Cost-Effective, High-Functionality, User-Friendly Replacement for Pay TV

NewClareman

Shefwedfan wrote: »

https://www.amazon.co.uk/one-Excellent-Performance-Digital-Freeview/dp/B00KV9C8LY/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=tv+aerial&qid=1574447187&sr=8-3

Would this work for Saorview? Thanks

It’s way off topic for this thread, anyway...

If your Saorview signal is strong enough, it will.

(It won’t work better than cheaper alternatives, some of which can be bought in the likes of Deals. However, it has the advantage of being easy to hide.)

greasepalm

It lists DVB/T/T2 so i would think yes.

Shefwedfan

NewClareman wrote: »

It’s way off topic for this thread, anyway...

If your Saorview signal is strong enough, it will.

(It won’t work better than cheaper alternatives, some of which can be bought in the likes of Deals. However, it has the advantage of being easy to hide.)

Thanks, sorry I know off topic but want to buy the box so said I would post here :P

Barr

An update with my box for anyone interested . A couple of pages back I was having trouble with my HDD.

I bought mine from Kuul Media and was still under warranty .They wanted to look at the box remotely to verify the issue.

He couldn’t find the mount setting in NCM image so a Merlin Image (I think) was installed .

In fairness to Kuul , he took screen shots on the old image so all the settings etc were transferred.

Now I think I must have some kind of hybrid image between the two. The layout of my Tiviar is exactly the same as a Q box . All the channels are grouped like the previous system .


He took about 4 hours in total updating it …….. very impressed with Kuuls after service .

They are replacing the HDD without qualm.

hbab2009

Hi, i'm more or less set up now with the Tiviar.

When I plugged in the coax channels were there.

I tried to do a scan for channels to make sure I have all that are available but the box wouldn't scan.

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

greasepalm

I would ask how you are trying to scan and on what?
Tuners normally need to be setup with cables inserted or no cable disabled.
Sat is normally 28.2 which is what freesat uses.
Saorview is dvb/t/t2 and needs setting up to your local area using indoor or outdoor aerial.
One has a choice if wanting to scan sat only yes and not scan saorview by yes or no.

hbab2009

ok thanks, channels loaded and all working perfectly from viewing perspective.

One issue I am having is I am unable to record. I am using the image from Jan 2019.

I am using a 2.5" SATA HDD 500gb but I can't get it to initialise.

This is currently connected externally but I can connect it internally, when I do connect it internally the box gets stuck loading at 49.

Any thoughts on what I can do? I have also tried to initialise USB keys but cannot get them to initialise.

greasepalm

They can take time to initialise as i would try internally making sure everything is powered off.If you have formatted it on pc fat32 try putting it inside again .Might take a few minutes to run through the program and when finished it should be ext4 if not box will ask you say yes,box is then ready to record.

onrail

Wouldn't have considered myself a tech idiot, but it seems as if I am...

There are plenty of mentions of a 'step-by-step' guide for setting all of this up, but while there are plenty of attached files etc in the first few posts, I don't see any particularly obvious 'for-dummies' guide...?

Can anyone lend a steer?

swoofer

see POST #11

hbab2009

Ok I got the hdd to initialise and recording seems to be going ok.

To see my recordings I have to press the "play" button as they are not showing in the playlist. Any ideas what might be wrong here?

Also is there a way to series link? I have tried but does not seem to be working. Do I need a second coax from the lnb to be able to series link?

My EPG does not seem to update straight away. The irish channels could have a blank epg for a good 10 mins. Is this normal?

greasepalm

Recheck your hdd is ext4 first,playlist should bring up contents of recordings or location and post a webif photo to show what you have.

Get ip of box and type that in your web browser like 192.168.1.300 and click on it as it should mirror your box and controls.Take a screenshot on pc and upload to your response.

You should be able to set weekly recordings.

A second feed from sat dish will allow viewing and recording together.

Sounds like you have not setup your epg to import info in the early morning when box is in standby.

Inviere

So, brand new Tiviar Alpha+, and I've just flashed the latest backup image from the opening post. I've configured tuner 2 to loop through to tuner 1, as I've only a single sat feed here at the moment. All channels* seems to have tuned, and I've set Saorview location via ABM, and that has pulled in all* the Saorview channels too and put everything in bouquets.

