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

exoteric

Hey guys, just wondering if you know where or how to change the size of the swap file on the Amiko Alien 2 running open atv 4.2 image?
Cheers

deezell

TheChevron wrote: »

Nice one, let me know when you have it up and running.

Installed enigma-tv this evening, everything worked first time. enter box ip, it found it, select channels, play stream on the server, then turn on stream from the server. I have yet to install the android app, so I just put in the stream url into vlc on my phone, up pops the compressed stream, very watchable at 200kbps. Turned on the Web interface on the server, having first harvested a selection of bouquets to a file with just a few box ticks and a click, then opened the ip of the pc on my phone and there's a Web interfaces where you can set the bouquet, channel, press play and in comes the stream. It just worked. I port forwarded the Web and stream ports (80 and 8080) to the outside ip and tested, it worked as expected. It's one cool piece of software, it would be brilliant if it could be ported to a small device like a rasberry pi, just have it running in the background. It does need a pc to left running which may be an issue, but first impressions are excellent. Though it it has apps for pc, iPhone, Android, even an Enigma plugin to watch the stream on another enigma box, it can accessed from any old browser. Absolutely excellent 6 euros worth.

Apogee

Zardoz wrote: »

Here you go
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3zog11tj5qcozi/AutomaticVolumeAdjustment.zip?dl=0
Put it in usr/lib/enigma2/python/plugins/systemplugins

Did you make sure that you changed the patch files attributes to 755 ?
The modified rcS file has 3 lines of additional code so you could try adding that to the default rcs file in v4.5 as it may be different to v4

/usr/bin/amixer -c 1 set Analog playback '60%' unmute &
/usr/bin/amixer -c 1 set SPDIF playback '60%' unmute &
/usr/bin/amixer -c 1 set HDMI playback '60%' unmute &

@Zardoz - could you please re-upload this file? It is no longer available on Dropbox.

Thanks!

Imstuck

Could anybody tell me why a channel is not available to view, (also no listing on epg) yet if I press ok and then red button to view 'all', where various options of same channel are available, if I choose a different version of same channel I can view that one?
Seems strange.

mass_debater

Imstuck wrote: »

Could anybody tell me why a channel is not available to view, (also no listing on epg) yet if I press ok and then red button to view 'all', where various options of same channel are available, if I choose a different version of same channel I can view that one?
Seems strange.

It's probably changed frequency, the remnants you see are the old frequency. It's an ongoing thing, channels get rearranged and also the satellites themselves have been replaced. Lots of channels have more than one listing, various regions on different transponders.

You should update your satellites.xml and do a full scan every so often with clear before scan enabled. This will remove all the remnants. Then run Autobouquets

Imstuck

Thanks for that, I guessed as much as I ran autobouqets and it sorted it for me.
However my mate, (who made me aware of this) ran autobouqets on his and it hasn't sorted it, strange one!!

mass_debater

Imstuck wrote: »

Thanks for that, I guessed as much as I ran autobouqets and it sorted it for me.
However my mate, (who made me aware of this) ran autobouqets on his and it hasn't sorted it, strange one!!

Ninja edited my post above. Do this

Your mate may not have Nit scan enabled in autobouquets

Imstuck

Could I update XML file using webif or do I need to ftp?
Can't see clear before scan in autobouqets ....?

He does have nit scan selected also

Thanks for reply!!

mass_debater

Imstuck wrote: »

Could I update XML file using webif or do I need to ftp?
Can't see clear before scan in autobouqets ....?

He does have nit scan selected also

Thanks for reply!!

Clear before scan is in service searching, it pulls down a full scan of channels and adds them to all channels, but does not affect your bouquets. You'll need to FTP the .xml, you could use dreambox edit if you don't fancy using filezilla

Zardoz

Apogee wrote: »

@Zardoz - could you please re-upload this file? It is no longer available on Dropbox.

Thanks!

