Mutant HD2400 - Need some hand holding please!

54and56

Hi all,

So about 3.5 years ago I took the plunge and ditched Sky in favour of FTA/Saorview via a quad tuner Mutant HD2400. I'm fairly handy with tech generally (NAS setup, IPTV, custom ROM's on phones etc) but despite lots of research and some amazing help from this forum I really struggles to "get" the whole sat box set up process but I struggled through and succeeded in creating a very stable OpenVix setup which:-

- Combined the Free To Air UK channels + the Irish Saorview channels on one 7 day EPG.
- Enables series record to the built in HDD.
- Is easy to use for all in the family.

Having set it up and gotten it stable I left it well alone which means it's still on the last image of the 3.2 branch whereas OpenVix for the HD2400 is is now on 5.3 from what I can see. My mantra was if it's not broken don't fix it and it's served us very well for 3.5 years.

Unfortunately now it's broken or a key piece of functionality is broken and I'm in need of some help.

Essentially the PVR function hangs every time it's launched. The menu launches and the device starts looking for the saved recordings but then the blue "waiting" circle appears and it just hangs. I've tried waiting for hours but it just stays hung and requires a re-boot. I think one of the recordings much have become corrupt but as I can't access the PVR library I can't get in to delete what may be the offending file.

Is anyone here up for helping me?

The lazy option would be to somehow identify and delete the offending recording and if that solves the problem happy days I could just keep things on 3.2 as they are. If that's not possible I guess I could do a factory reset to try and solve the problem but if that means losing all the existing recordings and going back to having to set everything up from scratch again perhaps the best thing would be to flash the latest 5.3 version of OpenVix from Nov 21st just gone and then go about settings things up again which I have to confess I'm not looking forward to as I seem to have a mental block when it comes to "Providers", "Bouquets" etc

Anyone up for holding my hand with this?

Johnboy1951

I would take the drive out and examine it with another OS (maybe a Linux distro) and if necessary copy the recordings off, before running some tests on the drive.

ShaneOC

If you do a backup and then flash to the latest version of Vix it will prompt to restore from the backup once the update is complete.

corsav6

Plenty of free programs that will read ext4, assuming that's the file format as most are.
Are you sure the hard drive itself isn't broken? They take a lot of abuse in pvr setups.

54and56

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the backup suggestion sounds like it could be a silver bullet solution.

I guess I should also test the HDD to make sure it's still functioning OK, no point updating OpenVix etc if the HDD is just going to fail again.

54and56

corsav6 wrote: »

Are you sure the hard drive itself isn't broken? They take a lot of abuse in pvr setups.

Well I can still pause & rewind live TV so I guess that means the HDD isn't broken unless rewind and pause etc is somehow dealt with via some non HDD RAM?

54and56

So the backup -> flash new Vix version -> restore backup plan didn't go very well.

I downloaded and extracted the latest version of Vix and put the extracted HD2400 folder on an 8GB FAT32 formatted USB drive. There are two USB ports on the rear of the box just below the Ethernet port which I do have connected to my router.

One of the USB slots already had a 2GB FAT formatted USB drive containing three folders:-

- Backup
- Crossepg
- Imagebackups

I powered off and plugged out the power cord from the box for 5 minutes and during that time removed the aforementioned USB drive and the Ethernet cable.

I put the Vix Image USB into one of the USB slots and connected the power cable. The Mutant logo immediately presents on the TV screen and I was expecting shortly after that the term "Image Found" would come up at which point I'd press the up button on the front of the box and the new Vix image would flash but nothing happened other than the Mutant logo stayed on the TV screen.

