[vdr] Re: Allwell Set-Top-Box ordering

[Markus Schorer <ms@plain.de>]

hi,

fyi, a while ago someone posted a company in germany selling
end user quantities of the allwell boxes for 299,- euro excluding
vat.
maybe this is a way to get around the shipping etc ...
i ordered one of these. delivery was very quick, no problems.

i did not have the time to do extensive testing though, but
i had several hangs of the console output (maybe connected to
the way the vga-screen is handled). no problems with network
logins.

ciao,

Andreas Mixich wrote:
> 
> Micha wrote in a Mail about "[vdr] Allwell Set-Top-Box ordering":
> 
> > Has anybody in Germany ordered something from them?
> 
> I don't know.
> 
> > If yes, how much was it altogether?
> > As shipping seems to be a big percentage of the whole costs (some $80 as
> > somebody has mentioned) , are there other people in Germany interested
> > in
> > purchasing one?
> 
> I might be interested, but not yet. The reason is simple:
> a) The MPEG4 decoder is not finished yet.
> b) The MPEG4 decoder is a Sigma Designs, and it might well be, it does not
> decode DivX5. I want to wait until things have cleared up a little.
> 
> I had an interesting email-conversation with Allwell in Taiwan (or was it
> Korea) and they gave me an intensive roundup. I woul recommend to wait a
> little.
> 
> > Is anybody - living in the US - willing to act as a middleman ? Mailing
> > the
> > machines per ground-mail shouldn't cost $80 each!
> 
> The order, which costs approx USD80-100 is not for shipping from the US but
> from Asia, and is per unit base. I am not sure how much cheaper it would be
> to order more than one box, since they add weight also.
> 
> I would be interested in one or two such devices, but I will order only one
> for the start.
> 
> I am also not sure which model to get. Shall I get the faster ones (don't
> need a second Ethernet) or the slower ones. They are, in the meanwhile,
> availalbe all in the nice finsh (Metallic).
> 
> BTW: Allwell produces boxes for some upcoming products of a well known
> consumer-electronics company. Very 'Pro'.
> 
> As for the STB and DVB: They have shipped their STB to a German company,
> which added DVB-s cards. According to Allwell all went fine.
> 
> Personally I do not intend to add a DVB card. I want the STB as a
> client-only, a frontend to Video-LAN (and others). I would use it to replay
> any stream coming from my VDR box in the bedroom, later maybe even in the
> kitchen, while using the VDR-Box as a central MultiMedia server and the
> default device in the living-room.
> 
> With the MPEG2 or MPEG4 decoder, the Allwell should be very cabable. I
> don't know, if the CPUs are quick enough to do serious software decoding,
> one needs to remember, that the streams coming from the network might add
> some overhead and personally I would like to run other tasks in the back
> also, such as IM and EMAIL check or some CRON events.
> 
> It also has to be considered, that Allwell sells barbone systems as well as
> client/server setups with Linux preinstalled and a proprietary extensions
> system. One of the main problems might be the VIDEO chip, which has no open
> source drivers and one needs to use what is available. This is why I
> thought it might be interesting to have a peek at the system that comes
> with the whole software-suite and see what's usable. Of course, they differ
> totally from the VDR system.
> 
> Micha, you get a personal copy of this mail, we might want to discuss this
> in private.
> 
> Good bye,
> --
> Andreas
> <sp.amix@gmx.net>

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