Ferguson Ariva combi or Triax combi......which is better

RedRaven

Hi all,
Need to make a quick decision here folks, I got some great advise here yesterday as I bought a terrestrial reciever ONLY and should have got a combi instead took it back and got a refund. ****e advice from the guy in the large chain store...

Ok, I have choice between a Ferguson Ariva 120 HD combo for 149.00 from Harvey Norman or a Triax combi HD reciever for 159.00 from D.I.D.

But which one is better.

I have a dish already from sky but the box is shagged.

So I want to marry the reciever to the dish.

There is 10 euro between them but which is better? I have 2 hours to choose as they both close at 4 o clock....

As always many thanks for all the help from the boards crew and merry christmas.

Dermondo

RedRaven wrote: »

Hi all,
Need to make a quick decision here folks, I got some great advise here yesterday as I bought a terrestrial reciever ONLY and should have got a combi instead took it back and got a refund. ****e advice from the guy in the large chain store...

Ok, I have choice between a Ferguson Ariva 120 HD combo for 149.00 from Harvey Norman or a Triax combi HD reciever for 159.00 from D.I.D.

But which one is better.

I have a dish already from sky but the box is shagged.

So I want to marry the reciever to the dish.

There is 10 euro between them but which is better? I have 2 hours to choose as they both close at 4 o clock....

As always many thanks for all the help from the boards crew and merry christmas.

Triax Info
Triax ST HD 537 Satellite Combo Box
ADVANTAGES of Triax ST HD 537 Satellite Combo Box

• The main selling point of this combo box is that it has a Mheg5 engine for digital aertel, interactive services etc
  • Currently (Nov 2011) the only Mheg5 combo box on the market

DISADVANTAGES of Triax ST HD 537 Satellite Combo Box

• Certain functions on the box such as channel scanning are slow
• Some software quirks remain
• You can not record one Irish Channel and look at another Irish Channel
• No 7 day EPG currently

Ferguson Ariva 120 HD Combo Info

Advantages of the Ferguson Ariva Combo

• You can record UK satellite channels & watch Irish channels at same time (and vice versa)
• It is manufactured by a well known brand name in the TV industry (Ferguson)
• It does the job of both a satellite receiver & a DTT receiver all in one unit
• You can receive both standard definition and high definition channels in one receiver
• It is the cheapest combo receiver on the Irish market
• Your investment is future proofed by meeting the latest HD standards
• It is PVR ready - You can add USB storage device to record and pause live TV
  • NB Mains powered USB external hard drives recommended with the Ferguson Ariva 120 HD Combo
• It has a media player built in
• You can access web radio with the the Ferguson Ariva 120
• Can be purchased with over 120 pre-programmed UK satellite channels
  • NB We strongly recommend buying the Ferguson Ariva 120 pre-programmed

Disadvantages of the Ferguson Ariva 120

• It does not have an MHEG5 Engine (No Irish Digital Aertel Teletext)
• It's more expensive than a standalone Satellite Receiver or Digital Terrestrial Receiver
• It does not have true RF out. It's not possible to run the picture to another room unless you use an external modulator or Triax Tri-Link kit.
• It does not work well with most USB powered External Hard Drives. It's recommended to use with a mains powered external storage device. See video guides above for more info.
• You need to tune in the Irish channels yourself (very quick, see video guides above)
• Software updates must be performed exactly as per manual to avoid damage to receiver
• After software update, you have to reset the box to factory default and either re-scan and sort the channels manually or edit channel list on PC and reload.
• Some software quirks remain

By the way you if you opt for the Ferguson it is cheaper if you shop around and I purchased it from a board member, hope this is ok to state.

Rippy

Ferguson for ease of use , set up and reliability.
Does not have mheg5.
Have trialled all the combis, and I'm currently installing the Ferguson. IMHO, it comes second only to the ( currently unavailable) Edison.
Get down there and get it!

RedRaven

Derm and Rippy, many thanks guys, so the Ferg is better you reckon...how important is MHEG5..do I really need it? Oh and Rippy are you an installer as who better to get the info from. Thanks guys... I have 40mins to choose....

Dermondo

RedRaven wrote: »

how important is MHEG5..do I really need it?

It means a box with an Mheg5 engine can access digital aertel, interactive services etc as opposed to the analogue text service.

AstralTV

theres more support on here for the ferguson, its easier to use and less glitchy than the triax,

I have a downloadable channel list here . All FTA sat channels in fav groups plus instructions etc

please feel free to use it, Happy Chriatmas all on boards ,

RedRaven

Ok so I went with the ferguson and Im home now, I set up and got all the terrestrial stuff....I downloaded the channel uploads thanks very much. I wired in the dish cable and am having some problems. Im running a multi satelite search and its coming up fail on all fronts...bit stuck here guys...

Im using my old sky dish straight to the new reciever, could the dish etc be shot? Up on 450 channel search been through sirius eurobird etc.

Any pointers here...maybe something obvious Im not doing

byte

Rippy wrote: »

Ferguson for ease of use , set up and reliability.
Does not have mheg5.
Have trialled all the combis, and I'm currently installing the Ferguson. IMHO, it comes second only to the ( currently unavailable) Edison.
Get down there and get it!

+1

Have to agree, it seems the best out of the Combi's and best price too. What the Triax 537 gains in MHEG5, it pretty much lacks everywhere else, bar maybe a better remote handset.

