Double your Expectation!

Well this has to be one of the most eagerly anticipated Satellite boxs of the last 10
years.

Ever since Vu+ Announced the Duo2 at the Anga Cable and Satellite fair last year,
there has been a lot of hype surrounding this receiver.

Finally it is here.

So whats all the fuss about? Lets take a look.

Features:

The Duo2 has a great set of features, which at this moment in time is not matched by
any other satellite receiver on the market (and there doesnt look to be anything that
will get close to it anytime soon either) so what are these features I hear you ask:

Hardware:

Powerful Dual Core 1.3Ghz cpu
3.2 TFT LCD 262,000 colour front panel display
Large VFD front panel display
Pluggable Twin tuners dvb-s2 (fit 1,2,3,or 4 internal satellite tuners, or 2
satellite & 1x dvb-T / C tuner)
Dolby Digital Plus & DTS supported
2 x SmartCard Readers (Xcrypt)
2 x Common Interface slots
Dual MPEG2/H.264 Hardware Decoding
DNR (Digital Noise Reduction)
1GB Nand Flash / 2GB DRAM
Gigabit Ethernet
3 x USB 2.0
SATAIII 2.5" and 3.5 HDD supported
RS232
HDMI 1.4
YPbPr Component
Composite Video
1 x SCART
SPDIF for digital bit stream out (optical)
Full HD 1080p Output
Full HD 1080p 60hz Transcoding
HD PIP (Picture in Picture)
Built in Wi-fi
Blindscan
Automatic temperature sensor based FAN speed control system


Software:

Linux Operating System
Media Player
Downloadable Plug-Ins supported
HbbTv
EPG supported
Automatic & Manual Service Scan Supported
Multiple LNB control (DiSEqC) supported
Skin change supported

As you can see, its certainly not lacking anything, and its promising to be a full
media player, rather than just the best satellite receiver available.


Inside the box:

The box itself, is just like previous releases from Vu+ so no expense spared there
then, it simply lists the connections on the rear panel, and the features of the Duo2.

On opening the box up, you find the following inside:

Vu+ Duo2 Satellite Receiver
Quick Start instruction manual
Remote Control (my pre-production unit was supplied with 2 remote controls,
but I understand that Vu+ have a new remote control to be released with the
Duo2)
2x AAA Batterys
Hdmi 1.4 cable
Sata cable
Hdd fitting kit
RF Loopthrough cable
Power cable



Appearance:

Aesthetically the Duo2 is very similar to the Vu+ Ultimo, but has a 3.2 TFT LCD
262,000 colour display on the left hand side of the front panel and a large bright VFD
display that is smaller but similar in design to the Vu+ Ultimo, in the centre.

On the right hand side there is a flap that hides the front USB 2.0 port, Power button
and also features the 2 CI slots and below there are 2 Xcrypt embedded card readers.
Note that there are no channel change or volume control buttons.

It is nice to see that Vu+ have moved away from the Glossy dust magnet finish of
the case found on the Ultimo, and moved to a nice matt black finish.

At the back we find a similar array of connections to that of the Vu+ Ultimo:

2x Tuner slots (I am running 1x Twin dvb-s2 and 1x Single dvb-s2 tuners)
1x Scart socket
1x YPbPr (component) sockets
1x Component socket
1x Hdmi 1.4 socket
1x E-Sata connecter
1x Gigabit Ethernet connector
2x Usb 2.0 sockets (1 also found at the front)
1x S/PDIF socket
1x RS232 connector
ON / OFF switch,
Power supply connector
Cooling fan

Now lets look inside the Duo2, on the left side is the platform for the 2.5" or 3.5 hard
drive, in the centre, the new cpu Broadcom bcm 7425 1.3 GHz protected with the
classic passive heatsink as seen in the previous Vu+ models, then to the right the
block that houses the card readers and CI slot.




Getting started:

Ok so before I powered the Duo2 up for the first time, I actually fitted my hdd to the
box, removing the lid is a case of removing 5 screws from the case (very simple),
inside the box there is a hdd tray, that will accommodate either a 2.5 laptop hdd, or a
full size 3.5 desktop hdd, installation is very straight forward and should take no
more than 10 minutes.



Once the hard drive was installed, I added a single dvb-s2 tuner to the spare tuner slot,
as I had 1 lying about. This converted my Duo2 from a twin tuner into a triple tuner
(remember you can run it as single, twin, triple or quad tuner, so it really is a very
versatile receiver, and should give even the most die hard of satellite enthusiast all the
choice they need).

With the hdd and extra tuner installed, I refitted the lid and then plugged in all the
connections.

I connected my Duo2 up using Tuner A, connected to a fixed dish, Tuner B (2
nd
tuner
of Twin tuner card) to my motorised dish and then Tuner C (single tuner) was also
connected to a fixed dish.

I also connected up the HDMI to my plasma TV and at the same time hooked up the
component (YPbPr) connections to my LCD monitor.

Then I connected the power lead.

With all the connections done, it was now (finally) time to power the box on for the
first time.


First Power up and Flashing:

Ok before I did anything else, I let the receiver boot up, to make sure it was all
working ok, and the hdd was installed correctly. Once booted and I was happy, I then
proceeded to shut the Duo2 down, pulled out my favourite Usb stick, and loaded on
the BlackHole 2.0.4 Hyperspace image for the Vu+ Duo2

If this is your first Vu+ receiver, you will be pleased to know, that installing an image
onto any of the Vu+ receivers is a very simple process. Simply grab a Usb stick,
format it in fat32 with your pc, download the BlackHole image from www.vuplus-
community.net and extract the zip file contents to the root of your newly formatted
Usb stick. Once this is done, pull down the flap on the right hand side of the front
panel, and plug the Usb stick into the 3
rd
Usb socket.

