Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

Gerry Wicklow

@Rosser by far the hardest bit to get used to is the jargon
Even if the box is not setup, it will "talk you through" the basics. Most of it is simply clicking YES

vimes

Still happy with the tiviar box & THHB image. Been working my way through this epically long thread and…

Noticed that the screenshots of the EPG in THHB posts shows the little icons in the EPG. My EPG doesn't have those - i tried setting the EPG to "Picon and service name" but all that does is pad out the name of the channel.

Any ideas?

The high horse brigade

vimes wrote: »

Still happy with the tiviar box & THHB image. Been working my way through this epically long thread and…

Noticed that the screenshots of the EPG in THHB posts shows the little icons in the EPG. My EPG doesn't have those - i tried setting the EPG to "Picon and service name" but all that does is pad out the name of the channel.

Any ideas?

Do you have picons at all? You need to put picons on a usb key or on the hdd did you do this?

vimes

I have the picons when I'm in the channel and hit (frinstance) info.

I don't have them at all in the EPG. They're on the hdd (under `/mnt/hdd/picon`)

I've tried re-downloading the crossEPG &c, but they don't appear at all in the EPG

The high horse brigade

vimes wrote: »

I have the picons when I'm in the channel and hit (frinstance) info.

I don't have them at all in the EPG. They're on the hdd (under `/mnt/hdd/picon`)

I've tried re-downloading the crossEPG &c, but they don't appear at all in the EPG

I'm not at the box, I'll have a look tomorrow when I'm in front of it

vimes

Yerra, never mind.

Gave it the old I.T. Crowd try. Works perfectly now.

The high horse brigade

vimes wrote: »

Yerra, never mind.

Gave it the old I.T. Crowd try. Works perfectly now.

I uploaded a fresh updated set of picons last week if you're using the old set

NewClareman

SportsJess wrote: »

Hi All,

Just wondering whether anyone has come across the 'techkings.org' site, and has experience of using it ? Is it safe to use/download images from?

They have a new Sky Q skin here: http://www.techkings.org/threads/skyq-skin.89189/

Would this skin work on Tiviar AP OpenATV 6.2 - see installation instructions on above link? and if so any advice for/against?

Thanks

I moved your post here, as the other thread is intended solely for my custom build.

I have used the site and found it an excellent source of technical information.
I have no reason to be concerned about downloads - worst case you can reflash your backed up image.

As a general note, the skins are what make any generic image user-friendly. If I had the expertise, or were sufficiently motivated, I would have used that approach to creating a custom implementation.

In relation to the Sky Q skin, I can see why it might appeal to users. However, I strongly suspect that it breaches copyright, so won't comment further.

SportsJess

Brilliant @NewClareman - much appreciated. My apology for posting on the other thread - I am still not familiar with how Boards works or its organisation - first time I join any form of on-line forum !

NewClareman

SportsJess wrote: »

Brilliant @NewClareman - much appreciated. My apology for posting on the other thread - I am still not familiar with how Boards works or its organisation - first time I join any form of on-line forum !

No apology needed, you didn’t break any rules. This has always been the main Tiviar Alphaplus thread. I started the other one to help people who wanted a straightforward replacement for pay tv.

It’s only fair to the people who started this thread that the general topics remain here.

spooner_j

Has anyone had issues with Channel 4 HD and the EPG? It was working perfectly using CrossEPG up until about a week ago. Now I've no EPG for just this channel, all of my other favourites working just fine. Any ideas on how to fix this?

NewClareman

spooner_j wrote: »

Has anyone had issues with Channel 4 HD and the EPG? It was working perfectly using CrossEPG up until about a week ago. Now I've no EPG for just this channel, all of my other favourites working just fine. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Just checked, mine is fine. Did you try downloading the epg again?

spooner_j

NewClareman wrote: »

Just checked, mine is fine. Did you try downloading the epg again?

Yeah went in and hit download manually and then force reload, didnt make any difference. Odd that its just one channel that isnt working. Annoyingly its one of the main ones I watch...

The high horse brigade

spooner_j wrote: »

Has anyone had issues with Channel 4 HD and the EPG? It was working perfectly using CrossEPG up until about a week ago. Now I've no EPG for just this channel, all of my other favourites working just fine. Any ideas on how to fix this?

