FridgeFTA Free Blogs

As our FridgeVIP members are already aware, I have been searching for two new STB’s to add to the FridgeFTA Store lineup. The OpenBox S9 HD PVR is great but we have been looking for a mid level and a top of the line offering. Our friend Rick Caylor presented us with the opportunity to check out the AzBox and become an authorized AzBox dealer if we like it.

After looking over the AzBox line I decided this is for sure a top of the line offering, so we might as well check out the best: the AzBox Premium HD+. I’ve had the Premium HD+ here for a little under 2 weeks now.

A little about the Premium Plus: this STB does 4:2:2, HD, DVB-S2, hardware blindscan, pretty much everything a satellite STB can do and receive, this box has it. The Premium HD+ also uses removable tuner modules and you can add a second tuner. But for the price it has to do more. Unlike the OpenBox S9, the AzBox has working Ethernet & built in WiFi for home networking, web browsing, FTP and downloading.

First Impressions

It is heavy. The shipping weight on this unit is 12 pounds. Removing it from the shipping box revealed a very nice and I’m sure expensive gift box.

Inside the gift box is the external power supply, cord, remote control, batteries and of course the STB itself. There is no paper manual of disc included. The Elite/Premium manual is the only one available at this point, and like most STB user manuals it is of limited help. It is however written a bit better than the Chinese translated manuals we see with other STBs.

Front USB port in the CAM access door.

After taking everything out my overall impression is that we are dealing with a very high quality STB and accessories. The STB itself is heavy and does not have a “tin” feel like other STBs. The workmanship on the STB is excellent. For the price I would expect no less.

One of the first things I noted was the screws and panel on the top of the Premium HD+. This is an easy access cover for the hard disk drive. Inside is a mounting tray and SATA connector. Unfortunately my SATA drives are all installed in my server so I did not get to test an internal HDD with it yet.

The SATA tray pulls right out, allowing us a look at the internals of the AzBox. Mainboard quality can vary greatly in a STB or other device. Looking at the straightness of the capacitors and other components and the look of the board this is one of the best. Again for the price it should be.

Testing
For testing I hooked up the AzBox with the OpenBox S9 and my HTPC (Home Theatre PC). The AzBox was tested on satellite directly hooked up to the SG6000 cable, slaved thru the OpenBox, and with the OpenBox as slave.

My initial interest wasn’t in the satellite, it was in the WiFi capabilities. That is where I started.

Upon plugging in the AzBox immediately fired up and appeared to do a NASA style launch checklist with the LCD doing all sorts of things. The initial bootup was well over a minute. When done, first thing I tried to do was turn it off. Instead of turning off the STB presents a windows type shutdown menu with various options: Sleep, shutdown, reboot or cancel. I chose shutdown and the unit just sat there. I called Rick and got an explanation: it is like a computer. Shutdown is like old style, the unit does its thing and you shut it off by the back switch. Sleep is the proper “shutdown” mode and it allows the unit to fire right back up without going thru all the boot checks.

After getting that cleared up I proceeded to play. It is laid out a bit different from a normal STB because it has so many functions. It takes a bit of getting used to as there is a “home” key and a menu key. Most of our STBs are arrow driven and you just use the OK key to select, check, uncheck, ect. With AzBox there is a “check” key. Not everything has a prompt telling you which keys you can push. After I figured this out and chicanolabor gave me a hint on one of the screens things became a bit easier.

The first capability I tested was FTP. I setup a private FTP on the Fridge server as this is one of the goodies we intend to offer customers. Logging on was fairly easy with the exception of getting used to “typing” on the AzBox remote. Its like text messaging on an older phone, for lack of a better comparison. It becomes easier after doing it a few times.

After login you are presented with an easy to use screen like a typical FTP setup. I had 2 test files on the server, our “FreeDBS” Bevis and Butthead video and a mp3 song. I plugged in my USB HDD from the OpenBox for testing. Transfer was an ease. Playing the song and the video was just as easy.

Main FTP screen after login to our private FTP

Transfer in progress

Playing the test video after download

The audio player playing the test mp3

The FTP is easy to use and transfers fast. If you have FTP server setup on your local/home network you can transfer files that way too, but the AzBox has better ways of playing your local media.

The next testing was to connect to my local/home network wirelessly. I have plenty of XVID and other videos and music to play with. For the initial test I dropped the security. Much to my surprise, the STB already found the network and all accessible drives.

Navigating thru was quite easy. Once I found what I wanted to watch the AzBox delayed about 15 seconds (buffering I assume) and played flawlessly.

Main movie playing screen, with all the places it can look for media

Navigating my local server. I also configured my laptop to provide media to the AzBox

Video selection

Playing the video about 15 seconds later

Web Surfing
This is a weak spot, at least for interacting with many websites. It does work though. Personally I would not recommend it for a daily surfer as the browser is limited and of course entering sites on a remote control is time consuming. Some colors are off and given that the browser is not that advances some scripts will not run, and it does not yet support flash. There is a separate Youtube browser but I am told that the latest as of now firmware causes some video issues on satellite with it. There is a fix that you can apply with MAz to the current stable file version (5020) that fixes youtube and doesn’t cause any image issues with certain satellite feeds. I have not done so as the Youtube browser is of very limited interest to me, but it is available and easy enough to patch for guys that want this feature.

RSS
The Premium HD+ supports RSS feeds. This is of interest to me as we are developing the capability so our customers can get FTA/Satellite news and current WildFeeds right on their STB. The below picture is a quick test with our satellite newsfeed, wildfeeds will work similar.

