Sorry for the long post..but i think this is a good review.
I registered in Digital-Kaos because i?m looking for a cheap dvb-s2 receiver with cccam support.. if anyone have more info about these receivers please post
I registered in Digital-Kaos because i?m looking for a cheap dvb-s2 receiver with cccam support.. if anyone have more info about these receivers please post
HD fta receivers have been around for a few years now but it has taken a long time for these receivers to drop in price so they could be considered to be affordable for almost everybody. Most of the new hd receivers that are for sale today will cost between three and four hundred U.S. dollars if they are purchased in the U.S. Some of these hd receivers are available at a much better price if they are purchased directly from China. The Solomend hd pvr800 can be purchased today for less than $200.
Cheap receivers usually do not have many features and some of the advertised features may not work correctly. My experience with the Solomend 800 has been about what I expected out of a cheap receiver. It has a good picture and it blind scans good, but it is lacking in some of the most basic features. One example of a missing basic feature is you cannot currently use any switch if you are using a ku band dish motor. I doubt this problem will be fixed anytime soon because it was acknowledged by the manufacturer and one U.S. vendor back in February or March of 2010.
This receiver produces an excellent picture in both standard and high definition.
Ac3 audio will pass through the HDMI cable on some televisions, but most people have had to connect a separate audio receiver in order to get any ac3 audio.
The blind scan works but it could be improved. Most satellites can be blind scanned in under 6 minutes and very few if any channels will be missed providing you have a good signal on the bird. It will not blind scan a transponder that has a symbol rate of less than 2000 so it misses the skinny transponders.
Transponder frequencies can be manually added but you will need to use an editor program to manually add channel information.
The pvr works in a limited capacity. You do not have multiple timers for the pvr and it will not record some of the hd channels.
The time is lost if you turn the receiver off.
The seven day guide works and it will set the correct time when you select a channel that is transmitting the epg, providing you have entered your correct time zone into the receiver.
This receiver was designed to be a card sharing receiver. It has an internet connector on the back of the receiver. I have not experimented with this connection.
The remote control for the receiver was not assembled correctly at the factory so it has limited and poor range. The physical design of the remote reminds me of holding a credit card because of its sharp edges, and it does not fit comfortably in my hand.
This receiver will do dvb-s2. It will also find these s2 stations in a blind scan providing you have a good signal on the bird. It will not do the 4:2:2 video.
There is not a written warranty on this receiver. Some vendors claim this receiver is warranted for one year but they do not give any written details or conditions for the warranty.
Scanned channel information is lost when you load a bin file. Some later bin file versions have included a dump feature that allows you to save and reload scanned satellite and channel information. I use the AZ- Editor to store and reload satellite channel information.
Currently the production fate of this Solomend receiver is unknown. There were several different vendors that were selling this receiver in different parts of the world in March 2010. At that time, you could buy this receiver directly from China for around $150.00 with shipping included on Ebay. If you bought form a U.S. vendor at that time, you probably paid over $200 with shipping included.
Recent June 2010 prices for this receiver are about $200 with shipping included from some U.S. vendors, and about $180.00 for a single receiver from China. It is not uncommon the see this receiver shown as “Out Of Stock”. The price of purchasing these receivers from China has gone up in the past few months. It is my speculation that the U.S vendors complained about being undercut in price. There is an extremely high mark-up on fta receivers here in the U.S. It is not unreasonable to think that the mark-up on a fta receiver exceeds 100 percent. A lot of money may be saved by purchasing directly from the source but you need to know and understand the risks associated with these transactions.
I look for the price of the hd receivers to continue dropping during the next several months or maybe a year. The current world recession has had an impact on electronics and not many new fta products have been available to us here in the U.S for the past couple of years.
My overall opinion of the Solomend HD PVR800 receiver is that it is barely in beta. It is very close to still being in the development stage. Many things do not work correctly on this receiver but you can scan satellites and watch hd tv with it. Hopefully in the near future, a low cost fta receiver will be produced that is above beta and has good working features. The Solomend HD PVR800 receiver may be a good choice for somebody that is on a very limited budget and has either a fixed dish antenna system or a ku band motorized antenna system with a lnb that does not require a switch.