I uploaded it to this forum too last year
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90723300&postcount=264

I'll fix the Dropbox link later
This is the link to the top directory of the Alien 2 repository I maintain,the audio fix is under Hyperion 4 plugins/fixes/mods
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rgqdxriaivl9v3e/AACtiW-BDsbi0cckTxIzJEJJa?dl=0

I tried to reorganise the file directory a while back but it has resulted in a few files missing so I will try to undo them

Zardoz

In case anyone is interested you can use service named picons on the Alien 2

Previously Picons were linked to channels via the service reference , and when channels changed frequencies the channel reference also changed so the picons were no longer linked.
Renaming picons has been a long standing menial task.

From Apollo 77 and PLI images after 08/11/2014 the picon code has been adapted to do away with the dependence on service reference. Picons can now be displayed based on the channel name subject to modified naming parameters.
This will mean the picon makers can now concentrate on making picons and not have to bother about keeping up with service reference changes.

On images released before 08/11/2014 and others like Hyperion 4.5 you will need to modify the picon renderer file by replacing it
Just ftp the following file into /usr/lib/enigma2/python/Components/Renderer/ and ensure it has 644 properties

The only drawback of these new picons are that Cool TV guide can not display them as the plugin isnt designed to do so yet.

I've uploaded Rats/Snapman's Service Named Picons here for anyone who wants to try them
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hea7zqiwqzd3ahc/AAB5wru8dVlocnPGH3XRkxnga?dl=0

FlexMcMurphy

Gents (and ladies?)

We were recently talking about transcoding media streams from Alien 2 for broadcast to internet. A few people had mentioned that there are receivers out there that can do hardware transcoding in the box. I think this would be ideal as it would cut out the need for work-arounds (which are cool) such as VLC and enigma-tv running on a Pi but are nonetheless a bit of hassle.

I've had the Alien2 for two years now and its brilliant value for money considering everything it can do however time will come when I'd like something even better.

What I wish the Alien2 could do but can't:
1. Quad tuner.. so I can watch and record any combination of satellite and terrestrial channel at the same time. This is no-longer possible with Saorview channels since RTE 1 and say TV3 are now on separate MUXs.
2. Stream directly from the receiver to the net such that I can dial up and down the bit rate to whatever I need to suit my crappy eircom broadband upload bandwidth. In other words... on-board adjustable hardware transcoding.
3. Faster boot-up time.
4. MIPS based broadcom processor with more RAM for better all round performance.. zappier menu changing and epg display, support for installation of more plugins and greater stability of plugins etc..
5. Option to install a SATA hard drive to allow for more simultaneous recordings and better performance of pause-live-TV feature.

I did a bit of googling to find out what other boxes are on the market. Here are a few that have all the above features:

Xtrend ET10000
GiGaBlue-HD-QUAD-PLUS
Opticum AX Quadbox HD 2400 << eBay Listing >>
dreambox dm7080

Let's say money isn't a show-stopper. Which of these receivers would people like to have the most and why? Are there any features the Alien 2 doesn't have that you wish it did (and is available on other receivers already on the market)?

Cheers,

Flex

Slevster

The dreambox reads pretty good. Money no object, seems like a winner
Its extra ram and processing power should make things satisfyingly zippy, I would imagine.
The built in hard drive would keep things tidy.
But it ain't cheap (base price close to €700 plus extra for tuners/drives . gives a bit of perpestive on the aa2 price)

I would like the aa2 to be faster/ better able to handle beefy plugins. Minor gripe, but the dots do cause a wee intake of breath sometimes.
And a better remote sensor.So that you don't have to be a sniper with your aim at the box

deezell

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

Gents (and ladies?)

We were recently talking about transcoding media streams from Alien 2 for broadcast to internet. A few people had mentioned that there are receivers out there that can do hardware transcoding in the box. I think this would be ideal as it would cut out the need for work-arounds (which are cool) such as VLC and enigma-tv........