*there's some issues however, in terms of the bouquets and indeed channels. The "All Channels" bouquet has a mere 12 channels in it, a mix of saorview and sat. The "Main Channels" bouquet has some problems like the BBC2 picked up is the SD version, as opposed to the HD BBC1 above it. The Saorview channel 3e doesn't seem to be anywhere at all, maybe it has been missed? I've updated the provider files within ABM and scanned again, no change.

Has anyone any idea if the bouquets themselves can be edited, and indeed how I might add in 3e from Saorview?

EDIT - Derp, 3e is VM2 now so ignore that part - I still need to know if bouquets can be added to/edited etc?

NewClareman

Inviere wrote: »

*there's some issues however, in terms of the bouquets and indeed channels. The "All Channels" bouquet has a mere 12 channels in it, a mix of saorview and sat. The "Main Channels" bouquet has some problems like the BBC2 picked up is the SD version, as opposed to the HD BBC1 above it. The Saorview channel 3e doesn't seem to be anywhere at all, maybe it has been missed? I've updated the provider files within ABM and scanned again, no change.

Has anyone any idea if the bouquets themselves can be edited, and indeed how I might add in 3e from Saorview?

EDIT - Derp, 3e is VM2 now so ignore that part - I still need to know if bouquets can be added to/edited etc?

The bouquets can be edited, as you please. There is a “ReadMe” file with instructions at:⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨Root⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨usr⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨lib⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨enigma2⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨python⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨Plugins⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨SystemPlugins⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨AutoBouquetsMaker⁩ ▸ ⁨⁩⁨custom⁩ Using these instructions as a guide, you can modify my custom mix file to modify bouquets as you please. It’s best to keep changes to a minimum and use spare epg positions, if practical.

The “Main Channels” is a customised bouquet, with the main Irish and UK channels. This is obviously a personal view. BBC 2 is the NI variant, which is only available in SD. (That may have changed, haven’t checked in a while.)

The bouquets are created automatically by ABM. Apart from editing them with a custom mix file, you can configure which ones are displayed in the ABM configuration menu.

The advantage of using a custom mix to create a combined uk/irl bouquet is that, unlike using favourites, channel changes are handled automatically.

Inviere

^^ thanks for all of that NewCLareman, very helpful, and I will definitely investigate/research the above. Am I to understand though, that any customisations I make (say I replaced the SD BBC2 NI with the HD BBC2 in the Main Channels bouquet, that it won't auto-update any longer via ABM? Sorry if the question is simplistic, this is all brand new to me

NewClareman

Inviere wrote: »

^^ thanks for all of that NewCLareman, very helpful, and I will definitely investigate/research the above. Am I to understand though, that any customisations I make (say I replaced the SD BBC2 NI with the HD BBC2 in the Main Channels bouquet, that it won't auto-update any longer via ABM? Sorry if the question is simplistic, this is all brand new to me

I’m not near the box, and haven’t looked at this in months. So, best effort...

The whole purpose of ABM is that it auto updates. By default, you can use any mix of the Freesat and Sky Bouquets. As the provider changes the mix of channels, ABM changes the Bouquets, automatically. As a general rule, the Sky ones have more channels than Freesat.

Custom mix, overrides the default channels e.g. you could have RTÉ 1 as the first channel in the News Bouquet. However, if you still want Sky News, you would have to add that to another slot. Let’s say you add Sky News to position 8, which is currently empty. If Sky now decide to use slot 8 for a particular news channel, say CNN, you won’t see it - the slot is now taken by Sky News. That is why you should minise changes to the existing bouquets.

The “main“ bouquet is different It is an entirely new list, that didn’t exist previously. The first channel in the list is channel one for provider Saorview. Whatever Saorview transmits on channel 1, regardless of name, or frequency, will appear here. If the name, or frequency, is changed by Saorview, that will be picked up automatically. The same happens for Satellite channels, if the channel assigned to a slot changes, that will be reflected in the Bouquet.

