Amiko Alien2 / SAB / GM / ST7162 ** SPARK** Discussion Thread

Nowso

kaos75 wrote: »

Hi Nowsa,
Just wondering if you had a updated link for your dropbox utilities for these stb boxes.
Also just wondering what the latest firmware for the sab unix is? - I have 1.2.76 installed and if I go to play a youtube video, I get a "start play failed" message

here it is the enigma 2 and channel list are out of date atm

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rudonyv1jkr22kk/AACo8RZW6xfvOMJDI0PCI3kAa?dl=0

NickNickleby

Greetings.
I'm running Spark on my AA2+. I find it very stable, and can live with the rubbish epg. However....

When I installed it, I didn't use anyone's image from here. I simply used the remote to create Favourite channel lists. Everything was grand until this weekend. Suddenly, within each FAV channel group, the channels have reordered themselves A-Z. Now I could live with that, but additionally, lots of those channels now display "no info!" in the display. But worse, some of those same channels are 'gone' , ie when I select one of them, I just get a black screen. And even worser, some display a completely different channel, Eg when I select movies4men, it's now an Indian language channel.

Given that I used no built in utility to automatically create my lists, and also given that i'very read somewhere that channels can migrate from one frequency to another, I'm I faced with a manual rebuild - perhaps something like a rescan, then delete and recreate my lists???


Edit to say: do I now need to rescan? Is there something I can do to automatically track channels if they move about?

I'm pretty sure my 'handy' shortcut has come back to bite me.....

Thanks in advance everyone.

Nowso

NickNickleby wrote: »

Greetings.
I'm running Spark on my AA2+. I find it very stable, and can live with the rubbish epg. However....

When I installed it, I didn't use anyone's image from here. I simply used the remote to create Favourite channel lists. Everything was grand until this weekend. Suddenly, within each FAV channel group, the channels have reordered themselves A-Z. Now I could live with that, but additionally, lots of those channels now display "no info!" in the display. But worse, some of those same channels are 'gone' , ie when I select one of them, I just get a black screen. And even worser, some display a completely different channel, Eg when I select movies4men, it's now an Indian language channel.

Given that I used no built in utility to automatically create my lists, and also given that i'very read somewhere that channels can migrate from one frequency to another, I'm I faced with a manual rebuild - perhaps something like a rescan, then delete and recreate my lists???


Edit to say: do I now need to rescan? Is there something I can do to automatically track channels if they move about?

I'm pretty sure my 'handy' shortcut has come back to bite me.....

Thanks in advance everyone.

do you have a back up save

this is a glitch normally if u stop and dont save your it as it is and reboot it should go back to normal

even if you just back out it should be ok when ths happens . usally only happens if your editing channels

NickNickleby

Nowso wrote: »

do you have a back up save

this is a glitch normally if u stop and dont save your it as it is and reboot it should go back to normal

even if you just back out it should be ok when ths happens . usally only happens if your editing channels

Hi Nowso,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The box is restarted every day, and the problem has persisted through reboots.

Anyway, here's what I did to fix it:

Went to the main menu and ran a scan. I wasn't sure about options to clear everything and re-scan or re-scan and just incorporate new channels (or even if such options exist). Anyway, when the scan ended, I went back to look at the epg, and the problem still existed. So, I went back to main menu and edited my Favourite lists.
eg, MovieChannels - removed 'movies4men'. Then I tried to add it back in and the same thing happened -it was the Indian channel. So I made a note of the number associated with the channel, then went back editing the 'MovieChannels' again, but this time I went right through available channels and lo-and-behold there was another 'movies4men' and this was the right one. So I repeated the process for all the dodgy channels and now we're back with all channels and epg working.

Here's something else, when watching tv, if I press 'ok' I get a thing called TV List and its a bit like EPG, but you can see a lot more of what's coming later (albeit its messy). But, you can just exit out of it, and you're back where you were, whereas the EPG forces you to change channel if you jump from one favourite list to another.

I like the VIX skins, but VIX is very unstable on my box. The boss hates the Spark EPG. So, I'm going to buy myself an early Christmas Present of the Tiviar box I've seen discussed on here and run VIX or OpenATV on it. I'll move the AA to a back room already cabled, and see if I can loop a sat feed out of the Tiviar into the back room.

Cheers.

Gerry Wicklow

NickNickleby wrote: »

....I'll move the AA to a back room already cabled, and see if I can loop a sat feed out of the Tiviar into the back room.

Cheers.

You shouldn't try to run 2 boxes from the same cable. Each sat tuner needs it's own dish connection as the box needs to send control signals to the dish. Two boxes on the same cable would fight for control.