Now power on the Duo2, and when asked if you want to update, press the power
button that is just above the Usb socket.

The Duo2 will do the rest and once flashing is complete it will reboot (you can now
remove the Usb stick).

On first boot after flashing, you will be greeted with the setup wizard, just follow the
simple onscreen instructions to setup your new Duo2.



I used the built in wi-fi to test it out for this review. The built in wi-fi is great, as you
get the flexibility to setup the box anywhere in the house, but if you do plan to stream
HD channels to your pc, then I recommend using the gigabit lan connection instead.












The first time you switch on your Duo2, you will notice that the bootup is extremely
fast, but you can make it even faster, at the end of the setup wizard you will be taken
to the BlackHole SpeedUp panel.



In here you to enable / disable various plugins and features that are included by
default in the image, so you can disable any plugins you do not wish to use, and this
will in turn speed up the boot (and restart) time of your Duo2 (you can change these
options later on, by going back into the BlackHole SpeedUp panel in the Blue menu,
just press the blue button twice and select BlackHole SpeedUp).

Time to Play:

So first of all I decided to do a channel scan, which didnt take very long at all, I
scanned 2150 channels on 13E in about 6 minutes.



However you do not need to do this, you can simply download a channel list from the
BH addons server, from within the image (simply press the green button, then yellow
button and then select Black Hole Settings there are several options in there, and
they are updated regularly so just chose whichever suits your needs best.







With the channel scan done, I then added the EPG, I personally used CrossEPG (built
into all BlackHole images), and with the Duo2, (like the Solo2) you can download all
of the epg packages for all your favourite providers in 1 go due to the powerful cpu,
and the masses of memory the box has.







The Duo2 from a cold boot and gives me a picture on my screen less than 38 seconds
(time will vary depending on how many plugins, skins, plugins etc are installed)
which is truly outstanding (even faster than the Solo2 cold boot time).



So far we have only tried a few of the features that are available, but we know that the
Duo2 is not just another sat box, it is a "Smart Box" so let's put it to the test with some
of the other functions that help make it so Smart.

3.2 TFT LCD and VFD:

The first function that I will mention is that glorious 3.2 TFT LCD display, probably
the first feature that jumped out at you when you looked at the Duo2. You can control
this with the LCD4linux plugin, which is found in the Green Panel (press green on
your remote control), with this plugin you can customise the display to suit your
needs, there are many options and just about everything can be tweaked to suit you. A
nice feature of the plugin, is that it gives you a preview of what the lcd display looks
like so you dont have to keep looking away from the tv screen when you make
adjustments.





It also has the more traditional VFD display, this is also customizable however it is
not as simple to customise as the LCD screen.



Opera Browser:

The Duo2 has the ability to browse the Internet with the integrated Opera browser. In
the Green Panel (green button), activate the Opera browser and enter the URL you
want to view using the remote control.

Navigation can be directed to local lan addresss such your NAS drive, or to the
internet such as www.vuplus-community.net without leaving the comfort of your
sofa.



The arrows on your remote control will allow you to move the cursor to the middle
button of your browser or just use the OK button (the ok button replaces your left
mouse button). At any time you can call the virtual keyboard (yellow button) if you
want to enter data in a field of the displayed page or to Exit to return to our page.





Auto Language and Subtitles:

With the Duo2 and the BlackHole image you now have the option to setup Auto
Language and Auto Subtitles for the first time (this has now been added to all
BlackHole images from 2.0.4 onwards), simple go into the Auto language selection
settings panel in the blue panel (press blue button twice) and you can select the 4 most
used settings for both Audio and Subtitles.



HbbTV:

The Duo2 also supports HbbTV, just tune to a channel that provides the service (ZDF
HD on Astra 1 19.2E for example) and press the red button, the Duo2 will then use
your internet connection to connect to ZDFs ondemand services.











Blindscan:

Another great feature of the Duo2, is the Blindscan function, this is more for
enthusiasts and advanced users that like to scan the skys for all the channels they can
find. The Blindscan plugin is located in the Green panel (press the green button on
your remote control), simply select which tuner you want to use to Blindscan, and
then select the satellite(s) you would like the scan and the Duo2 will do the rest. Its a
great feature especially when looking for feeds, or scanning those satellites where
channels move around frequently. At the time of writing this review, Blindscan only
works correctly on Tuner A, but I am sure Vu+ will soon have this working on all
available tuners.





Transcoding:

If you press the green button, and scroll though the plugins in the menu, you will find
the Transcoding Setup, just press ok to select this plugin and then enable it.





Once enabled, you can use the Transcoding function, simply grab your smartphone,
tablet or pc, in the web browser enter the ip address of your Duo2, once logged in you
will be able to access your channel list. Find the channel you want, and at the end of
the column will be 2 monitor icons. Simply click the 2
nd
(outside of the 2) icon, and
transcoding will start.

Conclusion:

So you want to know, does the Duo2 live up to the hype?

Well I do have a couple of minor gripes with the Duo2s VFD front panel display:

I feel it is either too big or too small, its somewhere in the middle between the large
display found in the Ultimo, and the small display found in the Solo2. You can
customise it a little, but its too small to fully customise, I feel it would have been
better if Vu+ used either the large Ultimo display to give full customisation or use the
small Solo2 display and give none, as for me the half and half does not work well.
The display also appears to have a hazy glow to it, and therefore is not as clear as
the Ultimo or Solo2 displays.

However overall the Duo2 is simply Awesome, there is nothing on the market that
can compete with it. The box looks great, and it works great. The picture quality is
simply stunning. To put it simply, the Duo2 will do more than Double your
Expectation!

Review written by Ev0, BlackHole Team.