New HD receiver dilemma

[philips]

The following receivers all have approximately the same hardware specification, similar f/w upgrades and similar price:

Technomate TM5402, Blade BM7000S and DR.HD F15.

The F15 and Blade look almost identical but the F15 (which usefully has a USB socket on the front panel) has a spectrum analyser built into the software. The user manuals and screen shots of the menus are identical excepting that the Blade's doesn't reference the spectrum analyser.

The F15 would therefore appear to be the better buy however the non-official f/w upgrades seem to be only found on a Ukranian site whereas there are many forums giving lots of advice, f/w etc for the Blade. Blade media's site also has better support tools.

The Technomate's GUI is typical Technomate but its f/w updates are numbered the same as the F15 and the Blade uses a completely different numbering system !! Again there is a lot of support available for the TM5402.

Are they all clones of something else?

The DR.HD F15 appeals to me but if anyone can help with some advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[digicon]

I think the F15 is more of a hobbyist's box for say feedhunters as it appears to have a good solid write up about Tuner sensitivity and also the fact it has the built in spectrum analyserwhich is only found on decent high end sat meters.

The Blade and the 5402 are nigh on identical apart from the blade having the better looks and better Gui, although dont write off the 5402 just yest i see recently that TM have released a new official firmware 117 which appears to be catching up with phantom's patch.

I have never really seen the Blade in action but have installed 5402's for customers and the Tuner in those is fantastic a lot more sensitive than my Ultimo anyway.

[skilcom]

Technomate, technomate, technomate in my humble opinion