Octagon SF8008 Supreme Short Review

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el bandido

Active member
The Octagon SF8008 Supreme was introduced at the beginning of 2024 and is now starting to be available on markets all over the world. The SF8008 Supreme is basically an old FTA receiver in a new Gift Box with a couple of new or updated features. The SF8008 Supreme has provisions for an internal Solid State Drive(ssd) and the wifi has been improved.

Octagon SF8008 Supreme lists the tuner as AVL62X1 in enigma2 images which is also different than the SF8008 Supreme. The Octagon website lists the SF8008 Supreme as being capable of receiving low symbol rates of 100 to high symbol rates of 80,000. In reality, the Octagon SF8008 Supreme struggles with any transponder that is below 1000 symbol rate and cannot even come close to the advertised symbol rate of 100. (Most likely, the high symbol rate of 80,000 is probably fiction too but no transponder exists to test it.)

The SF8008 Supreme has the ability to receive and display satellite signals that are below lock. This is a very useful and unique feature for FTA enigma2 receivers, but none of the main image groups provide the modifications needed in enigma2 to display signal below lock.

The SF8008 Supreme uses the same kernel and enigma2 image as the SF8008. So basically the SF8008 Supreme is nothing more than a SF8008 with a few updates added. The SF8008 Supreme uses the same remote as the SF8008 which causes problems if both of these receivers are being used in the same room. The SF8008 Supreme also has Bluetooth capability, but I have yet to find anything that it can be used for. Headphones and other Bluetooth items that I have tried on the SF8008 Supreme do not work!

FTA satellite reception on the SF8008 Supreme is similar to the SF8008. The SF8008 Supreme receives both 16 and 32 APSK satellite transponders and does a decent job of playing the channels on the APSK transponders, providing your antenna can produce the signal needed to receive APSK transponders. The SF8008 Supreme is no "Miracle Worker", but does do a good job on transponders that require lots of signal to be useful. Satellite blindscan fails to complete at random times in the SF8008 Supreme.

On a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I would rate the SF8008 Supreme as a 7. This rating could easily go to 8 if the low symbol rate would actually work, but I doubt that happens. The SF8008 Supreme is a decent DX type FTA receiver. A person just has to know its limits and live with them. We are already in April of 2024. It is doubtful we will see many other FTA receivers being released as 'New" for 2024.
 
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el bandido

Active member
Really there is no alternative today. What else do we have offered as "New" for 2024 Today? 2024 Is almost at the halfway point and the Supreme is all we have.

I find the SF8008 Supreme to be at least a decent FTA type receiver. You have internal storage capability (SSD), two satellite tuners that work, and the option to add usb tuners. So the basics are covered with the Supreme.

The only thing I find that doesn't work as advertised is the low symbol rate. Any transponder below 1000 symbol rate may or may not work. The satellite tuner system is not stable below 1000 symbol rate.

You cannot rely on what is advertised as features on any FTA receiver.
The only way to find out what features a FTA receiver actually has is to buy it and try it. Very little is written about how a receiver actually performs. Most receiver reviews are nothing but sales flyers or advertisements.

Attempts are being made to fix the low symbol rate problem. The SF8008 Supreme has Avalink AVL6261C, which is the same as the current Edision 4K receivers.
 
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antrabe

Active member
ok so maybe my choice is to change my last version of octagon for new supreme because this edison 4k is 4 years old and only has better ram 2g versus octagon.
 
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el bandido

Active member
The two main differences in the Octagon SF8008 and the SF8008 Supreme are tuner demodulator (AVL6261C) and wifi. There is Bluetooth capability in the Supreme, but it has been useless for me. These three items are the only real differences I can find.

The current SF8008 Supreme image in OBH contains drivers for several different demodulators, which means several different receivers are supported. This includes the SF8008 Supreme. WiFi and Bluetooth drivers for the Supreme should also be included in current OBH images.

Attempts at modifying the demodulator driver to allow symbol rates below 1,000 have pretty much failed. A recent test driver seems to allow a symbol rate of 500, but it broke other things and does not appear to be stable on symbol rates below 1,000.

The Real symbol rate Guaranteed range for the SF8008 Supreme is 1,000 to 60,000, and Not the advertised 100 to 80,000. Viewing channels or services on transponders with symbol rates of around 500 may be possible but they also may or may not be stable.

What I find really strange is the Supreme has the ability to show satellite signals below lock. All that is needed is a slight modification in enigma2 to allow this. To date, no major image group has made any effort to include this feature in the SF8008 Supreme images. Go figure....
 
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el bandido

Active member
Where has a channel been shown playing or even a steady signal lock with the SF8008 Supreme on a 3xx sr? One user reported to have sporadic lock on SR 355 signal, but that is not usable. Edision 4K receivers have the same Avalink AVL6261C chip. Sources are available for Anyone to build the drivers in Edision for AVl6261C. Custom built drivers allow for usable signals around 500 SR in Edision 4K receivers.

The best that I have seen verified in the Supreme is a 540 SR transponder on 5w that Octagon is proudly displaying. The driver that allows the 540 SR breaks other things and is no more of an accomplishment than what has been done with Edision 4K receivers and custom driver.

It's pretty obvious whoever is coding these drivers for Octagon has no access to satellite and cannot see what they are doing. This is like playing the game of Darts blindfolded.

AVL6261C is not going to work any better or any worse in the SF8008 Supreme than it does in the Edision 4K receivers. Octagon is not going to be able to code the driver symbol rate capability any better than what was done for Edision 4K receivers with customized drivers.

Avalink advertises Avl6261C to have symbol rate capability from 1 to 60 or 1,000 to 60,000. NOT 100 to 80,000 as Octagon advertises. Avalink also says the high symbol rate of 60 or 60,000 Is Not available in every modulation scheme. Octagon's high symbol rate claim is 33% Higher than Avalink.

Below is a quote from Avalink about low symbol rate capability of AVL6261C:
For AVL6261C, we support the symbol rate down to 1MSps with performance guaranteed. For low symbol rate, AVL6161C can work till 0.3Msps with performance degraded and long acquisition time.
 
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