Which Combo box?

Sleepy

Looking to get a cheap satellite box (sub €100) for the new house and lost in the various options on freetv.ie!

Must have features:
Combo box (or Freesat with option to view Irish TV channels via an app)
7 Day, responsive, EPG for UK and Irish channels
PVR (either via an external hardrive or an internal one)
HD

Nice to have:
Automatic Channel List Updates
Watch one program while recording another etc.

I was about to order the Edision™ Optimuss Underline 3in1 Combo Box (http://www.freetv.ie/combo-box.html) until I spotted that it doesn't seem to have a proper EPG. Is this something that can be added on with a firmware update or anything like that?

What would people recommend? I work in IT so I'm reasonably proficient at firmware updates etc. (have KODI running on an old desktop as our media centre) but don't fancy having to spend a lot of time maintaining it. Plug and Play would be ideal but if there's a scenario where an evening or two of config can save money, I'm all for it!

steveon

Sleepy wrote: »

Looking to get a cheap satellite box (sub €100) for the new house and lost in the various options on freetv.ie!

Must have features:
Combo box (or Freesat with option to view Irish TV channels via an app)
7 Day, responsive, EPG for UK and Irish channels
PVR (either via an external hardrive or an internal one)
HD

Nice to have:
Automatic Channel List Updates
Watch one program while recording another etc.

I was about to order the Edision™ Optimuss Underline 3in1 Combo Box (http://www.freetv.ie/combo-box.html) until I spotted that it doesn't seem to have a proper EPG. Is this something that can be added on with a firmware update or anything like that?

What would people recommend? I work in IT so I'm reasonably proficient at firmware updates etc. (have KODI running on an old desktop as our media centre) but don't fancy having to spend a lot of time maintaining it. Plug and Play would be ideal but if there's a scenario where an evening or two of config can save money, I'm all for it!

No box on the market for 100 euro will come close to what you are looking for, nearest would be the walker combo but they are not great. Best would be a linix based box such as a vu or gigablue or equivalent but you should be expecting to pay in the 3-400 mark for one of these.

Or wait for the soon to be released boxes called saorview connect which we are all hoping will provide what you are asking for but again will definetly be more than 100euro.

Sleepy

Really? Is it that technically difficult to provide a 7 day EPG in a receiver? Because that seems to be the main difference between the 100 euro boxes and the more expensive units...

Is there a receiver card that could be added to a PC and used via Kodi plugins or something like that within a reasonable price range?

givecredit

Sleepy wrote: »

Looking to get a cheap satellite box (sub €100) for the new house and lost in the various options on freetv.ie!

Must have features:
Combo box (or Freesat with option to view Irish TV channels via an app)
7 Day, responsive, EPG for UK and Irish channels
PVR (either via an external hardrive or an internal one)
HD

Nice to have:
Automatic Channel List Updates
Watch one program while recording another etc.

I was about to order the Edision™ Optimuss Underline 3in1 Combo Box (http://www.freetv.ie/combo-box.html) until I spotted that it doesn't seem to have a proper EPG. Is this something that can be added on with a firmware update or anything like that?

What would people recommend? I work in IT so I'm reasonably proficient at firmware updates etc. (have KODI running on an old desktop as our media centre) but don't fancy having to spend a lot of time maintaining it. Plug and Play would be ideal but if there's a scenario where an evening or two of config can save money, I'm all for it!

This will do all of the above.

http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-combo.html

Get 7.5% off with boardies coupon.

Get the twin sat tuner version and usb dtt dongle as posted in other threads here for triple tuner version for about 120 euro.

Copy post below:

The Edision OS Mini is probably your best option.
http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-twin-tuner.html

€114.56 for twin tuner with "boards.ie" coupon discount. (7.5% discount)

One of these for 6 euro makes it a triple tuner with dtt.
http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_188372.html

polaris68

What's this boards.ie coupon discount for freetv.ie?