Thinking I must have made an error extracting and/or copying the extracted Vix image onto the USB drive I decided to let the family watch TV whilst I re-downloaded and extracted a new version of the Vix image so I powered off the box again, removed the Vix image USB drive, re-installed the USB drive that has always been there (I don't remember why I left that there but I'm sure there's a good reason!!), re-connected the Ethernet cable (which I assume is needed to update EPG data?) and powered the box back on again expecting the old 3.2 image to power up as normal but instead I just get the Mutant logo on the TV Screen so it seems the box is frozen altogether, it won't recognise and allow a new Vix image to be installed and it won't boot up into the old image that has been working fine, bar the recent issues with the PVR, for 3.5 years.

Have I managed to brink the box? Is there a way to do a soft or factory reset via a combination of button pushing?

Can't believe I fcuked up something as simple as flashing a new image to the box, it's literally paint by numbers easy to do

Any suggestions?

54and56

Did loads of research last night and tried loads of fixes including FTP'ing or using Telnet to flash a new image on the box in order to reset/recover it from the loop it's currently in but no joy I'm afraid, I'm just not technically competent enough to DIY this.

Can anyone recommend a satellite box repair service in the general South Dublin (city or county) / Sandyford area? I need someone who can flash the latest OpenVix image using but not via USB as that option isn't working.

corsav6

54and56 wrote: »

Did loads of research last night and tried loads of fixes including FTP'ing or using Telnet to flash a new image on the box in order to reset/recover it from the loop it's currently in but no joy I'm afraid, I'm just not technically competent enough to DIY this.

Can anyone recommend a satellite box repair service in the general South Dublin (city or county) / Sandyford area? I need someone who can flash the latest OpenVix image using but not via USB as that option isn't working.

It sounds like a hardware issue as you've covered all the steps. I'm not living near you so can't recommend anyone to look at it but at this stage I'd be considering buying a new box.
The price to inspect and fix if needed would probably come close to the price of a new box.

swoofer

Try this as a last resort, usually its the usb stick and are you formatting the stick to fat 32 before loading image? You can use either usb slot. The best usb I have found lately is this one, works every time for me and I have loads that wont. don't worry about size.

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/sandisk-32gb-cruzer-blade-usb-flash-drive-electric-pink.html



If you have a good usb, by the way being able to read with PC does not mean it will work in mutant.

Try the following, disconnect hdd, remove the terrestial tuners and leave one sat tuner in situ.

Now this time use a different image either openatv or openpli. I like openatv see here
http://images.mynonpublic.com/openatv/nightly/index.php?open=mutant2400

use the rocker switch at rear to power on and off.

When you open box have a good look around and see if any marks, NB make sure tuner is well seated.

Its worth a punt. Where are you located roughly. Im clare

54and56

swoofer wrote: »

Try this as a last resort, usually its the usb stick and are you formatting the stick to fat 32 before loading image? You can use either usb slot. The best usb I have found lately is this one, works every time for me and I have loads that wont. don't worry about size.

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/sandisk-32gb-cruzer-blade-usb-flash-drive-electric-pink.html



If you have a good usb, by the way being able to read with PC does not mean it will work in mutant.

Try the following, disconnect hdd, remove the terrestial tuners and leave one sat tuner in situ.

Now this time use a different image either openatv or openpli. I like openatv see here
http://images.mynonpublic.com/openatv/nightly/index.php?open=mutant2400

use the rocker switch at rear to power on and off.

When you open box have a good look around and see if any marks, NB make sure tuner is well seated.

Its worth a punt. Where are you located roughly. Im clare

Hi swoofer,

That would indeed be a last resort for me. Whatever about my middling soft tech skills I've zero mechano skills. When I take something apart it's never getting put back together ever again!! I'm literally the sort of person so tries to fix something and ends up with some "spare" bits after I've re-assembled things

I'm based near Sandyford in South Dublin.

Will try and suss out someone who can have a crack at flashing a new image via FTP or Telnet and if that doesn't work and I'm looking at buying a new box then and only then will I start opening the box and messing around with the internals :P

54and56

So, last night before I went to bed I tried one final time to flash the latest OpenVix to the box via the USB drive.

