SERIOUS ISSUES with Triax ST-HD537 Combi - Buyer Beware

liamtech

I am opening this thread to point out a number of serious issues present with this Set Top Combo Box - Triax ST-HD537 - This is the unit currently under testing as a saorview certified terrestrial combi box -

I must immediately point out that several issues are satellite related and if the mods feel this thread should be moved - i completely understand

I have spent 5 hours trying to work out a way to correct these issues on a friends box - I firmly believe that using this version of the box/firmware, no solution exists (Apologies for sounding arrogant but it really has been a long day!!!)

- 1 - The unit is incapable of tuning certain stations and channels - Specifically it suffers from the same issue as the grundig/Goodmans Freesat Set top Box - It will not under any circumstances pick up STV-HD, the BBC streams, - As the interactive streams cant be accessed via the red button, no way exists of viewing these stations/streams - Also absent is the second version of ITV HD on 10936v - which is slightly better quality

- 2 - Absolutely no way of editing or ordering the stations exists on the unit - literally what ever order they are tuned in is the way the will be displayed - 5 favourites sections exist but these do not carry over into the electronic program guide - the main EPG section is laid out starting at 10714(Astra 2D) to 12643 (Eurobird) - Therefore the first sat channel is channel 4 (All Six versions) - Although it is possible to delete channels, that is literally the extent of the customization allowed - i should also point out that the deletions must be completed ONE AT A TIME, which took what seemed like an ice age- each deletion carrys the customary warning "are you sure" blah blah blah - Just like the Goodmans Freesat box in non freesat mode i must add..... HUM

- 3 - The signal strength indicator is completely unreliable, and seems to get stuck on certain transponders - EXAMPLE - if you look at 10936 the unit states that it is receiving 100% Strength and 100% Quality - if you then look at TV3, or PRESS TV (One terrestrial channel coming from my mates loft aerial, one satellite station which usually appears slightly weaker than the rest) it displays them both as 100% strength and quality - I would also point out that 100% quality from my mates satellite dish is a near impossibility as its a fairly standard no bells sky dish - My ross box picks up 65% quality

- 4 - Despite them being on the same MUX, it is not possible to watch one DTT channel and record another -

- 5 - The EPG/Guide button does not display now and next info for satellites - at first i suspected it would load them after a short while of checking each transponder - 5 cigarettes later - no NOW and Next! It is in fact only displayed when one goes to a satellite channel - ie switches to a sat channel - I know for a fact that it loads (although rather slowly) on this units predecessor - the 527! as one progresses down the 527's menu the now and next data pops up for each transponder group

- 6 - As mentioned previously the only Freesat feature present is the BBC digital teletext - but no way exists of viewing the streams either as independent channels or via the MHEG5

- 7 - The scheduling of recordings doesnt seem to work especially well - weve tried ot twice on terrestrial with a childrens show on RTE 2, and some random chat show on tv3 - it failed the rte 2 show despite an hour in between scheduling

In order to rule out channel outages i brought my trusty no bells and whistles ROSS HD box, and personally connected to the spare output on my mates quad LNB - perfect on all counts - STV-HD, proper station signal metering, bbc streams right where i left them!!! lol

I have to say that my mate apart from being totally worn out and annoyed is also gutted -its kinda up to me to express his EXTREME DISSATISFACTION with the unit!!! - I also have to say i feel slightly responsible for this as i recommended a switch to FTA sat and DTT - If i had to give one main issue which both of us found terrible its the absence of STV-HD - This completely unnecessary issue beggars belief - I remember when i had a Sat4FREE/Freesat goodmans box having exactly the same issue - CRAZY - I know too another friend who has a Goodmans HD+ 320GB Freesat box - he too cant get STV+HD - However for him it balances out with the presence of a Full Interactive service, and Full 7 DAY EPG -



Neither of these pros are present on the Triax model - It essentially has all of the issues associated with the Goodmans Freesat box, and almost none of the benefits... oh it does have saorview though

I kinda like watching STV-HD which shows different films and is really nice quality.

anyway....

