No Name China Box 2015 Version

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New NOVATEK chipset HD DVB-S2 FTA satellite receiver compatible DVB-S MPEG-4 BISS

Here is my review on the new 2015 No Name Box from China I bought off of Ebay for about $35 or so.

I wasn't able to include all of the screen pics I wanted, but I did include the main important ones that I hope you can see; I will try to post a pic of the remote a little later.

I was rather impressed overall with this little receiver, for starters, it booted straight up to HDMI! No having to hook it up to an old TV to make changes. The remote is small, but the buttons are responsive although a bit stiff from the factory with that nice chemical smell.

The menu screens and sub-menu screens are all there, very similar to my Manhattan 1997 receiver; the problem is that you do have to self navigate yourself around to get to the setting or sub-menu you are looking for. I am used to exploring deep into menu's and settings, so it was no big deal for me. It will take patience and time to learn where all the settings are and how to get to some of them, the screen will show you which colored button will do what.
The satellite list is primarily for Europe and the Atlantic Coast, the highest satellite listing is 60W, before going into East.

**There is NO Preloaded TP'S! You must blind scan in everything from scratch, or manually enter in the TP with the TP Editor to get a signal.

The USALS and Diseqc does work for the US......kind of. It's my major complaint against this unit. I was able to blind scan in 58W and 57W with USALS, which brought in a BUNCH of channels that I could not receive before on my other receiver; which makes me believe it has a very sensitive tuner. For whatever reason, the receiver can remember ALL of the settings and changes you have entered into the receiver, but it can NOT remember the USALS settings you just entered for a satellite listing; except for 58W and 55W. It can remember the USALS setting for those two, but none of the others. As soon as you put in USALS for a satellite, it goes back to the default setting of NONE in the menu. You can change the existing satellite listings to the ones you want for the US, and even add new ones, but the receiver will NOT remember your USALS settings for those listings; the same applies to Diseqc. I have tried everything I can think of like rebooting the receiver, but it will not remember the USALS settings for a satellite listing, it WILL remember your coordinates that you entered into USALS menu however. Go figure! I don't know. The only way to fix this problem is with a FW update, and I do not know where to get one of those, the seller says he will email one to me, but who knows??

**There is NO Dish Moving Message! When you change satellites with USALS, you typically do not see any message or warning the dish is moving, you just have to trust that it is; at least for the two satellites it would move it to.

**You CAN backup the receivers data onto a USB Flashdrive, so you can post that data or whatever here on the forum if you wish. Maybe a computer guy can dig into the data and fix the receivers USALS/Disecq issue.

Since the USALS/Disecq motor settings don't work very well, the receiver is probably best only for a non-motorized dish, once you know the TP info, just add or change a satellite listing to the one that you want, enter the valid TP into the receiver and do a blind scan; which it does very well actually not too long at all.

The Radio part does work, but since I was only able to blind scan in two satellites successfully, I was not able to check out the Dolby or the other audio codec's some of you have asked about. But I was able to hear all of the TV channels on two satellites I could bring in, although the volume keeps defaulting back to 5 or 6 each time you change channels.

**You are NOT able to directly change satellites from the remote, you have to go to the top of the channel list with the Blue Button to change satellites, but since it keeps defaulting all of your satellites back to NONE for USALS, your dish will not go anwhere, except back to 58W.
I am using a Stab 120 motor with a GeoSatPro 1.2M Dish, which the receiver can move just fine.

I will keep this little receiver since I can't send it back to China very well, I have ordered a Skybox F5S with a Sharp Tuner for my C-Band Dish in the meantime.
I did not try to record with this receiver from the USB Port, after I saw that it wasn't going to move my dish with the exception of two satellites stored in memory, I didn't want to go much further with trying to use it.

You do have to enter the date and time manually, there is no internet port to keep the time and date accurate.

If the seller can come through with emailing me a FW update that will fix the USALS motor problems, I will probably keep using the receiver, as I do like how well it brings in the hard to get channels.

For those of you that do not use a dish motor, you should like this receiver as it does put out a beautiful HD picture, you just have to manually jump through some extra hoops with adding or changing an existing European satellite listing for a US one, manually entering in a known good TP, and do a blind scan. This would probably work well with 99W C-Band. I did not try Ku Band on this receiver, it's kind of pointless with a non-functional motor control, and both of my dishes are motorized. I would guess this receiver would bring in Ku Band channels really well, just has to be a non-motorized until the FW gets fixed.

