Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

Listen lads that are having problems with your Tiviar.
I have setup about 30 of these boxes to date. I have advised customers to buy them from sat world in Dublin as they are local so if you have a problem you don't have to send back to China. By the way, I don't know or have any business connection with sat world. Load your box with the latest Vix image. I never bother with add-ons such as picons etc as they can load the system no mater what anyone tells you. If you don't want to manually tune in the terrestrial channels then Vix comes pre-loaded with all the RTE transmitters including their transposer sites also. I have never seen this in any box having been in the business for the last 38 years. Select your local transmitter and away you go. Download crossEpg and setup it to update epg guide every night for what ever time suits you using OpenTV providers . It NEVER fails. Download any skin of your choice. I like the Vix blue HD as its almost identical to the one that's used on the Sky HD box so people changing from Sky to FTA will love it.

Any enigma2 box will have similar capabilities. For many people it comes down to best value. €277 from Satworld, with a 1TB drive fitted, is a bit steep. I would suggest the newer Zgemma H7S, at €190 from World of Satellite, is a far better buy. They are UK based, so no problems with returns.

You could use some of the money saved to fit a modern Unicable LNB. This requires only one satellite cable to your box and avoids the need for a cable farm. If using an installer to fit your system check with them the combination of Unicable LNB and dish they use.

I haven't seen any loading effect with picons, when stored to an internal HDD. However, they are a pain to keep updated and are purely eye candy. I no longer use them.

There have been problems with CrossEPG with some builds of OpenATV. However, I agree that it is the best option, at the moment. I also use EPGRefresh to ensure that the terrestrial channels are refreshed, as I am sometimes away for long periods. I use Freesat for the radio EPG, which I use a lot.

I consider ABM to be an essential plugin/add-on for keeping channels up to date, automatically. It works seamlessly with satellite and terrestrial channels. A favorites list can still be used, giving the best of all worlds.

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

correct.
Use USB stick to download your EPG guide.

I've seen many posters recommend using a USB stick, but I don't consider this necessary, where an internal HDD is used. I have installed seven Tiviar's, all working fine with the EPG stored on the HDD. From my point of view a USB stick is just another item that can break, or be accidentally unplugged.

greasepalm

Usb wont spin up like a hdd does.

Gooey Looey

The EPG is fine on the internal HDD, just not the local flash. Picons should be on a USB as these get loaded with every channel change.

hs5424

I have purchased some Zgemma H7's from World of Sat in the UK also as they were my source for the Tiviar before they ran out of stocks. I could not see any difference between the Tiviar and Zgemma with Vix installed. The remote on the Tiviar just feels better but that's just me personally. One customer that I fitted 3 X H7's for has commented that he occasionally has to power cycle the H7's when it acts up. I haven't yet had any complaints from customers with the Tiviar units. That said both boxes are great compared to the VU+ duo I had a few years back. I replaced a smd chip on one occasion and some cap's on the main board also. It seemed to work great after it was first flashed and get progressively sluggish after a few month's. I think it cost 480 euro at the time and had two sat tuners.

greasepalm

Yes had the duo but red light of death it finally ended it

hs5424

greasepalm wrote: »

Yes had the duo but red light of death it finally ended it

My red light was a smd regulator chip. I managed to repair it but 6 months later having carried out another repair I lost all faith in the box. If I wasn't a bench technician I would have been really pissed.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

Usb wont spin up like a hdd does.

Gooey Looey wrote: »

The EPG is fine on the internal HDD, just not the local flash. Picons should be on a USB as these get loaded with every channel change.

Again, using a USB key for either the EPG or Picons is just adding an additional point of failure. Even very large HDD's have spin up times less than 0.2s, so changing channels is simply not an issue. (In the builds I posted automatic time shifting is enabled, so the HDD is spinning permanently. However, that is not necessary.)

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

My red light was a smd regulator chip. I managed to repair it but 6 months later having carried out another repair I lost all faith in the box. If I wasn't a bench technician I would have been really pissed.

Yeah, working with SMT is tricky. (I did a small amount of work with them, many years ago, in a production environment.) What kind of rework station do you use?

Gerry Wicklow

NewClareman wrote: »

Again, using a USB key for either the EPG or Picons is just adding an additional point of failure. Even very large HDD's have spin up times less than 0.2s, so changing channels is simply not an issue. (In the builds I posted automatic time shifting is enabled, so the HDD is spinning permanently. However, that is not necessary.)

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

NewClareman

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

It depends on how you are configuring your stb. If you don't want "Instant Rewind", I agree with you. If you do want instant rewind there is is a continuous write/read cycle in operation, while the box is active. This will reduce the lifespan of SSD's which are still not optimal for this Use Case. In this scenario a proper video-optimised hard drive is a better option.

