Also I thought the availabilitycompatability of external hdd's is as much down to the image being used as anything else at the moment?.

I know that there is an issue of sorts with external hdd's etc. But I myself would not think of getting anything less than a 500gb model.

But a note of caution, please dont go for the cheaper generic non-branded or re-branded models. You would do far better to pay that very little extra and get a genuine known brand that is listed as compatable.

Prehaps we aught to build a list of compatable brands and modelsversion external hdd's on here somewere?. As I'd guess a lit by owners would be better than a list from Kathrein.

Good Idea Dave.

I am willing to test all the HDD's I have including internal IDE's of older types (using USB enclosure) and publish it here for the benefit of other users.

BTW: I have never heard of un-branded HDD's , at least not in this neck of the woods.

I don't think compatiblity has anything to do with the type or make of the actual HDD, it has more to do with USB2 controller.

I have a Freecom 250GB mobile drive which is not recognised by the Kathrein and is actually on the Kathrein recommended list, I also have a no name USB2 HDD enclosure which is recognised.

I stand corrected then jakey. But pretty sure some hdd makers re-brand other makes of hdd's and alter the controler. Then again who would go for an unknown or un-established make of hard drives?.

Still a good idea if we could build up a database of known and proven compatable hdd's.

At last the Kathy is here…..My first impressions.

Initial Set-up: Quite straight forward , and I managed to load the AAF 1.3a without any hassle. A word of thanks to all the gurus in this forum who made my life easy and most of the small problems were answers on the forum. I had a problem connecting to the Kathy using Rs232 and the LAN on the original 1,f image which came with the receiver, but when switched to AAF 1.3a , it was a treat.

Picture quality: Depending on the broadcaster, the quality is pretty in SD channels. I only have access to one HDTV channels which is Luxe TV and that is quite beautiful. It is doing a good job upscaling the SD signals on others.

Audio quality: what impressed me , surprisingly is the audio quality which is quite superior to my Dreambox ! The Kathy is connected to a Pioneer VSX-1016 receiver with 5.1 JBL speakers.

Channel switching: Slow compared to my Dreambox 7025 also there is a delay on the audio when switching channels.

Channels and satellite loading: I used the UFS SatChannelEditor and it worked quite well (after the initial problem of the hostname !) but for the life of me , I can’t figure out to add new satellites like NileSat and others. I will figure that one out soon.

Web Interface: Pleasing and quite fast , much faster that Dreambox web Interface , but also quite different. I don’t mind the German , but it would be quite nice to have an English version.

Features: The MultiFunction wheel control in the front is quite a neat and clever feature, so is the menu button. The USB in the front for uploading the images is also clever. The software itself is quite pleasing and user friendly, but it is early days yet. Thanks God that I have a receiver that displays the right time and date for a change, such a relief after the Dreambox that never managed to tell the right time!

Cardsharing: I have not reached that part yet , and I expect to have the most difficulties in theta area, but there is a rich menu to select emu’s and keys and that should be quite enough to begin with.

It has been three hours now since I opened the box and plugged it in with the LCD TV and the Pioneer receiver ,and so far I think the Kathy UFS 910 is a winner. I suppose I will end up sleeping with the first sign of the sunrise on Saturday morning playing with this toy, but it is all so entertaining.

I received my UFS 910 as a gift. I've been using it for the past few days, here are my initial impressions:

The good:
Picture quality is very good, HD is great.
I like the fact that there is an HDMI output, it works flawlessly with my Samsung LCD.
The UI is nicely layed out and logical.
The box doesn't make a sound. I expected the box to be big, heavy and noisy. It's completely silent.
It has an FTP server built-in, so I can pull off all of my recordings.
Telnet access is nice.
Setup was a breeze.
Works perfectly with my 60GB 2.5" external HD formatted in ext3.

The bad:
The thing that irks me the most is the remote. It only works in certain positions, it seems that it has be been level with the box in order for the commands to be picked up.
Channel changing is a bit on the slow side. Not helped when IR commands aren't received by the box from time to time.
No USALS support, this is the biggest disappointment. It means that, at least for the time being, I have to keep my SD box just so that I can move the motor.


I can't really complain to much since I didn't pay anything for the box. I don't think I would have paid £250 for it with it not having USALS support.