icon or mini

[aj_esq]

I have sonicview elite & kbox which I loved, I am in market of buying another brand of receiver to test. I would appreciate you recomendation thank's.

[johnnybluedawg]

nfusions are nice , i have 2,,and when i upgrade i will buy the nfusion hd ,,, i hear that sonicviews/viewsats are good,,and same with the neosat Ipro,, captive works have a good reputation too,,,having the iks with the nfusion is a real nice bonus,, so keep that in the back of ur mind

[Itaintrite]

I'd go for a Mini since it's slightly cheaper. Or a Nano which is basically a Mini with a bit less RAM and an extra card slot. Nano is even cheaper. You can find new one on ebay for around $110 vs iCON $160 vs Mini $130.

All three have great coders supporting them, so you won't go wrong with either one. Best support right now actually.

[arboristman]

ahh,that's a nice comparison here.
i run both of these.


icon s550=made in Korea
standard def stb.
supported by 3rd party D1 group
very fast scanning and high pic quality.
no channel master support.
200 mhz/32 mbs ram/8 mbs flash (faster than cnx mini,also can hold a bin file twice that of the mini)


cnx mini=made in China
standard def/partial,basic dvr.
supported by 3rd party CNX Construct.
decent sat scans speeds lower pic quality imho.(tho some people swear by it,my results are less than anything spectacular)
has channel master support.
150 mhz virgo/32 mbs of ram/4 mb flash (decent in todays standards,but more comparable to a captiveworks 600s premium)

the icon is for sure a higher end unit,with the cnx being a lower end unit com,parable to the captiveworks brand.(which everyone loves for their buck as well).
the overall software is better/worse on diff levels.
the channel master support and better epg gives the cnx the better edge however.
the icon is overall easier to setup and use imho,with the mini requiring updates both in factory files and base 3rd party hardware,but from that point just patches,im not crazy over it,i like the way other units just release files and you keep the latest one updated,simple.
tho loading patches once setup is very fast and easy.

the cnx line have very small writing in the info description.these ones are for sure not for those who have a hard time reading.
the epg is so good it surpasses anything iv tested.
reasons:
you can set the epg load duration
you can force the epg load or you can update with channel on eepg tp.(wgn or score for example,like most units do on the market today)


overall hardware winner:
icon s550
due to faster and higher end quality.

overall software winner:
cnx mini
due to channel master support and much better epg.tho it does fall short in aspects to the icon,for example the search by event feature is much better on the icon than the weak mini's.

overall comparisons:
icon s550 is faster and higher end.comparable to the sv 4k/vs ultra/captain 7100 for examples.

the cnx mini is very comparable to the cw 700/cw 800 lower based units.tho both are well liked and supported iv always liked the cw stbs over cnx myself,but there are others who swear cnx is better.truth is,they are very close.tho favorites work with cnx and favorites feature is weak with cw's.

neither of these can touch your sonicview Elite.but either way you go for a secondary stb you will be happy most likely.tho don't rule out the captain 7100 either,i like this one over both the icon and mini.

[aj_esq]

Thanks ARB for great comparison between both boxes, By the way how is the IKS and support with captain 7100? This last three weeks cnx did not even bother with the ECM. Icon with a good hardware and supported by BL its a hard decision, I am trying to put my eggs in different baskets. I have $140 to spend and both icon & mini are in my price range or do i need to wait until they clear N3? Thanks again

[Itaintrite]

The thing is, we don't know how long it'll be till N3 hack/fix comes out. So if you want to wait till then, it might be a while.

If you have $140 to spend, I'd recommend getting a Nano for $110 and pocket that $30 for later But again, no wrong choice here. Both have great support.

[arboristman]

Originally Posted by aj_esq

Thanks ARB for great comparison between both boxes, By the way how is the IKS and support with captain 7100? This last three weeks cnx did not even bother with the ECM. Icon with a good hardware and supported by BL its a hard decision, I am trying to put my eggs in different baskets. I have $140 to spend and both icon & mini are in my price range or do i need to wait until they clear N3? Thanks again

far as i know the captains iks still needs some work.it has some freezing issues.
but i don't think its to bad,as people use it for is backup when files go down,then back to cardless.everyone prefers cardless when available.
but from what i understand/been reading,most feel the $100 for the dongle is not worth it due to its instability.but never know,perhaps it could be up with n3 via iks like nfusion too.you just never know how things will play out.but you would have that option if you did go with a cap 7100 tho.the cardless support and the unit is very nice anyway that's for sure.
the order i like them:
captain 7100 usb
icon
mini
all have their pros and cons for sure.the epg,the searching methods,the skins,and incredible pic quality and fast,easy one button setup really make the captain stand out to me.
its high quality Korean made product and it shows.
biggest faults imho-no channel master support,no usb utilities.(cant even save ch list to usb-nothing)and it oddly reboots when you power on/off via remote.so its not perfect by any means.but its other nice things strongly outweigh what its missing.
and you also have option if you want-but not required.to get a dongle and run iks.the others don't have this option.

if you had all 3 to try out for a couple weeks i really couldn't tell ya which you would prefer.it could be drastically diff than my preference.
hope this helps some.
bottom line tho,i don't think you can go wrong with any of these.
tho like buddy Itaintrite suggests,if you do go with the cnx,skip the mini and go with the newer model nano of course.
cnx also has a poor history of past support.they dropped the ball on the v-1 after only a very very short period of time once discontinued.that's one of the bigger reasons im not crazy about recommending them.i only want the best for my abadss buds.the mini uses the same patch files,but nothing stops them from making the newer base files the patches need to be loaded too.they have to now show they will support older models,which will take a long long time to find out because they really did blow it with the v1.not many knew about cnx back then,that's why you didn't hear much about it.it will take "years" now actually to find out if the mini will be supported for comparable length of time as others or if they will drop the ball on it now that its been replaced by the nano.they need to be careful and dang good for buddy arbor to recommend them to my aba fam.(which will now take a year or two to find out,based on past mishap.)i don't wanna help anyone who are gunna drop the ball on you guys.
they also skewed the pooched after the v1 support incident,by pulling the rug out from under lots of hard working master fta testers who helped build their reputation to great levels and got them to where they are today,with a not so nice way of saying thank you if ya know what i mean.

[bigevil69]

if you could come up with another $60 and get a neosat ipro2000 you would be happy to

[aj_esq]

I've bit the bullet and ordered me a cnx nano. Thank you all for your responds.

[zoogor]

i recomend the cnx. i have the mini and can tell ya cnx is on top right now. i personaly am not for iks for obvious resons well, i just can't take the chance of getting caught and slammed with a 10,000 dallor fine. anyway, as i said i have the mini but if i were to buy again i'd go with the duo for the pvr and one of the best on the market.