However, the durability of SSD's, particularly the more expensive ones, is increasing. This will likely make SSD's more suitable for all Use Cases.

MayoForSam

Evening all, my Tiviar Alpha Plus has been chugging along nicely for the past 2 years or so running one of THHB's or Clareman's Enigma2 images (can't remember which one exactly) without any major issues (except for Channel 4 EPG data not being shown).

The other evening however, it developed a problem - we had a brief power cut and the box lost power - when it re-booted, all the Saorview channels had disappeared (the UK sat channels are working fine off the other 2 tuners).

I checked the Signal Finder in the System menu and it's showing no signal at all coming through on DVB-T2, Channel is set at 21 (not sure if this is the default) and normally I would be pointed towards Maghera. The aerial is fine as I am running a pass-through to a TV out in the kitchen from the Tiviar and Saorview is working fine there.

Do I need to change the channel or should the signal bar be showing something?

hs5424

If your on Maghera you need to see ch's 46 & 48.
Manually scan both these and see what you get.

andy1249

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

Just looked , there is still a very significant difference in price

1TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 50 euros
1TB SSD averages about 150 euros

2TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 80 euros
2TB SSD averages about 250 euros

SSD's still cost more than the satellite boxes being talked about in the threads on here , and in some use cases as mentioned above , are not suitable.

Given the issues and cost , and the fact that the benefits of an SSD in terms of faster reads and writes are irrelevant in a satellite box , there seems to be no point in spending the extra money.

Gooey Looey

andy1249 wrote: »

Just looked , there is still a very significant difference in price

1TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 50 euros
1TB SSD averages about 150 euros

2TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 80 euros
2TB SSD averages about 250 euros

SSD's still cost more than the satellite boxes being talked about in the threads on here , and in some use cases as mentioned above , are not suitable.

Given the issues and cost , and the fact that the benefits of an SSD in terms of faster reads and writes are irrelevant in a satellite box , there seems to be no point in spending the extra money.

You can get a 500GB SSD on Amazon for 50 sterling

MayoForSam

hs5424 wrote: »

If your on Maghera you need to see ch's 46 & 48.
Manually scan both these and see what you get.

Didn't work, nothing picked up, signal strength is showing 0%. Could the tuner be blown?

Gerry Wicklow

I use 120Gb SSDs which cost less than €25 delivered. IMO 120Gb (30 hours HD) is more than enough for a sat box, anything more than that will probably never be watched.:) I have a NAS for long term storage. Being silent an SSD also suits a bedroom box.
At the end of the day each user will have their own wants/needs. For me SSDs are the way to go YMMV

greasepalm

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I use 120Gb SSDs which cost less than €25 delivered. IMO 120Gb (30 hours HD) is more than enough for a sat box, anything more than that will probably never be watched.:) I have a NAS for long term storage. Being silent an SSD also suits a bedroom box.
At the end of the day each user will have their own wants/needs. For me SSDs are the way to go YMMV

Dare we ask the size of your NAS box as thinking 4 or 6?

NewClareman

MayoForSam wrote: »

Evening all, my Tiviar Alpha Plus has been chugging along nicely for the past 2 years or so running one of THHB's or Clareman's Enigma2 images (can't remember which one exactly) without any major issues (except for Channel 4 EPG data not being shown).

The other evening however, it developed a problem - we had a brief power cut and the box lost power - when it re-booted, all the Saorview channels had disappeared (the UK sat channels are working fine off the other 2 tuners).

I checked the Signal Finder in the System menu and it's showing no signal at all coming through on DVB-T2, Channel is set at 21 (not sure if this is the default) and normally I would be pointed towards Maghera. The aerial is fine as I am running a pass-through to a TV out in the kitchen from the Tiviar and Saorview is working fine there.

Do I need to change the channel or should the signal bar be showing something?

I doubt that you're using one of my images as they should populate the CH4 EPG. If you are just do an update within ABM, rather than a manual tune.

There is a small chance that the power cut caused a power surge that cooked your terrestrial tuner. If you are unlucky all is not lost - you can buy a usb one that works with this box for a few euro. Another possibility is that you have a short between the core cable and braid in the coax cable. If you have a multimeter you can check with that, otherwise carefully check for a "whisker".

Good luck ��

greasepalm

I always wonder why people dont want to use home protection as could be a very expensive oversight.

NewClareman

@MayoForSam: This dongle on Amazon Uk is only £9.75, and is fine for Saorview.

