My quick review of the VU+ Duo receiver

[Sicilian]

Ok here's my review so far for the VU+ Duo.

I purchased mine from this UK supplier VU+ Plus DUO Twin Tuner HD PVR DVB-S2 Satellite Receiver Enigma2 Open So Sat-Shop.co.uk Online Satellite and Electronics Store from Lavatronics

When I first received it I was already impressed with the packaging, instructions, the feel of the remote and the quality feel of the receiver.

Next step I connected to TV to test with the original factory image. All was good so I proceeded to flash the receiver with the latest OpenPLi nightly beta builds.

Flashing the receiver with a usb stick is an absolute doddle! See guide here: -

Quick guide how to flash a VU+ Duo receiver with a USB stick. Tools required are just your favourite image and at least a 128mb memory stick formatted FAT32.

1. Format you memory stick on you PC FAT32.
2. Create a directory in called vuplus.
3. Within the the vuplus directory create another folder called duo.
4. Unzip the USB upgrade files into that directory.
5. Power off your VU+ Duo.
6. Insert memory stick into front USB slot.
7. Power on your VU+ Duo and follow the on screen instructions.


Thats it!

On-reboot the initial setup screens are just like a Dreambox, set your tv output, in my case DVI, set-up tuner configs, parental control etc..Eventually you get to a blank bouquet.

Once setup I ftp'ed standard Enigma 2 settings to the receiver and reloaded channel lists.

Picture quality of both SD & HD definition is fantastic! SD channels display better than my Sky+ HD receiver

Next I powered off and installed a 500GB HDD and tested recording, all worked great. I've got two satellite dishes hooked up to it, one on a rotor and one fixed to Astra2. To test I actually managed to get this baby to record two HD channels and one SD channel whilst watching a fourth channel! I managed this by recording a third and watching a fourth on transponders that where currently being recorded.

In the PLi download menu you'll plenty of the usual standard Engima 2 downloads. CCcam can be installed from there and there's also a handy XMLTV EPG plugin for 7 day EPG. CCcam 2.1.3 works perfect Screen shot from the EPG in web interface attached too.

Overall I'm really pleased with the VU+ Duo, although there's a few bugs, beings as its new hardware. The worst bug I've found so far is not being able to get MGcamd 1.31 to work, for reason the box freezes when it's enabled.

I've also attached some photos of the receiver.

[Sicilian]

Just to add to the above there's currently three flavours of images, you have the OpenPLi nightly builds, Original image's and the VTI Team images.

So far I've tested the Original images which have had regular updates from the manufacturers Vu+ Portal : The Official Web Site of Vu+. Also tested a few OpenPLi builds and am currently using the build dated 29/01/09. I've not tested the VTI team image yet as their current image has a recording bug, but they are due to release a new image very soon with some exciting new features.

My preference so far is the OpenPLi image as its got all the plugins I need and the XMLTV EPG grabber.

If you'ed like to use the Original image and would like some extra plugins from the addons menu ftp the attached VTI-Feed.conf to /etc/ipkg/