Sleepy

Total n00b questions: am I correct in that adding the dongle to make it a triple tuner would allow watching and recording of different things on Saorview at the same time? Or are both of the tuners in the Edison OS mini twin in your second link for the Satellite connection whilst the dongle adds a third tuner for Saorview thus allowing watch and record of Freesat or Watch Freesat/Record Saorview or vice versa?

givecredit

polaris68 wrote: »

What's this boards.ie coupon discount for freetv.ie?

The coupon code is boards.ie

givecredit

Sleepy wrote: »

Total n00b questions: am I correct in that adding the dongle to make it a triple tuner would allow watching and recording of different things on Saorview at the same time? Or are both of the tuners in the Edison OS mini twin in your second link for the Satellite connection whilst the dongle adds a third tuner for Saorview thus allowing watch and record of Freesat or Watch Freesat/Record Saorview or vice versa?

The 2nd link is twin satellite version. So 2 satellite tuners and one terrestrial tuner. So you can record 1 sat watching another satellite. Or record 2 satellites while watching terrestrial.

Terrestrial is made up of 2 muxes. You can record 2 or 3 channels from same mux at same time. You cannot record from one mux while watching another mux. See link for what channels are on each mux:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saorview

Sleepy

Thanks a million for all the input.

Seems the Twin Tuner model is out-of-stock

fryup

steveon wrote: »

Or wait for the soon to be released boxes called saorview connect which we are all hoping will provide what you are asking for but again will definetly be more than 100euro.

will these give 7 day epg on UK channels? through satellite ?

FRIENDO

fryup wrote:

will these give 7 day epg on UK channels? through satellite ?

Possibly some manufacturers of the new saorview connect boxes will have a 7 day epg for UK channels on the boxes.

Walker already have a SatFree mode (basically Freesat) on Saorview and Saorsat approved boxes.

Its a separate epg from the Irish channels though.
We'll just have to wait and see.

Sleepy

Is there much difference between the Edision™ OS Mini (DVB-S2 Twin Tuner) with the added DVB tuner and the SAB™ Unix HD Triple Tuner or the Amiko™ Alien 2+ Triple Tuner or is it just a matter of price?

If it came to an extra 20/30 euro for a more reliable / responsive / easy to use setup, I'd be inclined to spend the difference tbh...

Sleepy

The Edision™ OS Mini (DVB-S2 Twin Tuner) came back into stock so I just placed my order there now. I'm presuming it comes with Enigma pre-installed.

Is there much needed in the way of config or should it be largely plug and play?

swoofer

It comes with an openpli image which is very good and if you look on the site there are loads of self help videos. I am sure it comes configured but email them anyway. You need and external hdd to record and hold the epg info. with all that you are good to go.

Tony

Wonder where they got that idea from

givecredit wrote: »

The coupon code is boards.ie

Tony

That's very unlikely unfortunately

FRIENDO wrote: »

Possibly some manufacturers of the new saorview connect boxes will have a 7 day epg for UK channels on the boxes.

Sleepy

Arrived this morning, it's currently sitting at home waiting to be set up and I'm stuck in work and have to head off for a Christening down west this evening so it'll be Sunday night before I get a chance to play with it!

Impressive turn-around on the order, less than 24 hours!

bruce wayne

looking forward to your update on the set up - I'm considering getting one of these to replace our sky box

Sleepy

Will be next week some time before I have it all set up I'd say but I'll definitely update.

hadoken13

We are also thinking of getting one of these so will look forward to your review. On a side and completely noob question, what do you connect these to as in do you need a freesat/freeview dish or do they connect to a sky dish or straight to the net?

maximum12

hadoken13 wrote: »

We are also thinking of getting one of these so will look forward to your review. On a side and completely noob question, what do you connect these to as in do you need a freesat/freeview dish or do they connect to a sky dish or straight to the net?

the satellite tuner just connects to a Sky dish. It all comes from the same satellite. The difference is you won't get the Irish channels on satellite as Sky encrypt them. The terrestrial tuner for your Irish channels connects to a very small aerial.
The guy who connected mine put a small aerial under the dish and you wouldn't notice it from the ground.

hadoken13

givecredit wrote: »

This will do all of the above.

http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-combo.html

Get 7.5% off with boardies coupon.