This can sometimes happen after a frequency change if the channel isn't in all channels. Do a full scan of the satellite with clear before scan enabled and then run crossepg again

spooner_j

The high horse brigade wrote: »

This can sometimes happen after a frequency change if the channel isn't in all channels. Do a full scan of the satellite with clear before scan enabled and then run crossepg again

Thanks, will give that a try

Gerry Wicklow

spooner_j wrote: »

Has anyone had issues with Channel 4 HD and the EPG? It was working perfectly using CrossEPG up until about a week ago. Now I've no EPG for just this channel, all of my other favourites working just fine. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Are you sure crossEPG is set to use openTV and you are not just relying on the Freesat option. Freesat doesn't carry CH4 HD EPG.

spooner_j

The high horse brigade wrote: »

This can sometimes happen after a frequency change if the channel isn't in all channels. Do a full scan of the satellite with clear before scan enabled and then run crossepg again

Did this last night and it seemed to sort it, Channel 4 HD working again. Thanks for the tip!

The high horse brigade

spooner_j wrote: »

Did this last night and it seemed to sort it, Channel 4 HD working again. Thanks for the tip!

I do this every few weeks myself

john_doe.

Was wondering how to change name of the box?

I have two boxes, one shows up as "tiviaraplus"

The other is not registering on the network correctly and is coming up as "IEEE Registration Authority" when it attempts to do so.

I took a backup from 1st box, so was wondering are they conflicting in some way.

The high horse brigade

john_doe. wrote: »

Was wondering how to change name of the box?

I have two boxes, one shows up as "tiviaraplus"

The other is not registering on the network correctly and is coming up as "IEEE Registration Authority" when it attempts to do so.

I took a backup from 1st box, so was wondering are they conflicting in some way.

Blue button -> mounts -> mount manager -> change hostname

john_doe.

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Blue button -> mounts -> mount manager -> change hostname

Thanks got the second box up and running
It can access the 1st boxes harddrive and view all the recordings from it. It should also allow recordings go to a central harddrive.

Hit one snag, the 1st box was frozen at 4am today when I came down and I had to do a physical reboot, I'm guessing the other box accessing it's harddrive is causing some issue.

TheQuietBeatle

Does anyone have a YouTube video showing this in action with the set up template from Boards.ie users?

The high horse brigade

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

Does anyone have a YouTube video showing this in action with the set up template from Boards.ie users?

Not that I know of but there's plenty of screenshots here with my image
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057827739/11/#post106783394

swoofer

now thhb this is your chance do a video and save all those questions? great work and works like a dream.

Tigerandahalf

@thhb
Just looking at your images there again. Is the saorview epg integrated into the satellite one or are they under separate headings.

I thought you could see all channels on the one epg?

The high horse brigade

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

@thhb
Just looking at your images there again. Is the saorview epg integrated into the satellite one or are they under separate headings.

I thought you could see all channels on the one epg?

They are under separate bouquets as that's the way I want them. I have both together in favourites but the favourites bouquet doesn't update after frequency changes, only the Saorview and Freesat bouquets update. I could easily add the Saorview channels to the Freesat entertainment bouquet but they would be removed every time the box does an automatic autobouquetmaker scan (set to nightly) to edit any frequency changes

Tigerandahalf

This is not a bad setup. If you have a smart tv you could have all the apps like rte player, iplayer, itv hub, all4, c5 player, uktv play, netflix and amazon. I have all the previous on an LG smart tv.

Just missing eir sports, now tv and perhaps the tg4 player, which can all be accessed via chromecast.

The high horse brigade

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

This is not a bad setup. If you have a smart tv you could have all the apps like rte player, iplayer, itv hub, all4, c5 player, uktv play, netflix and amazon. I have all the previous on an LG smart tv.

Just missing eir sports, now tv and perhaps the tg4 player, which can all be accessed via chromecast.

The main issue I have with smart TV's is that they are painfully slow when compared to an half decent Android box like a MiBox. You are also at the mercy of the TV manufacturer for app updates, a lot of then have a very poor record.