Flex

Only the beefier box's have the power to transcode, it's quite a task, my oldish laptop was showing processes at 70-100% during an SD transcode and stream at 300kB, 25% scaling. Would be nice to do this onboard, but it's like buying a box with a pc built in practicalally. The Rte record issue is not an issue if you have oscam, you can get Rte from astra and record it while watching saorview, indeed, you have three tuner sources of Rte. Internal HD would be good, but self fit might be a pain if you didn't get it right. Built in wireless should be on the list, dongles are 5€ retail, so what, maybe 2€ on the manufacturing cost to include wifi. I find the remote fine, maybe I have a good aim ( wife shaking head) or perhaps your box receiver is in direct light, this can compromise sensitivity to the Ir signal. Mines a Sab version of the AA2, I really can't fault it.

Zardoz

Slevster wrote: »

The dreambox reads pretty good. Money no object, seems like a winner
Its extra ram and processing power should make things satisfyingly zippy, I would imagine.
The built in hard drive would keep things tidy.
But it ain't cheap (base price close to €700 plus extra for tuners/drives . gives a bit of perpestive on the aa2 price)

The Dreambox is crazy money,its a non runner for most people,its actually 700 euro with only 2 tuners ,an extra two tuners will cost you 90-150 euro :eek:
Dream Multimedia have priced themselves out of the market over the last few years .

And a better remote sensor.So that you don't have to be a sniper with your aim at the box

I have no issues with the remote on the Alien 2 or Alien 1.
The newer eps settings have remedied the older issues.
Bear in mind certain skins cause poorer remote response,I find PLI-HD the best ,its very smooth.

3. Faster boot-up time.

I dont see that as a big issue really ,the Alien 2 boots in around 90 seconds ,thats acceptable for me .
My Dreambox 800 takes around 4-5 minutes to boot.

1. Quad tuner.. so I can watch and record any combination of satellite and terrestrial channel at the same time. This is no-longer possible with Saorview channels since RTE 1 and say TV3 are now on separate MUXs.

Again not really an issue if you have a Saorview enabled tv ,you can loop the saorview signal out of the box and into the tv ,thus giving you 4 tuners,2 Sat and 2 Saorview.

More Ram ,an internal Sata drive ,and a faster cpu are the big things a more powerful receiver would bring ,as well as the transcoding option.
Ram is the big issue with the Alien 2,it just doesnt have enough and a Swap file is a poor compromise.
Even an extra 128Mb of Ram would make a huge difference ,more demanding plugins and multiple recordings would run much smoother.

I did a bit of googling to find out what other boxes are on the market. Here are a few that have all the above features:

Xtrend ET10000
GiGaBlue-HD-QUAD-PLUS
Opticum AX Quadbox HD 2400 << eBay Listing >>
dreambox dm7080

You could also add the Vu+ Duo 2 ,Vu+'s flagship model which has come down alot in price,its actually only 50 euro more than the Vu+ Solo 2 now .

The Opticum AX Quadbox HD 2400 is the same receiver as the
Mutant HD2400 btw .

There are a few Triple tuners out there like the Technomate Nano 3T and Edision OS3+ that can use a usb Saorview tuner so it could be a quad tuner .
These receivers do not have hardware transcoding though ,software transcoding could be a possibility down the line but thats nowhere near as efficient.

Apogee

I'm trying to install Hyperion 4.5 from scratch. How do I remove all of the channels that are preloaded into the image?

I've tried deleting them via Dreambox edit, and I've also tried deleting lamedb/userbouquets files in /etc/enigma2, but the damn things keep re-appearing.

If I delete the entire contents of /etc/enigma2, then the box goes into continuous load/reboot loop.

Factory reset doesn't clear them either.

