Best combo box around for under €250?

zagmund

Chateau zag is being refurbished at the moment and as part of this I'm looking to buy a new STB for the main living room. The one we currently have is the MVision HD200, but that's getting a bit old at this stage.

It was pretty good back in the day - combined DTT & HD satellite channels, with the option to attach a hard drive. I've had a bit of a look at some of the posts here and it looks like the Amiko Alien 2 might be the next step for me. We will have two satellite points & one DTT at each location, so the triple tuner should be handy at some point.

From what I've seen about the Amiko Alien there seems to be good support & plugins - I think I saw someone had written/provided an RTE player & some other local relevant stuff.

Are there alternatives to the Alien which I should be considering? Anything over €350 is definitely off the table - I'm happy enough with just watching the standard UK & Irish channels with the ability to record and don't need to be tuning in other satellites or doing anything too fancy. I would pay a little extra for a built in hard drive (or even something that took a couple of micro-SDs or other memory cards that didn't stick out and ruin the feng shui) but from what I've seen adding an internal HD on most boxes jacks the price up far beyond the price of the actual drive.

Actually, I've just thought of something - are there PVR boxes which will write over the network to a file share somewhere else in the house? We have CAT6 at the various TV points all brought back to a switch so bandwidth shouldn't be a problem. This would avoid me having to have a clunky hard drive sitting below the telly as well as the STB.

Thanks for any suggestions,

z

[edit] I should add that I've no problem hacking away at the Amiko box, patching this, updating that, etc . . . . and don't need a simple plug and play box. All I need is that at the end of it Mrs Zag & the mini-zags can push the on button and it comes on, push the 1 button and RTE1 comes up, push the 2 button , etc . . .

dubrov

Have a look at the Ariva 250.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80998007

No RTE player but pretty much plug and play for Saorview/FTA and only costs €110

STB

Linux boxes are way more customisable than standard boxes with hardcoded options, but there is a learning curve. Computer literacy or handy in any way with tech will make that a doddle.

If you dont mind messing around with images and adding to same until you have it perfect then you have already identified the best one at present in that cheaper priced bracket. As with any box support is key as well as a good user base.

VU+ range after that in the higher bracket. Streaming network etc.

zagmund

Thanks for the replies. I've seen from details on the web that you can record PVR stuff to a network share, so that's a plus.

Does anyone know whether you can hide the youporn link? The ads mention that there's an app or a link to youtube & youporn as well as other stuff. I'm not sure I want the mini-zags to have the option to click on it, so it would be good to be able to get rid of the link.

I presume (as with most boxes) you have the ability to edit the channel list and drop all the free port channels. It's not stated in the documentation I've seen to date, but I would be really surprised if you couldn't. Does anyone know for sure?

And finally - I like the look of the Amiko HD mini box for a second location. Does anyone know if it's available in Ireland? I've looked online but can't find it.

Cheers,

z

deejer

zagmund wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I've seen from details on the web that you can record PVR stuff to a network share, so that's a plus.

Hay Mr. Z, can you let me know where you saw this confirmed. Would be something that would interest me too as I want to avoid an external hard sitting beside it

Cheers

zagmund

I think I saw it on a US review site. I'll see if I can dig it out again but it's likely to be in one of a million similar looking pages I've looked at in the last few days.

Hopefully someone on this forum who already uses it can confirm.

z

[edit] - here's the link I was thinking of - but sadly it refers to the SHD8900 and not the Alien 2 or 2+ - http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=27284. My bad.

[edited edit] - http://store.fridgefta.info/?page_id=1783 - according to this page it does network recording - "Take all of the features of Amiko Alien such as duel boot Spark/Enigma2, Network recording, advanced media player, Alien NA VOD & 150+ IPTV channels and add…"

Compton

zagmund wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I've seen from details on the web that you can record PVR stuff to a network share, so that's a plus.

Does anyone know whether you can hide the youporn link? The ads mention that there's an app or a link to youtube & youporn as well as other stuff. I'm not sure I want the mini-zags to have the option to click on it, so it would be good to be able to get rid of the link.

I presume (as with most boxes) you have the ability to edit the channel list and drop all the free port channels. It's not stated in the documentation I've seen to date, but I would be really surprised if you couldn't. Does anyone know for sure?

And finally - I like the look of the Amiko HD mini box for a second location. Does anyone know if it's available in Ireland? I've looked online but can't find it.

Cheers,

z

http://www.eiretv.ie/amiko-mini-hd-cx-networking-receiver.html

Tony

Compton wrote: »

http://www.eiretv.ie/amiko-mini-hd-cx-networking-receiver.html

Congratulations on the new premises, parking a lot easier there.