If you look on the thread on leaving Sky there's a link to my images in the first post. Hope this helps ��

hs5424

MayoForSam wrote: »

Didn't work, nothing picked up, signal strength is showing 0%. Could the tuner be blown?

To be sure you need to confirm with a signal meter what level you have on the coax. If you have over 45dbuV plus then the tuner should see it. If signal is there then something happened to the tuner when the power cut. Do you have a masthead or distribution amplifier on your system. If so check this out before you start messing with the box.

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

To be sure you need to confirm with a signal meter what level you have on the coax. If you have over 45dbuV plus then the tuner should see it. If signal is there then something happened to the tuner when the power cut. Do you have a masthead or distribution amplifier on your system. If so check this out before you start messing with the box.

He knows the signal is there, he is using pass through to the kitchen.

In any case most users on this forum would not have access to specialised signal meters. If he wasn't using pass through I would have suggested that he bypass the box by plugging the lead directly into the tv.

sligojoek

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I use 120Gb SSDs which cost less than €25 delivered. IMO 120Gb (30 hours HD) is more than enough for a sat box, anything more than that will probably never be watched.:) I have a NAS for long term storage. Being silent an SSD also suits a bedroom box.
At the end of the day each user will have their own wants/needs. For me SSDs are the way to go YMMV

Sorry to be OT.

Gerry, Have you a link to one of those? Could do with jizzing up the laptop. storage space not important

Gerry Wicklow

PM sent

MayoForSam

I'm trying to re-flash my Tiviar without success. I downloaded Claremans's most recent image and extracted the 'tiviaraplus' folder onto a FAT32 newly formatted FAT32 USB stick (4 GB) - there's 3 files inside the folder on the USB stick. However when I follow the instructions for re-flashing (power off, insert USB stick into rear port, power on), the box keeps skipping the USB image and goes straight into normal re-booting. I tried with another stick, still no good.

Anyone have any ideas what might I be doing wrong?

greasepalm

Sometimes they dont see the usb and it just boots up,try another and is there any button needed to press to start the flash process.

No other usb devices plugged in.

MenloPete

The most recent image requires a different online flash method. I can't find the link right now, but I'm sure NCM has mentioned it several times.

Edit: Found it here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=112589224&postcount=981

MayoForSam

greasepalm wrote: »

Sometimes they dont see the usb and it just boots up,try another and is there any button needed to press to start the flash process.

No other usb devices plugged in.

It should prompt me to press the Power button. I've noticed there are only 3 files in the 'tiviara' folder on the USB stick - imageversion, kernel.bin and rootfs.bin.

However, when I checked another image, I noticed a 4th file called 'noforce'.

Do I need to also copy 'noforce' into the folder on the USB stick?

greasepalm

removed.

NewClareman

MayoForSam wrote: »

I'm trying to re-flash my Tiviar without success. I downloaded Claremans's most recent image and extracted the 'tiviaraplus' folder onto a FAT32 newly formatted FAT32 USB stick (4 GB) - there's 3 files inside the folder on the USB stick. However when I follow the instructions for re-flashing (power off, insert USB stick into rear port, power on), the box keeps skipping the USB image and goes straight into normal re-booting. I tried with another stick, still no good.

Anyone have any ideas what might I be doing wrong?

You now need to use flash local, as referenced by MenloPete, with newer OpenATV images.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=106783394

.???

kig

Sorry I am late to this thread, so apologise if these questions have been asked and answered already.
I am looking for a new sat receiver, but am unsure whether it does all that I want.
1. I would like to be able to record at least 2 programs at the same time, or watch one and record one - is this possible?
2. It looks like I would need to provide a hard drive for recording?
3. I also would like to be able to play/record through my old Sony DVD/HD player/recorder. I assume this is possible.
4. In the past I have had issues with my recordings onto my own external hard drive, being encrypted so that when the receiver gave up the ghost, I was unable to retrieve my recordings - is this the case with this receiver?

Gooey Looey

kig wrote: »

Sorry I am late to this thread, so apologise if these questions have been asked and answered already.
I am looking for a new sat receiver, but am unsure whether it does all that I want.
1. I would like to be able to record at least 2 programs at the same time, or watch one and record one - is this possible?
2. It looks like I would need to provide a hard drive for recording?
3. I also would like to be able to play/record through my old Sony DVD/HD player/recorder. I assume this is possible.
4. In the past I have had issues with my recordings onto my own external hard drive, being encrypted so that when the receiver gave up the ghost, I was unable to retrieve my recordings - is this the case with this receiver?

