My Review of the iSmart X7 Receiver

[el bandido]

The X7 finally showed up today and my first impression of the receiver's hardware are very good! The X7 has both CE and FCC certifications and it was shipped with a North American power plug. The X7 appears to be well built on the outside as compared some other receivers in the same price range.

The blindscan is fast and very similar to the X² in speed and accuracy. I have not done many blindscans with the receiver because there is an apparent bug in the firmware that causes the receiver to reboot when you try to change channels between satellites.
The menu screen that is displayed during a blindscan is very well laid out. Actual blindscan time is displayed along with the transponder signal bars. It also shows every transponder that is logged during the blind scan.

The built in WiFi adapter does not work correctly, but this could be an error of some type on my part. The built-in WiFi will see my networks but it will not connect to any of them.

The weather forecaster is presented nicely and in good detail.

The YouTube works, or at least the small part I tested of it.

I do not recommend the purchase of this receiver right now due to the rebooting problem that is encountered when trying to change channels. Again, This could be an error on my part, but I think I have seen enough fta receivers to know how to change the channels. The receiver freezes then reboots when the green SAT button is pressed on the remote while watching a channel.

I will post more information on this receiver as it becomes available. EB

EDIT: I got the satellite/channel changing problem resolved by deleting every satellite in the list and starting from scratch.

[cpr43]

Thanks for the review!! IPTV???

[eastof111]

What version firmware did you get? S_V.3.1.58? Just scanned 125 ku in 1:17. Going to do a few more and see if I get the reboot problem.
Don't like the remote. Totally unresponsive unless aimed directly at the STB.

[el bandido]

I got the satellite/channel changing problem resolved by deleting every satellite in the list and starting from scratch.

Yes. I have the 3.1.58 firmware.
IPTV, Do not know yet. I have not tried this feature.

So far, an excellent receiver for the money! Here are a few pictures.

Telemovil at 30W
4793

Blind scan in the rain of 30W. Blind Scan Time = 1:51
4794

Scan Menu
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Antenna Setting Menu
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Press the Info button twice for detailed channel information
4797

[eastof111]

The other problem is it won't retain the sat setting for diseqc 1.o or 1.1 for me. Keeps changing every time I access the sat menu. Did a system reset and it didn't help. I'll guess I'll try the full delete and start from scratch.

Tried the IPTV only on one because nothing else is listed. Had to enter manually rtmp://fms.105.net:1935/live/rmc1 and save.
Have to figure out how to create a list and upload.

[el bandido]

Try exiting all the way out to the tv channel, then return to the Antenna Setup menu. See if that will work for saving a diseqc 1.1 position.

Here is a picture of a complete blind scan for 97W Ku.
4800

[eastof111]

Tried that and it keeps changing the settings in both 1.0 and 1.1. Later, when I have more time will delete everything and create my sat list and see if it retains the settings.

By the way, scanned 72 ku in 1:17 but it didn't pickup KFTL. Played more with IPTV and it has a buffering problem. Not so with the Raptor on the same station.

[el bandido]

The X7 scanned in KFTL for me on 72W. It did this in a light rain.
The X7 also scanned about 700 radio channels on 139 West, but I could not find one that it would play.

[rrob311]

Has anyone tried the 12/24/13 firmware at their official website? Does this receiver have the same hardware as the x2?

[el bandido]

The 12/24/13 firm ware is actually an older firmware. Ismart does not support their receivers. What you get out of the box is what you can expect to have.

The hardware is not the same as X2. EB

[eastof111]

The last firmware I used was 03-01-13 v. 3308 which had a bin size 7749632 kb and in December I download the bin for model 7 HD+ which has a bin size of 8192000 kb. Tried loading to receiver just for the heck of it and it did not recognize the file.

[77ta]

I tried the 12/24/13 firmware for the X6 at the same site. It works fine but the only change I've noticed after using it a week is the epg works now for the handful of channels that provide the info. It is version V570-2013/12/18 my receiver came with version V509 2013/01/13.

To get the x6 to recognize the file I had to change the extension for the file from "ap" to "AP" (capitalized).

[rrob311]

What chipset does this receiver run?

[eastof111]

X6 = dunno.... X7 = has heat sink on chip.... can't tell. Has Eardatek tuner.

[77ta]

X6 = Processor: Mstar7819 Demodulator: MSB1310 Tuner: ?

[rrob311]

So are these receivers no longer being produced?

[eastof111]

X6 = dunno
X7 = No - replaced my a newer model (X7 HD+) that seems to have the same characteristics. But the firmware size is totally different and will not work with the X7.