Best Combo Box

danm14

Hi,
I asked this about a year ago, but for various reasons I am only getting round to purchasing now, and I want to see have opinions changed.

What is the best Linux based combo box I can buy for sensible money (preferably under €250 but the lower the better)

Requirements:
- Two satellite tuners essential
- At least one terrestrial tuner but preferably two (DVB-T2 preferable)
- Ability to record to hard drive (preferably internal but external also okay)
- 7 day EPG on both satellite and terrestrial essential
- Ability to customise channel list and have both satellite and terrestrial on one list essential
- Good user interface, customisable if possible
- Good remote control
- Ability to stream TV over the local network a huge benefit, but only if you can watch a different channel than on the wired TV

amikoalien2

danm14 wrote: »

Hi,
I asked this about a year ago, but for various reasons I am only getting round to purchasing now, and I want to see have opinions changed.

What is the best Linux based combo box I can buy for sensible money (preferably under €250 but the lower the better)

Requirements:
- Two satellite tuners essential
- At least one terrestrial tuner but preferably two (DVB-T2 preferable)
- Ability to record to hard drive (preferably internal but external also okay)
- 7 day EPG on both satellite and terrestrial essential
- Ability to customise channel list and have both satellite and terrestrial on one list essential
- Good user interface, customisable if possible
- Good remote control
- Ability to stream TV over the local network a huge benefit, but only if you can watch a different channel than on the wired TV

Ok under 250 the amiko AA2 under 150
2 sat tuners ok
1 terrestial uner ok
Record to usb drive ok
7 day guide ok
Customise Channel list ok
Ability to stream ok via webif

However I would recommend if the budget permits to go for something with a built in HDD rather than a usb linked drive
maybe something like the edission oss 3
Just purley for more memory / ram

danm14

The Edision OS3 doesn't seem to be available anywhere at all online any more - tvtrade.ie, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk all no longer show it, and the Technomate TM-Nano 3T (which appears to be a clone, or vice versa) is far too expensive for my budget.

With regards the Amiko Alien 2, if I was using the network streaming, can I watch channel A, while the other TV is showing channel B? (assuming there's a free terrestrial/satellite tuner, whichever the channel is on, of course). Or is it more like a network version of Sky's tvLINK as this is not what I'm looking for. Only one TV would ever be streaming at a given time, and by the sounds of it I'll be using a Raspberry Pi to receive the stream.

As we have full UK Freeview terrestrial signal, the idea is to use this box on the main TV to combine Saorview, Freeview and FTA satellite; to record; and to stream the occasional program that's not on Saorview or Freeview (such as the country music programs on Showcase and Irish TV) to the other TVs. I don't think several satellite receivers and feeds are worth it for the sake of a half dozen good channels, especially if this box can do it.

Gerry Wicklow

The AA2 will let you watch/record one channel while streaming another, or watch/record two channels while streaming a previous recording. You can access the stream on anything with a web browser. For best results HD needs a wired connection, WiFi may struggle with HD.

danm14

Thank you, it sounds like the Amiko Alien 2 is the best box for what we need.

One more question, I understand this is against Sky's terms and conditions, but would it be possible to use a UK Freesat card in one of the two card reader slots (and if so which one) to get the few extra FTV channels and the UK local TV channels? Would it have to be returned to a genuine Sky box every so often, or is that only for subscription cards?

ShaneOC

danm14 wrote: »

Thank you, it sounds like the Amiko Alien 2 is the best box for what we need.

One more question, I understand this is against Sky's terms and conditions, but would it be possible to use a UK Freesat card in one of the two card reader slots (and if so which one) to get the few extra FTV channels and the UK local TV channels? Would it have to be returned to a genuine Sky box every so often, or is that only for subscription cards?

You will get all of the UK local channels without any card. There are very very few FTV channels left on 28.8. From what I remember though it worked for me on a Vu+ Duo2 so it may work on the AA2 too.

danm14

ShaneOC wrote: »

You will get all of the UK local channels without any card. There are very very few FTV channels left on 28.8. From what I remember though it worked for me on a Vu+ Duo2 so it may work on the AA2 too.

I'm talking about the local TV channels - London Live, Notts TV, STV Edinburgh/Glasgow etc, which are FTV, not the BBC and ITV regions. Apart from those it's just the Sony Entertainment and Sony Movies channels, and 4Music that are still FTV.

danm14

I've got my Amiko Alien 2 set up, and I've managed to get it streaming any channel perfectly to a Raspberry Pi running Kodi. However, every time the Raspberry Pi is switched on, it decides to import the EPG from the Amiko again, making both completely irresponsive for upwards of an hour. Is there any way to speed this up, or to make it store the EPG on the Pi and only do it maybe once a week?

Also, I have CrossEPG set up to download the EPG from the Satellite overnight, but is there any way to get the terrestrial EPG to download overnight, so I have listings for RTÉ before changing to an Irish channel?