newbie advice please spider box

[confused1]

Hi all, please be gentle with me i know nothing about these .

My other half currently has a dreambox and a cs set up. For xmas hes expressed an interest in a 'spider box' so i dutifully googled it expecting it to be easy...

My Qs are

1.Am i correct in thinking he doesnt require any 'free gifts' as already has a provider? I am sure in passsing he has said he can move over what he has?

2,He wants a HD one (dunno if they are all HD TBH) So, could someone please help me.. which one does what? Is there a model where he an record on it?

Sorry for what i am sure are really dumb questions but i have spent hours trying to work it all out and i am no clearer on what/where i need to buy

TIA

Anna

[hooley]

You can transfer over what you have already and use it in conjuntion with the free gift. Cccam is a bit hit and miss with the spiderbox, some people including me had to restart the box to reconnect to their server. Other people have no problems. I got rid of mine because of this.
There are two HD models, the 7000 and 9000. I think the main differences are the 9000 has two scarts instead of one and it has rf out. Recording is done through USB to an external hard drive.

[confused1]

Thanks for the quick reply. After digging about on this subject i see that the views are split on these boxes.

Is there another box i should be considering alongside this one (although it is this spider box he has mentioned) I think the main things are that its HD and that he can use his current cs with it...or would the spider box be my best bet?

You would think after the amount of time he spends talking about the dream box he has i would have learnt something, but i ama afriad i obviously havent.

[southpaw]

presume he has got a dreambox 500 , if so , the next step for most peoples needs is a dreambox 800hd ,
can C/S better than Spiderbox , can take a 2.5 inch harddrive inside it , or record to external drive ,and does HD ,
Original boxes are quite expensive ?400 , however a clone can be bought for ?140 ish now ,

[hooley]

If he's used to a dreambox I would recommend getting a clone dm800. These can be purchased for roughly the same price as a spider9000. With the dreambox you can have a full 7 day epg and plenty of other plugins which customize you're box the way you like. I'm on my iPhone so I can't link but have a look in the dreambox section for reputable suppliers. Snap : Southpaw saying the same as myself

[southpaw]

If you really really love him , a dreambox 8000 would be an awesome present

see this thead for ideas were to buy 800 http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...at-rev-173640/