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Obviously, you should steer clear of any clones. That should be something left unsaid.

If you have a mind to purchase an AZBox, stick with it as they (OpenSat) will stick with you! This company is not a "fly-by-night" company that will dissapear on you when you need them most.

They stick by you all they way! Best company out there that I know of for FTA and related equipment. I sincerely do not state this lightly. You can judge their products on your own, but their customer service is unprecented.

RADAR

AcWxRadar said:

Obviously, you should steer clear of any clones. That should be something left unsaid.

If you have a mind to purchase an AZBox, stick with it as they (OpenSat) will stick with you! This company is not a "fly-by-night" company that will dissapear on you when you need them most.

They stick by you all they way! Best company out there that I know of for FTA and related equipment. I sincerely do not state this lightly. You can judge their products on your own, but their customer service is unprecented.

RADAR

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Must not be the same company I am thinking about. <shrug>

Since the Azbox hit the market all they have done is ignore we U.S. users, we STILL don't have an ATSC tuner like they promised, we STILL don't have working recording like they promised. We STILL don't have a media player that plays all files.
Once again, we early adopters got SCREWED. And now we get to test Enigma 2 for them, and develop it for Europe, and they will forget us again.

AcWxRadar said:

They stick by you all they way! Best company out there that I know of for FTA and related equipment. I sincerely do not state this lightly. You can judge their products on your own, but their customer service is unprecented.

Click to expand...

Their product development certainly targets markets other than FTA in North America. Follow the money trail.... It is a box primarily designed for theft of service. If Openbox / AzBox were serious about the North American market the products would have the required UL and FCC certifications and provide features that are unique to this region, such as 608 closed captioning tuner support for open NA QAM.

Don't get me wrong, the AzBox is a feature packed receiver, but they certainly are not user friendly and are not targeting or developing the units for North America FTA.

My beef with Opensat, and more specifically Hugo Condessa is that I traded Emails with him prior to purchasing an Elite and it was my understanding from those messages I got from him that a blind scan tuner was in the works for the Elite as well as the Premium receivers. Ask me how that worked out? So now I got an Ultra just to get blind scan capability only to find that it has fewer hardware features than the Elite for around the same money??

I've got two more dishes to mount this spring and I'll likely buy at least one more receiver but I won't have another AZBox. Most likely will buy an Openbox s9 next time.

stogie5150 said:

Must not be the same company I am thinking about. <shrug>

Since the Azbox hit the market all they have done is ignore we U.S. users, we STILL don't have an ATSC tuner like they promised, we STILL don't have working recording like they promised. We STILL don't have a media player that plays all files.
Once again, we early adopters got SCREWED. And now we get to test Enigma 2 for them, and develop it for Europe, and they will forget us again.

Click to expand...

SatelliteAV said:

Their product development certainly targets markets other than FTA in North America. Follow the money trail.... It is a box primarily designed for theft of service. If Openbox / AzBox were serious about the North American market the products would have the required UL and FCC certifications and provide features that are unique to this region, such as 608 closed captioning tuner support for open NA QAM.

Don't get me wrong, the AzBox is a feature packed receiver, but they certainly are not user friendly and are not targeting or developing the units for North America FTA.

Click to expand...

Lone Gunman said:

My beef with Opensat, and more specifically Hugo Condessa is that I traded Emails with him prior to purchasing an Elite and it was my understanding from those messages I got from him that a blind scan tuner was in the works for the Elite as well as the Premium receivers. Ask me how that worked out? So now I got an Ultra just to get blind scan capability only to find that it has fewer hardware features than the Elite for around the same money??

I've got two more dishes to mount this spring and I'll likely buy at least one more receiver but I won't have another AZBox. Most likely will buy an Openbox s9 next time.

Click to expand...

Gentlemen,

I must absolutely disagree with you. I do hear your laments and criticisms and complaints. However, I truly feel that you are laboring under misinterpretations, rumors and misquotes.

