What Skybox for a newbie?

[LindaJones]

Hello all.

My brother popped around yesterday waffling about the Skybox saying he must have been living under a rock to have missed it. To be honest I thought he had taken some drugs the way he was carrying on, school boy in a sweet shop kind of thing..

I understand what the box could be used for and the basics about the menu's, firmware, flashing and gifts.. The closest I've come to something like this is with Android phones and PS3's with the whole v3.55 thing and much the same it's a case of don't ask for files, just look.

Anyway what model would the more seasoned pro's recommend? I know there's a F3,4 and 5 (I think) and I assume they all have different features... HD would be nice and a record feature would be great. Dare I say maybe give something a go without the gift option, that'll give me the opportunity to research, learn and do things myself with the help of you lovely people should I get stuck

Thanks Linda x

[KJ1Pete]

Hi Linda, welcome to the forum. I wouldn't say I'm a seasoned pro but I have used F3, F5 and Vu+ Duo boxes. The F3 and F5 boxes are similar, cheap and pretty straightforward. They are HD, the F3 is physically smaller and has the USB socket under a door on the front where the F5 has the USB on the back, just about the same after that. Its simple to image and add favourites and channel lists. The downside is its EPG is limited with basically now and next if your lucky, recording and pausing etc is possible if you add an external hard drive or memory stick, but if you want to record something tomorrow or link a recording you are probably stuffed. The Vu+ Duo is great, full size box with internal hard drive, menus like sky, lots of addons, week ahead menus allowing recording and linking series etc BUT if your image starts playing up and you can't reset from a backup it can be a right pain, its just taken me several hours over a couple of days to get mine back to how I want it, where the F3 box upstairs takes less than 10 mins to sort out if I want a change. I'm sure some of the members on here can elaborate on technical aspects, but this is my experience over the last 6 months

[LindaJones]

Hello Pete. Thanks for taking time out to reply

Probably safe to say it's going to be an F3 then, simplicity is the name of the game while I learn and figure things out. Do you encounter many viruses when looking for a suitable image and channel list?

[mark8393]

Just use the image that comes loaded on the box, no need to change. Channel lists like ajs are on this forum, so no virus's to be had, simple.

[LindaJones]

simple.

It is when you know how Mark. To be honest I thought an image was the code used for access to channels you don't have with a stock unit.

Just to narrow things down. For the F3 to work it's magic a user would need:

AJ's channel list
Firmware (someone mentioned Scooby snack) AND
A thing we're not allowed to talk about for ?60.

Am I making sense?

[mark8393]

Image is just operating software like windows, boxes usually come preloaded to do job. Just add channel list plus extra that we can't talk about on this forum and your good to go, 10 minutes max

[wortho]

It is when you know how Mark. To be honest I thought an image was the code used for access to channels you don't have with a stock unit. Just to narrow things down. For the F3 to work it's magic a user would need: AJ's channel listFirmware (someone mentioned Scooby snack) ANDA line/code, found 12 months for ?60..Am I making sense?

thats about it but watch talking about lines on here mate not allowed, get an f3 had the f3 and the f5 and 10, but found the tuner on the f5 a bit less stable than the other two.

[LindaJones]

OK CHECK, no more talking about the thing we're not allowed to talk about anymore! Sounds more like some dodgy drug talk

So at the risk of getting told off, is it really necessary to flash the box image (OS) or does the stock image allow wonderful things to happen?

[jordao0]

OK CHECK, no more talking about the thing we're not allowed to talk about anymore! Sounds more like some dodgy drug talk

So at the risk of getting told off, is it really necessary to flash the box image (OS) or does the stock image allow wonderful things to happen?

No it is not necessary to flash it in order to make wonderful things happen.
What you need to do is to press "6666" on your remote, while on the network settings menu !!!

[LindaJones]

Can I ask what job the server has in this whole process?

[mark8393]

Without it you only get bbc1, itv etc

[LindaJones]

So the other channels are streamed via broadband?

If that's the case I think a new provider is on the cards with unlimited. I should imagine per month usage could be pretty high and easily kill my poultry 17 gig a month limit....

Thanks Mark.

[mark8393]

Not streamed, still comes via dish, server does the magic. 17gb is plenty, even with other bits on the go.

[LindaJones]

Phew, glad it's not streaming still got 10 months on my contract..

Anyway, better stop pestering and get buying this box. At this rate by the time I get a box the glitch will be plugged and we'll be left with freeview or freesat..