ABM has additional options, in configuration. One of these is to automatically swap hd versions, for ssd, if available. I think I avoided that, so as not to remove BBC2 NI. The hd variant is still available in the entertainment bouquet.

NewClareman

onrail wrote: »

Wouldn't have considered myself a tech idiot, but it seems as if I am...

There are plenty of mentions of a 'step-by-step' guide for setting all of this up, but while there are plenty of attached files etc in the first few posts, I don't see any particularly obvious 'for-dummies' guide...?

Can anyone lend a steer?

If you’re flashing my most recent build you need to look at post 665.

I’ll move the important info into a “for-dummies” guide, when I get a chance🙂

Captain Average

Apologies if it's already been asked, but why is an 8gb usb stick recommended? I only have a 30gb to hand.

FFVII

Captain Average wrote: »

Apologies if it's already been asked, but why is an 8gb usb stick recommended? I only have a 30gb to hand.

Thats what was used with original images years ago afaik.

greasepalm

If you want to flash images onto enigma 2 receivers max size of 8gb with a quality name like kingston.

Johnboy1951

Would a single 8GB partition on a larger device suffice?

NewClareman

Captain Average wrote: »

Apologies if it's already been asked, but why is an 8gb usb stick recommended? I only have a 30gb to hand.

greasepalm wrote: »

If you want to flash images onto enigma 2 receivers max size of 8gb with a quality name like kingston.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Would a single 8GB partition on a larger device suffice?

The flashing guides from the various development teams recommend smaller drives, and even to avoid USB3 ones. I came across the technical explanation, but cannot find it now. From memory, it was a bootloader timing issue. Anyway, I have successfully used a variety of drives, the largest being a 16GB Cruzer Edge. In all cases I have used the front USB port.

I don't know if a partition will work, but if it doesn’t, no harm done. Personally I’d give it a lash.

greasepalm

To be safe you only want the image on your flash drive and nothing else.

Milsey

I kinda know the answer to this one but just to be sure is it possible to add "cinema " app to this box? Tia

NewClareman

Milsey wrote: »

I kinda know the answer to this one but just to be sure is it possible to add "cinema " app to this box? Tia

Many apps are available, it really depends on what you’re looking for. Illegal content cannot be discussed in this forum and is not something I support.

This build supports the lookup of Covers and Descriptions for films using the IMDB. You can even do this for films direct from the EPG. Most of my films were recorded from TV, stored in their own film directory. This and very occasional use of Netflix meets my needs.

Settings in movie player (EMC) suggest that DVD and Blueray ISO’s can be read directly. In theory you could copy your entire collection to a HDD and have covers and full film information. It’s not something I’ve tried, though we have many 100’s of DVD’s, and a good few Blu-ray films, gathering dust.

robbKer

Hi there,
I have the Tiviar Alpha+ running NCMs January image..

Does anyone know how to install a driver plugin for this usb Enigma2 DVB Tuner? https://www.freetv.ie/usb-dvb-t2-tuner/

I got as far as the plugin section on the Tiviar and

a: Im not sure which of the various DVB plugins i should use but also

b:when I randomly select any of them they wont installll I keep getting error messages and also a message recommending that I run 'opkg install'. When I run 'opkg install' on a command line interface it returns further errors and does not install...

any help on this would be brill...

greasepalm

You need to go into plugins again and look for the driver for that usb stick,that website should say what one it is,install it and power off box and install usb .When booted up your new tuner should be seen and ready to use.

Best to say plugins are downloaded from the feeds of box if using a current image and live feed.

robbKer

greasepalm wrote: »

You need to go into plugins again and look for the driver for that usb stick,that website should say what one it is,install it and power off box and install usb .When booted up your new tuner should be seen and ready to use.

Best to say plugins are downloaded from the feeds of box if using a current image and live feed.

Hi Greasepalm, i did try that but nothing would install....seemed to error looking for the opkg install to be done which itself returned errors....:-(

swoofer

this is what you need to install it will say DVB-USB-RTL2832 and that is the only one that will work. Then reboot box ie restart and have usb in slot of course.

greasepalm

Go into plugins again and is there a green button Download plugins and enter it,look for drivers as above.If it does not work you have an old unsupported image.