IPTV
The Premium HD+ is IPTV capable. This is something I am working on as an offering. There is some foreign stuff available but I want to offer North American programming on it. The IPTV can be a bit tricky with the AzBox or I would already have it up and running. Fortunately IPTV is something I have a good amount of experience doing between Boxee development and other offerings so I think a good IPTV lineup is doable in the near future.

Satellite

Yes, this is a satellite receiver too. As mentioned before it does DVB-S2, HD, and 4:2:2. After finding where the various setup options were it was not hard to get up and running in both USALS and DiseqC 1.2 mode.

Again, it is laid out a bit different than what we are used to so it takes time to learn. For example the screen below starts by giving you all your channels and there is nothing to tell you what to do in order to view the satellite list or other tabs. Chicanolabor let me in on the secret, press the “exit” key and you can navigate the tabs.

For once I have found a STB with a friendly, complete and up to date satellite list that I didn’t have to spend a day redoing from scratch. It is very good as-is with current names and orbital slots, and separate C-band and Ku band setups. It would appear to hold much more than the 64 slot limit with OpenBox and Traxis too.

I compared picture quality between the OpenBox S9 and AzBox using FX on 91W and 1080 HDMI modes. While watching “Iron Man” I forgot several times which box I was viewing on. Both produce awesome pictures and upconvert.

I also looked at tuner sensitivity and both units are evenly matched. If I had to absolutely say one was a hair more sensitive I’d arguably go with the OpenBox, but the difference is so minor that it is of no practical use. Both units have just about the same threshold. If one can get it, so can the other. If one pixilates, so does the other.

The AzBox does feature manual PID entry once you find it. Setting up the CW’s on 91W C-band was fairly easy.

There are two weaknesses I did note with the AzBox. First, it is no blindscan powerhouse like a Traxis or S9. It does accurately scan and find channels but it is slow. Viewsat slow, but at least accurate unlike the VS. The issue appears to be in part that it first blindscans for transponders, then it runs an auto-scan of all the transponders in memory for a satellite. Not only is this slow, but if you blindscan a near frequency to one in memory you can get a few duplicates. The OpenSat (AzBox) engineer is working to improve this, but I would never count on 2-3 minute scans like we have with the OpenBox S9.

The other issue seems to be on weak signals. On a few channels the AzBox will show nothing and even indicate zero Q for a bit, then the channel suddenly pops to life. It is not too big of a deal if you are already aware of this, which I wasn’t so I questioned whether I was getting signal. Fortunately I had the S9 hooked up to verify. They also made an attempt at telling you when your motor is moving and when it arrives. A countdown timer appears on screen. I think it is just a guess though as sometimes the motor arrives before the countdown, other times the countdown expires before the motor gets to the bird. It at least tells you it is moving and doing something.

Overall once you get it setup and everything scanned in, the AzBox works quite well for satellite viewing and reception. When you are used to the layout navigation between birds and channels also works well.

Is the AzBox hard to use?

Yes and no.

It is not at all hard to use. It is different than a typical STB and takes a bit to get used to. I typically take 1-2 days to get used to an STB I am testing where I am comfortable with it. I would say the adjustment period for the AzBox is a little longer, but once you learn it is easy to use. Much of my issues were that I didn’t know exactly what to do or where everything was, there is a lot in this box. There is no good “newbie” guide or manual, which would have helped out tremendously. That is something we will change.

Recommendations/Conclusions
This is not a STB for everybody. It is not a $169 OpenBox and does not really fall in the same category for capabilities and comparison. For the AzBox price you get a very capable and super high quality STB. It does more at a bargain price compared to the Dream DM8000HD or the Vantage 8000HD. It is less expensive than building a quality HTPC by far. The AzBox is for the guy that wants all the extra capabilities it has to offer. If you are a guy that doesn’t stream stuff and just wants a DVB-S2 HD receiver, this would be an incorrect choice. The OpenBox S9 is much more cost effective for a basic box as it doesn’t have the extra features. But if you are a guy with a home network, movie collection or that downloads and wants to easily play thru your TV this is a good selection. Other than building a HTPC this is as complete as you will get right now. This is also the only choice for 4:2:2 in an STB. If you don’t want to do a DVB card in your computer, the AzBox is your choice as it does it natively.

Personally I do like the Premium HD+ overall. It certainly has tons of features and is finely crafted. You get the immediate impression from packaging to navigating the features that this is a well built and designed STB in a class of its own. You certainly will not mistake it for an S9 or other budget priced STB.

The FridgeFTA Store Offering
We are going to offer the Premium HD+ in the store soon. As I mentioned one of the biggest problems is that there is no good newbie guide. I am going to skip a paper guide and do a how-to video that walks you thru setup and most of the AzBox functions to show you how to quickly work it. The private FTP is already up and running. Your own private FTP area will be included in our offering. There will also be a general FTP for customers with the instruction video, update files, test files and other stuff so you can hook up your AzBox and get all these materials directly.

The RSS is being tested and FTA/satellite news and wildfeeds right on your AzBox will be offered to customers as an upgrade thru the private FTP as soon as it is available. A feed telling you when new features and updates are available will also be likely.

Good IPTV is a bit off, but it is something we would like to offer to customers as well. This won’t be a pay IPTV either, it will be part of the package for our AzBox customers.

Basically we want to make this an “inclusive” package and make it fairly painless for the guy that is new to AzBox to get into it without being stranded on his own or needing to wait on forum responses to get help with hurdles.

Pricing of our Premium HD+ will be similar to that of Rick’s.

If anyone has questions or wants me to test anything on the AzBox, please feel free to post, we’ll check it out and get answers.

Full review and discussion thread: http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=19633