Bargain Alert: New Ferguson HD DTT/Sat Combo Box - €63 before postage

dmm1000

As regards not being able to play Divx (SD) files is it just a matter of Ferguson providing this functionality in a firmware update or is there a hardware limitation on the Ariva 120 Combo which will stop it playing SD Divx files ?

Moon54

dmm1000 wrote: »

is there a hardware limitation on the Ariva 120 Combo which will stop it playing SD Divx files ?

Can't imagine it is a hardware limitation because it plays HD files pretty good.
If the 120 could play SD divx, it would be nice addition to have someday.

TheDriver

Lads I must say here I was curious about purchasing being a great price but everyone seems to be having so much hassle and a bargain is useless if you feel like the soldering iron needs to be brought out to replace a capacitor or something. Thanks to all of ye for trying but I think I will be well keeping my distance from this product, even with the "new" firmware

willyb007

Mukah wrote: »

Hey thanks for that willyb007, seems to have done the trick....its alot better although just working through scart at the moment...

Just an unrelated question, might sound daft but gonna ask anyhow...

On the Fortec Star receiver, there's an RF OUT socket, which I used to hook up to another tv in another room, I then had a little IR sender to control from there....in this ariva there's no RF OUT....is there anyway that I can hook the 2 box's up to recieve the TV from the ariva and use the fortec star to direct to the other room??

There is a loop out wich i think you will be able to view in another room by running coax cable, The 120 has no modulator built in like the sky box but it may work to change channels in another room by using a modulator (Can Buy one decent price online) with a magic eye or if the IR Sender you have is a scart sender you could hook that up to the scart socket on your box. Though im not a 100% sure about that

TheDriver wrote: »

Lads I must say here I was curious about purchasing being a great price but everyone seems to be having so much hassle and a bargain is useless if you feel like the soldering iron needs to be brought out to replace a capacitor or something. Thanks to all of ye for trying but I think I will be well keeping my distance from this product, even with the "new" firmware

I can say the only sync problem I have is with ITV 1 HD, not a major issue though as I have ITV 1 Granada HD which is the same thing and is perfect. Also this same problem has been noted on the S*y box too. Begining to think from seeing peoples comments about DTT Sync problems, that that is a transmitter problem depending on where in the country you are. I'm not a technician but it seems that way to me as I seem to remember stated somewhere in this thread that the Triax Saorview Box (Not the Combo) had sync issues for whoever it was and wherever he/she was in the country. Im in Offaly and have my aerial pointed at Carinn Hill, Longford. So if anyone else is having sync issues on DTT from this transmitter, I would be interested to know.

Tony

s_gr wrote: »

still seems to be lip sync issue on channels, dtt channels also effected....

Are you affected on all channels or just Hd channels as before on HDMI ? Have you powered the box off using the switch at the back as this seems to make a difference.

Harcrid

Audio sync is still slightly out for me after the firmware upgrade. It's still only very slight but noticeable. TV3 seems to be the worst of the terrestrial channels for it.

Tony

Celtxx wrote: »

Audio sync is still slightly out for me after the firmware upgrade. It's still only very slight but noticeable. TV3 seems to be the worst of the terrestrial channels for it.

I'll keep the pressure up on ferguson to sort this out.

Kristopherus

For me, the lip-synch is a nano-second out, just barely noticeable via scart. Via HDMI, the DTT is more pronounced.In SAT, the BBCs are ok. HD channels are acceptable. ITV & Ch4 not great. You could drive yourself daft the more you look at the damn screen:(. My folks have that "not again" attitude whenever I ask them to confirm that I'm not losing it:D. Hopefully Ferguson can take another look at this.I don't know how to upload streams,or I would have done so.

Tony

Kristopherus wrote: »

Hopefully Ferguson can take another look at this.I don't know how to upload streams,or I would have done so.

If you (or anyone ) wants to upload streams please email me and i'll reply with the instructions. What I'm seeing at the moment on HDMI is ITV HD London noticably out, ITV Granada HD is ok ,BBC 1 HD and BBc HD slightly out,Tv 3 terrestrial noticably out.

