To buy or not to buy Azbox premium, advice needed for newbie.

[HotRock]

Hi
I got my first sat dish and tm6900 1m motorised just over a year ago, and recently got the diablo cam which was all very good until recently.
I have spent today reading and trying understand linux based systems for cs and am deciding between the azbox premium and the dm8000 hd.
I have a few questions for anyone who is willing to help me make a decision on this upgrade.

1. When I remove my technomate 6900 can i just replace it with the azbox ? will it work with my motorised set up ?

2. Can i record to my 1.5tb external hard drive hd channels and normal channels and set up weekly timers etc ?

3. To do CS do I have to own a payed for sub card and share it ?

4. Why is it important to so many people to be able to use cccam and become a server ? What is the advantage of being a server and do I have to leave the box on perminently 24/7 to share ?

5. Do I get alot less channel on the azbox than the mega expensive dm8000 hd ? Is it the case the more peers the better ?

6. If the azbox premium is wifi, does this mean I just connect it to my wirless home net work, and all is done , no leads between pc or router ever required ?

7. Once set up is the azbox fairly easy to use ? Can i come home from work and turn it on and quickly get to watching tv. Can the Wife use it easily and record her favorate programs like on the tm6900 ?

8. Can this box record 1 channel and watch another at the same time? how does this whole record funtion work with fta and encrypted channels as I want to be able to record everything ?

9. Whats open on this box, or does that relate directly to who your peers are ?

10. If money was not an issue would you go for the established dm8000 or the axbox premium ? Or may be neither, any other suggestions ?


Im completley new to linux and cs but am prepared to learn, my questions are to people who use the azbox and know how it works. Its all very confusing at the moment. Enigma, mbox, incubus etc. Are these all programs I install on the azbox? Can i put all 3 on or just 1. So much to work out for a complete beginer !!!

Any way thanks in advance for anyone who has the time to repond.
TheRock

[Dig Deep]

Start reading.

Almost all Your questions have an answer here, at the Satpimps.

So, read and the ask if You are still having problem :king-041:

[pr2]

Hello,

I will try to answer your questions:

1) Since your installation is quite new, I guess your motor will support USAL so yes it will work. Azbox is able to use your motor if use USALs. I ma not expert in motors so if someone else can say the latest status on Azbox...

2) Yes you can but you will need to read own to do it. Some people already explain how to redirect the recording place on the Azbox. One is sharing the internal HDD of his Premium with his Elite. So the same trick can be used to access any shared folder.

3) Yes that is the principle of CS, to share card. But some people accept to connect people that don't have a local card.

4) People that have a local sub card and are doing real CS, need to be able to share their own card with the other. Most the Dreambox users are now running CCCam so you need to use the same CS program has your peers. But we will have CCC on Azbox which will be first a CCCam client and later on a true CCCam server. Yes when you do CS your box needs to be reachable 24H/24 7j/7 otherwhise your peer will have problem to access your card and they will suppress you.

5) I want to say that you will have more channels on your Azbox HD than on the expensive DM 800 HD or DM 8000 HD because the Azbox has a sensitive tuner that allow you to catch also feeds. If you are talking on a CS aspect you will have the same.

6) Yes indeed you setup the Wireless on the Azbox and it is connected to your local network and to Internet. No need to connect the Azbox to your PC via a wire. And you can turn off your PC the Azbox will continue to work. You just need to have a router that is Wifi and your router connect you to the internet.

7) Yes for sure! Azox is simple to use, my girlfriend enjoy it. Everything is quite intuitive, we really enjoy the Azbox look & feel. I use 2 one in the bedroom and one in the living room, so the Azbox can be used in production without any problem!

8) Today the Azbox has 1 DVB-S2 tuner, with if you use mgcamd, you can record a channel and watch another on the same TP. If you want to have the complete liberty than you will need add a second DVB-S2 tuner (not yet available, but planned in the coming weeks). Since you use a motor, you will need to loop-throught between the 2 interfaces, and you will need to record channel on the same polarity This is not an Azbox limitation with a motor dish all the STB will act the same.
Most of the satellite package are using the same polarity to allow the pass-through function for recording and watching another channel on the same package.
So it is better to have a fixed antenna with multi-exit LNB and DiseqC so you can watch Hotbird on Tuner 1 and record Astra on Tuner 2. You have no more technical limitation.

