What is the best HD Combo STB for your money?

Daarrgh

My Ferguson Ariva 120 has just died after (typically) just over 12 months of good service.

I would like to replace it with something that is more reliable and with a built in HDD. Or at least something with a USB slot on the rear!

I am still in the dark about the differences between the newer Ferguson models such as the 150 and 250. They seem to have the same feature set as the 120. Besides, having had to replace the original Ferguson after purchase (no input signal) and our recent failure (no HDMI Output) we think we would prefer to avoid Ferguson altogether.

Any recommendations from users would be greatly appreciated.

D

Daarrgh

In the absence of any advice on STB boxes, is anyone willing to help me get some worthy advice on which company might offer me the best service and advice on purchasing Combo STB's?

Compton

I recently purchased the Amiko Alien 2 Triple box and find it great Previously had the 8820 combo box which was also good. Had 3 ariva 120s before which all broke but I think the new 150 and 250 boxes are better.

Daarrgh

I have just picked up a 4ife combo box.
It's got a much nicer looking menu than the Ariva. Seems very simple to use.
One major problem though.

You have to switch between Sat and Terrestrial.
The old Ariva 120 would list all channels in the same list. Much more family friendly and unified.

Having to switch between the two is not only cumbersome, but a nuisance to program into my Harmony Remote.
Back to the store to try another one.....

Daarrgh

Compton wrote: »

I recently purchased the Amiko Alien 2 Triple box and find it great Previously had the 8820 combo box which was also good. Had 3 ariva 120s before which all broke but I think the new 150 and 250 boxes are better.

Do the Terrestrial channels and Sat channels exist on one list or do you have to switchg between Terrestrial and Satellite modes as on some boxes?

PogMoThoin

Daarrgh wrote: »

Do the Terrestrial channels and Sat channels exist on one list or do you have to switchg between Terrestrial and Satellite modes as on some boxes?

One list, but you really need to read the thread to see all this box offers, record, pause, 7 day epg, series link, automatically updating channel changes, Rte and TV3 player plugins. You need to be tech minded, it takes a bit of work to configure it this way. Not a plug and play box

Compton

PogMoThoin wrote: »

One list, but you really need to read the thread to see all this box offers, record, pause, 7 day epg, series link, automatically updating channel changes, Rte and TV3 player plugins. You need to be tech minded, it takes a bit of work to configure it this way. Not a plug and play box

Very true. But its also possible to set it up simply on spark. Mine was preloaded with astra 2 and i just needed to scan the dtt channels.

Daarrgh

As the retailer who sold me my first Ferguson Ariva Combo STB has decided to replace my faulty Ariva 120 with a brand new Ariva 250, I now have no need for a new Combo STB.

With the exception of one or two individuals, I have to say that this forum was near enough a complete waste of my time in trying to find good advice on what to buy. I really believed that the combined experiences and knowledge would count for something.

There are many many combo STB's on the Irish market. As far as I can tell, they are all the same device with the same price tag with a different label. My visit to Power City produced 4 units. All the same. Walker/4ife/Digihome/Nordmende. Although, there was a bargain to be had with the Nordmende as it had been incorrectly labelled €49.99 as opposed to €99.99.
The price difference online and in the shops for this machine is obscene. I have had dealers tell me that there is only €17 to be made on selling these units yet I have seen them for sale from anything between €99.99 and €169.99.

There are more and more people switching to the subscription free lifestyle of FTA tv every day.

I think I will continue my lone quest for the best combo STB in Ireland.
Hell, when I find it I may buy a hundred units, program them myself and sell them to people who want good solid advice from someone with some experience. And I may even sell them at cost.........just to shake the unscrupulous market a bit.

At least my dealer knew he sold me a dud and offered to replace it with a unit that costs twice as much as my original Ferguson Ariva 120. Even if it was 13 moths old.
He'll get repeat business.

KeRbDoG

Daarrgh wrote: »

As the retailer who sold me my first Ferguson Ariva Combo STB has decided to replace my faulty Ariva 120 with a brand new Ariva 250, I now have no need for a new Combo STB.

With the exception of one or two individuals, I have to say that this forum was near enough a complete waste of my time in trying to find good advice on what to buy. I really believed that the combined experiences and knowledge would count for something.

There are many many combo STB's on the Irish market. As far as I can tell, they are all the same device with the same price tag with a different label. My visit to Power City produced 4 units. All the same. Walker/4ife/Digihome/Nordmende. Although, there was a bargain to be had with the Nordmende as it had been incorrectly labelled €49.99 as opposed to €99.99.
The price difference online and in the shops for this machine is obscene. I have had dealers tell me that there is only €17 to be made on selling these units yet I have seen them for sale from anything between €99.99 and €169.99.