Taltos

Thanks Tony - just went ahead and ordered one from your now.

Thanks again for your help in getting the coupon code (from post 92) in - using View Basket was the one to do this
Tried to take a shortcut and go straight to checkout.

Thanks again - looking forwards to getting this set up and getting some TV back in the house at long last.

Cheers
T

Tony

Thanks Taltos, appreciate it.

STB

Tony wrote: »

If you (or anyone ) wants to upload streams please email me and i'll reply with the instructions. What I'm seeing at the moment on HDMI is ITV HD London noticably out, ITV Granada HD is ok ,BBC 1 HD and BBc HD slightly out,Tv 3 terrestrial noticably out.

Without seeing or testing one of these boxes it seems to me that the reason there is a problem on ITV HD london is that they are using an AC3 stream as default. Same with the BBC HD channels. The problem doesnt exist on ITV Granada as the default is MPEG2 audio. The problem doesnt exist with the SD Sat stations as the audio is MPEG also. I cant explain the TV3 connection though as that too is MPEG2 audio.

Is there an option to choose between AC3 and MPEG2 in the audio properties of that box? Or whilst on the channel through audio button ?

It would therefore seem that there is a problem with the AC3 codecs settings on the box itself.

dmm1000 wrote: »

As regards not being able to play Divx (SD) files is it just a matter of Ferguson providing this functionality in a firmware update or is there a hardware limitation on the Ariva 120 Combo which will stop it playing SD Divx files ?

Em, quick question. These Divx files you are trying to play, are they higher than 25 frames per second ? I have found issues before with STBs/TV USB ports that only accept stuff encoded at 25fps. A good way to test this is encoding a small film clip at 25fps in the likes of format factory or XMedia recode (both free).

Tony

STB wrote: »

It would therefore seem that there is a problem with the AC3 codecs settings on the box itself.

The only audio option that appears is if for either DA or for th NAR narrative audio , the nar works fine but as Darth obviously pointed out thats not a solution as some channels will carry audio description. Does not quite explain the TV 3 issue as RTE is fine and they both seem to be using the same audio type.

philahern

STB wrote: »

Without seeing or testing one of these boxes it seems to me that the reason there is a problem on ITV HD london is that they are using an AC3 stream as default. Same with the BBC HD channels. The problem doesnt exist on ITV Granada as the default is MPEG2 audio. The problem doesnt exist with the SD Sat stations as the audio is MPEG also. I cant explain the TV3 connection though as that too is MPEG2 audio.

I'm not sure about everyone else but I am seeing the sync problems on all channels. Nothing I do "fixes" it. It does seem worse on mpeg4 and HD but every channel has some level of sync issue.

bmaxi

I can't seem to get the upgrade to work. I downloaded the file and extracted it to a usb stick but when I go into "upgrade by usb", allcode +bootlogger I get "no file". I've connected a network cable but the option to upgrade by network doesn't seem to be available either.

s_gr

Any word from Ferguson on this failed firmware update, i emailed but got no reply.

STB

Tony wrote: »

The only audio option that appears is if for either DA or for th NAR narrative audio , the nar works fine but as Darth obviously pointed out thats not a solution as some channels will carry audio description. Does not quite explain the TV 3 issue as RTE is fine and they both seem to be using the same audio type.

So when you hit the green button it only gives you 2 STREAMS ?? ONE of which is Audio Description ?

Moon54

bmaxi wrote: »

I can't seem to get the upgrade to work. I downloaded the file and extracted it to a usb stick but when I go into "upgrade by usb", allcode +bootlogger I get "no file". I've connected a network cable but the option to upgrade by network doesn't seem to be available either.

Did you extract the zip file? (right-click, extract)
The firmware is called A120Combo_20110620_V2.14B2.abs
it's inside the zip download.

Tony

philahern wrote: »

I'm not sure about everyone else but I am seeing the sync problems on all channels. Nothing I do "fixes" it. It does seem worse on mpeg4 and HD but every channel has some level of sync issue.

So even ITV granada is not ok with you ?

