Review: Azbox Elite HD FTA Receiver

[stogie5150]

No need to block out your IP's if you are on a router

Awesome box! Curious about the formats you can throw at it on the video stream and network streaming. Wonder if it will play 1080i MPEG4 w/ DTS

See how little I know about networking? LOL



Send me the file and I'll tell you.
Better than that, you and your lovely wife make a trip over to to poor side of the state, bring the file, and we'll see if it works....

 

[marco916]

This thing is freaking sweet... I just bought one of those Western Digital Media Player boxes which is also not bad for the price, but this combinds everything into one FTA/Media Player and Linux... I'll have to save up my lunch money to get one of these

 

[digiblur]

See how little I know about networking? LOL



Send me the file and I'll tell you.
Better than that, you and your lovely wife make a trip over to to poor side of the state, bring the file, and we'll see if it works....

No problem...just giving ya a hard time neighbor!

You can't say the term "wife" in about 10-12 days. :up:up:up

 

[wildboys]

No need to block out your IP's if you are on a router

Awesome box! Curious about the formats you can throw at it on the video stream and network streaming. Wonder if it will play 1080i MPEG4 w/ DTS

# Audio: MP3, WAV, AIFF, WMA, Ogg Vobis
# Images: JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, PNG
# Video: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, MKV, AVI SSF (including subtitle support)
# Video-Audio Aüflösung: MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC/H.264 HD, HP@L4.0 1920x1080 @ 50Hz (MPEG-2 transport stream specification ISO/IEC13818)
# Input: max 90 MB / s
# Aspect Ratio: 4:3, Letterbox, 16:9, Pan & Scan
It will not play or stream any stored file from the hardrive that has
a bitrate of more than 20mbps.It is capped in the sigma driver.Any blue ray
rips to your hardrive will not play.Any recorded HD wildfeeds with a bitrate higher than 20mbps will not playback.They say it will be uncapped once the firmware is
out of beta stage.Blindscan is being tested right now.I have been using it for 3 weeks and it seems to be a great receiver with a lot of features.

 

[marco916]

this can be used standalone

So this box can be used just as a Media Streamer from the looks of it, No Sat connection needed. Thats cool :up

 

[Larry1]

Does the box decode Dolby Digital and downconvert it for playing out the analog L + R jacks, or just pass it through to the optical jack?
From the picture I assume there is no connection internal to the box for hooking up a hard disk, just the USB connection on the back for an external hard disk.

 

[eurosport]

HD, SD,4:2:2 SD and 4:2:2 HD QPSK DVB-S,and for that matter, DVB-S2 SD/HD, all work without fail, and depending on which encoder the uplinker uses, DVB-S2 4:2:2 HD.

That did it for me... I gotta have one of these! Someday soon I hope.

 

[ghia]

Cool review stogie.

I just got one of these units yesterday. It is fun to play with. I have a couple of things to add.

I can confirm it works with a motor I am using USALS with a SG-2100 without issue.

Another audio format it plays is FLAC, I didn't see that one listed above. A video fomat not listed above is ISO.

I was able to input the settings for the Fashion TV HD channel and it came in without needing to switch the HD Flag on. The LPB HD channel I did have to add the flag.

It can output in 1080p and there is a setting to autoformat so 4x3 shows stay that way and are not streched yet at the same time 16x9 programming fills the entire screen natively.

I really dig the front dispay, it is the blue VFD type.

As mentioned its a linux box, so you can telnet to it ssh to it etc.

Blindscan would be the Icing on the cake I hope it gets added. I like the Idea about the USB keyboard. That would be nice to work with, I need to look into that one.

 

[stogie5150]

I got a WD Elements 1TB Drive today, transferred all my media and music over to it, hooked it up, and off I went. Had one issue wherby it locked up because the spastic button pusher pushed too many buttons, but otherwise works fine.

I can now do recording experiments...stay tuned....we already know that it won't do high bitrate feeds because it is capped by software. The Azbox developers promise that it is to be removed, but we shall see.

Someone asked about timers, and how many there were, there are 8.

So this box can be used just as a Media Streamer from the looks of it, No Sat connection needed. Thats cool :up

Yes, this isn't DISH or Directv, I/YOU control what and when it plays.


And as a side note, thanks for all the kudos fellers, I appreciate it. I am NOT that savvy when it comes to stuff like this, I am learning on the fly...