There are more and more people switching to the subscription free lifestyle of FTA tv every day.

I think I will continue my lone quest for the best combo STB in Ireland.
Hell, when I find it I may buy a hundred units, program them myself and sell them to people who want good solid advice from someone with some experience. And I may even sell them at cost.........just to shake the unscrupulous market a bit.

At least my dealer knew he sold me a dud and offered to replace it with a unit that costs twice as much as my original Ferguson Ariva 120. Even if it was 13 moths old.
He'll get repeat business.

From my little checking of the market, there isn't any box that would equal a Sky+ or UPC-HD box in terms of usability for the average joe. Recording is just buggy, you can't rely on it.

On the boxes that run enigma2, the initial setup isn't that straight forward and getting a 7-day EPG to work is a little work never mind a nice and easy one button click to bring it up! They all involve tweaking, using open source software which isn't as polished as many people expect.

For a enigma2 box to get you/we should be looking at the German forums to see what they are doing/buying. If you see a lot of development/support threads for a particular box then your possibly looking at the right box

Simple answer is, all boxes currently on the market suck. From experience, it pains me to say this but the best solution which is user friendly when setup (even the setup is easy) is to run Windows machine with a DVB-T and 2xDVB-S2 tuners. Windows Media Center is fairly good and our M$ friends have the EPG all sorted for you. From what I've seen, recording works.

If you find something better, please do share. I'd be happy to help out with the buying, programming and selling at cost price once I don't become 'tech-support'. I'm planning on making an enigma2 image for the Amiko Alien 2 box which would have most stuff setup for the Irish user. It still won't be like a Sky+ or UPC-HD box for sure

STB

Where to start.......

• Comparisons with Sky

People who have never been enslaved to Sky have different expectations for a start! Sky spent plenty of money developing the spec and useability for their mass produced proprietary boxes. The price of these boxes were well paid for by the subs people were paying. The payback for development of their system has been well recouped. This is obviously a commercial operation and to compare an FTA box on the same par is missing the point.

Free to Air boxes if not designed for a specific platform have to adapted by the user. This adaption is even more complicated if you are trying to mix satellite and terrestrial platforms. There is therefore a dependence on a large group of users to make the basic box do stuff other than the off the shelf.

This is where the level of user interaction and knowledge comes into play. For that reason there are different types of FTA boxes available. Normal off the shelf combo boxes and Linux combo boxes. The latter are on the end of normal user scale.

• Off the shelf boxes.

There are various combos largely based on recent affordable chipsets M3606. These boxes allow mixing of Saorview and UK satellite stations in a customisable single channel lists. These include the Ariva 150 and 250 boxes. These boxes also have media functionality and web. These boxes do not offer MHEG5 middleware required to display RTEs new text service, but there are workarounds. There are many threads on these boxes in this forum. Use the search function.

There are also official Combo boxes which do much the same as above, but some of which do not do so in a single customisable channel list or do not have the same media functionality or web features.

The recording on either of these combo boxes is limited to record satellite/watch Saorview and vice versa as they only have 1 single and 1 dvb-s2 tuner.

There are also one or two boxes that have three tuners (non linux) that offer a little more in the recording area such as the Technomate and CTech ranges.

• Linux boxes

There are many Linux boxes now on the market that offer more media, networking and 7 day EPG functionality than standard off the shelf boxes. These boxes largely require more user interaction and knowledge. Where once they were an enthusiasts box, that is becoming less so due to level of people with more IT skills in an age of tablets, smart phones etc. It is still not suitable for the majority. Boxes include DM, Vu+, Amiko, GM etc. There are many threads on them. They are mainly in the Foreign Satellite forum.

• Bottom line

Nobody can give a recommendation without knowing the users technical capability/desire. It never surprises me when people who have switched from Sky to FTA boxes come on here complaining about their boxes not working. It is largely down to a reluctance to read the manual. This is a requirement when moving away from Sky's proprietary brainwashing box. The good news is that for reading the manual you receive no bills in your door.

If working Free to air off the shelf boxes where manufactured specifically towards Ireland they might cost more than those boxes retailing at €100.

Even so, given the cross platform hacking that would be required to produce the 7 day epg etc, nobody selling them would ever be able to stand over them.

