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Child Item

What tv combo box to buy?

Sl9

I am torn between zgemma h7s, octagon SF8008 and gigablue combi boxes.

Is zgemma out of business?

what i am really trying to do is buy the best box without breaking the bank. I want to be able to record and watch satellite and saorview. Any suggestions?

Also if I buy a box from germany is there much setup involved to use in ireland?

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Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123767966#Comment_123767966

Satellite picture will always be better than IPTV.

The quality of IPTV can vary though, some of the foreign IPTV services are really good but the UK and Irish ones are poor.

andy1249

I had the misfortune of staying in a place for the last 3 days with only Virgin IPTV.

Watching NCIS ( the one with the pigtailed nutter in forensics ) and the thing froze near the end of the program , and didnt catch up until the credits were running , so missed the whole reveal at the end.

Was also watching "Nope" on Film 4 , Ive seen it before , but its good and nothing else was on , anyway , it froze at the start of the Barn prank sequence and didnt come back on until that section was over.

Now Im on Virgin for Gigabit Broadband and TV is thrown in for the same price , side by side the picture quality sucks compared to straight FTA satellite , so I dont use it at home, this is the first time Ive had no other option.

Its totally and utterly unacceptable.

Please tell me other IPTV services are not this bad ?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123755482#Comment_123755482

They can probably get a bit of extra life out of these satellite and if required may be able to move satellites around.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123753166#Comment_123753166

My point was not that other countries dont have overspill , of course they do , but that WE totally and utterly rely on it.

We also expect all of our equipment to be able to use that and Saorview , which is a problem for a lot of gear.

If you cannot get UK TV here , you may as well not have a TV.

The catholic misery of RTE is not worth the license fee.

Also @The Cush isnt the Astra Satellite 28.2E out of service in 2009 , due to degrade orbit to the "graveyard orbit" and or burn up on re-entry ? Thats what I read anyway , and there are no plans as of yet for a replacement.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2024/sky-extends-satellite-tv-service-until-2029/

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749480#Comment_123749480

The 2029 date relates mostly to Sky subscription services. The UK terrestrial channels are likely to be around longer than 2029.

The satellite channels are used to infill areas not covered by Freeview at all or Freeview lite.

Already mentioned elsewhere a Freeview transmitter has been switched off and the area moved over to Freesat.

Freeview commercial muxes are licensed until 2034 and so the backup satellite service is likely to continue in parallel.

Switching to a fully IP broadcast service will have to ensure that all households can access the public service channels via an acceptable broadband service, be it fibre or 5G/6G.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749480#Comment_123749480

We are not a geographical oddity. Lots of countries can get so called overspill from lots of satellites. The 28 East UK beam with Freesat channels is tight, but gets into parts of mainland Europe. The Europe beams cover a lot more. The satellite is not a UK operation, broadcasters from anywhere can buy coverage on it.

https://www.flysat-beams.com/astra28-beam.php#google_vignette

13 East and 19 East "overspill".

https://www.flysat-beams.com/hotbird-13g-beam.php

https://www.flysat-beams.com/astra1p-beam.php

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749866#Comment_123749866

The H82H is only ~40 euro on Amazon Germany.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B0DDT4824C

Its a basic box and good for the money, bought 4 of them for friends and relatives and they have no complaints.

Interface was fast any time I used it, only some regions of BBC1 HD have the freezing issue.

Sir Osis of Liver.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749480#Comment_123749480

I had the H82H ,sold it on for pittance,piece of slow crap.

It kept freezing whatever image I put on it.

I see they are still seeling on for €100 on ebay etc.

I'm very happy with the performance of the H17,total contrast to the H8.

Not bothered about the 2nd sat tuner or recording facility.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749245#Comment_123749245

Well , I dont have the H17 , but do have the H8.2h and its complete and utter rubbish. Freezes on BBC1 HD and BBC news HD every single time , and the interface is so slow you get the impression is broken , hit the epg button and it shows an empty grid and its 4-5 seconds before it fills up.

Dog slow basically.

Im using it in client mode only as a multiroom box.

Most of the single tuner boxes get flack because of the limited recording facilities.

As of yet , none of them have replaced the DVB S2X tuner with an FBC tuner , that would give the box its standard capacity with a legacy LNB , but add a Unicable II lnb ( available from freesat.ie for about 50 ) would mean 4 tuners for Satellite.