Perhaps a firmware update or one of my fellow boarders will have a crack at this - I have brought the box back to mine tonight, to have another poke at it and see if any solutions exist but i doubt they do - i left my trusty/CHEAP ross satellite box with STV HD fully operational - not to mention a perfectly organized channel menu in my friends to prevent him taking to the drink... He is considering bringing it back to Powercity but i dont know if they will take it back... its working ... its just not very good -

Any solutions folks - my mate will write you into his will!!!!! im personally gonna contact triax tomorrow

liamtech

Update:

I have now caught it in the act of failing to record a scheduled show on terrestrial - at 6:45 i scheduled it to record emmerdale (before you laugh it was the first thing i seen in the EPG) -

i then went to a sat station BBC2 NI - Low and behold at exactly 6:59 a message appears informing me that "the scheduled recording has failed because there is no signal to record"

My god this box is turning out to be absolutely useless- im seriously considering telling my mate to go back to powercity with it - apparently this is the second 537 he got - the first one had a problem with the aerial reception despite his loft aerial supporting 2 other TV's - He got that replaced last night.

ONE POSITIVE THOUGH - The Red Button services on the Ocean Finance Station work - -- HURRAY!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS ALL WORTH WHILE!!!!! I SHALL STAY IN ALL WEEK END READING ABOUT WONDERFUL OCEAN FINANCE DEALS!!!!!

byte

That doesn't sound good at all. I was chatting to somebody last night with one, and he's having the same problems, with regards rearranging channels. I'm still shocked that such a basic STB feature is not present.

Work was gonna order some in for retail, but I think it's best avoided for now, until a firmware release fixes the basics.

Seems this box was rushed to market with no thought process involved?

liamtech

byte wrote: »

That doesn't sound good at all. I was chatting to somebody last night with one, and he's having the same problems, with regards rearranging channels. I'm still shocked that such a basic STB feature is not present.

Work was gonna order some in for retail, but I think it's best avoided for now, until a firmware release fixes the basics.

Seems this box was rushed to market with no thought process involved?

my thoughts exactly - i will be contacting triax asap - very disappointed - firmware is really the only option - but how long are early adopters like my mate supposed to wait - gotta love the MHEG ocean finance interactivity though - i laughed and laughed!!!!

Paul87

I bought one of these boxes the other day, got round to setting it up tonite... my god it is brutal thus far. Like Liam said channels cannot be moved, names edited even channel numbers cannot be changed etc.

This is now my fourth combo box and by far the worst...very underwhelming considering the price.

Hopefully firmware will be the answer in time but for now it's going back in its box.

Avoid!!!

liamtech

Paul87 wrote: »

I bought one of these boxes the other day, got round to setting it up tonite... my god it is brutal thus far. Like Liam said channels cannot be moved, names edited even channel numbers cannot be changed etc.

This is now my fourth combo box and by far the worst...very underwhelming considering the price.

Hopefully firmware will be the answer in time but for now it's going back in its box.

Avoid!!!

Hi Paul -

My condolences on your recent purchase -

im wrecking my brain currently trying to figure this out- the scheduling of future recordings on terrestrial is terrible - and it was one of the new features I personally was interested in checking out

Have you tried that feature yet? something quite unusual going on with it

- my mate ran out and bought it so quickly - should have waited i suppose -

Im ringing triax tomorrow anyway - does anyone have any other suggestions for whom we could contact - perhaps the crowd that are currently testing it for saorview - i know its not a saorview issue but maybe-

Ive spoken to my mate and he doesnt really want to give up on it just yet - FIRMWARE must be the solution

ALSO Paul.... dont forget to check out the ocean finance interactive red button features - It made it all worth while - LOL

The Cush

Having read the above posts I'm not surprised the certification process for the receiver has stalled even though certification only applies to the terrestrial section of the receiver.

Tony wrote: »

Just spoke with the guys in Armstrongs who say the Saorview certification is held up with software issues.

liamtech

The Cush wrote: »

Having read the above posts I'm not surprised the certification process for the receiver has stalled even though certification only applies to the terrestrial section of the receiver.

I wonder does tony know of the time line - presumably a software fix is in the working at the moment -

It certainly needs a fix or two.... or twenty two!

The issue with scheduling recordings on Terrestrial stations seems related to the last terrestrial station viewed - I just managed to schedule and record prime time because i watched the first five mins of the nine o clock news- then went over to sky news - forgot about the scheduled recording but when i checked it was recorded -

Its all way to complicated - Definitely we need an update and sharpish - otherwise this box is gonna be a dead duck!

