New Box Blade Media BM7000HD
Ive been testing the new blade media bm7000hd FTA satellite box now for a while and i have to say i totally love it, and after trialling third party modified firmware with it all i can say is it can only get better. To start with its a very elegant little black box with 3 gun metal varying size circular buttons and a neon blue style display, nice ergonomic black remote control with a host of functioning buttons. Very simplistic set up and channel scanning process tested on a single and a motorized dish. If i'm totally honest the user interface is really basic but i have heard the unofficial f/w developers are working on this issue and f/w will be released soon to make this even more desirable since one of the main things they are working towards i'm told is a 7 day epg for a certain provider.
Favourites are programmable to suit the users own tastes and can be quite time consuming but not for one minute difficult, Once this box is in the mainstream then user channel databases will also be available and will be easily programmable just like the firmware its via usb flash drive, pc to rs232 and also box to box transfer, also future f/w updates will also incorporate autosort functions i'm told. An excellent function of this unit and one that after using for a while i somehow cant live without,is it will play xvid and mkv files straight off the bat with no converting needed either by using a usb flashdrive or portable hdd and using either also turns this machine into a single tuner pvr. These are very welcome features especially to watch downloads on the telly quickly.
Watching HD with this little unit is also a pleasure and i cant fault that side of it at all and it is full 1080p unlike a lot of others on the market, i'm really enjoying the hd side of it especially when watching sports, and for the interested this unit is 3D ready. Now why should anyone want to buy this HD satellite box i hear you ask well i assume most of you reading this are already aware but if not let me just say that the available 3rd party unofficial firmware when flashed gives this unit the ability to enter your own cccam or newcamd information easily by using the remote control to enable its use with the so called satellite cardsharing phenomenon going around. There's no need for ftp'ing into the box and you can switch between a multitude of c-lines easily if you need to. To summarize its a very nice HD satellite box and more so a very viable alternative to other more expensive units on the market, here's some technical info and a link.

Features:
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? DVB-S2 Satellite Compliant ( MPEG-4/ H.264)
? Output: 576p & 576i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 3D
? 1 Smart Card Reader & 1 Common Interface
? HDMI & Component Output (YPbPr) with Upscaler to Improve Picture Quality
? 10,000 TV & Radio Channels
? USB2.0 PVR Ready via external HDD or USB Flash Drive (memory stick) with Time shift, Record & Playback functions
? MP3 player and JPEG viewer via external HDD or USB Flash Drive (memory stick)
? Software & Channel List download via USB 2.0
? Blue Glow Front Panel Display
? Sensitive Tuner
? Less than 1 second channel change
? Dolby Digital Optical S/PDIF
? DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 (USALS) compatible
? Auto Navigation system ? select as many satellites as you want to search
? On-screen display with true full color resolution
? Enhanced 16 Favorite channel groups
? Channel control by: Favorites, Lock, Skip, Move & Delete
? Channel sort by: All, Alphabet, Transponder & CAS
? Multilingual OSD Menu: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Persian
? Extended EPG and program reservation on EPG
? Teletext & Subtitle by OSD and VBI
? Last channel memory function
? Factory default channel list
? Various games
? Software & channel list upgrade via RS-232C: PC to STB, STB to PC, STB-STB and USB
? Parental, Installation & Receiver Lock
? Zoom function on Pause & Live channel
? Multi picture display
? Support for multiple language broadcasts
? SCPC & MCPC receivable from C/Ku band satellites LNBs supported: Universal, Single, Single S & C band wideband LNBs
? Multi TV Standards supported: PAL G, I, K, M
? 4:3 & 16:9 Screen Formats
? 90-250V AC 50/60 Hz
? LNB Short Circuit protection onboard
? 2 Scarts & S-Video and LAN port
? Dimension 390x272x70 mm