Need receiver reviews & updates

[Anole]

We've recently had two lively threads on $50 S2 boxes.

A number of better known receivers haven't had a sniff.
Yea, some are sold only on one web site with their own favorable forum.
I know some of our members have 'em, so let's see some friendly discussion, if not full reviews.

Yes, receivers get their bugs worked out over time.
So why is there no recent update to the Manhattan review.
It must've gotten a lot better!

DMSI has sold some DMS6000 receivers.
What's good about those?
I understand they initially shipped with no USALS.
(probably more suitable for the UK market than USA)
So, has that been fixed?

Amiko Alien? Seems to have a LAN port.
Will it share out its recordings ?
If it only plays from Windows Shares on my LAN, then it'd better be the best damned media player ever!
I've already got a Western Digital TV Live Plus, and I'm not lookin to change!

AZbox miniME North American Edition.
Does 4:2:2. Some are happy to pay extra for it.
Think this is the latest model, and I want to know about this one only.
Don't want to hear about all the old models - that's for The History Channel!
I appreciated the few mini-reviews.
Maybe it's too soon for a better review, as it's still a work in progress.
Looks like it wants to be your media player, but maybe it'll share out onto my LAN, too.
Multiple external drive connectors, USB & eSATA!
So far, dog-slow blind scan (is it doing it in hardware or all in software?).


How are we even a decent satellite forum with so few reviews?
And if there other responsible (or irresponsible ) reviews, let's have links to 'em.
Maybe it'll spark something here! :up
.

 

[Jim S.]

Amiko Alien? Seems to have a LAN port.
Will it share out its recordings ?
If it only plays from Windows Shares on my LAN, then it'd better be the best damned media player ever!
I've already got a Western Digital TV Live Plus, and I'm not lookin to change!

I have the Alien 2, which is the version with hardware blind scan. (The original Alien recently received a firmware upgrade with blind scan, but I've read so little about it that I'm unable to determine whether it's fully hardware-supported or just simulated in software.)

It will share its recordings via SMB/CIFS/Windows sharing. Recent versions of the firmware will also stream live to VLC via a web interface, meaning that you can watch live 4:2:2 on your computer. In my experience, the uplink speed is a little too slow for some HD feeds via the Amiko-branded wifi adapter. Wired seems OK. I'm considering buying a different wifi adapter for testing, because the Amiko one only connects at 65Mbps whereas everything else connects at 150Mbps.

It will also play media files from Windows shares or NFS shares. On my wifi network, I have to use NFS because the CIFS driver has a horribly slow read speed for some reason. Wired works fine. This time, it's definitely NOT the adapter, because it still reads slow with an ethernet-to-wifi bridge. (This IS a separate problem from the one above though, because the read speed is MUCH, much slower than the write speed. The write speed is about half the physical link speed, the read speed is ludicrously low -- as in low single digits! -- but as I said, it works fine on NFS.)

The other problem with the media player is that it's ugly. So yeah, keep your dedicated media player for now! (There are a multitude of versions of the Enigma operating system for the Alien, and some of them have beautiful media players. However, I don't like their satellite performance compared to the default software -- no blind scan for one, and non-intuitive setup for another issue -- although the "subscription" crowd swears by them.)

 

[Anole]

Thanks, Jim. That's some very relevant info!

A couple more sentences about motor control (USALS / diseqc),
lnb switching, bandstacked support, reception, firmware updates, and blind scan speed,
and you'd have a basic review, well capable of guiding a potential buyer!

I looked up the Alien 2, and it is around $229.

 

[kodaz]

And absolutely include info on bandstacked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
k, i am going to initiate a worldwide bribe...
if u include the bandstacked info, i will push the thanks or like button!!!!
or at least try to honor that , lol!

mods, if u strike this post, please include that i may not bribe the entire world ...? heh

 

[Tron]

Kodaz, are you and I the only ones these days that care about bandstacking?

Honestly, I'm surprised that more people don't jump on the bandstacking ... er... bandwagon. The ability to get both polarities at the same time from a single cable adds a whole universe of versatility to a satellite system.

 

[Pepper]

Several bandstacked lnbfs here.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would love to see reviews on those receivers here as well. I wish I had the budget to buy one of each for review, although we would need a better reviewer them me since I always seem to have DISH or switch errors., and its too bad Iceberg is out of the FTA game for now. KE4EST would be a good choice as would WallyHTS.

