New Receiver Dilema

[Stofer]

Hi, After a few years of being a contented Comag Sl65 owner, the box finally bit the dust last month. Initially just wanting a basic FTA receiver i settled on a couple of the very cheap B & Q receivers. The first receiver was their SD(Ross) box which was £25 and the second was a HD box & dish kit (Tristar) for £70.

The saying "you get what you pay for " certainly applied here as their software didn't cope with a motorised dish attached and one after another, they were returned.

This has now left me with a gaping hole in my tv cabinet and the realisation that I may have to part with a bit of cash to get a decent receiver. I've narrowed my list down to two but wouldn't ignore any similar suggestions.

After a bit of research I've decided that I would like some CI slots in case I want to upgrade, HD Capability and the ability to record to an external hard drive via USB. The model I have looked at is the technomate tm 5402 hd. It seems to do all I want it to and then some.

Whilst doing my research and being a but of a feed hunter, i discovered that the AZ box decrypts 422 signals so this is the other box I am looking at.

My question is.....

Is the AZ box worth the extra expenditure for my requirements? I have noticed that both boxes seem to be set up for Card Sharing but I am not interested in that due to it's questionable legalilty.

Any thoughts / recommendations would be most welcome.

Thanks.

 

[bigtee]

The 4:2:2 capability gives the AZ Box some edge but my understanding is that it used to be buggy and I'm not sure the software problems were ever sorted out completely. I am familiar with SD Technomate boxes (including the 5400) and based on that experience, I personally will have some confidence to buy the 5402HD. However, there is another, cheaper, box now worth considering ----- that is the Openbox HD S10 which can be bought on ebay for £60-65 delivered in the UK (make sure you confirm that it is either the V4 or V5 Remote). I am just test-driving one of them at the moment and so far I am quite pleased with it overall.

 

[Stofer]

Thanks for the reply. I did look at the openbox s10 but was put off by the low channel store which I understood to be only 5000 channels although at those prices on eBay I think I could live with that!!