techmate or manhatten ?

[redrobbo]

hi
i ve got a 1.25 dish that I move manually
I think theres a universl LNB on there so I should get digital

i ve had a pace box for the past 8 or so years
getting analogue from hot bird and astra

I ll prob carry on moving the dish manually

its time I went digital
I was told about the techmate 1000d and the manhatten 100 both fta I think

Its not easy trying to figure out what to get
Im prob 60 or more miles from a good shop, Its like buying blind

what about getting a tuner with a hard drive ?

thanks for any suggestions or hints
robbo

[BGonaSTICK]

Both receivers are fairly similar in specification, and both have pretty good reputations so I guess it's just down to your personal choice.

The Manhattan Plaza ST 100 FTA is still a good box, even though it's been around a while. Details here:

http://www.manhattan-receivers.com/m...ticle.php?id=1

The Technomate just has the edge for me. Slightly more modern (as far as I know), and much better support for 'patching'. That's where you can load a tampered-with version of the firmware to receive encrypted channels, even on an FTA box. If that's not something you want to do, then it's a pretty close-run thing. I should say that I think there were patches for the Manhattans, but they are not very high profile now as far as I'm concerned.

Some of the other Manhattan Plazas are PVR ready (will take a hard drive). Don't know too much about them. The Topfield PVR boxes are good if you just want a standard PVR box, but some of them are climbing over the £450 mark.

Dreambox is fantastic, but not unless you're particularly computer-savvy.

If it was me, I'd go for the Technomate TM-1000D for FTA, or the TM-1500 CI+ if you want to watch subscription stuff either now or in the future.

If you want a PVR then maybe a Topfield if you're feeling rich, or if you're on a budget then maybe a Technisat 80GB/120GB, or maybe a Humax 8100.

PVR is either something that you kind-of-fancy or can't do without IMO. I'm in the latter camp! Best thing since sliced bread...

STICK

[redrobbo]

thanks for the advice,
I ve just seen a
technomate TM 7755
109.95

for sale at satellite superstore
that would I assume let me get the fta channels, but there would also be more options

I might just go for that

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, that's a pretty good deal. They go for about £100 plus £15 P&P on eBay, and Satellite Superstore have a good reputation generally.

This receiver can be patched too if you want to keep the price down later.