We have to take into account that we are a geographically oddity here in terms of Satellite and Terrestrial TV.

We have no Satellite service worth talking about , and are relying on an overspill from the Astra Footprint for UK TV , so we want two DVB S2X tuners for that ( or at least a single FBC tuner ) and a Terrestrial Tuner , preferably a double one as each area has at least two transmission frequencies.

In most other european countries , a single satellite and a single terrestrial is all they need.

UK for example , both freeview and freesat are excellent services , and one of each tuner will do just fine thank you very much , gives you all the recording options most people want.

The writing is on the wall for us , Apparently " Freely" is now being pushed as both a terrestrial and Satellite substitute in the UK , and its Geo blocked. So 2029 or thereabouts , we are all going back to subs to get UK TV back. Legally that is !

Sir Osis of Liver.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123747122#Comment_123747122

From what I can see there isn't much difference performance wise.

I have the same Sky-like functionality on my H17 as the H7,with the same skins and fancy picons.

Not sure why the hate for it on the other thread.

It runs like a dream and is supported by the VIX devs.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123746931#Comment_123746931

The H17 didnt get a lot of love over in the h7s thread.

Is the big difference that the H17 only has one sat tuner where as the H7s has two sat tuners?

So the H7s when available was more of a direct replacement for anyone that was used to sky type functionality.

Sir Osis of Liver.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123741566#Comment_123741566

I bought the H17 from Amazon France.

Can't fault it,every bit as good as my H7 for around €120 a few months back.

Got my satellite,saorview and the rest running on VIX/Willobuild.

Apart from the internal hdd I don't see any difference between the two boxes.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123741566#Comment_123741566

It might be worth asking in the H7s thread itself - there are some active posters on that and some other really really knowledgeable posters who make it a great thread.

daphil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123741566#Comment_123741566

Try https://www.salemedia.nl/zgemma-h7s-4k-ultra-hd.html

yellowmellow2241

Sorry to bring this thread to life again. Can't seem to fine Zgemma H7s anywhere. Out of stock everywhere. What are available out there nowadays?

Thanks

goldiefresh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123436042#Comment_123436042

If it's the combo box not working with lights on at the back you just need a new power supply plug.

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123464133#Comment_123464133

You could probably set timers to turn to rte1 for a few minutes in the middle and then go back to standby.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123445629#Comment_123445629

EPG is pulled off the satellite from a channel called IEPG. So no internet connection or wi fi is needed to grab the EPG data. For Saorview , its pulled down whilst watching one of the Saorview channels.

RTE is rarely watched by me , though the missus does like her occasional dose of Catholic misery so will watch nationwide now and again.

The 7 day EPG for saorview will go blank if no one watches any RTE for a week , but to get it back all you have to do is put on RTE1 for a few minutes and it repopulates.

swoofer

If you post your query in the zgemma h7s thread I'll give you an answer and link to the usb wi fi stick to buy and epg etc.

neiljung

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123443741#Comment_123443741

One more, hopefully not too basic question. Does Zgemma need a wired ethernet connection? My router etc. are not located in the corner of the house with the TV, everything running off WiFi these days. Would like to make it as striaghtforward as possible for S/W updates and not be running back and forth with USB sticks.

Simiarly where does it pull EPG from? Does that need continuous WiFi access?

dam099

Unicable lnbs usually only have one output (or 1 unicable and a few legacy ports). It downconverts the channels you want to tune to 4/8/16/32 predefined user bands that are assigned to tuners. You can split the cable to go to different receivers as once they are assigned different user bands they don’t interfere with each other.

I think the Zgemma usually uses legacy lnbs but is also capable of using unicable.

To get the full benefit of unicable you need a receiver with FBC tuners but even without it can offer more flexibility for wiring.

neiljung

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123439594#Comment_123439594

Cheers, do you have a link for the WOS detail on Unicable?

So with a Unicable Quad LNB would each of the ports effectively allo 4No. spereatly tuned sat channels to be fed down each cable?

On the zgemma h7s I see comments that it only works iwth Unicable. Am I picking that up wrong? Can it just take 2 sat cable feeds and 1 aerial feed and act as a Saorview/Freeview combo box with watch one/record one for Sat?

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123439594#Comment_123439594

Yes , I left Sky in 2013 and started with the Tiviar Alpha , got all of my knowledge of E2 off this Satellite forum and many thanks to all the contributors.

