Plaza xtf or Tm5200

[fusion]

Wanting a new reciever as soon as possible so please any suggestions or help would be welcome
Using an old sl35 now but thinking of getting either tm 5200 or plaza xtf dont watch much tv so want cheap reciever with a decent blind search does anyone have or had both of them what do you reckon have i made a good choice made my decision from reading reviews on the net but it does seem the technomate is more popular

[dick b]

if you just want a std set top box and not linux I"d go for the technomate its user friendly with easy to use menus, I"ve used both and found the manhattan had poor support and just didnt like it.

[fusion]

thanks for the reply i did notice when reading forum posts and on the net that technomate did appear to be more popular and have better support but was"nt sure about manhatton as i could have not been looking in the right places.
as for buying a linux box not sure i"m ready for the deep end just yet know nothing at all about the linux box is it just a stb with an onboard computer running a cut down version of linux ?

[dick b]

you wont go wrong with a std TM as an intro to sat tv as I said before they are easy to setup and use.
the linux based boxes are more flexible in what you can do with them but are not so user friendly particularly for a first timer.I"m not into the linux boxes but most think its the future for satellite.but if you just want FTA you dont need one,and at the moment you can still patch technomate std boxes to receive some encrypted channels.
I cant advise on linux but there are plenty of experts on this site that can so if you want more info on them just ask in forum.

[fusion]

thanks dick b i know your right about the TM i"ve been looking on the net and forums for a while now and the TM allways seems to be top of the list also i cannot see the sense in asking for help on the forum if i don"t take the advice given i think a 5200 will last me a long time i"m sure there is quite a lot to get out of this box especially when i get round to putting a motor on the dish.
now my only problem is finding one there are no local TM dealers loads available online or on ebay but so many of them which ones are good or bad think i might put this question on the TM forum