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Best Box For Approx £400

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robbishop

Newbie
Hi guys,

Im a complete newbie to all of this stuff but found you guys as I was fed up paying sly monthly and just knew there had to be a better way.

OK, my situation:

I have binned Sly, but still have the dish and basic free channels. I also have Virgin Broadband 200 Meg (yeah right). I bought a M8S+ box which is great for films and box sets but for live sport its very hit and miss plus we really miss the ability to be able to pause, rewind, record etc etc

My question to you techno gurus: What type of box is best in my situation to be able to watch and record as per Sly? I'd like these if possible:
1. EPG,
2. Record a channel (preferably two) whilst watching another channel
3. Watch sports and movies
4. Pause
5. Series link etc etc

I welcome and thank you for any help/feedback. Oh yeah, Im not great at technology but there seems alot of info on here to get me through it - hopefully

Thanks guys,
Rob
 
Have a look on World of Satellite. the miraclebox premier plus is a 3 tuner HD box with swappable tuners. you could have 2 sat tuners and one cable tuner and have the best of both worlds. HD sly channels or only available on cable. but since you have vm broadband you can also have cable tv with a cable and sly sub.
 
leader said:
Have a look on World of Satellite. the miraclebox premier plus is a 3 tuner HD box with swappable tuners. you could have 2 sat tuners and one cable tuner and have the best of both worlds. HD sly channels or only available on cable. but since you have vm broadband you can also have cable tv with a cable and sly sub.
Click to expand...

Thanks Leader for getting back to me.

So I can have Vermin (even though I only have their Broadband) plus Sly? So id be able to swap between cable or Sly? Can I ask aren't they basically showing the shame stuff anyhow so is that really needed or have I not got the gist of it?

How would it work? Would I need to connect my sly dish and vermin broadband to get the best of both? Plus when selecting channels do they start instantly or like my M8s+ box you get a list of links and some may or may not work?

Again sorry for my naive questions but this stuff really is new to me.
Thanks,
Rob
 
Hi,
I use GiGaBlue QUAD PLUS boxes for Sly and Virmin, or to replicate Virmin TiVo a Mutant 240,. 4 Cable Tuners.
Get the box with OpenVix from WOS and all you have to do is add lines, add skins, scan and away you go (ok a few more steps), but you get the idea.
Virmin would give you HD channels, Sly currently does not have all HD (movies & sport etc.)
You will need a 1 to 3 or 4 splitter to split broadband signal into cable tuners on box.
Sly will just plug into your existing dish cables.
 
SnowManUK said:
Hi,
I use GiGaBlue QUAD PLUS boxes for Sly and Virmin, or to replicate Virmin TiVo a Mutant 240,. 4 Cable Tuners.
Get the box with OpenVix from WOS and all you have to do is add lines, add skins, scan and away you go (ok a few more steps), but you get the idea.
Virmin would give you HD channels, Sly currently does not have all HD (movies & sport etc.)
You will need a 1 to 3 or 4 splitter to split broadband signal into cable tuners on box.
Sly will just plug into your existing dish cables.
Click to expand...

Thanks SnowManUK.

I will check out the box tomorrow when on my PC and not my phone.

Can you tell me though if the channels play normally and do not buffer as per my M8S+ box?

Thanks
 
android boxes buffer but you may get slight glitching on viewing.
xtrend 10000 quad tuner 2 x sat and 2 x cable + 1 tb internal,you can go bigger if you wish but wos highest is 1 tb
box will need 1 line from sat server and 1 from cable server
 
THis system we are talking about is not streaming, like your android box, it downloads codes about 4 times a minute, that allow it to decode the SKY signal. If you have a good stable internet, you should have no problem. The only thing is that you must get a good line, but more about that when you choose what box to buy.
 
cactikid said:
android boxes buffer but you may get slight glitching on viewing.
xtrend 10000 quad tuner 2 x sat and 2 x cable + 1 tb internal,you can go bigger if you wish but wos highest is 1 tb
box will need 1 line from sat server and 1 from cable server
Click to expand...

Does having quad tuners mean I could record 3 channels whilst watching a 4th? Also when you say I need one line from a cable server does having vermin broadband cover that?

---------- Post Merged at 11:45 PM ----------

Thank you Wheelo - that makes me feel so much better. I was hoping that was the case but now you have confirmed I can sleep happy tonight. Do you have a preference for a box upto about £400?
 
robbishop said:
Hi guys,

I also have Virgin Broadband 200 Meg (yeah right).
Click to expand...

I've got VM 200MB and its great. Remember though to get that speed you'll need a 1GB network card if you're wired or use 5Ghz AC wifi.

On my phone connected using AC wifi I get 194mbs download and 13mbs upload.
 
Hi robbishop, i remember going through the same process a few months ago... all very complicated isn't it :P (it's not really, just need to get your head around a few things).


The physical box is just a mini-computer for all intents and purposes, it will normally have OpenATV or OpenVix operating systems installed (although others are available).

You need one tuner per channel you want to be watching/recording simultaneously (i.e. a 4 tuner box will allow you to record 3 channels and watch one at the same time). Bare in mind you'll probably want to have a 5 minute record buffer either side of the programme, so if you have programmes that follow each other on different channels you could use more tuners than you think.

Each tuner will need it's own feed from the provider. Unlike your android box which streams the video from a (usually dodgey) server, these boxes work pretty much the same way as a normal sly / virmin tv box, they take the signal from the satellite dish or cable feed, but instead of using the keys on your card to decrypt the stream, it goes off over the internet and gets the keys from a central hub (line provider).