I then got a Zgemma when the Tiviar died ( swollen caps on the PSU ) . I had the first Zgemma , i.e. take the lid off to put in a hard drive , then out of envy bought another with the HDD slot in the rear. Both died with swollen caps.

So 3 boxes down with swollen caps , I decided to go VU+ , which are built like a tank. The cost is double but so is the build quality and ( powercuts aside ) I expect them to last much longer. I have a UPS on them now so powercuts shouldnt be an issue anymore.

As they have FBC tuners I bought a Unicable II LNB ( must be a II , made a mistake and bought a I first and it didnt work out).

FBC and Unicable allow as many receivers/tuners to be attached as you have user bands on the LNB. I bought an Inverto LNB from Satworld.ie with 32 user bands , most have at least 24.

I cant remember the last time I had a crash , which were common on both Tiviar and Zgemma , this may be build quality but of course around about the same time I also stopped trying to make the interface look like sky and just used the default openvix skin which could also be the reason the crashes stopped , in fact , that is what I think the reason is , but as both new boxes and non use of dodgy skins was concurrent I cannot say.

The great thing about Unicable II & FBC is you can share the tuners with anything running plex or kodi , and this gets used way more than I thought it would , especially during World cup , Six Nations , Olympics , and other multi channel events like Glastonbury.

Setup is a little more tricky , but not that much , and if anyone needs help on setup just tag me in and I'll post how its done.

Its just a question of changing tuner setup to advanced , typing in the details of your LNB model , and making sure every " Tuner" has a separate " User band ".

The rest of the setup is exactly the same as any other E2 box.

swoofer

With all the support the zgemma h7s is the best bet and you can use your existing cables, best is 2 sat cables and aerial.

Unicable is complex but put simply you can have one cable from the lnb and then a splitter at the box end for either one receiver or quite a few more. Its explained over on WOS.

Andy on here uses unicable but has FBC tuners and that allows a lot of recordings simultaneously but receivers are expensive, ie double the zgemma h7s.

neiljung

I've an Amiko Mini Combo Extra Set Top combo box which seems to have died all of a sudden. No red LEDs on the front (although the lights above the Ethernet port flash when it's powered up).

Looking for a replacement and happy to do a little more tinkering. Is the zgemma h7s still the best option?

Does the Uni cable LNB just mean that your multiple LNB feeds are terminated in a single connector or is it something more complex?

Hoping from a hardware perspective that I can plug my Sat and Aerial cables in as now.

Any and all advice appreciated.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123281094#Comment_123281094

I am only very new to these boxes but find the zgemma h7s excellent (am over stretching looking at extra tuners but that's separate)

But rather than my advice be better seeing do one of the experts have a good recommendation for a similar priced alternative to the h7s now that it's not being manufactured.

What's your budget and your needs /expectations from the box.

Did you see the more expensive options in the last few posts of the h7s thread? (even tho the lads have highlighted you need a unicable lnb to justify/get full use of those )

AlwaysIncredulous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123279466#Comment_123279466

That's my mind made up so - thanks a million.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122864996#Comment_122864996

No thats the slightly older box , the new one is this one ….

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/GigaBlue-UHD-Quad-Pro-Bluetooth-black/dp/B0DKK3KW3T/

I may have been unlucky , lost one of my VU+ due to a powercut ( Storm Eowyn) and replaced it with this , but it died within two weeks , completely dead , wouldnt even power on , dont know what happened , at 2 weeks old it went straight back , amazon covered postage and every penny including shipping costs was re-imbursed so no complaints there.

Note the box is very new , only a few openvix images or other E2 images available , so may have been a bug that caused the problem.

I managed to get another VU+ duo 4K SE from amazon.de. Arrived yesterday and up and running now.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123278969#Comment_123278969

I am only a new user of the h7s and some of brilliant main contributors will probably be along in a while.

But - if you interested in zgemma h7s might be worth grabbing one from one of the Irish suppliers while they still have them as WOS have a notice up saying that they are no longer being manufacturered.

Pity given that it could do the twin sat and the saorview. The h17 only has a single sat tuner.

Screenshot_20250319_181747_Chrome.jpg

AlwaysIncredulous

Sorry to be bumping this old thread, but the h7s seems like it's sold out everywhere on amazon. Is the h17 as good or should I get one of the "older models" from satworld or freesat?