NickNickleby

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

You shouldn't try to run 2 boxes from the same cable. Each sat tuner needs it's own dish connection as the box needs to send control signals to the dish. Two boxes on the same cable would fight for control.

Ah!!

Well thanks for the heads up. When I saw a 'loop' or whatever its called, I assumed it was for extending the incoming Sat signal. Well, either I'll use the AA as a door-stop, or I'll keep it as a backup in case the other one ever fails.

At the moment the cable I referred to is connected to my old UPC cable box under the window in the front room. By fluke I discovered I could pick up the old analogue channels for free on it. Well, they've found me out and are killing that 'facility'.

Thanks Gerry, and Nowso, you guys are a mine of info, and you're so helpful to everyone.

FlexMcMurphy

NickNickleby
Dare I say the AA2 is all you need to have a satisfactory EPG. You should just stop using Spark and try switching to the enigma2 side of your AA2...  I'm still using a PKT Hyperion Image on my AA2 I installed several years ago and haven't bothered updating it and the EPG in this (enigma2) image is perfectly adequate.
On the other hand if you just fancy a new box fire away !
Flex

NickNickleby

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

NickNickleby
Dare I say the AA2 is all you need to have a satisfactory EPG. You should just stop using Spark and try switching to the enigma2 side of your AA2...  I'm still using a PKT Hyperion Image on my AA2 I installed several years ago and haven't bothered updating it and the EPG in this (enigma2) image is perfectly adequate.
On the other hand if you just fancy a new box fire away !
Flex

Hi Flex,

Thanks for that recommendation.
In the past I have tried Vix, OpenATV and Spark.
Spark is relatively reliable, though with the known rubbish EPG
VIX has a lovely interface and easy to use EPG, but its unstable enough for the boss to hark back to UPC
OpenATV never stayed stable long enough for me to properly configure it to my preferences.
I might give the old Hiperion a whirl.

(I know you know all about the relative benefits of the different OS's but I'm just relating my own experiences.)

On the other hand..... as you've probably guessed, a new toy certainly has attractions! The MOST important is that I could work on it and quickly switch the cables back to the AA, before the inquisition.:D

Cheers!

FlexMcMurphy

NickNickleby wrote: »

... The MOST important is that I could work on it and quickly switch the cables back to the AA, before the inquisition.

I'd run another twin coaxial cable from your dish to the other room to experiment with the AA2 there once the new box is set up in main room.

Flex

Gerry Wicklow

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I'd run another twin coaxial cable from your dish to the other room to experiment with the AA2 there once the new box is set up in main room.

Flex

...and don't forget the spare duvet and pillow:D

Nowso

NickNickleby wrote: »

Hi Flex,

Thanks for that recommendation.
In the past I have tried Vix, OpenATV and Spark.
Spark is relatively reliable, though with the known rubbish EPG
VIX has a lovely interface and easy to use EPG, but its unstable enough for the boss to hark back to UPC
OpenATV never stayed stable long enough for me to properly configure it to my preferences.
I might give the old Hiperion a whirl.

(I know you know all about the relative benefits of the different OS's but I'm just relating my own experiences.)

On the other hand..... as you've probably guessed, a new toy certainly has attractions! The MOST important is that I could work on it and quickly switch the cables back to the AA, before the inquisition.:D

Cheers!

My box is getting a little old aswell but no point speding money and getting a worse picture on other sat boxs

i have open atv loaded on the other side but dont use it - i loaded open atv on parents 8900 aswell it worls ok once set up right -

NickNickleby

Nowso wrote: »

My box is getting a little old aswell but no point speding money and getting a worse picture on other sat boxs

i have open atv loaded on the other side but dont use it - i loaded open atv on parents 8900 aswell it worls ok once set up right -

Hi Nowso,

That's interesting..... I always thought it was my imagination, when I switched back and forth between VIX and Spark, I'd think that the picture quality in Spark was better. But, I would have thought the picture quality was all down to the hardware.

I'll have to do more investigation on the Tiviar versus the AA+ before landing out the 140euro (or whatever it is).

Nowso

the aa2 has the best Picture - spark is better than enigma 2

if your only using Fta - youd be better getting a freesat box

deezell

Nowso wrote: »

the aa2 has the best Picture - spark is better than enigma 2

if your only using Fta - youd be better getting a freesat box

The ability to watch non FTA channels (legally with card of course), was not the only reason to own a lnux box.

Full 7 day Combined epg of both terrestrial and satellite for starters, something impossible to get on licensed freesat tuner equipped TVs and combis. It takes eleven button presses on my combi tuner samsung TV to go from SEPERATE sat EPG to terrestrial, EPG, before you even choose a channel.

