Skybox advice,

[jazzyj]

Hello I am looking to purchase my 1st skybox can anyone offer any advice please? Looking for an issue free unit
That is idiot proof as I am totally new to this,
Any recommendations as there is plenty of choice ranging from. ?50 to over. ?300,
Iv been advised to join up on here by a current member to do my research ,
He says your a great bunch with a high knowledge base on potential issues & advice, I have talk talk broadband but not the best speeds for download which does fluctuate as we live in a small village in the middle of nowhere would this cause any potential issues?
Oh and a 14 year old son who tells me he is a zombie assassin on his xbox360
So hammers the band width in an evening, his Xbox is wired via home plug kit,

Links would be great too if you don't mind,

Please feel free to pm me,


Jeff

[ajax2061]

depends on a few things, ie your skill level and how much you can learn by reading up on things (and looking up stuff as certain stuff we can not mention on here)

The skybox F3 seams the least trouble plagued box, it is the one I personally have good little box if all you want to do is watch TV easy to setup (read shadys guide in the red stickys)
The F5 has some issue's and there are crappy clones out there, basically its a reboxed F3

Do not buy one with a gift ever ! The gift can run out way before it is ment too and the seller might lock down the box making updates a pain in the butt. Of course if you do not get with a gift then you have to source that bit yourself and your on your own there as we not allowed to talk about that bit here.

Now since you mentioned 300 quid that opens a whole other ball park up with open sourced Linux box's these boxes are a hell of a lot more powerful, have better EPG and can do other thing like steam films from your pc or watch catch up tv via plug in, the down side is they are much harder to setup and need a hell of a lot more reading up on. Examples of this sort of boxes are dreamboxs vu+ range and technomate's etc etc.

Skybox have even started doing a vu+ solo clone called the skybox s6000hd. If you do go down this route stick with a non clone box if possible and be ready for a steep learning curve, me myself I am looking at a technomate nano at 130 quid as my next box and I am currently reading my socks of trying to get clued up enough for when I can afford it.

Hope this helps, oh and don't pay more than 50ish notes for a F3/F5 or more than 80 for s6000hd

As for bandwidth you should be fine with the xbox though torrents can be a issue

[jazzyj]

Thanks for the advice mate, do you have any links to none cloned units mentioned or trusted sellers etc?

[ajax2061]

Well technomate's I would get from technomate themselves after looking at a bunch of sellers the makers price seams pretty much the same and if you did have a problem your not dealing with a 3rd party, as for non clone other boxes well from what I have read world of satellites only sell original boxes but I am no expert as still on my first box myself and that was from ebay

[jazzyj]

Well technomate's I would get from technomate themselves after looking at a bunch of sellers the makers price seams pretty much the same and if you did have a problem your not dealing with a 3rd party, as for non clone other boxes well from what I have read world of satellites only sell original boxes but I am no expert as still on my first box myself and that was from ebay

Thanks mate,

I am a little reluctant with eBay as iv been bitten in the past with electronics so would prefer to use a shop off poss