Kristopherus

STB wrote: »

So when you hit the green button it only gives you 2 STREAMS ?? ONE of which is Audio Description ?

On tg4 you get iri(1204) or nar(1214), which dose'nt give any audio.On the others you get eng & nar.

bmaxi

Moon54 wrote: »

Did you extract the zip file? (right-click, extract)
The firmware is called A120Combo_20110620_V2.14B2.abs
it's inside the zip download.

Thanks, I had sent the whole file to the usb stick but when I extracted the .abs file on its own it found it. Problem now is I'm getting BIN do not match, no idea what that means.

stwome01

I am very tempted to get one of these to replace a sky+ box. Could somebody confirm the following are true

• You can only record one channel at a time?
• If you are recording a satelite channel you can not view another satelite channel
• You can watch another DTT or satelite channel while recording a DTT channel.
• No serial linking.
• 7 day epg for both satelite and DTT?
• Can recording be set from the epg?
• Can recording be set to occur weekly/Daily?
• Can you watch a recording while recording a channel?

Harcrid

Problem now is I'm getting BIN do not match, no idea what that means.

Ignore that and select yes.

philahern

Tony wrote: »

So even ITV granada is not ok with you ?

It's not as bad as the other ITVs but yes getting sync problems on that channel too.

willyb007

bmaxi wrote: »

Thanks, I had sent the whole file to the usb stick but when I extracted the .abs file on its own it found it. Problem now is I'm getting BIN do not match, no idea what that means.

Just select yes anyways when it says that problem is it wipes your cannel list and when you reload it it also reverts to old firmware i will post a link to new firmware with built in channel list for you and anyone else who would like it, See Darth_Maul's post from yesterday to overcome this problem. It still will say bin file not matched but will work when you select upload anyway.

STB

Kristopherus wrote: »

On tg4 you get iri(1204) or nar(1214), which dose'nt give any audio.On the others you get eng & nar.

Forget Tg4 (is that out of sync too ???) I was asking about the BBC HD Channels and the ITV HD Channel ???

You could edit the channel APID and enter the MPEG2 stream should one be broadcast. Is there an option to edit the APID in the manual edit menu ?

STB

philahern wrote: »

I'm not sure about everyone else but I am seeing the sync problems on all channels. Nothing I do "fixes" it. It does seem worse on mpeg4 and HD but every channel has some level of sync issue.

Well if you are seeing it on every channel I would looking more closely at the TV's firmware!

philahern

STB wrote: »

Well if you are seeing it on every channel I would looking more closely at the TV's firmware!

Really? I have a Windows 7 PC running on the same tv and I have never see a sync problem on any of the channels. Other people have mentioned sync problems on the sd channels also.

bmaxi

willyb007 wrote: »

Just select yes anyways when it says that problem is it wipes your cannel list and when you reload it it also reverts to old firmware i will post a link to new firmware with built in channel list for you and anyone else who would like it, See Darth_Maul's post from yesterday to overcome this problem. It still will say bin file not matched but will work when you select upload anyway.

Thanks, I've looked at Darth Maul's post but it's all Greek to me. It'd probably be easier for me to rescan or put in a new channel list.

darth_maul

ok to get the channel list to work with new firmware this is what is needed.

Open ariva editor and open you channels list.
go to file export and save it as a udf (user database)
close arivaeditor and open again
open udf file
the goto file export and save it over the new firmware abs file (basically overwrite the new firmware file "A120Combo_20110620_V2.14B2.abs")
this now has new firmware and your channel list (still has same file name A120Combo_20110620_V2.14B2.abs)

put usb drive back in combo box
goto upgrade by usb
upgrade mode userdb (or Allcode+bootloader if you haven't yet upgraded the firmware)
select the new firmware file (A120Combo_20110620_V2.14B2.abs)
click start

have one ready here if anyone needs it

http://www.mediafire.com/?3cjjgcnbhv5nnz5 just download that and use it if you don't understand any of the above its the new firmware with a channel list embeded

Moon54

I spend some time messing around with this so I'd like to confirm to everybody about recording.