Tony

RedRaven wrote: »

Ferguson Ariva 120 HD combo for 149.00

Ouch

Kristopherus

RedRaven wrote: »

Ok so I went with the ferguson and Im home now, I set up and got all the terrestrial stuff....I downloaded the channel uploads thanks very much. I wired in the dish cable and am having some problems. Im running a multi satelite search and its coming up fail on all fronts...bit stuck here guys...

Im using my old sky dish straight to the new reciever, could the dish etc be shot? Up on 450 channel search been through sirius eurobird etc.

Any pointers here...maybe something obvious Im not doing

You only need to scan Astral 2A & Eurobird 1.Maybe Astra 1N. You will get a plethora of duplicates, so you will have a pile of editing to do.

On secon thoughts, if you have downloaded the channel lists, have you saved them to a usb device and then loaded them in the box? That should have done the trick. Then you shove your terrestial aerial into its socket and do an automatic scan for Dtt channels and Bob's (should be) your uncle.

PS: You would have got a far better deal from www.satellite.ie.

Compton

149 is steep alright, 94.99 from satworld.ie 96.99 from satellite.ie over 50 euro cheaper!

Gerry Wicklow

shblob wrote: »

149 is steep alright, 94.99 from satworld.ie 96.99 from satellite.ie over 50 euro cheaper!

:D Ahh the joys of last minute panic buying for Xmas :D

RedRaven

Ok so now the madness of yesterday is over I traced the entire cable from the reciever to the dish as I was getting no signal at all.

When I got out on the roof I traced the cable right to the back of the sky dish mount and walla......the cable had been cut by the UPC guy to accomodate his connection.

So I separated his joint and ran the cable directly back into the dish unit and went back into the house tried the reciever with the channels pre installed (thanks Astral TV) BINGO 180 odd stations.

So I now have the kids room sorted out I now need to sort the front room out.

So I now need a second reciever is this correct?

I can run a second cable from the dish to the front room but I need a dual cable dish unit is this correct?

Cant thank everyone enough for the help so far the new channels are great the kids love em.
Need the get the front room sorted now and the missus will be happy.

RedRaven

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

:D Ahh the joys of last minute panic buying for Xmas :D

I know but had to get something as I had promised I would get something done for XMAS. Wont get stung again. LOL

Tony

Yes to watch a different channel in the other room you need a second receiver and you may also need to change the lnb on the dish to a quad output lnb if its a sky type dish (black mesh oval shaped)

RedRaven wrote: »

So I now need a second reciever is this correct?

I can run a second cable from the dish to the front room but I need a dual cable dish unit is this correct?

RedRaven

Thanks Tony and yes, it is a sky type dish....is there much of a price difference between a dual and a quad lnb and do I need to run separate cable from the lnb for each of the recievers?

Tony

RedRaven wrote: »

Thanks Tony and yes, it is a sky type dish....is there much of a price difference between a dual and a quad lnb

Only quads are available for this type of dish but they are relatively cheap

RedRaven wrote: »

and do I need to run separate cable from the lnb for each of the recievers?

Yes a satellite cable cannot be split as you would an aerial type signal

Compton

RedRaven wrote: »

Thanks Tony and yes, it is a sky type dish....is there much of a price difference between a dual and a quad lnb and do I need to run separate cable from the lnb for each of the recievers?

If you want a Twin LNB you can get a 40mm MK4 adapter which will allow you to use a twin on a sky dish, but much cheaper just to get a quad!

Tony

shblob wrote: »

If you want a Twin LNB you can get a 40mm MK4 adapter which will allow you to use a twin on a sky dish, but much cheaper just to get a quad!

Cheaper and works much better, the feed horns are diffrerent to account for the shape of a sky minidish.

STB

RedRaven wrote: »

Thanks Tony and yes, it is a sky type dish....is there much of a price difference between a dual and a quad lnb and do I need to run separate cable from the lnb for each of the recievers?

Quad LNB on its own €10
http://satworld.ie/product-info.php?Sky_Freesat_Quad_LNB_4_Outputs-pid174.html

OR

New Dish with Quad LNB €30
http://satworld.ie/product-info.php?Sky_Freesat_Satellite_Dish_Quad_LNB-pid173.html

dpaulod

The Ferg cannot switch audio when playing back .mkv files both HD and SD from external hard drive. Picture quality is great even when set to 1080p.

Paul

Johnboy1951

dpaulod wrote: »

The Ferg cannot switch audio when playing back .mkv files both HD and SD from external hard drive. Picture quality is great even when set to 1080p.

Paul

Could you explain what you mean please?

Compton

The ariva 120 doesn't support 1080p?

pelisor2000

shblob wrote: »

The ariva 120 doesn't support 1080p?

http://satworld.ie/product-list.php?Combo__UK_Irish__Receivers-pg1-cid50.html

dpaulod

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Could you explain what you mean please?

Hi There,
Sorry for the unclear post. When playing back mkv movies where there are more than one audio tracks encoded into the container file i.e. french, English and German. The box will auto play the first language and it is not possible to switch to another audio track. The movie will play in french despite the English track being available, and it is not possible to switch to English.
This is a standard function available with my current media player the 02 nexus 500.

Regards
Paul.

STB

dpaulod wrote: »

Hi There,
Sorry for the unclear post. When playing back mkv movies where there are more than one audio tracks encoded into the container file i.e. french, English and German. The box will auto play the first language and it is not possible to switch to another audio track. The movie will play in french despite the English track being available, and it is not possible to switch to English.
This is a standard function available with my current media player the 02 nexus 500.

Regards
Paul.

It does support multi language MKVs!

Press and hold the green audio button on the remote. It switches between each language.