Apogee

Zardoz wrote: »

I uploaded it to this forum too last year
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=90723300&postcount=264

I'll fix the Dropbox link later
This is the link to the top directory of the Alien 2 repository I maintain,the audio fix is under Hyperion 4 plugins/fixes/mods
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rgqdxriaivl9v3e/AACtiW-BDsbi0cckTxIzJEJJa?dl=0

I tried to reorganise the file directory a while back but it has resulted in a few files missing so I will try to undo them

Thanks - much appreciated!

Joeface

So I used champions image....thanks its pretty damn good. using SAB unix triple

Got my channel list the way I wanted, have got timers and recording to my NAS set up.

My issue is I cannot seem to play back a recording using the sab remote. No idea why I cannot find what I am suppose to do.

If I use my tablet I can see the recording and make it play. I can stop that with the remote and this brings up a "planner" menu......how in Zeus butt hole do I bring this up with the SAB remote. 😀😀

mass_debater

Joeface wrote: »

So I used champions image....thanks its pretty damn good. using SAB unix triple

Got my channel list the way I wanted, have got timers and recording to my NAS set up.

My issue is I cannot seem to play back a recording using the sab remote. No idea why I cannot find what I am suppose to do.

If I use my tablet I can see the recording and make it play. I can stop that with the remote and this brings up a "planner" menu......how in Zeus butt hole do I bring this up with the SAB remote. 😀😀

The play button should open recordings, if it doesn't navigate to /hdd/movie

taytobreath

Could anyone tell me what numbers i put in for the enigma tv app i downloaded on my phone. server url i assume is the ip of the box,
web port 80?
stream port 8080?
password... whats the password?
stream type... etc etc
i cant connect though

FlexMcMurphy

I haven't tried it yet but the first thing would be to look at the help videos on the developers website.

Flex

championc

taytobreath wrote: »

Could anyone tell me what numbers i put in for the enigma tv app i downloaded on my phone. server url i assume is the ip of the box,
web port 80?
stream port 8080?
password... whats the password?
stream type... etc etc
i cant connect though

URL = Box IP (IP on it's own - without any http://)
Port = Most likely 80 unless you changed it - see post listed in Webinterface or OPenWebif Plugin, whichever you have active
Stream Port = Normally 8001

It shouldn't be asking for a password.

Personally, I use DreamDroid app.


P.S. Anyone with any feedback on my OpenATV v5.0 Image ?


** The Ideal beginners image - everything you could possibly need all setup and working **
** See Post #2 of this thread or the Readme file in the download directory **

_______________________________________________
Champions OpenATV AA2/7162 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/j8y5fW

Champions OpenAR-P AA2/7162 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/2DuVm0
Champions OpenAR-P SAB Solo/8900 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/up5tIu

deezell

taytobreath wrote: »

Could anyone tell me what numbers i put in for the enigma tv app i downloaded on my phone. server url i assume is the ip of the box,
web port 80?
stream port 8080?
password... whats the password?
stream type... etc etc
i cant connect though

Enigma-tv app is only for use with Enigma-tv server, which must be downloaded, installed on a PC, configured and licensed (6€). Its for playing the transcoded streams from the PC. The server connects to the box, transcodes the streams to low bit rate and delivers them to rhe app, or to any web browser.Dreamdroid app is for direct connection to the sat box, and plays the full bandwidth streams from it. When you have installed the Enigma-tv server and connected it to the sat box ip and ports, it can then be switched to Web server mode and the app ( or a browser) will connect on default port 80, stream on 8080. Password and ports can all be set in the server.

FlexMcMurphy

Zardoz, Slevster and Deezell..

I appreciate the feedback. I suppose it's a bit like splitting hairs to debate each little thing when overall the Alien2 is grand. It's a bit like wanting a Beemer when a Ford Fiesta will do the job. In a few years time the specs of the current high-end boxes will be standard on the budget models so at least it's interesting to see where combo-boxes are headed.

To play devils advocate:

Boot up time:
The boot up time for the Dreambox 7080 is reported to be 15 seconds. Sure I can wait a little longer but 15 seconds is the max I should have to wait.