* When you record a DVB-T channel, eg TV3, you can watch any other DVB-T channel and all the satellite channels at the same time.

* If you record a Sat channel, eg BBC3, you can watch any DVB-T channel while recording.
You can safely scroll through all the channels while recording, the sat channels just appear black until you get to a DVB-T channel.

Basically if you record DVB-T, you can watch anything, and if recording sat you can watch DVB-T.

It's a pretty good setup imo.

philahern

STB wrote: »

Well if you are seeing it on every channel I would looking more closely at the TV's firmware!

Ok I made a recording of utv that was definitely a good bit out of sync in real time. I then opened the recording in vlc on my laptop and it was fine. I'm not sure what this is telling me because I can watch utv with the same hdmi lead and same tv with the htpc without sync issues. Is it maybe a hardware issue on the hdmi out?

Tony

STB wrote: »

So when you hit the green button it only gives you 2 STREAMS ?? ONE of which is Audio Description ?

yep on TV3 at the moment the NAR audio is not running

willyb007

bmaxi wrote: »

Thanks, I've looked at Darth Maul's post but it's all Greek to me. It'd probably be easier for me to rescan or put in a new channel list.

Here ya go lad, New firmware with biuld in Channel List. You mite have to re-scan DTT as it may not work with yours.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9czjk8m8tyv76om

Let me know how ya get on with it.

Kristopherus

STB wrote: »

Forget Tg4 (is that out of sync too ???) I was asking about the BBC HD Channels and the ITV HD Channel ???

You could edit the channel APID and enter the MPEG2 stream should one be broadcast. Is there an option to edit the APID in the manual edit menu ?

There's no option to edit anything only the Descramble by, Save & Exit on-screen buttons.

user1842

Should everyone on here email Ferguson and report the sync issue? The more emails they get the better chance they will fix it soon.

bmaxi

willyb007 wrote: »

Here ya go lad, New firmware with biuld in Channel List. You mite have to re-scan DTT as it may not work with yours.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9czjk8m8tyv76om

Let me know how ya get on with it.

I've already installed the new firmware, will this just overwrite it with the channel list?

Tony

STB wrote: »

You could edit the channel APID and enter the MPEG2 stream should one be broadcast. Is there an option to edit the APID in the manual edit menu ?

You can edit this in the editor but no mpeg 2 stream is being broadcast on BBC HD as far as i can tell

Tony

bmaxi wrote: »

I've already installed the new firmware, will this just overwrite it with the channel list?

Yes

Tony

dmclean1842 wrote: »

Should everyone on here email Ferguson and report the sync issue? The more emails they get the better chance they will fix it soon.

Yes it s no harm, this was mentioned earlier in the thread

darth_maul

Was chatting to a polish customer today and was telling him about the issues with the Polish made Ferguson box which he was interested in. He said as 90% of programs in Poland are Dubbed from some language or another that the sync issue wouldn't be an issue there, that even with programs in Polish that they would hardly notice as they are so used to watching with audio sync out,

Hope ferguson don't think this and take it serously

Tony

darth_maul wrote: »

Hope ferguson don't think this and take it serously

An audio/video test card (like the one BBC HD sometimes run) shows up any sync issues regardless of language etc so they have no excuse in that regard.

willyb007

darth_maul wrote: »

Hope ferguson don't think this and take it serously

Hopefully they more professional than to think that!

bmaxi

willyb007 wrote: »

Here ya go lad, New firmware with biuld in Channel List. You mite have to re-scan DTT as it may not work with yours.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9czjk8m8tyv76om

Let me know how ya get on with it.

Sound job,well done, worked a treat. Did have to rescan DTT but that's no big deal.

stwome01

Thanks for the answers Moon54. Can anybody tell me the following

• Can you only record one channel at a time?
• I assume there is no serial linking.
• Is there a 7 day epg for both satelite and DTT?
• Can recording be set from the epg?
• Can recording be set to occur weekly/Daily?
• Can you watch a recording while recording a channel?

philahern

stwome01 wrote: »

Thanks for the answers Moon54. Can anybody tell me the following

• Can you only record one channel at a time?
• I assume there is no serial linking.
• Is there a 7 day epg for both satelite and DTT?
• Can recording be set from the epg?
• Can recording be set to occur weekly/Daily?
• Can you watch a recording while recording a channel?