Hope that explains why you may never get a proper answer. Its not down to the lack of knowledge on this forum.

cranefly

this is a very interesting read for me because this is exactly what i would like to do regarding sky subscription tv. we have the basic subscription, sky + box in sitting room and normal sky box which cant record in the kitchen all for around the 55 euro a month ithink, we also have an aerial for tv3 before we got sky, so the dish for sky and the aerial for tv3 when they first came on air are both going to the 2 tellys, this is great because i have at least one channel in hd rte 2. so i can watch any of the 8 saorview channels and have the sky plus box recording 2 programmes at once. if i was to cancel the subscription with sky what would happen, i think i would still be able to receive free to air channels on the sky+ box and the normal sky box in the kitchen, now i am not sure about this could someone tell me if this is true, now if it is true that would be ok for the box in the kitchen as it cant record anyway. i have a fair idea of the list of free to air channels that are available and i could live with loosing a few, even though they are very handy to have, could somebody please tell me the best box to replace the sky+ box, i have to say first off i am not one bit technically minded, if there is such a thing as plug and play i would go to timbuktu for it. stb that was very a very informative read thankyou, could someone tell me also if the sky dish and cables going to the sky+ box would be ok for a new box? i found a box called a humax with a built in memory of 1 tb which i think is alot more memory than my sky box, i saw it on tvtrade.ie hope i got that right, now it has 2 maybe 3 satelitte tuners so i think you could watch one channel while recording others, it is around 367 euro. if only the sky+ box would still record the free to air channels i would not even need a new box, i think i am correct in that no subscription means no recording, this humax looks to be just the job. so my question is, is this the nearest set top box to my sky+ box. sorry for going on so long, but the saving on my sky subscription would pay both the property tax and the water bill together.

The Cush

cranefly wrote: »

if i was to cancel the subscription with sky what would happen, i think i would still be able to receive free to air channels on the sky+ box and the normal sky box in the kitchen, now i am not sure about this could someone tell me if this is true, now if it is true that would be ok for the box in the kitchen as it cant record anyway.

To see what channels you will have on the Sky boxes after you cancel your Sky sub simply remove the Sky card from the existing receivers. Note the Irish channels via Sky will not be available as they require at least a basic Sky sub to view them. Also the recording function on the Sky+ receiver will be not be available and existing recordings cannot be played back.

cranefly wrote: »

could somebody please tell me the best box to replace the sky+ box, i have to say first off i am not one bit technically minded, if there is such a thing as plug and play i would go to timbuktu for it.

could someone tell me also if the sky dish and cables going to the sky+ box would be ok for a new box?

The Humax Freesat receivers are well regarded but other Freesat spec receivers will do the same (and maybe at a cheaper price too). See a list of available Freesat receivers here (RH column).

Freesat receivers are basically plug and play, same dish, same cables etc. and after initial setup very user friendly.

cranefly wrote: »

i found a box called a humax with a built in memory of 1 tb which i think is alot more memory than my sky box, i saw it on tvtrade.ie hope i got that right, now it has 2 maybe 3 satelitte tuners so i think you could watch one channel while recording others, it is around 367 euro.

Twin tuners so that you can "record one channel/watch one channel" or "record two channels/watch recorded programme". Each tuner requires its own cable feed from the dish. Just to note you won't be able to record the Irish channels with these receivers.

cranefly wrote: »

i think i am correct in that no subscription means no recording, this humax looks to be just the job. so my question is, is this the nearest set top box to my sky+ box.

No Sky sub means no recording and no playback of existing recordings. The Freesat+ spec receivers are the nearest you'll get to your Sky+ functionality in the sub free world.

Daarrgh

STB wrote: »

Where to start.......

• Comparisons with Sky

People who have never been enslaved to Sky have different expectations for a start! Sky spent plenty of money developing the spec and useability for their mass produced proprietary boxes. The price of these boxes were well paid for by the subs people were paying. The payback for development of their system has been well recouped. This is obviously a commercial operation and to compare an FTA box on the same par is missing the point.

Free to Air boxes if not designed for a specific platform have to adapted by the user. This adaption is even more complicated if you are trying to mix satellite and terrestrial platforms. There is therefore a dependence on a large group of users to make the basic box do stuff other than the off the shelf.

This is where the level of user interaction and knowledge comes into play. For that reason there are different types of FTA boxes available. Normal off the shelf combo boxes and Linux combo boxes. The latter are on the end of normal user scale.

• Off the shelf boxes.