 

[eurosport]

....we already know that it won't do high bitrate feeds because it is capped by software. The Azbox developers promise that it is to be removed, but we shall see.

Will it receive high bitrate feeds and not record them,
or not receive them at all?

 

[vfrjim]

Thanks for the review, looks like a future box for me. Any idea of the power consumption in watts?

 

[stogie5150]

Will it receive high bitrate feeds and not record them,
or not receive them at all?

It displays them fine, just won't record them. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the review, looks like a future box for me. Any idea of the power consumption in watts?

About that much, or a little more.

In other words, no idea. Where could I find out? Any ideas out there?

 

[vfrjim]

It displays them fine, just won't record them. Sorry for the confusion.





About that much, or a little more.

In other words, no idea. Where could I find out? Any ideas out there?

did not know if you had a kill-a-watt meter, guess you do not. No biggie, the website said 40 watts max with 5 watts in standby, just wondered how close those numbers were...

 

[SatPhreak]

stogie, does this box display HD feeds to a 4:3 tv?

 

[stogie5150]

stogie, does this box display HD feeds to a 4:3 tv?

Well, there is a 480i/480p mode so I don't see why not, but it will have to have composite connections...wait...I think there is an RF loop....lemme check....yes there is an RF loop. So you would be good. There is also a SCART connector so you could maybe score a converter for that...it can be done. Don't let it stop you from getting the box.

 

[rodder]

Stogie Are The Us Sat's Already In The Box Are Do You Have To Make A Sat File Like The Vanage.Also When You Select A sat To Watch Do You Only Get Those Channels Are Will It Skip to Another Sat Like The Vanage.

 

[digiblur]

My eyes are on a roller coaster!!!

 

[SatPhreak]

Well, there is a 480i/480p mode so I don't see why not, but it will have to have composite connections...wait...I think there is an RF loop....lemme check....yes there is an RF loop. So you would be good. There is also a SCART connector so you could maybe score a converter for that...it can be done. Don't let it stop you from getting the box.

I just went and looked back at the picture of the rear panel and it does have a RCA composite jack (yellow), so that might also work. My TV only has coax, composite and s-video, but my computer monitor has a DVI input so that might also be an option.

I not sure if I'd be willing to spend $400 yet, but if they get the blind scan working it might make the decision a lot easier. My only other option to get all the formats this does would be to get a PCI or USB DVB-S2 card and a faster computer that can handle HD. That would be a quite a bit more expensive and it still wouldn't blind scan either.

 

[stogie5150]

Stogie Are The Us Sat's Already In The Box Are Do You Have To Make A Sat File Like The Vanage.Also When You Select A sat To Watch Do You Only Get Those Channels Are Will It Skip to Another Sat Like The Vanage.

It has a list, but its for every satellite in existance in the world, I believe. Its quite easy to remake your list with the azbox editor, and if you use the ethernet you can shoot channel lists back and forth from the PC to the Azbox, no muss, no fuss. Oh, and there is a way to sort the channels so you only see the channels on that satellite. I JUST found it in the last few days so I have not had the time to test to see if it does like the Vantage does. I will, so stay tuned.

I just went and looked back at the picture of the rear panel and it does have a RCA composite jack (yellow), so that might also work. My TV only has coax, composite and s-video, but my computer monitor has a DVI input so that might also be an option.

I not sure if I'd be willing to spend $400 yet, but if they get the blind scan working it might make the decision a lot easier. My only other option to get all the formats this does would be to get a PCI or USB DVB-S2 card and a faster computer that can handle HD. That would be a quite a bit more expensive and it still wouldn't blind scan either.

Don't count on the blind scan being a great one, even if they do it. Reason why is that it will have to be a software solution, which is notorious for not working very well. As it is right now it beats everything we have currently at DISPLAYING feeds. I have been struggling with a PC card for 3 years now, and the Azbox beats it all to hell for ease of use and picture quality. Some fellers have gotten them to work , and work well, but the majority of us struggle with the PC card solution. For other than a few 4:2:2 DVB-S2 feeds, Azbox makes it nearly brainless. Plus all the other cool stuff it can do.

My eyes are on a roller coaster!!!

Stop drinking that cheap arsed beer and that will go away.

 

[eurosport]

My eyes are on a roller coaster!!!

Mine too..LOL!
But anyway, great review Stogie! I'll be getting one of these soon, right after I get a Coolsat 5000 for the bedroom TV.