Has anyone heard of the "Cloud ibox3"?

[anik]

I've bean searching for an inexpensive FTA receiver that will actually allow access to recorded programs from other computers on the local network, and I happened to stumble across this new Chinese receiver that (they say) actually runs Linux. I have never heard of it before and as far as I can tell nobody is selling them yet (at least not on this continent) but I have to wonder if it's any good. The specs say nothing at all about blindscan, etc. It is called the cloud ibox3 and the specs are listed as follows:

Specifications

DVB-S/S2+T2/C YouTube
MPEG2-4/ H.264 Hardware decoding
IPTV streaming server
USB for PVR upgrading
512MB flash,512MB DDR3


Product Description


Powered by a 501MHz-667MHz Broadcom MIPS CPU,512MB Flash 512MB DDR3 RAM RVR ready. Supported officially by OpenPLi, OpenAAF and the ViX Team


Many many countries IPTV streaming for free. Eg American, Arabic, Turkies Brazil,Sports, English movies , Music all over the world, great value.


FEATURES: -

Linux Operating System
Multimedia plug-in supported
HDMI up to 1080p
1 x Smartcard-Reader
2 x USB2.0
USB WiFi internal (optional)
100 Mbit Ethernet Interface
Advanced EPG (Electronic Program Guide)
Full automatic service scan
Various OSD skins supported
Cool silent fanless running
Low deep-standby power consumption under 1 W

Specification: -

HDTV Receiver MHEG-2/4 H. 264
3D Ready
CPU501-667 MHz BCM MIPS Precessor Linux OS
Excellent sound quality in Dolby Digital
2x TUNERS DVB-S/S2+T2/C Sat Tuner built-in
HDMI Connection
Scart Connection
USB PVR Support of external HDD (HDD Optional)
1xCardreader
2x USB 2.0
Ethernet access 10/100 Mbit
512MB Flash / 512MB DDR3
USB Port for adding PVR funtions and more...
Timeshift
Electronic TV programmes ( EPG )
Parental Control
Plugin Service
OSD into many languages and graphics (Skins)
Webinterface, WEB Remotcontrol
DISEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and USAL's
External power supply12V 3A

Supported by OpenPLi, OpenATV and the ViX Team, including free iptv streaming, american, brazil, arabic, Russian, Asian,english movie, live sports streaming.

(Red text was in original list, which I found here but apparently that's just one of several sources; I suppose those were the features they wanted to highlight). Even though this receiver isn't yet available here, there are older models from the same company that apparently are already available but I just don't see any mention of them on this site. Is that because they are a piece of junk, or because nobody can get them here in the USA, or because they are used for nefarious purposes, or what? I am only interested in legal FTA but I REALLY want something that will interface with my local network, and the fact that this thing not only runs the "Linux Operating System" but has a "Webinterface, WEB Remotcontrol" makes me wonder if any U.S. distributors have plans to distribute it here, or if by any chance someone's had a chance to review one (or even one of their older models). I am just so tired of looking at receivers that have an Ethernet port, only to discover that the only thing it can be used for is downloading firmware upgrades and (if you are lucky) getting the weather forecast and watching YouTube.

By the way, I have NO idea what they mean by "Supported by OpenPLi, OpenATV and the ViX Team" - if any of that relates to things we are not supposed to talk about here, then my deepest apologies (and please feel free to remove or edit this post), but I've only ever done truly free-to-air stuff so when I see unfamiliar terminology I generally have no idea whether they might be referring to something of questionable legality.

 

[catamount]

I read about it 4 or 5 months ago. It is a chinese clone box of a European brand (don't recall which). A lot of people in the uk were bringing them in (Ibox2). I think they were putting Vix images on them. OpenPli, Vix and OpenAtv are just teams who code enigma 2 images which are used on many linux STB's.

Your best bet would be to search on some UK satellite forums for info. I think they were using them to get some IPTV streams.

Catamount

 

[anik]

Thanks. So are you saying that these would not be useful in North America, or just that they are optimized for Europe's satellites?

The reason I am looking at this (and that I wish some U.S. distributor would) is because of the fact that it runs Linux. You mentioned Enigma 2, and I had no idea what that was, but a few seconds with a search engine brought up the page at http://www.saunalahti.fi/znark/dreambox/dm7025/enigma2_development_toolchain/ which gives a good thumbnail overview. But the main thing that jumped out at me was this:

In other words, Enigma 2 is a Linux application. It cannot exist alone; it is not a stand-alone “firmware” that would directly access the set-top box hardware at the register level and run independent of any external OS. The firmware images you can download from Dream Multimedia are actually full-fledged mini Linux distributions, with the Enigma 2 application running on the top.

So it would appear that the ibox3 will have dual tuners AND run Linux, which almost certainly means that it will be accessible from the local network, and that at the very least you can probably ssh or ftp into it and access stored video. Maybe it can even save its video to a network share, or (the "holy grail" of satellite boxes for me) act as a source for a MythTV backend. I'm guessing it is somewhat comparable to a "Dreambox" which is is another inexpensive receiver (under $60 on Amazon), although for a quick glance shows that the Dreambox does not get very good reviews for some reason. But right now, even though they say the ibox3 is new for 2014, there are a lot of big unknowns with regard to it, such as whether (and how well) it will blind scan, whether it will move a BUD when used with a VBox (one of the shortcomings of the X2 receiver I was looking at), and so on.

Right now, if I can't get the receiver I really want (and more and more that appears to be the case), then I don't want to spend a lot of money on any receiver because if I only spend $50-$60 and then six months from now the receiver of my dreams appears, I won't feel quite so bad as if I have spent closer to $200 on something I don't really want, just to get back into the game. But I keep hoping something new will appear that will at least get me closer to what I really want, and this thing just might be it — or, it might be a big dud. But until they are available in the U.S. I guess nobody here will be able to review one, and I'm not enough of a risk-taker to try and import one on my own (even assuming I could find someone to sell me one).

One problem with a lot of these inexpensive boxes is that they don't have a lot of CPU power, which is why they fail at dealing with 4:2:2 streams (another thing I would really like, but it looks like I might as well forget about that for now). As I noted in the previous message, the specs on this one say "Powered by a 501MHz-667MHz Broadcom MIPS CPU,512MB Flash 512MB DDR3 RAM RVR ready." Does anyone know, is that better than what's been found previously is small inexpensive receivers? In other words, is this new model adding additional processing power and storage, or is that about the same as what is found in other similarly price models?

 

[Jim S.]

For some reason I seem to remember looking into this one, and finding that it didn't have blind scan. But don't take my word for it, because I could be remembering something else. I also seem to remember that it was a clone of something already known in Europe.

 

[catamount]

If you want more info, google cloud Ibox2. The first page has a link to digital-kaos, where there is a 46 page thread.

Catamount

 

[anik]

Found it, looking at it now. Thanks catamount and Jim.

EDIT: Wow, after reading that I have lost interest in those boxes very quickly. It appears they are indeed clones of other receivers, and not very good ones at that. I don't understand everything they are talking about in that forum but there are way too many reports of poor quality to interest me any further. So much for that one.

 

[updatelee]

Is there actually any english IPTV worth watching?

UDL

 

[Hockeynut]

Is there actually any english IPTV worth watching?

UDL

Not that I am aware of.I quit messing around with it after we lost Center Ice and NBCSN couple yrs ago...Maybe Cspan is still there on G28?