KELTICKNIGHTT

glad i didnt get this combo now,wow is the Triax ST-HD527 better than Triax ST-HD537,does the Triax ST-HD527 have same issues

liamtech

KELTICKNIGHTT wrote: »

glad i didn't get this combo now,wow is the Triax ST-HD527 better than Triax ST-HD537,does the Triax ST-HD527 have same issues

Now the box is saying it is not receiving a signal from the terrestrial aerial at all - this is curiously similar to the error reported on the first box my mate got from Power City - Can anyone confirm whether they have encountered this issue before - the terrestrial seems to have simply dropped off at some stage - i cant say when as i had switched over to my DVD player to watch a movie- its definitely not the aerial as i have another TV running off the same one - no signal issue - and when i turned off the box and then on again, low and behold the signal is back:

Until Triax confirm they are working on these issues i wouldn't touch this Set top box with your satellite cable - let alone mine!!!!

Seriously this is very poor from a company like triax - let alone a product that cost 230euro - Its actually outrageous - The issues with terrestrial signal vanishing are clearly software related - as are the units inability to tune STV-HD, the streams, - And i have never encountered a FTA Box that wont let you rename stations and move them around - With all due respect to Triax that is ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL - This company has clearly released this box


- ahead of schedule
- improperly tested
- incomplete
- and as far as its "main features" go - with a Highly unfriendly usable Software system

I genuinely believe Triax need to at least confirm they are aware of these issues and are working on it - otherwise come Monday i will have to advise my friend to get a refund and steer clear of Triax from now on

watty

Obviously the software is not finished and it's been prematurely released.

At least when the SW is finished those pioneers with Arrows in back should be OK with an update.

Never be an early adopter.

Anyone that has this and doesn't want to risk waiting for a SW update should easily get full refund. It's "not fit for purpose" under Sale of Goods Act.

STB

liamtech wrote:

- 1 - The unit is incapable of tuning certain stations and channels - Specifically it suffers from the same issue as the grundig/Goodmans Freesat Set top Box - It will not under any circumstances pick up STV-HD, the BBC streams, Vox Africa - As the interactive streams cant be accessed via the red button, no way exists of viewing these stations/streams - Also absent is the second version of ITV HD on 10936v - which is slightly better quality

You do not need a red button. Infact this is a FTA box. It does not have the functionality of a Freesat box or red button capabilties.

The BBC Streams are up on 12441 V - this box should pick up these stations in an automatic scan - they will be labelled as such Stram 1, 2 .

STV HD. Is it still on ? It was on Astra 2D 10936 V 22000 5/6 DVB-S2.

Again this box should pick up this station in an automatic scan

liamtech wrote:

- 2 - Absolutely no way of editing or ordering the stations exists on the unit - literally what ever order they are tuned in is the way the will be displayed - 5 favourites sections exist but these do not carry over into the electronic program guide - the main EPG section is laid out starting at 10714(Astra 2D) to 12643 (Eurobird) - Therefore the first sat channel is channel 4 (All Six versions) - Although it is possible to delete channels, that is literally the extent of the customization allowed - i should also point out that the deletions must be completed ONE AT A TIME, which took what seemed like an ice age- each deletion carrys the customary warning "are you sure" blah blah blah - Just like the Goodmans Freesat box in non freesat mode i must add..... HUM

So you cant set up a Favourites Group - say called Sat & DTT, then go into the management tools and set favourites, then add channels - on the clarketech/technomate combo boxes its a "loveheart" and that channel is then added to what you set as your favourites.

I think you may have skipped something here.

liamtech wrote:

- 4 - Despite them being on the same MUX, it is not possible to watch one DTT channel and record another -

Badly written software rather than hardware limitation. Firmware update territory.

liamtech wrote:

- 5 - The EPG/Guide button does not display now and next info for satellites - at first i suspected it would load them after a short while of checking each transponder - 5 cigarettes later - no NOW and Next! It is in fact only displayed when one goes to a satellite channel - ie switches to a sat channel - I know for a fact that it loads (although rather slowly) on this units predecessor - the 527! as one progresses down the 527's menu the now and next data pops up for each transponder group

No zapping function eh ? Boxes differ. Most load the now/next per transponder. i.e. when in epg as you click on a channel once you should see the epg data update for that station and those on the same transponder.

liamtech wrote:

- 6 - As mentioned previously the only Freesat feature present is the BBC digital teletext - but no way exists of viewing the streams either as independent channels or via the MHEG5

MHEG5 engine on board does not mean Freesat Functionality which is a specifcally written API, yes based on MHEG5 but with compressed Huffman tables. The streams are broadcast in the clear and have to be treated as seperate channels.

