openbox s11 ??

[voyager1972]

have a dm 800 as a server for my sly card ,,,,and was looking at the openbox s11 as a cheaper option for the kids rooms,has anyone any info on this receiver ,and is it worth the money

[pintone]

my opinion is that the openbox s11 gets hot so if you by one then you sud put a small fan inside of it .
other than that i think its an ok box for the kids rooms

[voyager1972]

i have a technomate 2600 motor which i have hooked to a dreambox with no problems,,is there problems with these motors on the openbox s11??
although i can keep the dreambox for turning the dish if there is problems, just curious

[donki]

The Openbox is a bland and basic no frills box. I bought one as a stop gap when my DM800 finally died and it was/is quite a culture shock.

It's cheap and it should be born in mind when considering buying one that it is so for a reason.

I've had one for a few months now and TBH nearly sent it back but with a little perseverance I got it into a state where it is adequate until I get my new AZBox ME, which actually arrives today!

SD picture quality is poor but this is also dependant on the channel you want to watch.
HD picture is fair but grainy compared to more upmarket units & even a Sky box is decidely better on both SD & HD.

It's very finicky about LNB setup. So you may find yourself playing with Skews but on the whole the tuner is comparable with a DM800 rev M tuner. A lot of people confused this with thinking the tuner was at issue. Me included.
USALS for DISEQC motors works AOK
Cannot comment on DISEQC, don't use it for LNB switching but did try it out for motor movement which worked OK but why go to all that trouble when USALS works perfectly. LOL
Blindscan works well & is fast but is hampered by channel storage limitations, read on..............

Setup is a doddle especially if you are only interested in a single satellite. Mulitsat setup is an entirely different story due to the limitations of the total channels you can store on the box. This can be overcome by deleting the dross and other unwanted stuff and then scanning additional satellites as you go, repeating the deletion process each time.

Channel organising and editing is a complete pile of pants. The only editor available is so basic and inflexible. The only real benefit I found in using it was that it at least allows deleting mulitiple channels at a time.

The user interface is bland but funtional and has most that is needed however, CS lovers will find the lack of 'sealion' information frustrating especially when experiencing problems.

Recording & Timeshift works ok but box is quite particular about what is plugged into the USB port. I was not able to find a stick for example larger than 4GB that it would recognise and use. A 1TB HDD worked flawlessly but it should be noted such drives MUST have their own power source as the OBox's USB port will not power them.

The newer firmware looks ***ier but runs hotter and meant that I was forced to move my box into an open air environment where previously it was nicely hidden away from view in a cabinet behind a glass door. This manifested itself by gradual increased picture freezing on HD channels, though the sound was not affected. So NOT a 'sealion' issue. It was not noticable from the outer temperature of the case however, which does and did not feel warm at all. Curious, but I suspect the CPU Heat Sink is inadequate and would benefit from a bigger heatsink and perhaps a fan.

The channel listing is limited to 8 or so characters so that you can not read longer channel names making it impossible to differentiate between many channels of similar name. A particular pain with regard to HD channels.

Timer record via EPG has never worked and I tried many varients of firmware to no avail.

The only downside with sticking with the older firmware I have found is:

No facility to play video in the media player unless it was recorded by the box itself using the installed firmware. It will not play recorded movies from newer firmware nor will the newer firmware play those recorded on the older firmware. I was not able either to play any AVI's, etc directly from USB using either firmware which to me means that the advertising for this unit is both inaccurate and misleading.

Conclusion: If you can find the extra £50 for a DM Clone then the answer is obvious. It will work OK but you will have to spend a lot of time getting your channel lists to meet your/kids requirements.

I would sell mine but it's such a cheap box. I will keep it as a back up in the event my main unit fails again.

[voyager1972]

thanks for that info on the openbox,as always, its better to here about these things from people that have experience with them,as any site ive looked at have these boxes made out to be the best thing since sliced cheese,,,so im gonna take your advice and save an extra 50 quid and get a better box ,,probably another dm800 which i have now for over a year ,and to be honest ive never had any bother with it , as i spend my time tinkering with it and it never lets me down ,,,,was a bit expensive at the time ,but well worth it .......thanks again....

[cfipro]

I can only agree with donki, openbox does "the" job but that about all.

I wish I read this before buying mine. Basic receiver ...to do your channel list on a multi-sat is a total joke...I bought it to use it on my motorised dish with twin lnb and homeplugs, my tm5402 control the motor.
Technomates are not perfect...ok...but compare to openbox, it's a ferrari; however, as openbox is linux, it is a little bit better if using this box for CS ONLY...but trust me forget about "user friendly", pvr fonction is a pain, channel list and so on.....

You already decided to go for a DM, but maybe the extra feedback will help others..

[hechicero]

despite all the negatives i would descibe it as a bargain at £50. you get what u pay for

[Aldo]

despite all the negatives i would descibe it as a bargain at £50. you get what u pay for

There is also an old saying if, " You Buy Cheap, You Get Cheap ", nothing more and nothing less.

[manic01]

For £50 Openbox S9 is a bargain.

[clacky]

I use an s10. It replaced a dm800 clone and to be honest I couldn,t be more pleased. It moves the dish okay. Records to usb sticks and a usb hard drive.epg record works okay.No problems with picture quallity and it doesn,t get hot , Just warm. With the DM800 clone I was always concerned that it was hot and in the end it melted the solder on the motherboard and packed in,so getting up and running again with a HD box for around £50 seemed like a bargain
cheers