1] OpenSat does not promote nor claim that their equipment can "break in" to paid services, anywhere. That is a rumor started by those who want to excercise this as a promotion to sell the equipment to the unknowing and turn a profit on their own behalf. i.e. Sheisters who prey on the desires of the bad elements.

2] I have never read anything that promised anything that they did not come through with. The official sources that I have been reading all have stated that certain options were not possible due to limitations of the components that they had incorporated into thier equipment design at the time.

3] I find the equipment to be quite user friendly, if you are not a total greenhorn. In this light, there is no FTA STB that is truly perfect. There is always the unglamorous side of any box.

4] As for developing their equipment for North American specific uses, it is true that this was never their original intention, as far as I can tell. We adopted THEM and we are trying to adapt their equipment to our purposes. They are playing catch up to fulfil our whims, so you have to give them credit for doing this after the fact.

My AZBox sits side by side with my Coolsat 5K and my Fortec Star receivers. They are each unique in their own way. The AZBox requires some additional training, due to its operating system mostly, but it is not entirely foreign. Some people do not appreciate the AZBox because of its uniqueness. I say that it is excellent and well worth the trouble to learn a few new rules.

My personal experience with OpenSat and their customer support team has been extremely positive. They worked with me so diligently and personably. I felt as if they were speaking with me as if I was their one and only customer! Like a Mom and Pop shop in a small town far away from any big city. They couldn't have done a better job at satisfying me unless they came to my home and mowed my lawn or plowed the snow off my drive and said, "Here, we brought you a new AZBox to play with"!

Honestly. I am so impressed with OpenSat! Never have I witnessed such customer support! They are just that good!

As for promises, you will have to backtrack and read their statements from the past. TELESat magazine is a good source for official statements from OpenSat. The rag may be geared to selling stuff, but if you read between the sales lines, the truth and the facts are there. Hugo Condessa himself stated the facts and dilemnas regarding blind scanning perks. I think that if you go back and read the past articles, you will find that everything I say is true and your impressions and dissappointments were based upon what you wanted to hear and not what they actually stated.

I don't normally tout any receiver's capabilities or how prized it seems to be to me, but I must state that the AZBox is my favorite. And yes, it isn't as easy as our trusted old Coolsat 5k's, but it also does a lot more. I hope you all understand where I am coming from here. This is my opinion and I would not go through this much trouble to tell you about it if I did not believe in it whole heartedly.

RADAR

To the best of my knowledge, I was one of the early Ultra owners here in the US and a little know fact I haven't shared with many was that my Ultra became corrupt during a flash with one of the factory firmware releases and it was before all the tools which are now out about how to fix it yourself. I contacted the vendor I purchased it from (AZbox Miami -FIALLO INTERNATIONAL CORP ) and they were worthless regarding any warranty issues. After a series of emails/phone calls with Opensat were absolutely helpful in repairing my receiver which did make the round trip back to Europe and back. I'm sure my persistance was a factor and I doubt they would do it again but the fact is they treated an individual customer (me) quite well. Does the factory firmware have issues? Yes, I think it sort sucks but believe Opensat is doing the right thing by assisting with the port of E2 to AZbox. Hopefully E2 will make it better but the fact is the box is still the most versitile receiver available for use here in the US, even if we weren't their target customer base. If there was a better receiver I'd be interested but for now there is only one box that can "do it all" and thats the Azbox Premium+ and Ultra.

mr3p said:

......I contacted the vendor I purchased it from (AZbox Miami -FIALLO INTERNATIONAL CORP ) and they were worthless regarding any warranty issues.....

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I encountered the same troubles.

mr3p said:

......After a series of emails/phone calls with Opensat were absolutely helpful in repairing my receiver which did make the round trip back to Europe and back. I'm sure my persistance was a factor and I doubt they would do it again but the fact is they treated an individual customer (me) quite well......

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OpenSat provided me with the same service! Although, mine got held up in Portugal customs, so they just sent me a brand new one!

RADAR