Get the twin sat tuner version and usb dtt dongle as posted in other threads here for triple tuner version for about 120 euro.

Copy post below:

The Edision OS Mini is probably your best option.
http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-twin-tuner.html

€114.56 for twin tuner with "boards.ie" coupon discount. (7.5% discount)

One of these for 6 euro makes it a triple tuner with dtt.
http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_188372.html

For the USB tuner what feed goes into it? Also, if there are 2 LNB inputs which one is for freesat and which one is for Saorview or is it one each and if so what is the loop input for? Can't find too much information on these, hence the silly questions.

swoofer

the aerial lead goes into the usb tuner, it will be obivious. The 2 lnb inputs are for 2 sat cables from the dish. You need 2 tuners to record one and watch another programme. SAORVIEW is over the air ie its terrestial, signal travels from a landline transmitter to the roof/attic aerial. SATELITE signal is from space, ie the signal is uplinked to a satellite in space and is then transmitted back down to satellite dish.

A loop input is to connect another satellite box, that will be in another room.

get the combo box much neater, look at pic of rear,

http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-combo.html

and then use usb at rear for a hard disc drive(HDD)

NB be careful there are 2 boxes, one has 2 sat tuners so you need usb tuner, other has one sat tuner and one saorview tuner. have u a soarview tv

hadoken13

swoofer wrote: »

the aerial lead goes into the usb tuner, it will be obivious. The 2 lnb inputs are for 2 sat cables from the dish. You need 2 tuners to record one and watch another programme. SAORVIEW is over the air ie its terrestial, signal travels from a landline transmitter to the roof/attic aerial. SATELITE signal is from space, ie the signal is uplinked to a satellite in space and is then transmitted back down to satellite dish.

A loop input is to connect another satellite box, that will be in another room.

get the combo box much neater, look at pic of rear,

http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-combo.html

and then use usb at rear for a hard disc drive(HDD)

NB be careful there are 2 boxes, one has 2 sat tuners so you need usb tuner, other has one sat tuner and one saorview tuner. have u a soarview tv

Cheers - great explanation. Have a Saorview compatible TV so would need a Saorview tuner too. As there is only 1 LNB input on the combo would that mean I can't record and watch another channel?

Edit: Am also looking at the more expensive Extrend ET 10000 linux box.

imnorobot

hadoken13 wrote: »

As there is only 1 LNB input on the combo would that mean I can't record and watch another channel

Yes that would be right
1 LNB input means you can only watch or record from that 1 tuner at a time
Where as 2 tuners or 2 lnb inputs allows you to record 1 station while watching a different station

Johnboy1951

@hadoken13

Broadcast TV reception can be divided into two types .... DVB-T (terrestrial such as Saorview) and DVB-S (Satellite)

Both types of broadcast send out a bunch of TV channels on one frequency.
This 'bunch' is called a transponder for satellite and for terrestrial a mux.

There are hundreds of transponders from Satellites.
There are two muxes from Saorview.

A transponder can have 10 TV channels (more & less depending on quality of channel etc)

Whichever frequency the tuner is locked onto makes available all the channels from that frequency (transponder or mux).
All the channels are available at the same time, so if the tuner box can output the data to multiple devices, then all the channels carried on that one tuned frequency can be viewed concurrently on different devices.
This is not often useful, as there are seldom multiple useful channels on the one transponder/mux. There are of course exceptions.
So if the channels you wanted to see and record were on the one frequency/transponder, then one tuner would do.
You need a separate tuner for each transponder you want to access concurrently, whether to record or view.

The same applies to DVB-T but Saorview has presently only two muxes/frequencies, so two DV-T tuners would allow all the Saorview channels to be received concurrently.