For recording more than one channel have a look at #632 in this thread by moon54. No series linking. The 7 day epg is only for DTT but there are issues with it not showing full description. Now and next for satellite. Recording can be set by epg and can be weekly and daily from what I remember.

STB

philahern wrote: »

Ok I made a recording of utv that was definitely a good bit out of sync in real time. I then opened the recording in vlc on my laptop and it was fine. I'm not sure what this is telling me because I can watch utv with the same hdmi lead and same tv with the htpc without sync issues. Is it maybe a hardware issue on the hdmi out?

From my reading of this thread earlier on, it seemed that only the HD stations on satellite where affected and only when connected via HDMI, which would lead me to believe that it is a software issue with the AC3 codec via HDMI. But now I am reading that it is spurious stations.

Forget the Irish stations when it comes to Narrative and English. One is blank audio carrier. It should default to the english language anyhow. There are no other alternative audio streams for the terrestrial - they are MPEG2 audio.

Only the HD sat stations use AC3, but I have read that they have MPEG2 streams as well, as an alternative audio stream. Whether that is the AD version I do not know (must check later at home). If it is just AC3 and an AD then its feck all use as the AD is audio decription on top of the feed. Defo, one of the ITV HD feeds (Granada) is MPEG2 audio (which people have been reporting as fine). This all points to bad software settings for AC3. Using a scart bypasses all this though, but defeats the purpose. It has been a common problem on some sat boxes since AC3 started to be used.

VLC is playing the stream as is ? Arer you running it through TSDoctor before playing it ? Most HD TS recordings wont play unless you clean them up using TSDoctor which rebuilds the PMT etc. Either way it does sound like the problem is indeed at the HDMI, in conjunction with how the software ha been configured for it.

Ferguson in Poland wont be using the TS recording on VLC, they will be playing them back on the Ferguson boxes to replicate the problem. At least I hope they are!

philahern

STB wrote: »

Using a scart bypasses all this though, but defeats the purpose. It has been a common problem on some sat boxes since AC3 started to be used.

Thing is the problem is there in scart also on mine anyway. Haven't tried scart since firmware upgrade though.

STB wrote: »

VLC is playing the stream as is ? Arer you running it through TSDoctor before playing it ? Most HD TS recordings wont play unless you clean them up using TSDoctor which rebuilds the PMT etc. Either way it does sound like the problem is indeed at the HDMI, in conjunction with how the software ha been configured for it.

Yes playing the recording as is. Didn't do anything else.

TheCeltictiger

willyb007 wrote: »

Use a USB Stick and go to "Tools" - "Upgrade by USB" scrool over to "Dump File" and Dump your list to USB. This can be used to reload your list after the FW Upgrade. Hope this helps, If not i have posted a link to a list based on the S*y FTA Channel List earlier in this thread.

When I follow the above steps, I have my personised dump file.abs on a USB stick. I have installed the latest v2.14B firmware without any problem and then installed the previously saved dump file but it reverts me back to the earlier firmware 2.13B.

Is there any way to save your favourites on the latest firmware using a Mac, as the Ariva channel editor is PC compatible only.

willyb007

TheCeltictiger wrote: »

When I follow the above steps, I have my personised dump file.abs on a USB stick. I have installed the latest v2.14B firmware without any problem and then installed the previously saved dump file but it reverts me back to the earlier firmware 2.13B.

Is there any way to save your favourites on the latest firmware using a Mac, as the Ariva channel editor is PC compatible only.

Not sure however i have posted a link earlier today with a link to the new firmware with built in Channel list and Have favourites saved on that too. You could fiddle around with that list then and dump your new list to usb stick. that way you will have a new list and new firmware.

See the problem was I understand that the dump file for old list also dumps the old firmware which is why it reverts to 2.13.

I have never used a Mac so i couldn't tell you how to work a way with the Ariva Editor on one.