Newbie Help needed

HI Ranger,
What is your budget currently

Take a look at Amikos product range. Their non linux models are cheap and very user friendly. Also their A3 model are very exiting. Runs on android/linux. A bit more expensive,but maybe you can stretch your budget ;-)

If you like to flash images and mess around with interfaces, then i recommend the Octagon sf8. Very customable linux/enigma2 receiver for £89

Yeah you could go for the amiko range if you want a non linux or linux as there have boht , wetek for a good budget android box or an Technomate nano se for Enigma2 which is currently on from the sponsor site for £89. all are under 100 but amiko various on what you get.

Im interested in getting a box too, I do have a Ferguson Ariva for Free to air satellite and feed from outdoor antenna but am interested in delving further into this exciting hobby... I was looking at an AMIKO alien 2 with spark and enigma programmed onto it but am unsure if this box will be capable of the oscam / cline stuff Ive read about? also Im interested in sharing my card from the main box to the ferguson or Amiko alien 2 if thats possible... so I preempted that by ordering a card reader from another link found on this very informative forum. Any help with chosing a deacent receiver would be great... my needs are must have twin or triple tuner and be capable of receiving uhf broadcasts from my external antenna aswell as the sat.

OK, I wasnt aware of a stability issue with the Amiko box, that said the nano is a bit over budget for me im afraid, my budget is 150 euro, or 110 pounds. Any idea as to why the Alien is problematic? I seen it reviewed in a magazine and it was all singing, all dancing.... What about the Ferguson Ariva 252, any ideas on the stability of this one?

Also, seen a video on an Irish sat store doing a video on Alien 2 versus Edision Optimuss OS3, and he said the Edision is 3 times faster than the Alien2,,,, any thoughts on this Edision box?

The amiko is an sh4 chipset receiver.
Enigma 2 is primarily written for broadcom mips chipsets, most enigma 2 images have been modified to run on the amiko (some are relatively stable but others are rubbish)
Spark runs well on the amiko but hasn't got the range of plugins/addons that enigma 2 has.
Also, cccam won't run on the amiko (due to it being an sh4 also) so your main options are mgcamd or oscam

The ariva 252 is a closed sourced receiver (doesn't run enigma 2) so hasn't anything in the line of plugins.
It is mainly a client receiver and will not have an epg for satellite (only now and next)
It will run cams with a patched version of the firmware but to be honest, its more a bedroom receiver.
Channel lists are a pain to construct and very time consuming (there is no auto bouquets or epg downloader to speak of) but it does have a very good picture quality

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Also, seen a video on an Irish sat store doing a video on Alien 2 versus Edision Optimuss OS3, and he said the Edision is 3 times faster than the Alien2,,,, any thoughts on this Edision box?

I have seen that video as well.
The Edision Optimuss OS3 Plus is a true mips receiver and the test he is performing shows how fast enigma2 boots on a receiver designed to run it verses the amiko (sh4) which enigma2 was modified to run with.

I have owned an amiko alien and also a number of mips receivers and have found that the mips receivers always beat the amiko (running enigma2) for stability and ease of use/setup etc.

There is virtually no difference in price between the technomate nano 3t and the edision optimuss os3.

http://www.world-of-satellite.…-Enigma-2-HD-Receiver-PVR

From reading the specs, the technomate has a dual core mips processor versus a single core for the edision (as far as i can tell, may be wrong)
Vix is also available for the technomate but doesn't look like it is for the edision so for this reason alone, i'd go with the technomate.

If you only have a budget of €150, i'd look at the vu zero or Technomate TM-Nano-SE (only single tuner receivers though but you can add a usb dvb-t tuner to turn it into a combo receiver like the ariva, to pick up saorview/freeview. A good quality usb dvb-t tuner isn't cheap though)

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http://sundtek.com/shop/Digital-TV-Sticks-oxid/Sundtek-MediaTV-Pro-DVB-C/T/T2-FM-Radio-AnalogTV.html?listtype=search&searchcnid=8a142c3e44ea4e714.31136811&searchmanufacturer=a273b5a47dfa48f239bd4ac6ecb89f4b

http://www.world-of-satellite.…ate/Technomate-TM-Nano-SE
http://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/VU/VU-Plus-Zero

You might also want to consider the new Miracblebox Mini+, BCM7362, Dual threading 750MHz 2K DMIPS CPU.

1x Single satellite model = £129 http://www.world-of-satellite.…?filter_name=Mini+%20Plus

2x Satellite tuner model = £149 http://www.world-of-satellite.…?filter_name=Mini+%20Plus

1x Satellite + 1x Hybird Combo model = £149 http://www.world-of-satellite.…?filter_name=Mini+%20Plus

All the above are now supported in OpenViX Hades.

Very helpful and detailed info there lads, helped a lot, glad I found this forum as I was intending on buying an Alien 2 box today... think I'll hold off a while, I did look at the Technomate TMNano 3T Combo again and it looks like I may have to wait a few weeks more to get it, that said though what would be the best firmware to opt for in the drop down menu of the sellers website?

I see 3 options Factoty (speaks for itself)
Vix
Open ATV

Im really new to this so havent had a whole lot of time to look into the differences but if anybody can suggest which is the better one to go for that'd be great.

Steven

Images are a matter of taste really, (they all do the same thing more or less)
Vix is a great one to start with (in my opinion) but i'd give them all a go at some point or other.
Be sure to make a backup of your image after you have set it up to your taste though, handy to have it for fear something goes wrong when installing new plugins etc, as you can just reflash your backup and are up n running again in no time (a bit like system restore in windows).