Streaming from the spare tuner, home or abroad, or by family abroad, and viewing different channels to the one playing locally on the box.

Setting timers remotely on phone app. like remembering to record Ireland rugby match 5 mins before kick off from my seat at the match in Wembley. Magic.

Watching box remotely on phone app including recordings, or other media stored on router storage visible to the box.

Saving recordings to network shared hdd, to be watched by DNLA equipped tv elsewhere in the house.

IPTV.

Picons in the EPG.

And finally, having something to fiddle with endlessly !

I know some of this stuff is a bit nerdy, but sit in your car parked on the coast, mirroring your phone to the cars media display, and watch a recorded or live event from a box a hundred miles away. Great buzz.

NickNickleby

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I'd run another twin coaxial cable from your dish to the other room to experiment with the AA2 there once the new box is set up in main room.

Flex

While a little awkward, its something I've considered. If I go the second-box route, then I'll have to do that. (as per my misunderstanding of the technology - now enlightened , thanks Gerry!).

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

...and don't forget the spare duvet and pillow:D

Indeed, my regular switching between VIX and Spark almost had me in the doghouse. So we're a Spark house (for now )

deezell wrote: »

The ability to watch non FTA channels (legally with card of course), was not the only reason to own a lnux box.

Full 7 day Combined epg of both terrestrial and satellite for starters, something impossible to get on licensed freesat tuner equipped TVs and combis. It takes eleven button presses on my combi tuner samsung TV to go from SEPERATE sat EPG to terrestrial, EPG, before you even choose a channel.

Streaming from the spare tuner, home or abroad, or by family abroad, and viewing different channels to the one playing locally on the box.

Setting timers remotely on phone app. like remembering to record Ireland rugby match 5 mins before kick off from my seat at the match in Wembley. Magic.

Watching box remotely on phone app including recordings, or other media stored on router storage visible to the box.

Saving recordings to network shared hdd, to be watched by DNLA equipped tv elsewhere in the house.

IPTV.

Picons in the EPG.

And finally, having something to fiddle with endlessly !

I know some of this stuff is a bit nerdy, but sit in your car parked on the coast, mirroring your phone to the cars media display, and watch a recorded or live event from a box a hundred miles away. Great buzz.

And there you have it. All the stuff that I don't do now, but regularly convince myself that I need these options (although I'd never use paytv over Satellite, sure I could just reinstate UPC or whoever they are this week, lot less hassle).

anyway, when the day comes and I start fiddling with the setup again, I'll be back to either crow about my successes, or begging for help!

Thanks guys.

gar

Right need some ideas.

Moved my box to my mother's but only one satellite feed.
I'm picking up terrestrial but no satellite. Have tested with an amiko mini and signal fine there.
Didn't have too much time to play around and test today.
When I was setting up cabelling etc I did see a spark as I was connecting cable to tuner. Box seemed to restart.
Have I blown the tuners?

Plan is to boot back into spark and test.
Do I need to disable a tuner if only one connection coming into the box?

If sat tuners defective possible to replace them?

Thanks

Gar

deezell

gar wrote: »

Right need some ideas.

Moved my box to my mother's but only one satellite feed.
I'm picking up terrestrial but no satellite. Have tested with an amiko mini and signal fine there.
Didn't have too much time to play around and test today.
When I was setting up cabelling etc I did see a spark as I was connecting cable to tuner. Box seemed to restart.
Have I blown the tuners?

Plan is to boot back into spark and test.
Do I need to disable a tuner if only one connection coming into the box?

If sat tuners defective possible to replace them?

Thanks

Gar

If you have a volt meter check that there is about 12v dc on the sat tuner input terminals, this rises to about 17v when a horizontallly polarized channel is selected. Either way, this voltage is required to power the LNB. If you shorted this, (hence the spark), you could have damaged the dc supply going up the cable. This may have a fuse internally in the box, the temporary short would have caused a reboot. It might be worth powering off the box for a few minutes in case the box has some kind of soft protection built in which needs resetting.
You would need to disable the unused tuner if you want the epg to work, as it will try using 2 or B to read the epg data

gar

Ok I'm getting all channels on spark. Measured 24v on both tuners.
In openatv I'm getting no satellite channels.
Signal is showing 75% snr but 0 ber.

Might reload my image...

Nowso

gar wrote: »

Ok I'm getting all channels on spark. Measured 24v on both tuners.
In openatv I'm getting no satellite channels.
Signal is showing 75% snr but 0 ber.

Might reload my image...

install latest version would be better if u could

deezell

gar wrote: »

Ok I'm getting all channels on spark. Measured 24v on both tuners.
In openatv I'm getting no satellite channels.
Signal is showing 75% snr but 0 ber.

