If money was not a concern...

[PopcornNMore]

If money was not a concern what DVB-S2 and HD compatible FTA receiver with PVR functionality would you buy and where?

Receiver: ?
Place to buy: ?

Now since Montana PBS went DVB-S2 I belive it's time for me to get an updated receiver.



I can tell the wife it will be our Christmas present to each other.

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[stogie5150]

There isn't one.

Pvr's for FTA are good only for SD feeds. Never had one that was good on a high bitrate feed.

If you watch a lot of sports feeds, an Azbox from the vendor in Florida.

If you don't, the Opensat looks like a good choice.

[brentb636]

I'm with Stogie all the way on those recommendations, but I warn you that neither of the boxes will be perfect. They all have their flaws, and we work around them ( sometimes, by having multiple receivers which complement each other ) and sometimes with DVB PCI solutions.

[geekt]

If money wasn't an issue, I'd contract a company to make my own. :P

Or possibly build a set top box, to be more realistic...but I don't really know the Linux support of various distros for different PCI cards, and their use in set top boxes. I'd have to research it. (Please no one reply to me mentioning Windows...)

I've actually been trying to decide on a receiver, and it seems nearly impossible. You have to debate the features with the reviews, and I wonder if any receiver actually meets my dream specifications.

Required: DiSEqC 1.2, Blind Scan (obviously), DVB-S, DVB-S2, MPEG2, MPEG4, USB Hard Drive Support, HDMI/DVI with sub/closed captioning support
Preferably: DiSEqC 1.3, 4:2:2, h.264, 1080p, FAST Blind Scan, Linux, fast processor, Ethernet, Streaming to a computer, playback of vids/music from computer, internal 3.5 hard drive, DVD Burning
Dreams: Split Screen / Multi Screen with 4 or more signals (that would be AWESOME!!! Could have my own version of Superman's news feeds), BluRay/DVD burner, able to play online videos and streams...that's all I can think of now...

I was looking at the DreamBox DM8000 HD...which is literally a dream box...but I don't know if it's actually any good. Just looked pretty cool with all of it's overpriced features.

Edit: Stogie, why do you suggest the Opensat for people that aren't really into sports?

[Iceberg]

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The opensat doesnt do 4:2:2 and lots of sports feeds are going that way (even some in HD)

[Conky]

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ADVERTISING BOX

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A Home Theatre PC
-relatively future proof(just throw in a new tuner)
-add ATSC/NTSC/qam tuner for OTA or cable
-play every media format known to man
-can fix it yourself with widely available parts
-easy to connect to home network for file editing sharing
-with "sleep mode" you don't have to have it running 24/7

On the downside it might be a bit daunting to get everything up andrunning properly