I can't test the Manhattan update since I no longer have that receiver. It is good to see new software being made for it. It was a good receiver once it got over its initial bugs (which they were VERY fast to fix)

We hold no loyalties to any receiver here, we are a FTA site not just a one box site.

You will notice that every FTA site has a favorite box, and that box is the box they sell. We do not sell any receivers here so I take pride that we can be fair to all boxes. So PLEASE if you have a review please post it!

Thanks guys!

 

[northgeorgia]

I'd like to see PC cards included with the receiver reviews, too I heard the new-fangled $300 ones can do quite a bit of stuff -- but wondered if it's worth the price

 

[Stargazer]

What can the $300 ones do that the other ones can't?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using SatelliteGuys

 

[primestar31]

What can the $300 ones do that the other ones can't?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using SatelliteGuys

Create a $275.00 profit for the sellers! lol

 

[truckracer]

Anybody try a linkbox 8000 HD?

 

[SatelliteAV]

What can the $300 ones do that the other ones can't?

VCM and MIS

 

[carlospr43]

I would love to see reviews on those receivers here as well. I wish I had the budget to buy one of each for review, although we would need a better reviewer them me since I always seem to have DISH or switch errors., and its too bad Iceberg is out of the FTA game for now. KE4EST would be a good choice as would WallyHTS.

I can't test the Manhattan update since I no longer have that receiver. It is good to see new software being made for it. It was a good receiver once it got over its initial bugs (which they were VERY fast to fix)

We hold no loyalties to any receiver here, we are a FTA site not just a one box site.

You will notice that every FTA site has a favorite box, and that box is the box they sell. We do not sell any receivers here so I take pride that we can be fair to all boxes. So PLEASE if you have a review please post it!

Thanks guys!

Are you serious???

 

[Mr Tony]

yes we are serious.

As Scott mentioned most other FTA sites usually are tied to the products they sell. So they show preference to them and as I've read other sites they usually trash every other receiver out there.

Last I checked I havent seen any threads deleted about other receivers here

 

[carlospr43]

yes we are serious.

As Scott mentioned most other FTA sites usually are tied to the products they sell. So they show preference to them and as I've read other sites they usually trash every other receiver out there.

Last I checked I havent seen any threads deleted about other receivers here

Yeah,, sounds pretty familiar to me

 

[Mr Tony]

Yeah,, sounds pretty familiar to me

please elaborate

 

[pwrsurge]

AZbox miniME North American Edition.
Does 4:2:2. Some are happy to pay extra for it.
Think this is the latest model, and I want to know about this one only.
Don't want to hear about all the old models - that's for The History Channel!
I appreciated the few mini-reviews.
Maybe it's too soon for a better review, as it's still a work in progress.
Looks like it wants to be your media player, but maybe it'll share out onto my LAN, too.
Multiple external drive connectors, USB & eSATA!
So far, dog-slow blind scan (is it doing it in hardware or all in software?).

The miniMe has hardware blindscan and the actual blindscan speed is pretty fast. However, there is an issue with the current avl6211 tuner driver where blindscan step size is stuck at 20.7MHz and we noticed that it was missing a lot of narrower SR rate transponders during our tests because of this. As a temporary workaround to compensate for this issue, we currently have the blindscan process automatically do multiple passes at different start and end frequencies in order to "fill in the gaps".

We are currently working on adapting a new avl6211 driver version in order to work on the miniMe which supports a user configurable step size. As a result of this, blindscan performance will be greatly enhanced as we will lower the default stepsize to 10MHz or even lower instead of using 20.7MHz which is too high for an accurate blindscan. We will also allow the end user to specify a custom stepsize value. This is a priority issue we are working on so it should be implemented within the next few firmware updates along with support for stacked LNBF's and other enhancements.



Best regards,

PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[Stevemo]

I would like to get reviews on Software now that I am getting into using my TBS6925 card. I'm currently using ProgDVB professional (professional is required to use a motor...) and it is taking time to figure out. The toughest thing was to figure out that us in the "New World" have to punch in our Longitude as a negative to make the dish work properly.

Cheers, Steve

 

[northgeorgia]

I'll probably look into a computer card in the future, too....so hardware and software reviews would be nice

 

[madmadworld]

BIG THANKS

VCM and MIS

Reading
http://www.buydvb.net/blog/tbs6925-test-report-dvb-s2-mis-reception-with-vcmacm.html