Satellite TV is more complicated because of the almost limitless number of transponders/frequencies available, so it is more usual to have a DVB-S tuner for each person/device that wishes to access a Satellite channel, counting recording as a separate one. For instance if I have three people who want to view Satellite, then I need three tuners, and three cables from the LNB on the dish.
If one of them might also want to record, then I need four tuners. If all want to be able to view and record concurrently, then I would need six tuners, to be absolutely sure, and six feeds from the dish.
In practice four tuners in place of six would suffice in most situations because they would not all want to use two tuners at the same time.

Hopefully some of that was useful.

ADDED:
A Satellite LNB can have a single, or multiple tuner connections. One, two, four, and eight are common. Each output can be connected to one tuner for use as above.
For DVB-T an aerial is required, and this can be connected to as many tuners as you wish (within some limits, but only one cable from the aerial is required)

Sleepy

Got the box set up and it seems to be fairly plug and play. Did a scan for additional channels and found quite a few but need to do a little more research into maintaining channel lists etc. Did I see a thread on here somewhere where someone was maintaining a list of all English language stations? Haven't plugged in the hard-drive yet so will have to look into that too.

The only criticism I'd have of the box so far is that the remote is a little fussy, it seems to require a direct line of sight to the box and needs to be pointed directly at it. Easy live with but something to get used to compared to more modern remote controls.

swoofer

put better batteries in remote, use duracell ultra power.

tommycahir

Sleepy wrote: »

Got the box set up and it seems to be fairly plug and play. Did a scan for additional channels and found quite a few but need to do a little more research into maintaining channel lists etc. Did I see a thread on here somewhere where someone was maintaining a list of all English language stations? Haven't plugged in the hard-drive yet so will have to look into that too.

The only criticism I'd have of the box so far is that the remote is a little fussy, it seems to require a direct line of sight to the box and needs to be pointed directly at it. Easy live with but something to get used to compared to more modern remote controls.

For maintaining the channels and their order/grouping you need a plugin such as Autobouquetmaker or Autobouquet e2

Then to maintain the EPG you need a plugin like epgimport, crossepg or xmltvimmport

Sleepy

As far as I can see Autobouquetmaker and Crossepg were pre-installed. FreeTv.ie seem to load the boxes with their own image as their (really cheap looking) logo comes up onscreen during the boot up.

I just need to take the time to learn how to use them I think!

tommycahir

Lots of guides online about using those addons, some pretty decent ones on the openvix site @ http://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/guides-and-tutorials/
especially their video guides.

If you want to flash a fresh image on it then it is support by Openvix and OpenATV

Key point is to backup whatever image you have now before installing any new/fresh image..

Sleepy

It seems to use OpenPLI is that a flavour of OpenVix or OpenATV or something else entirely?

Sleepy

I can't seem to download any plugins for some reason, I've set up the wireless network and have been successfully able to watch services from my laptop but when I try to download plugins through the console I'm getting a HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found....

It's suggesting Perhaps you need to run 'opkg update'? That sounds like I need command line access?

tommycahir

Sleepy wrote: »

I can't seem to download any plugins for some reason, I've set up the wireless network and have been successfully able to watch services from my laptop but when I try to download plugins through the console I'm getting a HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found....

It's suggesting Perhaps you need to run 'opkg update'? That sounds like I need command line access?

Yes 'opkg update' is a command line, as far as I know there is no way to do it in GUI. wonder how old is the openpli image they are installing as some of the feeds could have changed..

Openvix, OpenATV,OpenPLI and others are all members of the OE-Allicance which is building Enigma2 images based on a common core build so they are all pretty similar but taking slightly different branches from the main tree

more info (in german) - http://wiki.opena.tv/index.php?title=Hauptseite

Sleepy

They seem to be using their own image as it shows the freetv.ie logo on bootup...

I'll get in touch with the site.

Zardoz

Sleepy wrote: »

They seem to be using their own image as it shows the freetv.ie logo on bootup...