These boxes are in no way like a Freesat Box which is plug and play. There is a bit of setting up involved for any combo box, but once its done you just copy the stb's settings to a backup USB.

The box doesnt sound fantastic, but I wonder are you following the instructions as regards adding stations to favorites from the various sat and terrestrial sources.

No offence.

Satts

liamtech wrote: »

- 2 - Absolutely no way of editing or ordering the stations exists on the unit - literally what ever order they are tuned in is the way the will be displayed - 5 favourites sections exist but these do not carry over into the electronic program guide - the main EPG section is laid out starting at 10714(Astra 2D) to 12643 (Eurobird) - Therefore the first sat channel is channel 4 (All Six versions) - Although it is possible to delete channels, that is literally the extent of the customization allowed - i should also point out that the deletions must be completed ONE AT A TIME, which took what seemed like an ice age- each deletion carrys the customary warning "are you sure" blah blah blah - Just like the Goodmans Freesat box in non freesat mode i must add..... HUM

I set up an ST-HD-527 for a friend of mine.

I edited the channel list by making a favourites list, you can then transfer the favourites list to be your main list and it will stay on this list when the box is switched off/on.

liamtech

STB wrote: »

You do not need a red button. Infact this is a FTA box. It does not have the functionality of a Freesat box or red button capabilties.

The BBC Streams are up on 12441 V - this box should pick up these stations in an automatic scan - they will be labelled as such Stram 1, 2 .

STV HD. Is it still on ? It was on Astra 2D 10936 V 22000 5/6 DVB-S2.

Again this box should pick up this station in an automatic scan



So you cant set up a Favourites Group - say called Sat & DTT, then go into the management tools and set favourites, then add channels - on the clarketech/technomate combo boxes its a "loveheart" and that channel is then added to what you set as your favourites.

I think you may have skipped something here.


Badly written software rather than hardware limitation. Firmware update territory.



No zapping function eh ? Boxes differ. Most load the now/next per transponder. i.e. when in epg as you click on a channel once you should see the epg data update for that station and those on the same transponder.



MHEG5 engine on board does not mean Freesat Functionality which is a specifcally written API, yes based on MHEG5 but with compressed Huffman tables. The streams are broadcast in the clear and have to be treated as seperate channels.

These boxes are in no way like a Freesat Box which is plug and play. There is a bit of setting up involved for any combo box, but once its done you just copy the stb's settings to a backup USB.

The box doesnt sound fantastic, but I wonder are you following the instructions as regards adding stations to favorites from the various sat and terrestrial sources.

No offence.

None taken.... However:

- A - After three FULL rescans, and three manual scans of 12441 V - no services detected/added - No BBC Streams what so ever- I only mention this for completeness but that is exactly what a good mans receiver states when one scans that transponder. As evidence of the boxes very real issues i would state that my Skyline/Philex HDSR400 HD FTA box feeding off the same LNB picks up the BBC streams perfectly - As does it pick up STV-HD - When we scan 10936V for STV HD on the TRIAX box it states "One service found - No Services added". Again i must point out that the only box i have every encountered that would give this exact same result are certain freesat boxes from goodmans and bush - Software must be very similar - It picks up STV-HD as a service but wont display it -

-b - As t your point about organizing favorites - You cant edit the favorites labels - Neither can you change the order in which channels move into the favorites section - an example is when i added bbc1 and BBC2 NI to a favorites menu - they arrive as the first two channels but still numbered as they were in the all channels section - If i then add channel four - it will push bbc1+2 out of the way and become the first channel in the group - why. well it seems the channels hold there allotted channel number from the full scan - and as channel four is 10714 H and bbc NI is 10818 V channel four automatically takes the first position in the line up - Any line up- This is unstoppable - i have tried everything i can think of. you just cant customize your channel line up on this box PERIOD. in either the main channel menu or favorites section. If ive not been clear il try and post pictures or a video later.

As to my own abilities - i have set up the following Set top boxes - Silvercrest SL65, Philex HDSR400, ROSS HD FTA, Goodmans freesat and sat4free, Sagem freesat, Triax ST-HD527, comag SL40 etc etc etc - Now im not saying im an expert, but i have done this type of thing before - And i must point out that this is the worst box i have ever worked with -

However i am not going to give up as i firmly believe that with the possibility of EPG updates via Ethernet, Fully functioning MHEG5 etc..

