I just finished listening to the recording of Satellite Nation from earlier tonight and was quite interested in a new receiver that was mentioned on the program that sounds like it just might be better than most of the receivers out there. Here are some notes I made about this receiver (I hope these are accurate because in a few places it was hard for me to understand what was being said):
One thing I was not 100% certain about was who was talking about all this - I THINK it was Joe from FridgeFTA but don't hold me to that. If I am correct on that point then in most cases when I said "they" I really meant "Joe" because it sounds like he will be doing most of the North American software work.
It sounds as if he will reveal more in the coming week(s) but my ears definitely perked up when I heard this!
- It is an Android based DVB-S2 STB Made in Europe. It will be packaged in a metal case a little bigger than an S10 or an Alien 1. It contains a Cortex A9 based(?) 2500 processor with an 800 megahertz GPU(??). Previous attempts at Android-based STB's have not worked very well but this one does.
- 4:2:2 SD is working flawlessly right now (in a rooted system) and plays a live stream to the TV. CBS 4:2:2 HD did not work so far but that is because for testing purposes they are bypassing the GPU. It played in slow motion when just running software decoding, but before it is released in North America they will have it going through the GPU and then it should work.
- It will run thousands of apps, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Filmon, Navi-X, Skype, etc.
- It is already a finished product, the hardware is totally ready now and they are just working out software bugs and tweaking and changing things.
- They are also working on blind scan, it is in software but this machine has so much CPU power that it should be faster than the hardware blind scan on any current generation receiver.
- This is not meant to be exclusively a satellite receiver; it will be a full box that does everything. Even if it is not used for FTA satellite it will still do Android functions, DLNA, home networking, thousands of streaming channels and video on demand, going to a TV network site or other online video site and watching programs, etc. It can do everything the Roku does and much more. If all you need is a plain old satellite receiver that connects to your TV and has no network capabilities then this might not be the right choice for you.
- As sold in North America it will only have a single tuner. However, it might be possible to use a USB-connected ATSC or DVB-T tuner, etc. but right now the software would probably not support it, however it could since it's all Android-based and therefore not hard to do.
One thing I was not 100% certain about was who was talking about all this - I THINK it was Joe from FridgeFTA but don't hold me to that. If I am correct on that point then in most cases when I said "they" I really meant "Joe" because it sounds like he will be doing most of the North American software work.
It sounds as if he will reveal more in the coming week(s) but my ears definitely perked up when I heard this!
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