This time I removed the power cable, removed the Ethernet cable, popped the USB drive in one of the rear USB slots and re-inserted the power cable whilst holding in the up button. I kept the up button held for a minute or so but nothing happened other than the Mutant logo staying on the TV screen. I then repeated the process but this time started up pressing power button on front of the box for about a minute but yet again nothing happened other than the Mutant logo on the TV.

Annoyed yet again I turned off the TV and went to bed.

Today after getting home from work I turned on the TV and nearly fell over when I was presented with an OpenVix logo and what looked like a fresh install menu!! Not sure what happened I removed the USB, inserted the Ethernet cable and thus far I've managed to get internet working on the box per the screen image below.

It's nearly 4 years since I last set up this box so I've a lot of re-learning to do in terms of the 4 tuners, providers, EPG etc but for now I'm happy that the box at least appears to be alive.

corsav6

Brilliant, I love a happy ending

54and56

corsav6 wrote: »

Brilliant, I love a happy ending

Thanks corsav6, it's far from an ending yet. Need to figure out how to set up the tuners, providers, blended EPG etc

If i recall correctly there used to be a way to flash an Irish set up with UK FTA and Saorview channels all on one EPG etc. Don't suppose you (or anyone else) can point me in the right direction?

swoofer

And I was going to tell you that box has a 3rd usb slot in front and to try that!! Its under the card reader slot on right!!

To do all the rest you will have to refresh your memory and go to that open vix forum world of sat. To the tuners configuration is easy, if you have 4 its a b c d, then for sat its lnb 1, lnb 2, dtt is c d. You put in country and find your transmitter.

Glad your back working.

54and56

swoofer wrote: »

And I was going to tell you that box has a 3rd usb slot in front and to try that!! Its under the card reader slot on right!!

To do all the rest you will have to refresh your memory and go to that open vix forum world of sat. To the tuners configuration is easy, if you have 4 its a b c d, then for sat its lnb 1, lnb 2, dtt is c d. You put in country and find your transmitter.

Glad your back working.

Thanks swoofer, I see a steep learning curve ahead of me but that's ok, what else would ya be doin in this poxy weather??

54and56

So the box has somehow recovered and it seems that I now have a shiny "new" OpenVix V5.3.011 install:-



Its so long since I set up the box (almost 4 years) that I've completely forgotten what the process is but I'll do my homework and figure it out. I've 2 satellite receivers and 2 Saorview receivers which need to be set up and once they are and have been scanned etc I think the next step is to create a list of favourite channels from both satellite and Saorview feeds using AutoBouquetMaker and then get the 7 day EPG working. That's the basic plan but I'm sure it won't be as simple as that.

The good news is I now have the IP address of the box so OpenWebIf is working which should help.

The bad news is even in this new OpenVix image the PVR function immediately hangs when it tries to list the recordings on the HDD. I'm confident the HDD is either corrupt which a reformat might fix or is just knackered in which case I'll need to buy a replacement. If the latter any recommendations? Is it worth or even possible to use an SSD?

If I have to either reformat or remove the HDD is there a handy way to extract the stored content? Are the recordings going to be in a weird format which has to be converted before viewing? I'm thinking I could stick them on my NAS and watch via Plex.



Some other random questions:-

- What Primary and Secondary DNS should I use? The box currently uses a 192.168.X.X number. I'm familiar with 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for the Google DNS
but I guess they may not be appropriate for a sat box?

- What providers (Freesat, Sky, Sky ROI & Saorview) should I stick with for UK FTA (BBC, ITV, C4, Sky News etc) and Saorview channels?

- Do I need to use DreamBoxEdit for the channel bouquet? (I have this listed from 4 years ago as a useful tool)

- What plugins to I need or should install to make life easy and the experience as good as possible?

- What skin do people recommend? I used to have a Sly (Sky) type skin but I don't think it's supported or available any more.