There are various combos largely based on recent affordable chipsets M3606. These boxes allow mixing of Saorview and UK satellite stations in a customisable single channel lists. These include the Ariva 150 and 250 boxes. These boxes also have media functionality and web. These boxes do not offer MHEG5 middleware required to display RTEs new text service, but there are workarounds. There are many threads on these boxes in this forum. Use the search function.

There are also official Combo boxes which do much the same as above, but some of which do not do so in a single customisable channel list or do not have the same media functionality or web features.

The recording on either of these combo boxes is limited to record satellite/watch Saorview and vice versa as they only have 1 single and 1 dvb-s2 tuner.

There are also one or two boxes that have three tuners (non linux) that offer a little more in the recording area such as the Technomate and CTech ranges.

• Linux boxes

There are many Linux boxes now on the market that offer more media, networking and 7 day EPG functionality than standard off the shelf boxes. These boxes largely require more user interaction and knowledge. Where once they were an enthusiasts box, that is becoming less so due to level of people with more IT skills in an age of tablets, smart phones etc. It is still not suitable for the majority. Boxes include DM, Vu+, Amiko, GM etc. There are many threads on them. They are mainly in the Foreign Satellite forum.

• Bottom line

Nobody can give a recommendation without knowing the users technical capability/desire. It never surprises me when people who have switched from Sky to FTA boxes come on here complaining about their boxes not working. It is largely down to a reluctance to read the manual. This is a requirement when moving away from Sky's proprietary brainwashing box. The good news is that for reading the manual you receive no bills in your door.

If working Free to air off the shelf boxes where manufactured specifically towards Ireland they might cost more than those boxes retailing at €100.

Even so, given the cross platform hacking that would be required to produce the 7 day epg etc, nobody selling them would ever be able to stand over them.

Hope that explains why you may never get a proper answer. Its not down to the lack of knowledge on this forum.

Thanks for clearing up some of the ins and outs of FTA Speak. I feel I have finally learned something.

I would like to point out that no-one ever questioned the knowledge base of the forum. I merely pointed out that despite the knowledge of the forum there was no help at hand when called upon.

Do not presume that there are those of us who know all there is to know, and those of us who will start a thread here before reading a manual. Manuals tend to be read once a device has been bought - not before. Hence the request for advice.

Please spare a thought for new members who need a little guidance. The more help they get, the healthier the user base gets, which benefits all.

Thank you for pointing out that there is a search function on the forum.
Searching requires that you know what you are looking for. If you don't you are more likely to ask the question.
As of now, if someone was to search this forum for advice on buying a new Combo STB they are going to find this thread....and everything in it.

So which Combo STB would you recommend?

cranefly

thankyou the cush for answering each query seperately it was very helpfull, i did as you suggested and removed the card from the box and searched out which channels were available when i cancel the subscription, i understand you cannot get the irish channels on free to air through sky, so i am glad we had an aerial for the irish channels next to the sky dish and as the tv is a fairly new one i could put a memory stick into the usb slot on the telly and use that to record any saorview channel and use the, i wrote this down this time, humax hdr 1000s freesat + hd box. as a substitute for the sky + box. i know this box is fairly expensive and i cant really afford it at the minute, but this is the box i would give up sky for. another reason for going the freesat route and it is a big one, is that you get alot more hd channels, sky wont even give you any hd channels without an added subscription on top of what i pay. i rang sky today to cancel my subscription, to cut a long story short they said they would cut the monthly charge from 50 euro to 34 euro with the same package, all this because of one phone call, so i agreed to the deal as this gives me time to save up for the humax box. now im thinking i should have tried to get a hd box of them as well, i would never have tried to get a better deal only for the fact i had made my mind up to cancel first, after the year is up i will now ask them for the sky+ hd box for the same subscription, if they say no i will at least have the money for the humax box by then. thankyou again the cush for your informative post.

STB

Daarrgh wrote: »

Thanks for clearing up some of the ins and outs of FTA Speak. I feel I have finally learned something.

I would like to point out that no-one ever questioned the knowledge base of the forum. I merely pointed out that despite the knowledge of the forum there was no help at hand when called upon.

Do not presume that there are those of us who know all there is to know, and those of us who will start a thread here before reading a manual. Manuals tend to be read once a device has been bought - not before. Hence the request for advice.

Please spare a thought for new members who need a little guidance. The more help they get, the healthier the user base gets, which benefits all.

Thank you for pointing out that there is a search function on the forum.
Searching requires that you know what you are looking for. If you don't you are more likely to ask the question.
As of now, if someone was to search this forum for advice on buying a new Combo STB they are going to find this thread....and everything in it.

So which Combo STB would you recommend?

