My Alma review of the a Alma S 2200 CX E an honest evaluation and unbiased review.

[TunaDude]

Hello All this Alma S 2200 CX E fta and is being used by me here on my ku set up of 17 lnb,s on 3 dishes and im gonna write a review about this alma fta this is a link to the alma thread from july3. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] is the box I have here now maybe one day will be for sale here.

a few things first to know this box is like an open box line the s9 type but better in ways. (blind scanning) My Review of this alma fta is based only on ku sats



Ku Band Sats only sorry no c band ( 1 - 8 disec switch and 3 single 4 disec switch)


17 ku sats fixed on 3 dishes 1.2m size 2 of them 1 36 round dish.my settings . one 1.1 8 disec switch used and on 3 of the 8 ports i added the 1.0 disec 4 port switch so as to have 17 lnb cascaded run together so using 1.1 and 1.0 for 17 lnb's (just like the open box)

sats linear ku 72w 83w 85w 87w 89w 91w 93w 95 97w 99w 101w 103w 105w circular ku 61.5w 77w 110w 119w/118.6 w

the 4 circular lnb of dn sats i use when there is hidden stuff pids on dn birds like as i type this post 12118v 4130 hidden pids channel rai italy working as i type this 118.6/119 this box also lets you tune down some what using regular circuar lnb and gettin stuff off the 118.6 sat if there is a hidden pid.



as far as c band and a motor goes Vip3r can chime in about it from his point of view to add here .

I own S9 0pen box as many of you s10 s11 s12 pretty much all the same now so this alma 2200 applies to these lines since the alma fta is also a ali chip based box this is the 3606 chip instead of the 3602 chip like open box . so i guess an upgraded chip set in this alma

HERE IS THE REVIEW OF THE ALMA 2200FTA WHAT I HAVE FOUND


The alma 2200 set up menu was easy to figure out to set ant set up switches etc (like the open box)

going through the menu you can figure out all operations again like the open box with an exception of no way to dump your file to your usb stick no tp_prog either to dump.

To dump your file/and to also dump a tp prog type file you have to use your computer 232 null cord and the 2200 alma loder or the 3600 ali program. the ali 3600 program to import part of it into say new firmware
uploaded the dump file so you can save your settings and also make a tp prg type file to add to say new firmware with all your channel setings etc from the dump wen its comes out on this box its a bit tricky at first when your use to the open box hu dump and the usb thumb drive for the dump but this alma 2200 fta needs work in this area this is no way to dump to the usb stick

maybe a future improvement for this alma 2200 fta letting you dump it to your usb stick and a tp prog dump to?



the next part is about picture quailty and sound quailty picture is better than the open box in sd and hd more sharp clear more colors is what im seeing vivid colors i mean not that much better but enough for me to notice,, I always thought my picture quality was good on the open box anyway but the alma is better more so on hd channels

sound seems good not missing anything ac3 the hd stuff on 103w ku as long as i switch the audio settings on those.

BUT ONE IMPORTANT NOTE ON SOUND no sync problems! example hidden dn italy rai on open box lipsync on alma 2200 the sound matches!



next part blind scan


the alma has only one blind scan to choose from or your own pre set tp to scan to choose from no advance scan!

I am a stickler when it comes to blind scanning so i know what to try this alma on for hard weak transponder etc to blind scan


I find the alma 2200 a bit better in blind scanning than the open box line i am finding more hd feeds and stuff in hd using the alma 2200 also also more sd type channels with less miss than the open box.. example is today around 10 am 99w ku

open box found 17 channels alma found 19 all with in a 7 minute window of time in the blind scan 7 minutes as in split time i have to scan each seperate but confirm the 2 missed by open box still had quaity

re scanned open box still missed the 2 hd feeds the alma found.. also in past days 91ku also same alma finds more! seems to find more hd that the open box skips over.....


so in blind scan alma is better more accurate than the open box line blind scan speed for the alma is close to the open box around 3 to 4 minutes in each sat


BUT HERE IS A PLUS ON THE ALMA FOR BLIND SCANNING THE OPEN BOX DONT HAVE!

with the alma fta box you can choose to blind scan just the h side or just the v side or both saving time!

some sats like 72w 95 w 93 w ku why waste time blind scanning the h side of 72w the h side of 93w or the v side of 95w if you dont have to the alma 2200 lets you blind scan and you choose h or v you can even choose both get to a point on you h blind scan stop the scan go set it to v only and re blind scan and finish faster over all in total blind scan speed rather than wait for the box to go all the way through the h side then the v side!

