postage extra.

But the DVB-T tuner module can be used in either.

Because the tuner is a module it can be added at any stage. You take off the lid and it slots onto the board.

The prices vary between 20-35 euro for this module. Sometime you will get a deal with it added when you buy the box.

I was thinking of going for the non-LCD model but I'll take your advice and now look at the LCD model.

Thanks for the link; hadn't come across that site yet in my searches.

But can you please just clarify that there are two seperate tuners a DVB-T and a DVB-S and not a DVB-S Tuner and a DVB-T tuner combined into one unit/tuner please? (I respect GBCullen's point/post above a lot too).

And to recap, I will be using this box on a motorised dish and I dont really ever record (but if I wanted too, I think on this box I can add an external hard drive?). And at the moment I will only have the Sat feed going into it, but maybe in the future I might have a terrestrial feed too. So, in your opinion do you think its a good idea for me to go for this box as compared to others mentioned in this thread?

Also, as I mentioned, going to Poland next week, so might be able to find one over there which will save me the shipping costs; fingers crossed.

The only thing I dont like about this box, as far as I can tell, is that it has a Scart connection - a personal pet hate; I think its so last century

Regards

white_westie

Might be useful for others looking for a linux stb

Table of hardware/software features for some of the linux boxes that can run the OE-Alliance images

http://wiki.et-view-support.com/index.php?title=Tabellarische_%C3%9Cbersicht_Hardware

ek9er

Have you checked out the venton unibox. I have the hd2 twin tuner with openvix and love it

STB

iba wrote: »

I was thinking of going for the non-LCD model but I'll take your advice and now look at the LCD model.

Thanks for the link; hadn't come across that site yet in my searches.

But can you please just clarify that there are two seperate tuners a DVB-T and a DVB-S and not a DVB-S Tuner and a DVB-T tuner combined into one unit/tuner please? (I respect GBCullen's point/post above a lot too).

And to recap, I will be using this box on a motorised dish and I dont really ever record (but if I wanted too, I think on this box I can add an external hard drive?). And at the moment I will only have the Sat feed going into it, but maybe in the future I might have a terrestrial feed too. So, in your opinion do you think its a good idea for me to go for this box as compared to others mentioned in this thread?

Also, as I mentioned, going to Poland next week, so might be able to find one over there which will save me the shipping costs; fingers crossed.

The only thing I dont like about this box, as far as I can tell, is that it has a Scart connection - a personal pet hate; I think its so last century

Regards

They sell the SE and UE boxes a few ways. This is because the tuners are interchangeable modules - they are sold by some retailers already fitted or just with a single dvb-s2 tuner.

You can have your own configuration. ie 2 DVB-S2 tuners or 1 DVB-T/C and 1 DVB-S2 tuner. The DVB-S2 and DVB-T/C tuners are not combined in one tuner module. They are seperate.

The DVB-T/C module is a hybrid that does both cable and terrestrial. The cable part is useless here in Ireland.

Example.

DVB-T/C Tuner Module


DVB-S2 Tuner Module



Back of 800UE (the port where the extra tuner that you decide will be housed is on the extreme left - the square bit pops out and the module is clicked into the board and through the gap now present)


The Venton Unibox2 is another option as they are cheaper, but you may find are less supported/less used at present by the major linux teams.

If buying a Linux box, make sure it is a Broadcom chipset (you will see references to MIPS). There are other Linux boxes that use ST chips which do not accept team Enigma 2 images like Vix/Blackhole as they are written for MIPS based chipsets. This is the problem with buying a GM Triplex/Amiko Alien 2 etc. They are ported versions of Enigma 2 and less supported.

GY A1

iba wrote: »

I was thinking of going for the non-LCD model but I'll take your advice and now look at the LCD model.

Thanks for the link; hadn't come across that site yet in my searches.

But can you please just clarify that there are two seperate tuners a DVB-T and a DVB-S and not a DVB-S Tuner and a DVB-T tuner combined into one unit/tuner please? (I respect GBCullen's point/post above a lot too).

And to recap, I will be using this box on a motorised dish and I dont really ever record (but if I wanted too, I think on this box I can add an external hard drive?). And at the moment I will only have the Sat feed going into it, but maybe in the future I might have a terrestrial feed too. So, in your opinion do you think its a good idea for me to go for this box as compared to others mentioned in this thread?

Also, as I mentioned, going to Poland next week, so might be able to find one over there which will save me the shipping costs; fingers crossed.

The only thing I dont like about this box, as far as I can tell, is that it has a Scart connection - a personal pet hate; I think its so last century

Regards

hi
got the giga blue 800 hd se for my brother a few months back,
has the sat and testerial tuner, working grand for saorview too,
not updated image or that in ages tho
think i got it for around E 180
nice and stable, just slow booting up

Irishmale0399

Have just been reading thru the thread. Am the proud owner of 2 Gigablue Quads (sold the old Dreambox 8000 after 18 months of ownership and got the 2 Quads and a few pints for my earnings) and a DM800 HD PVR(i will be applying for its pension soon, me old granny is faster).

Any of you using the opena.tv image on your linux boxes??? I have it on all now about 6 weeks & am really happy with the image. Its a German forum however they are very keen on helping English speakers.

sammyano

Yes, am using the openatv 3.0 on my azbox and it rocks with loads of plugins via Tspanel

iba

GY A1 wrote: »

hi
got the giga blue 800 hd se for my brother a few months back,
has the sat and testerial tuner, working grand for saorview too,
not updated image or that in ages tho
think i got it for around E 180
nice and stable, just slow booting up

Thanks for your input.

Can you post a link of from where you got it please?

Cheers

iba

ek9er wrote: »

Have you checked out the venton unibox. I have the hd2 twin tuner with openvix and love it

Thanks for your suggestion.

Irishmale0399

This is where i buy my stuff from. Its a German shop as you will see. They send everything with DHL (normally €10.90-14.90) and accept paypal or visa payment.
https://www.egesat.de/17-Sat-Receiver/?navigation=17&hersteller=108&sort=asc&auspraegung[4]=4_-1&x=29&y=7

GY A1

iba wrote: »

Thanks for your input.

Can you post a link of from where you got it please?

Cheers

got my se from satboxes ,
i see they just have the ue version now
i think the se and ue are the same apart from the lcd screen on the ue

iba

GY A1 wrote: »

got my se from satboxes ,
i see they just have the ue version now
i think the se and ue are the same apart from the lcd screen on the ue

Just checked them out. Nearly every box on their site is out of stock. The gigablue is more expensive than the German sites too. But the new VU Duo2 is cheaper:

http://www.satboxes.com/shop/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=2

Mr Guinness.

Can a hard drive be Fitted to the vu solo for Recording?

Zardoz

Mr Guinness. wrote: »

Can a hard drive be Fitted to the vu solo for Recording?

Only an external usb hard drive,no internal

Mike1961

givecredit wrote: »

1. Speed. Chalk and cheese.
2. The ability to add two extra tuners, dtt or S2,
3. Runs quieter.

The main difference is the speed of the thing, Like bootup time, speed at running plugins like autobouquets, better at streaming, eg works well with ice films, The Picture in Picture works.

Dont get me wrong, The Duo is a great machine, I own 2 of them, But the quad is just that much faster. Less image support than duo, But Vix is enough for me.

If you prefer the duo, I will have a good 2nd hand one for sale! Bought Dec 2011, Remote never used. (I use harmony) With 320gb harddrive inside. As New, with origional packaging. Make me an offer!

Is that 'good 2nd hand one' still for sale? I'll open the bidding @ 100 euro..:D