Daarrgh

[url=http://lmgtfy.com/?q=+site:boards.ie+Boards.ie+Combo+STB#seen
]Google[/url] also has a search function.

Its a constant question as you can see from those results.

I think I may have helped you in the past with a HDMI issue so you know that the this side of boards is helpful. It is made up of enthusiasts and professionals who choose to post here. It is not a paid job.:)

If you want me to suggest a box specifically you will have to say what your expectations are and what your technical knowledge is like.

Sam Russell

Daarrgh wrote: »

So which Combo STB would you recommend?

If you wish to have a single remote with access to both satellite (freesat) and Saorview then a Samsung TV is available for that. It can record but I have not tried that. Changing from Freesat to Saorview and back again is clunky but works. Saorview approved, but you lose that if you go Freesat as you set Country=UK. Full EPG on both. Picture quality is amazing and it has the RTE Viewer built in. SmartTV allows use of Sype, Netflix, Utube, etc., etc.

Expensive.

You could probably use the TV for recording from the EPG and use a cheap combo for watching. As I have not got round to recording from the TV (I have only had it 6 months and I have a HUMAX HDR) so I do not know if series link works. I live in hope.

Daarrgh

STB wrote: »

Daarrgh

[url=http://lmgtfy.com/?q=+site:boards.ie+Boards.ie+Combo+STB#seen
]Google[/url] also has a search function.

Its a constant question as you can see from those results.

I think I may have helped you in the past with a HDMI issue so you know that the this side of boards is helpful. It is made up of enthusiasts and professionals who choose to post here. It is not a paid job.:)

If you want me to suggest a box specifically you will have to say what your expectations are and what your technical knowledge is like.

Thanks for your help with the HDMI thing on my Ariva 120.
As it turned out the EDID on my TV was not the problem. It was a faulty and unrepairable HDMI output on the Ariva.
Hence the safari for advice on a new box.

As you will see from my original "tree shaking" post, I have a new STB. Ariva 250. A little buggy, but much better than the 4ife/Nordmende/Digihome off the shelf option.

But, I would still be interested in any advice for a new or more complete one for a (fairly) standard domestic situation as I still have an analog TV upstairs.

HD TV with a Logitech Harmony Remote for control.
Standard sized dish with a quad LNB.
UHF Aeriel pointed at Kippure.
Everything on a wired network.

My technical knowledge is better than average.

Daarrgh

Sam Russell wrote: »

If you wish to have a single remote with access to both satellite (freesat) and Saorview then a Samsung TV is available for that. It can record but I have not tried that. Changing from Freesat to Saorview and back again is clunky but works. Saorview approved, but you lose that if you go Freesat as you set Country=UK. Full EPG on both. Picture quality is amazing and it has the RTE Viewer built in. SmartTV allows use of Sype, Netflix, Utube, etc., etc.

Expensive.

You could probably use the TV for recording from the EPG and use a cheap combo for watching. As I have not got round to recording from the TV (I have only had it 6 months and I have a HUMAX HDR) so I do not know if series link works. I live in hope.

Expensive indeed, Sam.
I'm a little underwhelmed by the whole Saorview approved thing. I am quite happy to forgo that option.
We do have another location in the house that could well do with an all in one option such as your Samsung TV suggestion.
Do I understand you correctly? The Samsung TV needs to be switched between Saorview and Freesat?

Sam Russell

Daarrgh wrote: »

Expensive indeed, Sam.
I'm a little underwhelmed by the whole Saorview approved thing. I am quite happy to forgo that option.
We do have another location in the house that could well do with an all in one option such as your Samsung TV suggestion.
Do I understand you correctly? The Samsung TV needs to be switched between Saorview and Freesat?

The Samsung TV (mine is an ES7000 - there are cheaper ones) requires to be switched over by quite a few button presses. I presume there are other ways but we use [Ch list;Red;Up;OK;OK;OK] or something like that. The TV acts like two seperate TVs or a TV with a STB. But it does use only one remote. The EPG of the two systems are completely seperate, and even look different. A small firmware upgrade could make the switch over much easier.

However, Freesat puts heavy obligations on equipment makers, and so I presume they cannot mix terrestial and satellite, or renumber station numbers. So I blame them.

The big shame is that it is not possible to have Country=Ireland for terrestial and Country=UK for satellite. Again, it requires a relatively trivial firmware change to accommodate that. There are a lot of improvements they could do but I am not expecting any of them. The TV is good.

PogMoThoin

Did you check out the Amiko Alien 2 thread ?