I'll get in touch with the site.

They probably just changed the boot logo ,that's easy to do ,its highly unlikely that they made their own image.

It seems to use OpenPLI is that a flavour of OpenVix or OpenATV or something else entirely?

Pli was around long before Vix and Atv (formerly known as AAF) they created alot of the original code.
Vix and ATV images are all based on PLi code .

Sleepy

The support suggestion is to basically look at a new image alright...

I'm finding it hard to get any clear comparisons of Pli Vix and ATV. What's the general consensus from an Irish perspective as to which is the best balance of stability and features? Unsure why but I seem to be leaning towards Vix despite knowing very little about any of them!

swoofer

pli is a good image, also it takes up less space, be careful changing get to know pli first.

what is the box you got?

Sleepy

The Edision OS Mini Twin Tuner - http://www.freetv.ie/edision-os-mini-twin-tuner.html

Functionally, it's getting all the channels I'd expect and the picture is clear (though I was picking up the enhanced audio for the blind on ITV yesterday!?), I've added a 1TB hdd external HDD and it seems to be recording fine. I'd been hoping to change to the Sky clone skin (Sly) and add the Kodi plugin but they don't seem to be able to download.

When you mention pli takes up less space, what's the advantage of that? More RAM for system resources or more room for additional plug-ins etc?

swoofer

Pli is fast ie its about 46mb, vix is 55mb and so on, they get bloated. Skins are usually built for particular images. Free tv had a good reason for loading pli its reliable. They may have blocked plugins for obivious reasons. Kodi is tricky and does not work on lots of boxes. I have it on a solo2 with openpli but I think it needs a very fast chip.

If you just want 28east then the popular one is openvix and they do support your box. have you found a good support site?

and have you checked network is actually working?

ps I dont have your box so cant duplicate anything and I dont dabble as much these days. I just get it working and forget about it.

tommycahir

In terms of getting the sky clone skin then you can get the latest version from the techkings thread or from dropbox

The following site also usually hosts a copy of the common plugins and skins etc if your ever stuck
http://apps.getrpi.co.uk/

Sleepy

I'm not sure how to test network other than to connect to the box from elsewhere on my network (i.e. my laptop) and that's working. Network tests through the interface don't report any issues either...

Really I'm just looking to re-skin the interface / add picons and adding kodi would be nice (I have it running on an old PC in the same room so it's not essential but it'd be nice not to have to change to another input source on screen etc).

AFAIK, adding anything other than 28 east would require additional satellite equipment? (I'm just connecting with the Sky dish the previous owner of our house was using). Is there much to be gained in terms of free-to-air English language channels on other satellites? Any googling seems to suggest it'd be a lot of extra work / investment for relatively little extra content?

STB.

All of the OE images have an option to update software in the menu.

OpenVix is possibly the best image out there and is UK/Ire geared.

http://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/downloads/edision-images/edision-os-mini/

Unzip it to a USB stick and reboot your box and press okay when it notify you that an new image has been noticed. Let it flash.

On the Sky styled Skin. I presume its the SkyQ one. Your edision box has a 750MHZ processor with lowish NAND and DDR. Do not flash this skin to your box as it will slow to a walk in responsiveness.

Also have a dedicated USB stick in the back of the box for EPG and Picons. Do not store either on the internal flash!

You need to set all this up in the menus.

Sleepy wrote: »

I'm not sure how to test network other than to connect to the box from elsewhere on my network (i.e. my laptop) and that's working. Network tests through the interface don't report any issues either...

Menu, System, Network.

It will tell you what the IP of the box on the LAN is, i.e. 192.168.x.x

You should be able to type that into an address bar on your browser. It will pull up WEBIF.

Sleepy

In terms of the Sky Skin I was looking at the following one: http://www.techkings.org/openvix-openatv-skins/102929-slyk-1-hd-sly-skin-version-5-a.html Not too pushed on installing it if it'd affect responsiveness (I actually thought it was such a nice basic looking skin it'd be low on RAM usage!)