Some boxes will have a loopback interface on the tuner that if you have 4 virmin tuners, you dont need to run 4 cables to your box. You instead run one cable, and use the loopback interface to share that cable's signal to all other tuners using a few small cables to link the cards together in a "loop out -> rf-in" chain

Sly HD channels do not work (apart from the freeview ones), not actually sure why (i never dug that far) but if you want Sly HD channels like the movie channels (the SD channels all work) you will need to have a Virmin line installed. Of course you can just install Virmin without Sly or vica versa, it's just a tradeoff of what channels you get on each and whether they are sufficient.

A "line provider" is someone who will allow you access to that "central hub" so that you can decode the stream in other to watch the non-freeview channels. You normally pay an annual fee, and they provide you with a file you drop on your box.

The more complex thing with these boxes is that the operating system alone is not enough. You need a plugin for pretty much everything of any use. A plugin for decoding channels via your line provider, a plugin to update the EPG, a plugin to create the channels groups, then theres a bunch of plugins for making these boxes work a bit more performantly such as adding swap space, oh and don't forget the theme/skins if you want to make it look different to the default skin of that operating system. There's lots of prebuilds though you can use so if you want something you can just flash and go with, look for a recommended pre-build.

Hopefully that helps :)
 
scotsman said:
robbishop said:
Hi guys,

I also have Virgin Broadband 200 Meg (yeah right).
Click to expand...

I've got VM 200MB and its great. Remember though to get that speed you'll need a 1GB network card if you're wired or use 5Ghz AC wifi.

On my phone connected using AC wifi I get 194mbs download and 13mbs upload.
Click to expand...

Thanks Scotsman - do you mean in the sat box or my pc? If my pc Im after a much better one, do you know of any recommended sources?

---------- Post Merged at 12:16 PM ----------

Thank you Lee989.

You have made things so much more clear for me and I understand the process far better. Thank you!

Yes I asked a similar question a few months ago which then led me to buy an M8S+ which has been great for movies and box sets, but not so great for sport. Plus we really miss not having an EPG and the ability to record/pause on the fly. The M8S+ will now go to the bedroom and if nothing else it gave me a clearer picture of what an android box can do.

Can I ask, I have my Sly lines still in situ so I understand that connecting those will work for sly. However I'm confused by vermin, if I connect my vermin broadband to my new box (whatever that will be) I then get all vermin channels? I dont need other wires/connectors?

Thanks,
Rob
 
With your set up I would go for a "combo"
a box with a cable tuner and a sat tuner,

As mentioned earlier, when you record the tuner locks itself to the channel while recording is taking place.

So if you want to record 2 and watch a third you need a box with 3 tuners etc.

HD channels on cable boxes, so if you have a big TV then this is for you.

So look for a triple or quad tuner. Look on WOS flashed with openvix.

Ballpark a good cable line will cost approx £80 per year, a good sat line will cost approx £40 per year.

You may need a few bits like a Hdd to record to, all boxes will take external USB Hdd's some of the more expensive
can take internal Hdd's.

You may need a set of homeplugs to carry the internet feed to your box if the router is not near the TV.

Then a few bits and bobs like splitters, F to ariel connectors Etc.

Have a read here

and

here

for your budget you should end up with a very good system, don't cheap out on the server, you will only get glitchy viewing.

There is plenty of help about, we all had our first box at some point. (y)

Go onnn press the blue word "here" I dare yeh lol
 
Last edited:
bees said:
With your set up I would go for a "combo"
a box with a cable tuner and a sat tuner,

As mentioned earlier, when you record the tuner locks itself to the channel while recording is taking place.

So if you want to record 2 and watch a third you need a box with 3 tuners etc.

HD channels on cable boxes, so if you have a big TV then this is for you.

So look for a triple or quad tuner. Look on WOS flashed with openvix.

Ballpark a good cable line will cost approx £80 per year, a good sat line will cost approx £40 per year.

You may need a few bits like a Hdd to record to, all boxes will take external USB Hdd's some of the more expensive
can take internal Hdd's.

You may need a set of homeplugs to carry the internet feed to your box if the router is not near the TV.

Then a few bits and bobs like splitters, F to ariel connectors Etc.

Have a read here

and

here

for your budget you should end up with a very good system, don't cheap out on the server, you will only get glitchy viewing.

There is plenty of help about, we all had our first box at some point. (y)

Go onnn press the blue word "here" I dare yeh lol
Click to expand...

Thanks Bees - Great info filling in lots of pieces of the puzzle ( I replied about an hour or so ago and it has not showed up, so if this is a duplication my apologies)

I have contacted WOS but the tech guy is away until next week so ill let you all know what I plumbed for next week.

Again, thanks to everyone who put the time in to reply is very much appreciated and I am so much more clear on how this whole thing works. However, once the box is in my hands I'm sure I will need to ask a ton more questions!!

Regards,
Rob
 
Ok, I plumped for the Xtrend ET10000 but what to do now? I attempted to setup the box using the manufacturers user manual but wow, it was way above my head. I have some channels but currently it isnt very user friendly and definitely not what I want.....Im sure that will improve the more I fiddle with it.

I have Sly+ cables and Vermin Broadband (via ethernet cable). My box is a Quad tuner. Tuners 1+2 must be for vermin and 3 + 4 for sly. I have connected my sly cables to tuner 3 (do I require a splitter to connect to tuner 4?). I am really confused how to set tuner 1 + 2 for vermin as they are coax type ports and my broadband is via an ethernet cable which I have plugged into the ethernet port on the box. If somebody has a similar setup and can post me an image id really appreciate it.

Is it best for me to get "gifts" before setting up the Vix image or does that not matter?

Again, sorry for asking so many questions but I find this stuff really confusing.

Thanks in advance,
Rob
 

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