This box does have potential - real potential - but early adopters are not going to wait forever - really Triax need to get cracking and at least give a timetable for fixing these issues -

I understand too what you said about this being a FTA box and not freesat - that doesnt change the fact that it has massive similarities to a freesat box - very little customization etc etc I generally has a very freesat feel to the menu system -

I fear for Saorview as a service if this box becomes certified - i really do - We were all looking forward to it- and it was going to help kick Sky's number down in ireland - Well not like this it aint!

Gonna ring Triax shortly so il let everyone know

liamtech

Satts wrote: »

I set up an ST-HD-527 for a friend of mine.

I edited the channel list by making a favourites list, you can then transfer the favourites list to be your main list and it will stay on this list when the box is switched off/on.

Completely different menu system to the 537 - again i will try and post pics

billyboy01

I got the HD527 model just before Powercity removed it from there shops for the HD537. So if you can get the HD527, I'd get one as it works like a charm with no problems, the only difference is the HD527 doesnt have MHEG5 text services, which I can live without and it was 40quid cheaper!

watty

You can do without MHEG5 today, but next year you may want it.

But currently buying as little as possible is a good strategy.

liamtech

watty wrote: »

You can do without MHEG5 today, but next year you may want it.

But currently buying as little as possible is a good strategy.

I agree with you on the need for MHEG5 - at one point i didnt but when we consider the possible interactive services, it has to be worth it -

The 537 works with both digital RTE and most of the digital BBC services which is astounding and quite unexpected - but the issues list just seems to get longer with every hour - the box im using now claims that it has no dtt signal what so ever - YET my TV which is getting its DTT UHF through the triax boxes loop through/RF out has perfect reception - That is quite unbelievable - this box is geared towards the irish market as we have stated in the past - It clearly states its designed for ireland in the brochure - i just cant believe the mountain of issues it has - ?!?!?!

watty

Definitely launched too soon. Some marketing guy needs to be forced to write out with crow quill pen 100 times
"I am sorry. I must not force premature launch of products before people have finished writing and testing the software"
He should have to make the ink from Oak galls and the paper from flax.

CrazyE

Hi All

I've very disappointing with this box. I bought 2 of them, one for me and one for the father. He's not good with tech at all so naturally when I started setting it up for him and it was refusing to tune in some channels and wouldn't allow me to properly set the channel order he was getting worried and stressed over the 230 odd Euro spent on it. Long story short, I took his home with me and said I'd "sort it". Lucky me With some searching I found this thread, thanks god its not just me seeing these problems. I under stand now that there is some kind of channel ordering trough the favorites but does not excuse the fact that I cant get all the channels. The fathers dish is unobstructed and when I bring my old box over , I can get it set up in giffy time, no problems.

I'm away for the weekend so don't have any more time to spend on it at the moment until next week, but am very eager to see what other people think about this/what possible solutions are available. I joined boards specifically to enquirer about this device.What kind of time frame would a firmware upgrade normally take a company to produce?

I understand this kind of thing can take time but as it appears to be a rush release according to others in this thread, is it possible that a new firmware version could be coming soon? Shurly they would have knowed that there were issues with this device when they were testing and producing it???

liamtech

UPDATED Firmware - V1.9

I made contact with Power City today and outlined the various faults - Within 5 minutes someone called me. I have to say the level of service from power city was very good, and the staff member told me to hold for now and he would contact triax - I agreed.

About 10 minutes later i received a phone call from Electroplus who informed me that a firmware update exists for this box and that it may solve my issues - Again the level of support from electroplus was brilliant, with the gentleman offering to perform the software update for me personally - I received the email with the firmware - Triax had apparently acknowledged that issues were present and proposed this firmware as the solution - The main issues they were concerned about were as follows:

-No subtitles available via terrestrial

-No program info via terrestrial

-Scheduled recordings failures

Slightly disappointed that no mention of the menu issues or missing sat channels was made, i never the less continued and installed the firmware:

Subtitles and Program info appeared fine afterward -

No change to the terrestrial signal being randomly dropped for no reason, no difference in the scheduled recordings failing - no difference in the inhability to watch a DTT station while recording another -

