help deciding on box please

[dsim112]

hello everybody,

i've got a movable satellite dish and receiver (tm6900hd) but i'm interested in looking into a cable recevier.

i'm torn between the following:

a dm 500c (obviously a clone as they are no longer made) @ ~75 ordered from the uk, don't want to wait for china
a dm 600 pvr clone @ ~125
a dm 600 pvr genuine ~ 199
an open media 500cs ~ 105

am i right in thinking the only real advantage of the 600 over the 500 is that I can put a hd in the 600?

i know i can record to a network drive with the 500, but how do you actual select recordings etc? is there any "pvr" like functionality at all like recording from the epg?

do either the 500 or 600 have timeshift?

finally, as i have a satellite setup, the openmedia 500cs seems like a good compromise (for instance, if i didn't use the cable feature in the future for whatever reason, i can just flip the switch and use it on an lbn) - any good reason not to go for that?

thanks for any advice you can give, it really is very much apprecaited.

D.

[Curious123]

I have an original dm600 and a clone dm600 on the surface there is no visible difference and performance wise there is no difference. The only differnce between the two boxes I found is that the tuner in clone box is fixed whereas the genuine dm600 can be removed this maybe irrelevant to most people but if the cable side goes belly up I can change tuner to sat and continue using my box. I had a dm500 prior to my clone dm600 but I found the dm500 to be annoying when it came to loading plugins due to insufficient ram etc.

[dsim112]

Thanks for the reply. I've now widened my choices to incldue the Eurovox 7000 hd - purely for the HD option.

My tv is fed from a media node with the signal sent as hdmi over cat5. If the new box has hdmi too I can stick it into the hdmi switch i already use.

If I have to use scart I will need to dig out some old scart over cat5 kit and use that alongside the hdmi/cat5 baluns which is just more boxes...

So now not only do I need to decide between all the above, I have to decide if I even want a dreambox-style system (pros - linux based, easily hackable, lots of s/w i can add, streaming over network etc) against the ex7000 (main pro is hdmi and upscaling on sd but lots of cons - crap epg, no network streaming, no ethernet, no s/w other than descrambling...)

Bugger...!

[AllyB]

I currently have a dreambox 800HD C. I am considering getting an Azbox for another tv, just to try something different, i don't know enough about them yet, seem to be a good option for media streams etc.

Any opinions?

[dsim112]

well I think I've decided.

presuming no one tells me it doesn't work as advertised, I plan to get an Openmedia 500cs and connect it to my Windows Media Center using DVBLink. this way I can still view it on my tv via the hdmi connection rather than having to use scart.

also, the dual features of the cable and satellite gives the box some "future-proofing".

only question now is where to get one from quickly?!

thanks
D.

[lord-icon]

Hi D

I suppose its down to what you are going to be doing with it, i.e. will it be your main setup, If so I would spend a bit more cash and go for a good model with all the bells and whistles.
Or like me , if your only wanting it as a second box to tinker around with I would definitely recommend the DM500c .

Also I would bear in mind the support on the model you chose, make sure there are loads of threads on here on setting it up and flashing .. yada yada yada .

Please let us know what you finally go for.

Cheers Bro

Icon

[dsim112]

hi Icon,

thanks for the reply. well, it will be used as part of my main tv but not my main tv source, ie, I already have the following:

windows media center (win7) with twin freeview card, and dvb-s2 card connected to a sky minidish
tm6900hd on a moveable 80cm dish

most of what i watch is actually freeview at the moment. the movable dish is for playing around with.

the idea with the openmedia 500cs is to add it as another source on the windows media center using dvblink. that way i get to watch it on my main tv without extra cabling and it goes over the hdmi link i already have.

so i dont need anything more than a basic box (ie, no need for the ex700hd, no need for even a 600pvr as the media center will record for me).

the reason for the openmedia 500cs over the dreambox 500c is simply that, given both will be clones anyway, the slight extra for the openmedia gives me a satellite tuner as well as a cable tuner so the box is usable in the future if N3 rears its ugly head.

I think that makes sense?!

D.

[tvadict]

anyone to confirm this-

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f10/many-channels-not-working-leeds-53264/

[dsim112]

anyone to confirm this-

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...g-leeds-53264/

with respect, what has this got to do with this thread?

[tvadict]

with respect, what has this got to do with this thread?

cable loop holes being shut down if that didnt register with you

[dsim112]

cable loop holes being shut down if that didnt register with you

no, i understand that, but no one is going to look here for your message because of the subject of the thread. you'd be much better off starting your own thread with an appropriate subject line.

[tvadict]

i thought this was for your own help in deciding which box to buy. That link i put up there is for the same issue so why should i start spamming the forum with another thread?

[dsim112]

bought an openmedia 500cs and all setup and working, thanks for the help.

[triag]

thats a good choice

[pug]

500cs ?

Whats a 500cs never see them on sale, thought you could use 500c for cable or sat with right image!