I do pretty much everything on my Shield and have a Tiviar for live terrestrial and Satellite TV viewing and recording. This setup is probably the best setup combination you can have.

macthaidhg

I got the Tiviar set up using high horse brigade's image my brother's house (Galway) and replaced a Sky HD Box. Works perfectly (I think he is only missing Channel 4 HD)... thanks HHB! I'm just setting up another one now in my other brother's house (Dublin) but running into some issues (also replacing Sky HD box). There are no stations working after loading high horse brigade's image. Then I ran a scan on Tuner A and found something like 110 stations but only a few show up after the scan - they're mostly weird stations that I never heard of (shopping and middle eastern stations). I think Challenge is the only one of any use! Any idea before I look into this a bit further?

I had a look at the frequency information from the "Free-To-Air Tuning Guide" on boards and entered the parameters for BBC 1 HD into "Signal finder" in Setup. There is a green tick in the "Lock" checkbox. Does this mean anything?

greasepalm

Was his old box a sky q which uses a different lnb or the standard sky + hd with twin feeds which is pointed at 28.2,recheck your settings on the e2 box.

john_doe.

Got second box up and running now, with shared hardrive.

Have one in kitchen with 2 sat tuners and Saorview and a 500gb harddrive.

Have a second one in living room with 1 sat tuner and saorview.

The second box records to the first box harddrive and can view all the recordings from first box on it easily from "play list"

They are connected via wired Ethernet.

The thread below was invaluable:
http://www.techkings.org/threads/sharing-hdd-between-two-zgemma-h2ss-how-to.100073/

Also thanks to all those who helped here.
Have the boxes running dreamplex, e2iplayer .
Really impressive box, learning all time it can do more.

tinner777

lads, lost a few radio channels today, tried doing a service scan, nothing happens, hangs, and when i try to stop it, the box crashes??
high horse, i'm using your image

Gerry Wicklow

What channels are you missing? It is VERY unlikely that the broadcasters made any changes at this time of year unless they are gone bust.

tinner777

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

What channels are you missing? It is VERY unlikely that the broadcasters made any changes at this time of year unless they are gone bust.

radio x, the only bloody radio station i listen to :rolleyes:

Gerry Wicklow

Chugging away nicely on my box. Same TP as "My Channel TV"

11552 H 22000 5/6 DVB-S QPSK

tinner777

back now

Getting this for my aunt and she's 2 hours away so I have a few questions because I don't want to have to drive down in case something goes wrong.

She has only 1 cable for sat and 1 for soarview ,no dual lnb, can she record something on Sat but still watch a saor view channel at the same time ? Does the box lock to a channel if your recording it, i.e if she's recording BBC and hits change channel to itv by mistake will this stop the recording of BBC

Big question , I'm going to use the image kindly provided in this thread, I'm going to put all the channels in order in a favourite bouquet, what happens when they change frequency, do they auto update? If I have to teach her how to rescan when it does the rescan will the favourites bouquet auto update to the new frequency or will I have to go manually adding them again for her?

Also does the cross epg data overwrite itself on the hard drive when it updates or does the data file build up over time and you have to manually delete it

Thanks

The high horse brigade

Ahmad Colossal Rhino wrote: »

Getting this for my aunt and she's 2 hours away so I have a few questions because I don't want to have to drive down in case something goes wrong.

She has only 1 cable for sat and 1 for soarview , can she record something on Sat but still watch a saor view channel at the same time ? Does the box lock to a channel if your recording it, i.e if she's recording BBC and hits change channel to itv by mistake will this stop the recording of BBC

Big question , I'm going to use the image kindly provided in this thread, I'm going to put all the channels in order in a favourite bouquet, what happens when they change frequency, do they auto update? If I have to teach her how to rescan when it does the rescan will the favourites bouquet auto update to the new frequency or will I have to go manually adding them again for her?

Also does the cross epg data overwrite itself on the hard drive when it updates or does the data file build up over time and you have to manually delete it

Thanks

Recordings lock the tuner. Be sure to disable the second satellite tuner.

Channels in a favourites bouquet do not update. For this reason it's better not to use it, it's better for her to get used to separate Saorview and Freesat bouquets that update.