DISPLAY OF 1080 720 0R ANYTHING WHEN YOU HIT INFO NEEDS TO BE FIXED in the alma 2200 i mean i can tell its a hd feed but the open box shows this display when you see the banner each time you change channels or hit info ALMA MISSED THIS FEATURE!


now for the maybe questions no there is no 422 seen here you cant edit the pids on this box but you can edit it in an editor like the open box in case there is a free chanel on dn


there is a wifi add on you can buy because this box has u tube and u porn and weather i guess throuhg your intenet or you can get it with the ether net cable i didnt bother with this feature i have u tube on vizo app and the wife for porn lol and weather again my vizzo tv app

but for folks who might like this feature its a plus from the open box line

as far as motor movement stuff i dont have motors maybe again Vip3r can chime in he used this box on his motor and c b and as well.




I also dont record stuff on my open box except on my usb stick a bit so i cant report timer issues or clock stuff sorry



if i had a wish list so far on this box it would be

display to be shown when on the channel to see if its 480 720 1080

be able to dump your dump file using the alma box usb instead of computer 232 cord and also make a tp prog misc file to dump to!


improve blind scan speed a bit faster most take around 3 to 4 minutes but some take 6 7 minutes like 93w ku 89ku

this did not find k tel on 87w in a blind scan but did find a hard one on 87w that open box always misses it found 11802h 1250 pbs goverment feed
and blind scanned the 12044v 3200 florida feed on 87w so it found 2 of the three hard ones on 87w in a blind scan

it finds the 105w ku 12123 1000 echostar uplink feed it finds the 72 w ku religous feed in a blind scan

so over all for blind scanning this alma does well in my world of ku sats except a bit faster would be nice and LEAVE THE POLARITY CHOICE THE FOOK ALONE LEAVE IT THERE ITS NEEDED LOL open box use to have this feature! i like choosing h or v to blind scan in.




THANK YOU Vip3r for letting me look over this box this box and to be able to write about it here in your forum i feel t his alma fta has potential as a low cost pretty good over all box for folks now that open box made that stupid s 16 and only keeps mking new lines of boxs and leave us s 9 s10 s11 s 12 folks out to dry.........


with a little work maybe these folks who make the alma box could sell them at your site after all do you have any fta to sell for under 100.00 any more? and if alma is willing to work with you a bit on a few improvments maybe this will be the new open box type line an its not 200 plus dollars after all are we not in a recession ?

[TunaDude]

Id like to add more today about the alma 2200 fta since there is more to this fta that i have found and figured out now from learning and working with it and i also used the feature where you can hook it up with the ethernet cable ( also has wireless access with a add on usb stick wireless add on i think there like 10 dollars if you go wilress anyway


its pretty cool seeing u tube has also some news to read cnn fox and more on another you can see local weather or anywhere if you type it in they keep adding stuff now a google app and the best for last i guess PORN !

TITIES! hey im honest here i dont watch porn not that i dont like ! i like! and this feature i thouhgt was a feature that cost!

well there is no cost just titties lots of them and out of respect the rest of the parts lol i wont name but yea! so an fta with some extra stuff and dont understand the porn app with out a price except the purchase price which i guess is around 100 dollars


on the alma 2200 fta part you can dump the file on to the usb stick save it setting and all at first this function was a bit tricky to figure out when there is no info on this box except the other side of the pond info on card share but all and all this alma fta box is a good box find some stuff on the blind scan the open box misses doesnt seem to skip over stuff in a blind scan no audio issue.


if i had a choice now from my open box s9 or the alma 2200 with its free porn and other apps all and all id have to say id choose the alma!

also has r232 port in case you mess up in a firmware i see when they add another app like hey do there is another firmware makes sense just load pretty fun little fta id wouldnt buy another open box now the s 16 suck from what i have read and they just seem more interested in making another box and sell it and the hell with the rest of us

as time goes on i will add more to this post !

[TunaDude]

The Alma 2200 had new firmware for sep 20th this fixed the u tube and the u corn its not corn but this latest firmware also now Has the HD channels on the banner its displaying HD when on some hd channels thats a plus .... up till now i have never saw anything in the banner when you change channels or hit info showing if its sd hd ..... but now like the 103w ku nbc i see this HD light up in green.


thanks to traian for his group of fta box gennies to have at least added this new feature ... maybe one day the rest of the banner will be worked with to show more info like 480 or 720 or 1080i and H264 but at least a step in the right direction for this box....

[ViP3R]

Well that is encouraging news and nice to see that they are listening..If they keep adding to the Alama it just might be worth offering at some point.