Best Sky Digital Receivers

MrAnarchy

Hello,
I have a Pace Digibox at the moment.
I am going to buy a second hand Digibox and a dual LNB and connect these and operate a FTA card off my second box while I use the first one for my Full subscription.
Just wondering if people could give me recommendations on which receiver to buy and maybe where to buy one.
I have heard the Panasonic DSB30/31 is pretty good.
What about the Amstrad DRX200 ?
Is there anywhere to pick one up in Ireland or do I have to check ebay, qxl ,loot and yahoo auctions ?
Hope people can help me out
Thanks
MrAnarchy

I have the panasonic-doing the job you're talking about.
It's very fast compared to the pace and a neat looking box too!
In silver it looks like a piece of hi-fi equipment , and the pace is Ugly in comparison.
mm

bkehoe

Definatly panasonic. The Amstrad DRX300 is supposed to be as fast, but is very rare at the moment. the Sony 760 has optical audio output, and is the most expensive digibox, but is not as fast as the panasonic dsb31. You can get brand new DSB31s on ebay for £100 - £200 (Stg). I got one for £140. Others are second hand and come with BBC cards if you need one (one I got cost £160). Sonys have the ability to output in Dolby Digital, but Sky will probably never enable this feature, so there isn't much use in spending over £200 for it (imho).

Brendan

byte

Originally posted by bkehoe
Definatly panasonic. The Amstrad DRX300 is supposed to be as fast, but is very rare at the moment. the Sony 760 has optical audio output, and is the most expensive digibox, but is not as fast as the panasonic dsb31. You can get brand new DSB31s on ebay for £100 - £200 (Stg). I got one for £140. Others are second hand and come with BBC cards if you need one (one I got cost £160). Sonys have the ability to output in Dolby Digital, but Sky will probably never enable this feature, so there isn't much use in spending over £200 for it (imho).

Brendan

Are these prices you quote UK£ or IRL£?? Obviously, if it's IR£, it would be very cheap!;) I really do need an FTV card for Choice, Knowledge and News24, Channel 4 n C5!!!

bkehoe

Uk£ (thats what 'stg' means). You can get a box without a card and get a friend in the uk/ni to get a bbc card for you. You can then ring up pretending to be them to activate it (I did this twice with no problems at all); it may be a bit cheaper....

Brendan

bkehoe

BTW, here's a quick link to the appropiate category; http://listings.ebay.co.uk/aw/plistings/list/category4693/index.html

Brendan

MrAnarchy

Hello ,
How can people sell new Panasonic DSB's for half of their retail price ?
Are they flawed in some way or are they just stolen ?
Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

This puzzles me also-but its happening.
I've had my Panasonic Branty brand new that way and its working perfect-so I wont knock it.
If the person you buy from has a rating of + 3 or more on QXL.com-your purchase is insured.
The same probably applies with E-Bay but I'm not sure.
mm

MrAnarchy

I have found a person who will sell me a new Grundig GDS310 for 80 Pounds Sterling including remote and all cables.
This seems like a very good deal indeed.
Is this a good receiver ?
It looks pretty stylish.

MrAnarchy

I found a nice site that sell :
'REFURBISHED DIGIBOXES COMPLETE WITH REMOTE CONTROL, LEADS, AND 3 M0NTHS WARRANTY ONLY £99.99 Stg PLUS CARRIAGE'.
It is www.satcomm20.co.uk

From what I have found the best places to find good receivers both new and second hand are :

http://www.ebay.co.uk
http://uk.auctions.yahoo.com/uk/
http://www.loot.com

These are the best three.

Lennoxschips

I might buy an Amstrad DRX100. Is this box any good or is it too old and too slow and a waste of time and money?

Lennoxchips-it's all those things-don't touch
mm

bkehoe

The DRX100 has a terrible reputation. Its tuner usually stops working after a year or so.

byte

AFAIK, the DRX200 used a Panasonic tuner but I still wouldn't buy one. It's Amstrad after all. Scary!

I wholly recommend Panasonic. Other than that, get yerself a Pace. I am not too up on Grundigs as I have never installed them. The Sony's look the best but still aren't as fast as Panasonic.

Lennoxschips

I managed to pick up a new Amstrad DRX300 for 110 pounds sterling.

I used to have an Amstrad PC in the 80's. It was a fine machine and still works today, mainly used for playing digger and pacman.

bkehoe

The 300 is new out, and no one knows what it's like. I hope it doesn't blow up on you. BTW, '80s PCs do nothing to reflect on '00 digiboxes. Did you get a BBC card with it?

Brendan

I used to have an Amstrad PC in the 80's. It was a fine machine and still works today, mainly used for playing digger and pacman.

Hey Lennoxchips,
I spent many hours playing digger in college years ago:cool:
I was champion-untill I went home one weekend, only to discover when I got back that one of my pals had spent the whole w/end in between trips to the bar getting a higher score than me.
I did some study while I was there too honest;)
mm

esmonde

How do you go about getting a BBC card. I saw someone mention ringing in the name of a UK address and just asking for one. Could someone expand on this? Is it just for BBC? What questions is one asked? What number to ring etc...??

Thanks,

Roy