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ET8500 vs Solo2 picture quality

M

mum-rah

Newbie
Hi All,

I'm in the market for an upgrade from my 2S (which has developed an intermittent "I'm going to cut out and stop working until you reboot me 5 times" fault). I've decided that I want a box which supports an internal HDD and has a faster CPU - hoping to whiz around the EPG - and am happy to spend ~£200.

So I'm weighing up the ET8500 and the Solo2. I was pretty much sold on the ET8500 but have read a few comments in various posts talking about how the picture quality on the Solo2 is far better.

Can anyone who has experience with both boxes comment on this? Is the quality bump on the Solo2 worth the extra 50 quid? I'm assuming both are streets ahead of the 2S - it wasn't until I started researching these new boxes that I realised how crap the picture quality was...
 
The picture quality on the ET8500 is far from crap mate and yes both boxes are far better than a zgemma IMHO.

But with picture quality I can't see how any box is better than another, if you set the output to match your TV then you shouldn't really notice any difference.
 
Yeah, I was confused myself about how picture quality could really differ from one box to the next. I was assuming that "things happen" between the signal coming down the cable into to the box, and being outputted by the box to the TV.

Kind of like how you can get "upscaling" DVD players, but (if it's not obvious) I don't really know what I'm on about.

I'm fishing for reasons to punish my wallet the extra 50 notes, otherwise I'm getting the Xtrend...
 
i have had many tvs and boxes and can at times notice a difference in quality of tvs,i had a 3 yr old 24" philips full hd but picture quality was hazy and not sharp even with high quality hdmi and box.
i will always say if you want an excellent picture cheap is not the way to go.

main tv pioneer kuro plasma " hooked up to vu solo2 using monster hdmi 2 metre,also have blu ray on a 10 metre monster hdmi cable

kitchen tv hannspree been cheaper you do notice in sd shadows and not perfect picture bet remember sky have downgraded their quality

bedroom panasonic full hd and using xtrend 10000 excellent picture.

other things to remember is good quality coaxial cables,splitters for cable.
sat dish correctly aligned and top quality cable signal should be nearly 96% or even 100%.
most of the cables i get with boxes are still in the box as i will use better.

solo2 can only be used with sat as its got fixed tuners.
i briefly had the xtrend 8000 and was a superior picture than my vu duo.

settings i think are all on 1080p and 50hz.


oh when was the last time tv screen was cleaned?
 
cactikid said:
oh when was the last time tv screen was cleaned?
Click to expand...

My missus would reply with a heavy sigh and tell you that I clean the screen "almost every bloody day", I may have a small issue with dust...

---------- Post Merged at 09:04 AM ----------

Doesn't the ET8500 edge it on spec? I've looked at both side-by-side and they seem identical apart from the Xtrend has twice as much flash memory?
 
@Wooshman Looking at the spec side-by-side it looks to me like the Xtrend just egdes it. As far as I can see they're pretty much identical apart from the ET8500 has more flash memory.

Although obviously I don't know anything about the internal parts and how well they all sing together.
 
Former et8000 and et10000 owner, my solo2 has seen them all come and go lol For sat I REALLY prefer the solo2, pic quality is mainly affected by TV settings, my ZT65 plasma has been calibrated and the pic is excellent after the cal, that made the biggest difference, TV settings.
 
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