***box f3 or Eagle Box HD800? or similar model to buy under £100

Hello all, wanting some advice please.

I'm after buying a Receiver but need help in choosing one that has good support and not likely to let me down.
My brother has a DM800, which has treated him well for a long time and rarely hits a snag.

I know some people prefer "Open Source" firmware receivers, but lets be honest most don't require that, as-long as you get patches every now and then, fantastic!.

I would like the receiver to have at-least the option of:
Support newcmd/mgcamd
HD 1080p/i
Optical output (Dolby Digital 5.1)
USB Media Playback.

I live in a area where i get 100% signal simply by just having my *** Digi dish at about 5 foot in the air . Although iv'e got it bolted in at about 12 foot on the brickwork.

Once I get a dreambox and it's working all hunky dory I will go out and purchase a motorized dish, the same or similar to what my brother uses.

So please, if you have any good advice on which are good receivers that are worth purchasing, then let me know.
Please don't just come out with "I herd this Cryptobox is good" etc... thanx!

From my understanding I can get a ***box F3 or Eaglebox HD800 for just under £50 on ebay, which do you think is the better receiver and why?
Do any of you have any info on how decent the USB Media playback is for video, HD content, H.264 MKV's etc.
What about PVR recording to a USB drive.

later in the year I may get a better receiver if need be.

Quote from tebaa

i have the ***boxf3 and its pretty good for a 50 quid box but would not like to keep useing it as my every day living room main box
saying that its what im useing most of the time and it gives random reboots now and again but cant knock it

Ouch random reboots? How often? Mind you most receivers lock up at times like couple of times a week and even need a power off/power on reboot.

What's your views on the ***box F3 then. Is the USB Media playback any good? what about PVR Recording. Can the machine decode AAC Audio into AC3? Also does the ***box show full channel names or cut them out like *** Sports # instead of *** Sports 1 HD etc.... Thanx mate.

Quote from Banny

It depends on your needs, the Openbox works straight out the box has all the things you want, but if you don't like the epg or something your stuck with the way its done.

Can't comment on the eagle box.

Yeah, like I say that is all I need in all honesty, as I have my PC to play most my content via HDMI, it's a bit annoying having the cable running though the passage/living room aswell as a Optical cable to my DVD amp. Yeah I know the EPG's on these boxes suck, and really it's NOW AND NEXT only, but that's all you need. I'd only ever watch football and maybe some history as I don't watch much else as I have all my comedies/movies stored on PC.

Quote from tebaa

about 1-2 times a day .but its on for 16-18hours a day the now with the kids . media player is good so far hd recordings really good in playback .sd quality was bad then just seemed to get better
it shows full channel name

Okies thanx, how long you had it?, do you know if it decodes AAC 5.1 HD into AC3 Dolby Digital?

Quote from Banny

Ive setup a few ***boxes and they haven't randomly rebooted.

Id get the m3 rather than the f3 though, or one of the other Openboxes, the f3 was soon replaced for some reason, might be nothing, but that's just a personal thing.

Iv'e read about the difference between m3 and f3, and all that is different is the USB slot on the m3 is at the back, all hardware is the same still. Bit silly really lol. Do you know if the ***box F3 can decode AAC into AC3, can you not find out please? I'd appreciate it.

Yeah i read, that's saying, weather it does or not is another thing lol. I think i will go for the Eagle HD800. :)