I hope this helps. :-)
 
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Thank you for the good review Tron 2.0, excellent! See if you can feedback your finds to the seller. Hopefully they fix the issues with a future FW update. Overall it looks fine for the price. As you mentioned anyone with a fixed dish will be please with. Remember to make a backup of the empty firmware so we can post it here. We appreciated all your inputs!! :bigthumbup:
 
Thank you for the good review Tron 2.0, excellent! See if you can feedback your finds to the seller. Hopefully they fix the issues with a future FW update. Overall it looks fine for the price. As you mentioned anyone with a fixed dish will be please with. Remember to make a backup of the empty firmware so we can post it here. We appreciated all your inputs!! :bigthumbup:

I did make a backup of the FW to my USB Flashdrive, how do I post the FW on here?
 
Thanks for the posts Tron....

Under post reply, click go to advanced>manage attachments>add files

then it will display your hard drive directory.... select your file for upload and just following the display for uploading the file. Afterwards, click done and click on the submit reply button.
 
Thanks for the posts Tron....

Under post reply, click go to advanced>manage attachments>add files

then it will display your hard drive directory.... select your file for upload and just following the display for uploading the file. Afterwards, click done and click on the submit reply button.

It's a 512KB file, it keeps giving me an invalid file error. Can't bring up what kind of file it is to make it invalid.
 
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I am only being told, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" (Sigh....) I have gone through the settings to give it all the permissions I could find and it won't let me do it through Windows. I don't want to buy an expensive ZIP program just for one file. I will try a few other things, but it looks like you might have to buy a box from Ebay to post the FW Backup on the forum. I'm tired of not being allowed to do things that everyone else can. :-/
 
Look for a free trial period Winrar instead. It will give you 15 days free. Winrar give you the choices to use both options ZIP or RAR



I will send you a PM with my e-mail so you can send it to me and I wll do the post for you.

Thank you very much for helping me, I didn't want to spend all day with this little box, I have a Skybox F5S receiver I want to dig into and figure out. I will plug in a USB cable into the China Box to see what happens.
 
Looks like I will need to buy a USB Cable that's male on both ends to see if my computer can access the receiver at all. I did leave a message to the seller about the USALS Motor Settings problem, and to email me an updated FW when available. I do not expect to get a reply back or any FW updates from the seller, but will see. :-)
 
I finally found a way to hook up the receiver to my computer through the USB Port, but nothing happens. I did email the seller with the USALS problems I was having. He did respond surprisingly, and asked me for the SW Version I was using as he would pass that info onto the manufacture. I gave him a screen shot of the receiver info screen and told him the problems still remain after resetting the receiver.
 
** New F/W just released!!
The Ebay Seller just sent me a new F/W update to try in this receiver. It's an SSU file for sure. I drive a semi truck all week, so I won't be back home to try the new F/W until this weekend. But after I load it into the receiver with the USB Flashdrive, I will let you know how well it works and try to post the new F/W update here. :-)
 
It's good to see they don't just sell and abandon these receivers and provide some support after the sale.

Even if the box doesn't provide features the advanced hobbyist would desire, it allows someone to get into FTA without spending much money. I still use my $49 X2 every day.
 
It's good to see they don't just sell and abandon these receivers and provide some support after the sale.

Even if the box doesn't provide features the advanced hobbyist would desire, it allows someone to get into FTA without spending much money. I still use my $49 X2 every day.

Exactly! At least I hope the seller will continue to provide me with updates or when I ask for them. It's not a bad little box for its size, it puts out a really nice HD picture with improved CPU and sensitive tuner. Granted it doesn't do IPTV or Google, but I can always to that on my gaming computer. It's still a nice little box for a beginner to get into and see if they will like FTA without spending a lot of money. I will try the new F/W and if the USALS setting works correctly, I can test out the recording function. But you do have to manually enter the date and time, there is no ethernet port on the box. You will probably still need to change the satellite listings manually for US use as well.
 
Tron have you put up a screenshot of the box info page? I am curious as to what information comes up. I am trying to figure out differences with the older box. I would like to try new firmware for it. Just need to dig it out of the basement.
 
Tron have you put up a screenshot of the box info page? I am curious as to what information comes up. I am trying to figure out differences with the older box. I would like to try new firmware for it. Just need to dig it out of the basement.

Hey Rrob!
If you click on the first pictures at the top of this thread, you will see the screenshot I took of the Info Screen on the 2015 receiver. The new FW might change that information however. I won't be home until late Friday to install the new FW into the box with the USB drive to see what happens. I would guess the major change would be the CPU. You can still find the listing to your old receiver on Ebay and compare the specs. By the way, I did include screenshots of the receiver specs at the top of the thread too. :-)
 
Tron have you put up a screenshot of the box info page? I am curious as to what information comes up. I am trying to figure out differences with the older box. I would like to try new firmware for it. Just need to dig it out of the basement.

Rrob, by the way, if your 2014 No Name Box is an ALI Chipset, the new FW might not work for it, as the CPU is now a Novateck. You might mess up your older receiver, or get an error message. You might be better off buying the new box, I included the Ebay Listing link above. :-D
 
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