Yes to all

swoofer

I think its no for No.4, if they get an enigma2 box and use an HDD if box goes ..up they get anotherBOX and it will play recordings.

Johnboy1951

The recordings should not be encrypted when using the Tiviar or similar with a Linux OS.

kig

Can you also get the soarview channels on the same Tiviar Alpha + Plus box?

Johnboy1951

kig wrote: »

Can you also get the soarview channels on the same Tiviar Alpha + Plus box?

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=105770302&postcount=1

2 x DVB-S/2 tuners
1 x DVB-T/2 tuner

sligojoek

swoofer wrote: »

I think its no for No.4, if they get an enigma2 box and use an HDD if box goes ..up they get anotherBOX and it will play recordings.

That's right. The files can be played on anything afterwards.

teach nua

MayoForSam wrote: »

I'm trying to re-flash my Tiviar without success. I downloaded Claremans's most recent image and extracted the 'tiviaraplus' folder onto a FAT32 newly formatted FAT32 USB stick (4 GB) - there's 3 files inside the folder on the USB stick. However when I follow the instructions for re-flashing (power off, insert USB stick into rear port, power on), the box keeps skipping the USB image and goes straight into normal re-booting. I tried with another stick, still no good.

Anyone have any ideas what might I be doing wrong?

I was having same problem trying to flash new openvix. Tried 32 GB stick first, didn't work, went and bought new 8GB, that didn't work even trying in different USB ports. Went back to 32GB stick again this evening and it worked .

Also had not realised where the power switch was on the FRONT of the box (it is the white curved slash shape, the one on the left) Thanks to person who pointed this out in previous post and to everyone for help so far....onto setting box up now

endeval

Josman, did you manage to replace the power supply? I think I'm in the same situation.

thanks.
J

JOSman

With regard to the power supply, last week one of he guys on here said just replace it with a 12volt 3 amp (external) supply which I did and it did work. BUT, on standby the box was getting very warm and I decided that it's time to replace it.



I'm now looking for a replacement and the H7 looked good for a while but I do like wifi (sick of temporally running cables through the house for upgrades etc.) so that ruled it out for the present time.

greasepalm

Check out home plugs instead of wifi.

Gerry Wicklow

JOSman wrote: »

With regard to the power supply, last week one of he guys on here said just replace it with a 12volt 3 amp (external) supply which I did and it did work. BUT, on standby the box was getting very warm and I decided that it's time to replace it.



I'm now looking for a replacement and the H7 looked good for a while but I do like wifi (sick of temporally running cables through the house for upgrades etc.) so that ruled it out for the present time.

Why not use network adapter plugs instead

JOSman

Kids are using TP links.

For me, trying to keep it as simple as possible (not great on the technical side), that's why I decided to go wifi.

Gooey Looey

JOSman wrote: »

Kids are using TP links.

For me, trying to keep it as simple as possible (not great on the technical side), that's why I decided to go wifi.

You just need a third tp link homeplug

a clanger

JOSman wrote: »

With regard to the power supply, last week one of he guys on here said just replace it with a 12volt 3 amp (external) supply which I did and it did work. BUT, on standby the box was getting very warm and I decided that it's time to replace it

Was this a big job or relatively simple. It's not worth paying a pro to do this as I'd get a replacement box for roughly the same price. Anyone got some pointer with regard to which power supply and any pitfalls when changing would be appreciated.

JOSman

hs5424 wrote: »

As I don't have a Zgemma myself so I cannot compare, however when I set them up they both seemed to function the same. With all these things ''time will tell''.
By the way if anyone has any power supply problems with the Tiviar Alpha + don't bother to try and repair it. Just remove old psu and pop any 12v 5A one inside and hard wire it to the main pcb. It only delivers 12v to the main board so its a simple fix.

On the power board, each cable is marked with either 0V or 12V. Mark the cables before cutting and solder the 12V etc. I think 4 of the cables are 12V and the other 3 are the 0V side. I had bought some heat shrink in Lidl recently and that worked great.

All praise to HS5424. He's the man with the solution.

J

a clanger

JOSman wrote: »

On the power board, each cable is marked with either 0V or 12V. Mark the cables before cutting and solder the 12V etc. I think 4 of the cables are 12V and the other 3 are the 0V side. I had bought some heat shrink in Lidl recently and that worked great.

All praise to HS5424. He's the man with the solution.

J

Sorry to be pain any recommendations for a 12V PCU

Would THIS be OK ?

JOSman

Hi Clanger,

HS5424 recomends a 12V 5amp supply.


I had a 12V 3amp installed (laptop type charger) and the supply was able to handle the power to the box but I'd be inclined to go a little higher on the amp side.

J