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Which box for a beginner on a budget of £40 - £100?

armie79

armie79

Newbie
Hi there, looking for some help. Which box is the best for a beginner?

I have left a list of requirements below:-

1) Easy to operate
2) As close to Sky EPG as possible
3) Easy to setup
4) Reliable
5) Able to record one channel and watch another

Is this possible on the budget I have? I already have a 8GB USB stick so the £100 max is for the box.

I have been reading the threads but still a bit puzzled with all the abbreviations and jargon used etc. For example "VIX IMAGE". Can you explain this please?

As much as I am new to this, I am pretty good at picking things up once explained.

Thanks.
 
vix image is an operation system program for enigma2 boxes,pcs can be xp w7/w8 and now 10 lol,wont mention vista .
 
Best box based on your budget would be the Zgemma Star 2s can be picked up for around £75 and can be installed with the latest vix image from the zgemma.tv website. I currently purchased this box and it is a great box as it is a twin tuner so recordings work great. I see you stated you have a 8GB USB, but if you are wanting to record you will need to invest in a portable hard drive.
 
...or a larger usb stick. I put 16gb for most people and as long as u delete when watched is o.k. but I use 500gb drives at home. Also portable hard drives place more stress on the box usb port so drives with their own power supply are recommended over portable.
And zgemma 2s is only box that meets all ur requirements. Great wee boxs.
 
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Get the zgemma Star 2 from fleabay, about £70, get a 32GB USB stick too, they are around £8 and once its all arrived goto the downloads section and download and install the backup image by sucmnsee, this will have you up and running in no time at all, the box configured to recieve your channels and with the sky skin all installed. The just add your cline/nline and your veiwing all the channels.

The only thing you need to remember is that the zgemma is not offically supported by VIX so updates can not be done via the boxes update section, hense my suggestion of using the backup image.

For a 1st time user I relied on scumnsee's backups and from that I learned loads just by looking at all the settings etc, also once you have the box use this forum to ask questions on refining the set up etc, I've always found this forum a great source for learning, very friendly poeple and always willing to help :)
 
Spot on guys, thanks.

The Zgemma Star 2 is the box that seems to be recommended by most.

I have a Western Digital 1TB HD so I am sorted for storage space also.

Can I ask what is cline/nline?

Meantime... Time to take the plunge and watch my wallet get £75 lighter then I guess ;)
 
c line / n line are what u need to buy to get the sky channels illegally. If u were interested in that type of naughty thing. Its a code with address user and password that does the unscrambling. Expect to pay 40ish for year
 
Yeah that's what i am looking for, 40 quid a year is a lot better than 70 quid a month!

So Cline and Nline, do I need both and is this pretty straight forward to setup?

I have already looked in the other forum where you request for a reliable cline/nline, and i'm guessing someone will PM you when you ask?
 
Just need one. General consensus is nline better. Wait til u have box and request a test line for 24 hrs. If ur happy make a purchase based on that. Or take a recommendation off a respected member. Some are good and some are useless so be prepared to buy twice just in case u get a bad one. Nature of the beast etc.
 
You need only 1, an nline uses mgcamd to run and a cline uses CCcam to run. Most suppliers will supply you with a nline as they are better.

I've sent you a PM with my supplier details, fair price and reliable service and support.
 
Thanks for all the info on this post, think I will go buy myself a Zgemma Star 2!

Any recommendations for a usb or just any old 32gb one be fine?

Also, if anyone wants to PM me I’d be grateful ;)
 
As long as your USB is in working order, formatted to Fat32 then you should be fine, download the program HDDLLF.4.40 (found in the downloads section) and use it to format your USB stick.
 
Soooo, after all that I decided to buy an Open Box V8 mainly because of the price and I felt a bit more confident i would be able to set this one up!... But needless to say i have a problem!

Trying to connect the Ariel from my dish! First of all, there is two Ariels that go into the back of my sky + box at present, and i've noticed the connections are different to the back of the open box. They appear to screw in to the back of the +box. Any idea if there is an adapter I can buy??? I really don't fancy trying to strip it and fit the correct connection to fit the open box incase I do it wrong.

Secondly, what cable do I connect to the back of the open box since there appears to be 2 cables?
 
Forcefire said:
ou need only 1, an nline uses mgcamd to run and a cline uses CCcam to run. Most suppliers will supply you with a nline as they are better.
I've sent you a PM with my supplier details, fair price and reliable service and support.
Click to expand...

Can you send me the details too please.
 
armie79 and twh,
The 2 cables you are talking about for your sky box are for the twin tuner sky Box, You only need one of the 2 cables and plug into LNB connection on back of Skybox, you would also need to get a 'No Signal Fix' adaptor this is to cure some channels that come up with 'No Signal'. you also need an internet connection and either a CLine or NLine to put into box,
 
Cheers, can anybody provide a link to the exact adaptor I require? Don't want to buy the wrong one. Hoping to have this set up for the weekend coming.
 
Why are you recommending no signal fix for him?
imho its not necessary, from what he's said......

---------- Post Merged at 12:48 PM ----------

armie79 said:
Cheers, can anybody provide a link to the exact adaptor I require? Don't want to buy the wrong one. Hoping to have this set up for the weekend coming.
Click to expand...

Armie did u buy a v8 combo or a v8s? Any chance you could post a picture of the back of box? That way easier.

Any connection on back that says loop out or lnb out should be left empty at least to start.

Top one is v8s. Bottom v8 combo
 

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