SO! No change really - Electroplus and powercity were both professional and polite - Full stars ten out of ten!:)

But in all honesty Triax still have a great deal to fix if this unit is ever to take off- I remain very confident that a solution can be found, and i will email/telephone Electroplus on monday -

But hey, at least i have my Red button features on the ocean-finance channel - these are the things that make life worth living!!!:D:D:D

byte

Does the new firmware allow you to rearrange channels though?

liamtech

just to clarify the new firmware has no effect what so ever on any of the issues with the menu, or the terrestrial signal, or the scheduling of recordings

billyboy01

Im so glad I have the HD527 model, even though it doesnt have MHEG5 its working perfect DTT and Freesat!

I think I'll wait for the next gen model, or give Triax a few months to get there act together with a firmware fix!

I see Powercity have taken the HD537 off there website!

liamtech

billyboy01 wrote: »

Im so glad I have the HD527 model, even though it doesnt have MHEG5 its working perfect DTT and Freesat!

I think I'll wait for the next gen model, or give Triax a few months to get there act together with a firmware fix!

I see Powercity have taken the HD537 off there website!

I genuinely dont blame them - there a great company who have embraced the concept of fta terrestrial and satellite - we have all seen their website - the only retail website to clearly spell out saorview - they are to be commended for that -

Triax have let them down sorely here - not good enough really

applewoodgo

liamtech wrote: »

None taken.... However:

- A - After three FULL rescans, and three manual scans of 12441 V - no services detected/added - No BBC Streams what so ever- I only mention this for completeness but that is exactly what a good mans receiver states when one scans that transponder. As evidence of the boxes very real issues i would state that my Skyline/Philex HDSR400 HD FTA box feeding off the same LNB picks up the BBC streams perfectly - As does it pick up STV-HD - When we scan 10936V for STV HD on the TRIAX box it states "One service found - No Services added". Again i must point out that the only box i have every encountered that would give this exact same result are certain freesat boxes from goodmans and bush - Software must be very similar - It picks up STV-HD as a service but wont display it -

-b - As t your point about organizing favorites - You cant edit the favorites labels - Neither can you change the order in which channels move into the favorites section - an example is when i added bbc1 and BBC2 NI to a favorites menu - they arrive as the first two channels but still numbered as they were in the all channels section - If i then add channel four - it will push bbc1+2 out of the way and become the first channel in the group - why. well it seems the channels hold there allotted channel number from the full scan - and as channel four is 10714 H and bbc NI is 10818 V channel four automatically takes the first position in the line up - Any line up- This is unstoppable - i have tried everything i can think of. you just cant customize your channel line up on this box PERIOD. in either the main channel menu or favorites section. If ive not been clear il try and post pictures or a video later.

As to my own abilities - i have set up the following Set top boxes - Silvercrest SL65, Philex HDSR400, ROSS HD FTA, Goodmans freesat and sat4free, Sagem freesat, Triax ST-HD527, comag SL40 etc etc etc - Now im not saying im an expert, but i have done this type of thing before - And i must point out that this is the worst box i have ever worked with -

However i am not going to give up as i firmly believe that with the possibility of EPG updates via Ethernet, Fully functioning MHEG5 etc..

This box does have potential - real potential - but early adopters are not going to wait forever - really Triax need to get cracking and at least give a timetable for fixing these issues -

I understand too what you said about this being a FTA box and not freesat - that doesnt change the fact that it has massive similarities to a freesat box - very little customization etc etc I generally has a very freesat feel to the menu system -

I fear for Saorview as a service if this box becomes certified - i really do - We were all looking forward to it- and it was going to help kick Sky's number down in ireland - Well not like this it aint!

Gonna ring Triax shortly so il let everyone know

Well done you! I have been sitting the fence waiting for this new box to arrive and was about to jump off and buy one of these, and am I the lucky one to have boards.ie and someone as vigilant as you to save me from a disasterous purchase. I am a newbe to this and this will be my first box. I have been picking up as much knowledge as I can before making the purchase. However, I am a bit confused about Internet EPG and The ability to view one channel while recording another if you only have one terristrial tuner.

1. Does the STB have to be connected to the Internet all the time to avail of EPG or is it downloaded to a USB stick and then transferred to the unit.

2. I thought you needed two feeds from the aerial to two seperate tuners in the STB to achieve this - the sky plus box for example and also the Humax HDR PVR. If I can get my head around these two problems, then I may be able to make an informed judgement should other boxes reach the market.