9) Yes what is open, depend on the emu you use and the peer that you have. The box by itself is a FTA box, it is the plug-ins that make the differences.

10) Even with the money I go for Azbox Premium HD. Why? Because it has real HDMI output and not a stupid conversion cable. The DM 800 HD is overheating, the DM 8000 HD doesn't provide more than the Azbox Premium HD and it cost third the price! Don' throw away your money, Azbox is really the box to watch HD channel and the community is growing everyday.

Enigma is only for Dreambox (and some other STB), on Azbox we have our own system (firmware) which works fine, so no need for alternate image on the Azbox.
Mgcamd, Mbox and incubus are emu that allow you to do CS and to open channel, they all exist on Azbox. CCCam doesn't exist on Azbox because it will be called CCC and will first be able has a client and later on has a server.
NewCS is a card server allowing you to share your local card, most of the emu (mbox, mgcamd,...) are able to connect to NewCS card server.

So if you look for the future and a product with the best price / quality / functionnality ratio go for the Azbox HD Premium.

You will find lot of support for it here.

One more thing: Azbox current firmware is still in béta stage but you can use it for watching TV. It is still in béta means that are still working on it and improving it. So sometimes if they need to change the channel list format, for exemple, you will need to recreate your favorite. I just want to be clear about this. The first official firmware 1.0 is planned to be released end of june.

Pr2

[tr8.]

To change from a tm6900 to a linux machine is a very big jump.
To set-up and get fully running it would help for you to be good with computers and better is you understand linux, or there is a massive learning curve.
I would say when you get your first linux machine it will be days or longer to get it running they are NOT plug and play, so keep your TM till you are happy, you would not be the first to take a few weeks to get to where you are today.

Sharing is a whole new ball game, and under a major change at the moment with new cards that are coming from the paid for suppliers the recievers may need external card readers to be pluged in, you also realy need to hard wire from your router to where the reciever is to connect to the net. ( you can use wireless in some cases but this gives extra issues)

I would say the best way to start is KEEP your TM6900 and add a cheap linux reciever like the TM9100, it does the same as all the exspensive less HD, when you are up to speed and if you still think all the playing is worth it then upgrade to what looks good then.You wont loose the ability to watch you programs when you are tempted to through the linux box out of the window ( we have all had those days)

For my case i have 2 dishes and one is left with a tm5400 for the wife and kids as its easy ( did have a 6800 but found litle extra a year ago with HD) and they dont like / are not good at using my linux machines.
Then a linux on the 1.8m dish as my toy and like you I am thinking of ditching my tm9100 and dm7020 for a azbox premium when they get it to work with the diablo and cccam, but its not there yet.
I have had a few dm over the years and dont think they are worth so much more, the tm9100 is way better than the dm7020 and lots cheaper.

Also be carefull your TM has a great tuner for weak signals, so if you watch any sats and they are close to the limit you may loose them with another reciever

[HotRock]

hi
Thanks very much for your detailed and fast response.
Im sold !!
It sounds like this box has everything i want and much more, as well as good support.

i guess my last question is where is the best place to buy one, and who has the best price ?


Amazing, thanks again

HotRock:respect-050:

[HotRock]

Hi
Thanks also tr8, I will definately keep my tm6900 until i am happy with the azbox, and I am fairly good on a pc, so hopefully will not have too many set up problems with the linux system. I am well prepared to spend some hours playing around !!
At the end of the day if im not happy with the azbox, Ill box it back up, and sell it on fl****.

Thanks again for your advice

Hotrock

[radioboy]

Hi hotrock,
I can recomend the site sponser Goldwafers.

Got mine from him and got the day after i ordered it.

Good service and price.

Radio