Crossepg updates daily

Thanks, just reading the whole thread, so am I right in understanding she can't pause saorview? I know it only has one tuner but surely it should just start to record once you press pause..

I presume her only having one sat feed and one terrestrial feed won't affect her ability to record if she's out of the house for example, she just won't be able to watch another channel while recording one

The high horse brigade

Ahmad Colossal Rhino wrote: »

Thanks, just reading the whole thread, so am I right in understanding she can't pause saorview? I know it only has one tuner but surely it should just start to record once you press pause..

I presume her only having one sat feed and one terrestrial feed won't affect her ability to record if she's out of the house for example, she just won't be able to watch another channel while recording one

You can pause Saorview, you just can't pause or record and watch another Saorview channel. With only having one satellite feed you're going to have the same thing on satellite. You will be able to record on Saorview and watch satellite and vice versa

Johnboy1951

The high horse brigade wrote: »

You can pause Saorview, you just can't pause or record and watch another Saorview channel. With only having one satellite feed you're going to have the same thing on satellite. You will be able to record on Saorview and watch satellite and vice versa

Just to clarify ....... you cannot record one channel on a mux (or transponder), and view another channel on that same mux (or transponder), with only one tuner of the required type?

I expected that all channels on the tuned mux/transponder would be available to view or record.

The high horse brigade

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Just to clarify ....... you cannot record one channel on a mux (or transponder), and view another channel on that same mux (or transponder), with only one tuner of the required type?

I expected that all channels on the tuned mux/transponder would be available to view or record.

Sorry, of course, you can view or record any other channel on the same mux or transponder

NewClareman

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Recordings lock the tuner. Be sure to disable the second satellite tuner.

You don’t need to disable the second tuner.
Use the loop through cable supplied with the box

Then go into Service searching => Tuner Configuration => Tuner B => Configuration mode: Loop through to , Connected to: Tuner A.

This gives a little more flexibility as it increases the number of channels available with one cable.

greasepalm

I dont know about the loop through cable on sat but i have used it on cable tuners.
I grew up with 1 feed= 1 tuner or twin feeds for 2 like the old sky + hd.

The high horse brigade

NewClareman wrote: »

You don’t need to disable the second tuner.
Use the loop through cable supplied with the box

Then go into Service searching => Tuner Configuration => Tuner A => Configuration mode: Loop through to , Connected to: Tuner B.

This gives a little more flexibility as it increases the number of channels available with one cable.

I'd be curious as to how that would work with autobouquetmaker and crossepg that likes to user the second tuner should you be watching or have something recording at the time they run

greasepalm

I like to have multiple feeds in rooms even 3 sat feeds on 28.2 as using 2 on enigma2 box and other feed on a combo box,not counting my motorised feeds.Think ahead if you are going to update box and have all cables done at the same time.

NewClareman

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I'd be curious as to how that would work with autobouquetmaker and crossepg that likes to user the second tuner should you be watching or have something recording at the time they run

If a recording is active, CrossEPG shows a message on screen that a recording is active and that the EPG download failed.

I’m not currently using ABM, but you could run a quick test yourself, if you’re concerned. (I would expect the test to be successful.)

greasepalm

I would expect it to fail as recording takes priorty over epg or abm or switching channels.
Single fed tuner box would go blank when abm would run and when finished picture would resume.

epg and abm scans are normally set to run when your in bed.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

I would expect it to fail as recording takes priorty over epg or abm or switching channels.
Single fed tuner box would go blank when abm would run and when finished picture would resume.

epg and abm scans are normally set to run when your in bed.

Agree with all of the above - scans are typically scheduled for night time and recording configured to take priority.

The concern expressed by THHB, and others previously, was whether the plugins would exhibit expected behavior, when the loop cable was used.
I did a quick test to show that CrossEPG worked correctly - i.e. a recording, which I have configured to take priority, blocked the EPG download; without causing an unexpected issue.

Similarly I would expect ABM to be blocked if a recording was running, else an automatic channel change, just as you describe. I don’t use ABM, but it should be trivial to test this.

TheQuietBeatle

Is Acestream possible on this box?