El Bandido
06-06-2010
Update 6-29-2010:
There is a file out today that allows you to use a motor and switch.
AC3 audio is transmitted through the hdmi cable when you use this file.
After these changes to the firmware, I now recommend this receiver for anybody that wants a cheap HD receiver with blind scan and DVB-S2. EB
In FTATalk
Cheap receivers usually do not have many features and some of the advertised features may not work correctly. My experience with the Solomend 800 has been about what I expected out of a cheap receiver. It has a good picture and it blind scans good, but it is lacking in some of the most basic features. One example of a missing basic feature is you cannot currently use any switch if you are using a ku band dish motor. I doubt this problem will be fixed anytime soon because it was acknowledged by the manufacturer and one U.S. vendor back in February or March of 2010.
This receiver produces an excellent picture in both standard and high definition.
Ac3 audio will pass through the HDMI cable on some televisions, but most people have had to connect a separate audio receiver in order to get any ac3 audio.
The blind scan works but it could be improved. Most satellites can be blind scanned in under 6 minutes and very few if any channels will be missed providing you have a good signal on the bird. It will not blind scan a transponder that has a symbol rate of less than 2000 so it misses the skinny transponders.
Transponder frequencies can be manually added but you will need to use an editor program to manually add channel information.
The pvr works in a limited capacity. You do not have multiple timers for the pvr and it will not record some of the hd channels.
The time is lost if you turn the receiver off.
The seven day guide works and it will set the correct time when you select a channel that is transmitting the epg, providing you have entered your correct time zone into the receiver.
This receiver was designed to be a card sharing receiver. It has an internet connector on the back of the receiver. I have not experimented with this connection.
The remote control for the receiver was not assembled correctly at the factory so it has limited and poor range. The physical design of the remote reminds me of holding a credit card because of its sharp edges, and it does not fit comfortably in my hand.
This receiver will do dvb-s2. It will also find these s2 stations in a blind scan providing you have a good signal on the bird. It will not do the 4:2:2 video.
There is not a written warranty on this receiver. Some vendors claim this receiver is warranted for one year but they do not give any written details or conditions for the warranty.
Scanned channel information is lost when you load a bin file. Some later bin file versions have included a dump feature that allows you to save and reload scanned satellite and channel information. I use the AZ- Editor to store and reload satellite channel information.
Currently the production fate of this Solomend receiver is unknown. There were several different vendors that were selling this receiver in different parts of the world in March 2010. At that time, you could buy this receiver directly from China for around $150.00 with shipping included on Ebay. If you bought form a U.S. vendor at that time, you probably paid over $200 with shipping included.
Recent June 2010 prices for this receiver are about $200 with shipping included from some U.S. vendors, and about $180.00 for a single receiver from China. It is not uncommon the see this receiver shown as “Out Of Stock”. The price of purchasing these receivers from China has gone up in the past few months. It is my speculation that the U.S vendors complained about being undercut in price. There is an extremely high mark-up on fta receivers here in the U.S. It is not unreasonable to think that the mark-up on a fta receiver exceeds 100 percent. A lot of money may be saved by purchasing directly from the source but you need to know and understand the risks associated with these transactions.
I look for the price of the hd receivers to continue dropping during the next several months or maybe a year. The current world recession has had an impact on electronics and not many new fta products have been available to us here in the U.S for the past couple of years.
My overall opinion of the Solomend HD PVR800 receiver is that it is barely in beta. It is very close to still being in the development stage. Many things do not work correctly on this receiver but you can scan satellites and watch hd tv with it. Hopefully in the near future, a low cost fta receiver will be produced that is above beta and has good working features. The Solomend HD PVR800 receiver may be a good choice for somebody that is on a very limited budget and has either a fixed dish antenna system or a ku band motorized antenna system with a lnb that does not require a switch.
El Bandido
06-06-2010
Update 6-29-2010:
There is a file out today that allows you to use a motor and switch.
AC3 audio is transmitted through the hdmi cable when you use this file.
After these changes to the firmware, I now recommend this receiver for anybody that wants a cheap HD receiver with blind scan and DVB-S2. EB
In FTATalk
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