GiGablue Quad – First impressions

[Likvid]

pm the sponsor as forum members get a £5 discount on any stocked receiver.

Ok i thought it would be something like 10% discount

 

[madaboutlotus]

There is a ticker at the top of the forum below the name

Thanks for that reminder. PM sent with favourable results I hope.:thumbsup:

 

[madaboutlotus]

Ok i thought it would be something like 10% discount

That would be nice off the price of the Quad!

 

[judge]

Ok i thought it would be something like 10% discount

You do realise the mark-up on these boxes is quite small, right?
A £5 discount on the current price is a nice offer...

 

[markus625]

Is there any receivers yet that has a tripple dvb-s tuners or the option of having a add-on dvdb-s tuner, the quad and the amiko alien 2 both look great receivers but are limited to just the two dvb-s tuners.

 

[Larry-G]

Is there any receivers yet that has a tripple dvb-s tuners or the option of having a add-on dvdb-s tuner, the quad and the amiko alien 2 both look great receivers but are limited to just the two dvb-s tuners.

yes the ultimo.

 

[markus625]

Yes for some reason i forgot about that one, the price of the amiko seems tempting thru, pity you cant add a 3rd dvb-s tuner to it

 

[Larry-G]

Ok i thought it would be something like 10% discount

unfortunately if he did that he'd be bankrupt in a very short time. as said above these receivers have a very small profit margin so to make money the sponsor has to sell in quantity. The £5 he knocks off for forum members constitutes quite a saving when you look at it that way.

 

[marty]

Thanks, can't wait to get hold of it. I'm sure there will be many more followers to come. Do you knwo when GB are going to release an English manual? I'm sure it is all very intuitive having used E2 before but it would be nice to have backup.

Manual would be pointless with VIX
The only thing of interest would be the specs printed in the back but you can see those on the GB website.

Don't forget to sort yourself out a hard drive, they will only take a 2.5" (laptop size) HDD internally which are expencive and don't perform as well as full size drives.
A good option is to get an external 3.5" eSATA HDD, box will run cooler too and it will be cheaper/faster/bigger :thumbsup:

 

[rossi2000]

This is just an STB not a mainframe, hdd specs you don't really need to worry bout as all hdds are way to fast for an stb's capability anyway...

a 2.5" drive is ample, whilst still keeping lower power usage and coolness.

external drives require more power, plus having another device sat next to the unit, looks ugly..

 

[bluepeter]

Sorry Marty, I'm in total agreement with Rossi. In my Duo I have a 2.5" WD 320Gb sata1 drive that has performed well over several yrs, the Duo is the 3rd receiver it's been in. 2.5" drives are quieter, cooler and draw less power. They aren't as expensive as they use to be. Take a look on fleabay, you can pick up a 1Tb for as little as £45. I don't see the point of running a overly large drive in a sat box, network it and transfer any recordings you want to archive. My 2 other receivers have my NAS mounted, use that to record to, the advantage of this is everyone in the house can watch whichever receiver did the recording. Getting a NAS is one of the best things you'll do if like me you have more than 1 sat box.

Regards
Peter

 

[bluepeter]

Forgot to mention, a 7200rpm drive in any pvr is a total waste of spindle speed, runs hot and puts more strain on your receiver. A 5400rpm drive is well over specified for any pvr that presently exists on the planet so RW speed is ample for our needs. ssd's I should imagine would be the best solution (no heat) just a shame they too pricey for a glorified radio lol

 

[madaboutlotus]

Manual would be pointless with VIX
The only thing of interest would be the specs printed in the back but you can see those on the GB website.

Don't forget to sort yourself out a hard drive, they will only take a 2.5" (laptop size) HDD internally which are expencive and don't perform as well as full size drives.
A good option is to get an external 3.5" eSATA HDD, box will run cooler too and it will be cheaper/faster/bigger :thumbsup:

Thanks Marty. I have a 2.5 HDD from my old DM880HD so I intend to use that. I have a spare external drive as well just in case the 2.5 gets a bit warm, but I have never had a problem with the 2.5 even in the samll case size of the DM800HD.

 

[madaboutlotus]

Blast! Just checked my order and out of stock Hope they come in soon.

 

[Rob van der Does]

A dedicated 3.5" DVR-HDD is IMHO the best price/value; they do 5400RPM, use the same amount of power as a normal 2.5" laptop drive and are cheaper.
A SSD is not suited for a DVR as the expected lifespan is too short and the price too high.

 

[bluepeter]

A dedicated 3.5" DVR-HDD is IMHO the best price/value; they do 5400RPM, use the same amount of power as a normal 2.5" laptop drive and are cheaper.
A SSD is not suited for a DVR as the expected lifespan is too short and the price too high.

Sorry Rob but you need to do a little bit more reading, I'll admit price wise a typical 3.5 hdd is cheaper per Gb, but the laws of physics will tell you that seek times are shorter, (not worth worrying about for pvr use).... but current draw is, 2.5 hdd typically run cooler, less mass to move etc etc.. and sorry about this but you ain't got a clue what you are talking about when it comes to ssd's... I can't be bothered to explain but Google is your friend.....
please don't believe all the hype you may have read concerning ssd's..... I run ssd's in my video editing suite that will probably outlive me.... I'm 52 by the way!

Regards
Peter

PS... just as a side note, the GB quad engineers must have been paranoid about heat. I've never seen a sat box with so many ventilation holes, looks like a piece of Gouda cheese..... I should imagine heat was one of the reasons they decided to use 2.5 over a 3.5hdd especially having left out a cooling fan.... noise being the other factor.... nice to see a big heat sink on the CPU.

 

[marty]

nice to see a big heat sink on the CPU.

Looks identical to the DUO heatsink

 

[bluepeter]

Looks identical to the DUO heatsink

Is it the same bloody size? It looks much bigger in the photos I've seen lmao.... that's a shame.

 

[marty]

Is it the same bloody size? It looks much bigger in the photos I've seen lmao.... that's a shame.

DUO heatsink



QUAD heatsink

 

[Rob van der Does]

Sorry Rob but you need to do a little bit more reading, I'll admit price wise a typical 3.5 hdd is cheaper per Gb, but the laws of physics will tell you that seek times are shorter, (not worth worrying about for pvr use).... but current draw is, 2.5 hdd typically run cooler, less mass to move etc etc.. and sorry about this but you ain't got a clue what you are talking about when it comes to ssd's... I can't be bothered to explain but Google is your friend.....
please don't believe all the hype you may have read concerning ssd's..... I run ssd's in my video editing suite that will probably outlive me.... I'm 52 by the way!

Regards
Peter

PS... just as a side note, the GB quad engineers must have been paranoid about heat. I've never seen a sat box with so many ventilation holes, looks like a piece of Gouda cheese..... I should imagine heat was one of the reasons they decided to use 2.5 over a 3.5hdd especially having left out a cooling fan.... noise being the other factor.... nice to see a big heat sink on the CPU.

Sorry to say, but I've done plenty of reading and I stick to my conclusion: heavy writing, as is the primary purpose of a DVR-HDD) is (still??) very much limiting the lifespan of an SSD.
But feel free to use an SSD and see how it goes.

And maybe next time you could try to find a bit more friendly way to say that you disagree? You're fully entitled to have a different opinion, but don't say I didn't do my research


PS: Not sure what your age has got to do with the subject.but thanks for that info