VU+ Solo

[manxspud]

Found this on my travels, thought i would share it ... thanks to Sicilian for the info.



For the purpose if this review I'm using the official installed stock image as supplied. I'm not flashing with any other image.

Once again I was impressed with the packaging provided with a VU+ receiver. Upon unpacking I was really pleased to see a black remote! So I've now both white and black remote's.

Box contents as follows: -

VU+ Solo
Instruction Manual (well written)
HDMI Lead
Black Remote inc. batteries

First thing I did was take the attached photos. I then proceeded to remove the lid and take photos of the insides. You'll notice that it's fan-less.

Once the photos where out of the way I proceeded to set up connected to a Triax 1.1m dish with TM-2600 motor.

The Solo boot's up just as fast, if not faster than its big brother the Duo. Once booted I followed through the setup wizard to set tuner and A/V settings. I noticed that advanced Videomode wasn't pre-installed. So once fully booted I went to plugins and installed from the feed, Videomode plugin (so I could select 1080 HDMI in A/V settings), video enhancement and Auto resolution plugins (never enabled auto resolution though).

Next thing I transferred my Enigma 2 Settings/bouquets with Dreamboxedit. Then went straight to FTA channels and was impressed with the picture quality of both SD & HD, again just as good as the Duo. Switched from Astra28 to Hotbird to Astra 19deg with no issues whatsoever. Zap speeds actually feel slightly faster on the Solo compared to the Duo.

Right now time to test out CCcam. I transferred VTI-Feed.conf to /etc/ipkg/ and installed CCcam 2.1.3 from the feed. I can confirm that CCcam works as 100% as client and server.

Now time to test some recording and timeshifting. The only thing I had to hand was a 16GB USB stick, so I successfully mounted it as a HDD via telnet. Once mounted I recording and switching through channels on the same transponder with ease :) Pausing live TV worked great too.

Now the main things where Tested I thought I'd try and get some extended EPG installed. I tried both the Rytec XMLTV plugin and Andyblac's satmate script and unfortunately neither worked on the official stock image. So we'll have to wait for a third party image in order to have extended EPG.

Overall I'm very impressed with the Solo, it my be the smaller brother of the Duo but it really packs as punch! You would never guess that it has a slightly less powerful processor than it's big brother. Its looks great, build quality is what we expected from VU+ and its great that it's fan-less so runs silent. So far not seen any heat issues. Now the only negative thing I can find to say about it, is that we to wait for a third party image before we can use an extended EPG plugin and very much doubt that the third party images are too far away. Both the VTI and PLi team have confirmed that they will be supporting the Solo.



.

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/1757/dsc00323vz.jpg (http://img64.imageshack.us/i/dsc00323vz.jpg/)

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/16/dsc00325pe.jpg (http://img695.imageshack.us/i/dsc00325pe.jpg/)

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/7041/dsc00326j.jpg (http://img704.imageshack.us/i/dsc00326j.jpg/)

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2152/dsc00327e.jpg (http://img257.imageshack.us/i/dsc00327e.jpg/)

[manxspud]

http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/9623/dsc00329.jpg (http://img806.imageshack.us/i/dsc00329.jpg/)

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/2237/dsc00332tg.jpg (http://img576.imageshack.us/i/dsc00332tg.jpg/)

Specifications:

Open-source Linux operating system (Enigma2)
Broadcom Mips Processor
1 x DVB-S/S2 Tuner
MPEG2 / H.264 Hardware decoding (DVB compliant)
2 x CI slot (Alpha Crypt, Cryptoworks, Viaccess, Seca, Conax etc.)
1x Smartcard reader (Conax Embedded)
2 x USB2.0 Back
10/100 Mbps Ethernet Interface
1 x V.24/RS232
1 x HDMI port
1 x Scart
1 x YPrPb
1 x optical S / PDIF for digital audio transmission
1 x RCA Video
2 x RCA Audio (L / R)
Channel change <1 seconds
MP3 player and JPEG picture viewer
Plugin support (JPEG, MP3, XviD etc.)
EPG (electronic program guide)
Listen Support of Bouquet lists
Multi language OSD, Skin - Support
Fully automatic, Manual Channel Search
Teletext
DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 and USALS

[Sat-Shop]

Yes we supplied this SOLO to Sicilian for the purpose of an unbiased test as he'd done when we first supplied him with a VU+ DUO way back in January.... I also know the stock for Germany of the SOLO has arrived today so perhaps we can look forward to a release from the VTi team for the SOLO sometime soon.... Fingers crossed.

[manxspud]

Lol ... that you did ....

Am saving my pennies now for a VU+ DUO as all reports by owners are very positive. This looks like another good box by VU ... and will be following its progress with interest.

Ps ... i removed the link so as not to be accused of advertising and the like. However i knew you would be around and spot this.

@manx

[Sat-Shop]

Yeah the SOLO is no doubt a nice box and while some say it's maybe a bit expensive it's still the best priced Enigma2 based HD receiver (that works) but yes if honest it also enhances what a great deal the DUO is for ?100 more... .

We've got the review of the DUO out in What Satellite magazine probably in the next issue, although don't expect it to be as good a reviews as Sic's, they are not really allowed to talk about anything other than the factory default firmwares, so really I guess won't do it justice for what it can really do....

[alunfennell]

A great little receiver by all accounts, surprised that there is no internal fan over the processor ! even though it is only running a 333 Mhz Broadcom Mips Processor there will be quite a bit of heat generated .

The new dreambox 500HD wich has a 400 Mhz Broadcom Mips Processor and has a fan will still find 40 degrees in no time and can reach 57 Degrees if the fan is disabled, stadby is a modest 30-23 degrees.

And with the Vu+ solo selling for around ?299.00 I am sure it will sell like hot cakes, and hopefully steer many away from buying Clone receivers and other worthless receivers on the market.

[Manic01]

Receivers are only worthless if they don't do what you purchased them to do.

[abonizar7]

Thank you. Chance you happy