Which Linux Combi Boix

There are 3 replies in this Thread which was already clicked 970 times. The last Post () by dragon2611.

  • Hi All,


    Recently got rid of the payTV satellite as I don't feel it gives value for the cost of the subscription they are now charging.


    At the moment I Have one of the STB's from the payTV provider and also a Youview FTA terrestrial box connected to the TV, I was thinking of replacing both of them with a Combi DVB-S2/DVB-T2 box since the providers Satellite box's recording.etc gets disabled if you don't have a subscription.


    The problem is I had a look around and am totally lost as to which ones I should look at and which ones I should avoid like a plague, Price seems to vary a lot starting at about £75 on that well known auction site, to £500+


    There are a couple on world of satellite for around £150 - £160 but I really don't know if they're good ones or not.


    Few other Questions....


    1) Are the Linux Sat boxes fairly easy to use once set up? , Personally I suspect I could set one up and wouldn't have much trouble using it, but I do have to think about other people in the household who are less technically inclined and will just want to turn the TV on and watch it without having to fiddle. (I.e it needs to be able to behave like a fairly standard STB).


    2) I presume a combi box could still function as a DVB-T only unit if the sat feed was removed, since we only have a single Sat feed (Running a second one involves crawling around in the space under the floor) I can't rule out the possibility that someone else in the household will opt to resubscribe to the paytv provider and thus want the sat feed...


    3) Am I right in thinking most of these boxes can stream recorded content and live TV over the LAN?, Does it work the other way as well, e.g streaming from a DLNA server like Plex? (Although I already have a HTPC connected to the TV so streaming from Plex doesn't really matter that much, just if it did a good job of it I could have one less box under the TV.)

  • I haven't heard anything bad about the miraclebox:
    http://www.world-of-satellite.…box-Premium-Mini-HD-Combo
    Looks like a decent receiver for the money but i'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong.
    I did have a play with a golden interstar xspeed lx2 with hyperion image loaded and was impressed by it.
    The site sponsor hasn't them listed, only the lx3 on their site but it may be worth a call / Pm to them or alternatively a well known auction site.
    The lx2 will still function as a dvb-t unit if sat cable is disconnected.
    The setup is no more difficult than any linux mips receiver.
    It can stream live tv over lan using webif or maybe other plugins.
    Not too sure about the plex side of things but i'm fairly sure you can map a nas drive to it and stream from it although i'm open to correction.
    You will need to add a hdd or nas drive for recording functionality or time shifting.
    Hope it helps.

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