I was able to see the IP address and open WEBIF alright, wasn't sure that it being accessible to my internal network necessarily meant it had outbound connectivity to the internet though (since I'm getting 404 errors that seemed the likely problem...)

STB.

Sleepy wrote: »

In terms of the Sky Skin I was looking at the following one: http://www.techkings.org/openvix-openatv-skins/102929-slyk-1-hd-sly-skin-version-5-a.html Not too pushed on installing it if it'd affect responsiveness (I actually thought it was such a nice basic looking skin it'd be low on RAM usage!)

I was able to see the IP address and open WEBIF alright, wasn't sure that it being accessible to my internal network necessarily meant it had outbound connectivity to the internet though (since I'm getting 404 errors that seemed the likely problem...)

You will know if the feeds are up by long holding the blue button until the plugin browser comes up. Then click green. If its displaying the various feeds, ie Skins, extensions etc, then its connecting to the outside.

The skin you linked to will be fine. Dont use this one as it will slow your box to a walk. Its designed for 1300MHZ boxes or at least thats what it possibly needs to run it. Tried and tested!

Zardoz

STB. wrote: »

On the Sky styled Skin. I presume its the SkyQ one. Your edision box has a 750MHZ processor with lowish NAND and DDR. Do not flash this skin to your box as it will slow to a walk in responsiveness.

+1 ,those Sky skins are horrendous .
I dont know why anyone would want to use them ,they are ugly,resource intensive and cause incompatibility issues with certain plugins.

Pli-HD skin is about the best ,the Vix/Openatv stock ones are nice and clean too.

keith_d99

Great thread lads - loads of info!
Looking to ditch sky multi room (kids room) and this looks to tick nearly all the boxes.
If it works as well as hoped will then ditch my main box!

A couple of questions ...
Anything out there that does all this plus Netflix? Would prefer not to fork out for a smart tv
Also use kodi for sports - any issues running 720p with this box (currently use a pi)

Also would need UHF aerial in the attic for my saorview?

Also I assume this is compatible with a Harmony remote?

Have too many boxes at the moment ... Would love something to replace all/most

Thanks in advance!
Keith.

STB.

keith_d99 wrote: »

Great thread lads - loads of info!
Looking to ditch sky multi room (kids room) and this looks to tick nearly all the boxes.
If it works as well as hoped will then ditch my main box!

A couple of questions ...
Anything out there that does all this plus Netflix? Would prefer not to fork out for a smart tv
Also use kodi for sports - any issues running 720p with this box (currently use a pi)

Also would need UHF aerial in the attic for my saorview?

Also I assume this is compatible with a Harmony remote?

Have too many boxes at the moment ... Would love something to replace all/most

Thanks in advance!
Keith.

No E2 box does netflix at present. Theres a chance that 4K E2 boxes would be able to do it as they can handle H265 codec, but Netflix havent written a plugin for E2.

The Edision box. It has 2 satellite tuners. If you want Saorview on it too, you'll need a USB DVB-T stick (9135 chipset), an RF Coaxial to MCX and an aerial. Yes it does 720p and 1080p. It'll play H264/Divx/MKV/MP4 videos from the USB port. 2 USB ports on it, one back, one front.

Yes to everything else.

tommycahir

In regards the Kodi side of things at the moment only the higher end VU+ boxes and the Mut@nt HD51 are capable of running the full kodi version, even at that they are never going to be as fast or updated as quickly as a dedicated kodi device.

There is the option of using kodidirect on some devices but that is very stripped down and only some addons will run in it due to missing dependencies.

Pighead

Sorry for hijacking your thread Sleepy but I also have this box and I'm still working out how to get the best out of it. I can pause tv no problem but when I press the rewind button I just get the 'no can do' icon at the top right of the tv screen. Is there any setting I can change to enable me to rewind live tv?

swoofer

have you got a HDD connected via the usb socket?