[carpenter1]

Here are some pictures and info i got from another site. Thanks Stinger123. Hopefully this will help people out who keep asking how to ID a clone. If i have posted this in the wrong forum... mods please move it .. thanks.
NOTE: I posted the Clone pictures FIRST and the real VS last. Too lazy to post the pictures in the same order.

C & P ---------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, here are the pictures I promised. Let's begin with photos of the real thing. Later, I will post similar photos of the CLONE I was sold last week. If I figure out how to add the captions, I will. But for now, let me summarize the things I want to highlight in the following pictures.
1) Receiver Face view: notice how the LOGO is clean, bold and embossed right on the face of the receiver. Later, on the clone, you will see that the 'VS' that customarily sits between the 'Xtreme' and 'Viewsat' is faint or missing. Also, on the clone, the LOGO is on a transparent sticker- as if conveniently made to allow quick and easy removal. The photo of the clone will also show the hinged door open. On these 'real' xtremes, the door is permanently shut.
2) Receiver side view: real one has only one screw bolt on wach side (Clone has two per side)
3) Receiver Rear view: Real xtreme will have a 'clean' serial port - no attachment bolts on either side of the port. Also note that the on/off switch on the real one is mounted vertically. On the CLONE, the switch is horizontal. NOTE, my clone was purportedly also 'made in korea'; so don't believe that the sign denoting where it is made is any indication of the receiver's authencity.
4) Receiver bottom view: Real xtremes have circular holes; fake ones may have linear slits.
5) Inside view: Hey, no jumper switch box on the rear panel! WTF!! The real one has a card reader, my clone did not- but it had a jumper switch box! You will notice the build quality is better on the real one. On the clone, I had noticed that many of the resistors/capacitors - or whatever those little cylindrical things are, were slanted- as if they were pushed over or just hastily soldered in. My clone also had a number of small cooling fins mounted crookedly.
6) Remote Control: As reported by many others, the real remote is black, and although you cannot see it, the black remote is of better build quality, is bigger, and has a 'viewsat' label on it. The clone remote, which was silver, looked a lot like a Pansat copy.
7) Box Top view: The real box is clearly rectangular in shape. The clone box is much more square. I will say that the cloned box was of good quality: glossy with clean pictures of the receiver and listing of features.
8) Box side view: very similar to the clone.

Other important notes:
The real xtreme was wider by about 1.5 inches, and felt sturdier.
The real one came with a null/serial programming cable, disEq switch, remote with batteries and manual, rca connector cables. The fake came with only the remote with batteries, a manual similar to the original, and rca connectors.