Well done again!

KELTICKNIGHTT

applewoodgo wrote: »

Well done you! I have been sitting the fence waiting for this new box to arrive and was about to jump off and buy one of these, and am I the lucky one to have boards.ie and someone as vigilant as you to save me from a disasterous purchase. I am a newbe to this and this will be my first box. I have been picking up as much knowledge as I can before making the purchase. However, I am a bit confused about Internet EPG and The ability to record one channel and recording another if you only have one terristrial tuner.

1. Does the STB have to be connected to the Internet all the time to avail of EPG or is it downloaded to a USB stick and then transferred to the unit.

2. I thought you needed two feeds from the aerial to two seperate tuners in the STB to achieve this - the sky plus box for example and also the Humax HDR PVR. If I can get my head around these two problems, then I may be able to make an informed judgement shoul other boxes reach the market.

Well done again!

epg or multi epg either is already installed on the box you buy ,like ferguson,edision or triax ,these type of boxes,other boxes that run on linux like vu-do,azbox ,qbox and few others ,you can add epg software addon through a usb stick ,so epg is not used through web,like all boxs,you need 2 tuner installed on box if you want too run both irish digital and freesat channels ,you need this too record either from irish dd or freesat, thsi is short version,im sure someone else can give a more detailed info than i can,if your first box,then and dont want too mess with linux based open sourse box,then i go for the easy option ,of edision ,ferguson or triax boxs,i wouldnt get the

ST-HD-537 as you can see has some issues, if looking at triax,the go for ST-HD-527,the ferguson seems a good box,but i sure someone call tell you better

applewoodgo

KELTICKNIGHTT wrote: »

epg or multi epg either is already installed on the box you buy ,like ferguson,edision or triax ,these type of boxes,other boxes that run on linux like vu-do,azbox ,qbox and few others ,you can add epg software addon through a usb stick ,so epg is not used through web,like all boxs,you need 2 tuner installed on box if you want too run both irish digital and freesat channels ,you need this too record either from irish dd or freesat, thsi is short version,im sure someone else can give a more detailed info than i can,if your first box,then and dont want too mess with linux based open sourse box,then i go for the easy option ,of edision ,ferguson or triax boxs,i wouldnt get the

ST-HD-537 as you can see has some issues, if looking at triax,the go for ST-HD-527,the ferguson seems a good box,but i sure someone call tell you better

I just noticed a mistake in my post above. I meant to say, view one channel while recording another on the terristrial tuner. Also, according to a post elswhere on the internet (I cannot find it now) it stated that EPG would not be intigrated and suggested an internet based version instead. Watty refers to it in his Blog -http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty - Also, it is not included in Triax's sales newsletter page 5 here -http://www.triax.co.uk/upload/triax_newsletter_dec10.pdf - Surely if the box doesn't contain an integrated EPG, which appears to me a very important part of the box, its not fit for purpose and shouldn't be released for sale until this is included.

Satts

liamtech wrote: »

Completely different menu system to the 537 - again i will try and post pics

Thanks, I didn't know that. I presumed wrongly they would be similar systems..

Also, thanks for starting this thread.
I was very close to recommending to someone that they should get two 537's instead of two FTA boxes. I'm glad I read this thread.

KELTICKNIGHTT

applewoodgo wrote: »

I just noticed a mistake in my post above. I meant to say, view one channel while recording another on the terristrial tuner. Also, according to a post elswhere on the internet (I cannot find it now) it stated that EPG would not be intigrated and suggested an internet based version instead. Watty refers to it in his Blog -http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty - Also, it is not included in Triax's sales newsletter page 5 here -http://www.triax.co.uk/upload/triax_newsletter_dec10.pdf - Surely if the box doesn't contain an integrated EPG, which appears to me a very important part of the box, its not fit for purpose and shouldn't be released for sale until this is included.

im useng epg and multi epg for sat and irish dd,and not connected too web,i downloaded the addons too do it from a support forum of the box im using,i will have option of wifi when i get the wifi dongle from online shop when they have in stock,the box i use like others allow me too play content i recorded too didderent external drive like movies etc outside of the external hard drive i use for PVR

billyboy01

Powercity are selling the older Triax HD527 again for 180quid, so obviously there are major problems with the HD537!

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-THD527