USB Tuners:
I admit the need for two terrestrial tuners is marginal but it's about choice and flexibility. People who only receive FTA channels through their receiver won't have the option to use the satellite tuners to record Saorview channels. If you wanted to record RTE 1 and stream TV3 having a saorview tuner in your TV won't help.

The Vu+ Duo 2 seems to have it all but falls down because it doesn't have any terrestrial tuners. You can add one internal but currently that's only a DVB-T tuner so no RTE1. I don't fancy having to buy USB tuners either, channel changing is said to be slower with them, they get in the way of other connectors on the box so you might need extension usb cables which can't be too long and they are not all compatible with all images.

Wifi in the box:
I haven't ever used wifi with the Alien2 though I do stream using wifi from the router. I'd rather wire up network cable or resort to homeplugs than ever rely on wifi to the box.

SatShop.fi have a wide range of powerful receivers and you can configure tuners anyway you like. The Golden Interstar Xpeed LX3 with four internal tuners (2xSat and 2xTerrestrial), hardware transcoding and a 1TB internal SATA HD comes to €455. That's about thrice the price of an Alien 2 but it would give a better all round experience. I suppose you could get support from any MIPS based receiver forums running enigma2 images.

I think the option to stream TV channels and recordings from your receiver over the net to your smartphone or any other connected device regardless of where you are is a feature many would embrace if they knew it was available and easy to set up. If a budget receiver doesn't come out sooner than later with these features then I'll probably just shell out for a more powerful box.

Flex

Slevster

Flex, did you mention that your box was on the blink, a few pages back?

Zardoz

Apogee wrote: »

I'm trying to install Hyperion 4.5 from scratch. How do I remove all of the channels that are preloaded into the image?

I've tried deleting them via Dreambox edit, and I've also tried deleting lamedb/userbouquets files in /etc/enigma2, but the damn things keep re-appearing.

If I delete the entire contents of /etc/enigma2, then the box goes into continuous load/reboot loop.

Factory reset doesn't clear them either.

Yeah that can be an issue allright.
I think I deleted them manually via the remote ,I just selected satellites in the channel guide and deleted the unwanted ones .

Snake Plisken

So lads, I currently have a clone Dreambox 800SE and this interests me with the terrestrial tuner, just wonder if this would be a decent step up from the 800SE? I'd take it there is decent image support based on this thread.

deezell

Snake Plisken wrote: »

So lads, I currently have a clone Dreambox 800SE and this interests me with the terrestrial tuner, just wonder if this would be a decent step up from the 800SE? I'd take it there is decent image support based on this thread.

Go for it, minimal investment, maximum fun. I take it you have enigma on the db, so you're well familiar. Lots of images and support here.

FlexMcMurphy

Slevster wrote: »

Flex, did you mention that your box was on the blink, a few pages back?

Nope, just thinking out loud about what alternatives are out there.

Flex

Zardoz

Snake Plisken wrote: »

So lads, I currently have a clone Dreambox 800SE and this interests me with the terrestrial tuner, just wonder if this would be a decent step up from the 800SE? I'd take it there is decent image support based on this thread.

Do you not use a usb terrestrial tuner with the Dm800se ?

The Dm800se is a nice receiver ( I had one ) but getting a bit old.
Its quite slow to boot ,the Alien 2 is much faster.

The Alien 2 has twice the amount of flash so you can use more plugins if you wish 128Mb vs 64MB .
No need to use plugins like PluginSkinMover or FlashExpander.
Both receivers have the same amount of Ram .
The sd picture quality on the Alien 2 is better than the Dm800se.

The 800se allows an internal hard drive so recording performance may be better and the audio levels on the Dm800se are more uniform .
The Dm800se has 2 usb connectors on the back ,the Alien only 1 on back ,one on front.

Overall ,I'd recommend the Alien 2