HD STB Advice

mjsmyth

I just bought my first HD Ready TV. I didn't go wild. It is a Beko 32WLU520HD on special for 399.95 in Powercity.

Now I know, yeah it is a Beko, but,well I have always bought Beko since I bought my first house. Its just something I do!

Now then, to go with it, I am looking for a HD STB. Currently I have a Strong 6355 that I bought 3 or 4 years ago from satellite.ie. It is connected to a diseq motor, so obviously any replacement would have to be able to control that too, so that rules out the freesat HD stb's apart from the Foxsat, but that has issues at the moment and i don't want to go down that road.

So... anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks,
MJ

watty

The otherwise lovely Lyngbox HD DVB-s2/DTT combo PVR does not do GotoX/USALS. It only does Diseqc switches properly.

maxg

Clarke Tech 5000 or 5000C for instance. Street price around 250 euro.

byte

Or Technomate TM6800 (HD Sat) or TM6900 (HD Sat + DTT combo), which I believe is internally near identical to the Clarketech.

Other nice ones would be Vantage 7100, or Octagon SF918, which I've been looking into myself. Just less sure about reliability of these two compared to the Technomate or Clarke Tech.

mjsmyth

thanks guys.

mj

Zaphod

If you're on a budget, Maplin have a Fortec Passion receiver, 65cm dish and LNBF for €247.49 until August 5th.

They have B-grade Passions on their website for UK£130.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=99265&doy=28m7

mjsmyth

Thanks for the heads up on the maplin deal. I don't need the complete package, but the B Grade receivers look good value.

MJ

byte

Whichever receiver you choose, see if it can view ITV HD too. Many of the popular brands can now anyway, though it's only part-time channel, so not much on.

maxg

The best option would be a receiver with 2 tuners. One for dvb-s/s2 and one for dvb-t plus mpeg4 capabilities. Irish DTT is coming.
ClarkeTech 5000C and Technomate TM6900 offer both tuners. The ClarkeTech is cheaper.

mjsmyth

It seems that Irish DTT, when it arrives, will be mpeg 4. Will both the above cope with the DTT side of things?

MJ

byte

mjsmyth wrote: »

It seems that Irish DTT, when it arrives, will be mpeg 4. Will both the above cope with the DTT side of things?

MJ

Yes.

watty

best is 4 tuners and 320G hdd.
2x DTT and 2x DVBs2

byte

watty wrote: »

best is 4 tuners and 320G hdd.
2x DTT and 2x DVBs2

That'll be cheap!

maxg

It looks like watty is talking about the DM8000 and for the price you get 4 clarke techs which give 8 tuners and the possibility to connect 4 usb hdd*s.

byte

Or the Reelbox, which allows 3 tuner modules, and the humble price of UK£1,200!

pa990

i think i'll buy something cheap.. maybe even two cheap stb's, one for each room... and see how things pan out in the next few years.

And then maybe , just maybe , invest in some sort of quad tuner, terabyte pvr .. maybe

mjsmyth

I like Wattys idea, but i cant help but feel it would be expensive and the thoughts of pulling more cables through the house... Euughhhh.

mj

Zaphod

Comag HD receiver £99 or €120.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=222338&doy=11m3
http://shop.anixehd.tv/product_info.php?info=p586_Comag-HDTV-Sat-Receiver--HD-S-CI-100.html

watty

Id go for separate DTT & Sat PVRs boxes each with 2 tuners and HDD.

The reelBox lite can take 2 x dual tuners and the reelbox avantguarde 3 x dual tuners

Rubbish SW though.

I've had 4 Sat tuners and one Terrestrial tuner in a PC as experiment.

enitram

Hi - just wondering if you can recommend the BEKO 32WLU520HD? They're on special offer at Powercity at the moment €299.

mjsmyth

I have had no major issues with my Beko apart from it only has one HDMI port. I got around this by using a switchbox. Perhaps the newer version has more than 1 port.

You will need to take time in setting the tv up. Blues still dominate the screen when watching a live concert (they seem to be very fond of blue lighting at gigs!).

When watching a HD source, I tend to leave it on the Rich setting. When playing a game, I have a different profile set up under user.

Will my next set be a Beko? Maybe, this is my 3rd Beko in a row (28" 4:3, 32" Widescreen CRT, 32" LCD). To be honest, you get exactly what you pay for with Beko. The TV works, the picture is crisp. It won't compare with the higher end, but as you say, it is only 299!!

enitram

Thanks for the mega quick reply. Just wanted to be sure that you had no major issues with the Beko. It's for my parents so I'm sure they'll be happy with it.