Might reload my image...

Ber is Bit Error Ratio, so 0 means no or insignificant bit errors, which are corrected any up to a point by the FEC, Forward Error Correction. 75% signal to noise is v good, so whats wrong? Have you all channels on all polarities on Spark. Have you checked tuner configuration on openatv. If you haven't disabled one tuner, and only have one feed there are a number of things that can be wrong. The presence of a strong signal yet a blank screen sounds like no band switching, so the tuner has the wrong channel information for the tp it is measuring. Just try rescanning a single know tp and see if it populates last scanned.

gar

ran an extra sat cable to the tuner.

did a full scan again and getting more channels but i think im missing some transponders??? Or dish needs better alignment?

Anyone got a latest openatv image?

gar

Just an update. Adjusted the skew and all hunky dory again!

Cheers folks

NickNickleby

Well guys, "I" decided not to waste money buying a new satellite box, as "I" am quite happy to press every goddam button on the remote trying to find something to watch.

It seems my offer to get something a little more user friendly wasn't a runner, well, according to my financial adviser.

So, its time to get to grips with it properly.

In VIX, I was able to select a program and press Record, and the whole program would be recorded. My understanding of Spark, is that I press Record, and it starts recording the channel, but by default, it only records 1 hour. Am I doing it wrong? I can't see how to use the record button and modify the duration of the recording, it just goes straight into record mode.

I don't need any step-by-step help, just a pointer in the right general direction please.

Cheers

Nowso

you can set a timer in spark or u can hit record and the default setting can be set to record anything from 30 minutes to hours as

deezell

From the manual;

5.17 Recording
In full screen:
1. Press [REC] button to start recording.
2. Press [REC] button again to pause recording.
3. Press [PLAY MODE] button to enter into Record
menu.
4. Press [▲, ▼] buttons to select an option.
5. Press [ok] button to enter into Record Edit menu.
6. Press [◄, ►] buttons to change the duration.
7. Press [STOP] button to stop recording.
Note:
1. Now it support two recordings.
2. You can record radio programmes also.
3. The record banner will be display whenever pressing
[INFO] button.
4. You also can change the recording duration in
menu > System > PVR/HDD Setting > Record
setting > Duration

NickNickleby

Nowso wrote: »

you can set a timer in spark or u can hit record and the default setting can be set to record anything from 30 minutes to hours as

Thanks Nowso,eventually found that and tried it and it worked.

deezell wrote: »

From the manual;

5.17 Recording
In full screen:
1. Press [REC] button to start recording.
2. Press [REC] button again to pause recording.
3. Press [PLAY MODE] button to enter into Record
menu.
....
...

Thanks Deezell. As I said in my post, I used step one above. It would never have occurred to me in a million years to press the Play button to check recording options.

Now an excellent comeback would be for you to ask "would it occur to you in a million years to look in the manual?" :o . <== these are here because I actually have the manual. I put it away because when I got the box it was running in VIX and nothing in the manual worked the same way. If only I could remember where I put it...:pac::pac::pac:

Thanks guys, as usual you come up trumps when I'm stuck. Anyway, will now practise a few recordings so that I can plan my Christmas viewing!

edit: removed superfluous paragraph).

Cheers!

Groucho2000

Hi,

Anyone elses guide epg not downloading anymore on Spark? When its happened before it was rectified after a few days but its nearly a week now. When I do a manual download no channels or title numbers come up for the reading/parsing just blanks. It then finishes with 0 downloaded. Thanks.

Nowso

Groucho2000 wrote: »

Hi,

Anyone elses guide epg not downloading anymore on Spark? When its happened before it was rectified after a few days but its nearly a week now. When I do a manual download no channels or title numbers come up for the reading/parsing just blanks. It then finishes with 0 downloaded. Thanks.

reboot and change time to satellite

Groucho2000

Thanks Nowso. It was already set to satellite but I unset, rebooted and set again but still no joy. On further investigation I notice that the saorview epg details are actually there, they were just was not showing. But the satellite is still not. I also notice some channels have moved i.e. BBC1 and BBC2. Would these be used to bring down the EPG or is that all over the internet? Thanks.

Nowso

Groucho2000 wrote: »

Thanks Nowso. It was already set to satellite but I unset, rebooted and set again but still no joy. On further investigation I notice that the saorview epg details are actually there, they were just was not showing. But the satellite is still not. I also notice some channels have moved i.e. BBC1 and BBC2. Would these be used to bring down the EPG or is that all over the internet? Thanks.

sorry my mistake set the time to internet

lots of channels have moved - u need to retune - i can upload an aien 2 channel list - its not perfect but is updated