Apologies the windy post. Any bit of input would be much appreciated.

dulpit

54and56 wrote: »

- What Primary and Secondary DNS should I use? The box currently uses a 192.168.X.X number. I'm familiar with 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for the Google DNS
but I guess they may not be appropriate for a sat box?

I wouldn't even want to venture a guess here, I'll leave others weigh in here.

54and56 wrote: »

- What providers (Freesat, Sky, Sky ROI & Saorview) should I stick with for UK FTA (BBC, ITV, C4, Sky News etc) and Saorview channels?

I know a lot of people use Freesat & Saorview, but I went with Sky UK and Saorview. For Sky UK I chose the SD version and then selected option to swap HD channels, which means the order starts with BBC1 HD, BBC2 HD, ITV HD, C4 HD, C5HD, Dave, BBC2, BBC4 HD, etc. I find Freesat puts some channels I watch (e.g. Dave) really far down. It's easy to swap too...

54and56 wrote: »

- Do I need to use DreamBoxEdit for the channel bouquet? (I have this listed from 4 years ago as a useful tool)

If you want, but you can just leave autobouquetsmaker run and stick with that.

54and56 wrote: »

- What plugins to I need or should install to make life easy and the experience as good as possible?

I'm now to the whole e2 box thing, so the only plugins I have are autobouquetsmaker (which is preinstalled on openvix possibly?) and crossepg to download the epg automatically. That 2nd one is vital to get a full 7 day EPG.

54and56 wrote: »

- What skin do people recommend? I used to have a Sly (Sky) type skin but I don't think it's supported or available any more.

I just use one of the default vix ones. As an aside, it really irks me that most forums do this whole "sly" thing..

swoofer

I have a box with openvix but normally I dont go near it but I have 2 days free so out of interest I have just updated it but I did a restore of settings. However it deleted my sky skin so I am going to load that in a moment and see if it still works.

To get you going here is how you configure the tuners.

menu setup tuner config tuner setup,
The 4 tuners will appear A,B. C, D, select A configuration mode, make it SIMPLE use arrows. then select 28e, SINGLE green to save, . Now exit out do same for B tuner.

C. mode make it enabled, country IRELAND region use arrow to select your transmitter, , off no, green save do same for D.

Next bit is tricky and may not work as I think there's a bug but at least try. I hope you have a good signal for SAORVIEW. In tuner setup go to autobouquet maker and you have to configure it your self, its self explanatory. When all done go to automatic scan, NB if this fails disable tuner D and try again. If it fails again you need to disable both saorview.

When you done that and got channels, change SKIN, go setup,user interface, skin setup,skin, ok, select Youvixblue for now. When it restarts it should look nice.

The next part is dreambox edit. Good luck

54and56

swoofer wrote: »

I have a box with openvix but normally I dont go near it but I have 2 days free so out of interest I have just updated it but I did a restore of settings. However it deleted my sky skin so I am going to load that in a moment and see if it still works.

To get you going here is how you configure the tuners.

menu setup tuner config tuner setup,
The 4 tuners will appear a b c d select a configuration mode make it advanced use arrows. then select 28e, lnb 1, auto uni lnb, poalar, no off none no, green to save, . Now exit out do same for b and save. nb YOU ONLY HAVE TO SCAN 28 E ONCE but do next 2 tuners.

c mode make it enabled, country all, region europe middle east, africa;dvb2 - t/t2frequencies, off no, green save do same for d. exit out and you will see menu go down to automatic scan select say no to network and press button to scan.

let me know how u got on. more later

Thanks swoofer, it'll be tomorrow evening before I have time to focus on this but I'm follow your advice and report back.

Really appreciate your help.

ShaneOC

54and56 wrote: »

- Do I need to use DreamBoxEdit for the channel bouquet? (I have this listed from 4 years ago as a useful tool)

DreamBoxEdit is OK but there is a newer application called E-Channelizer (https://echannelizer.com/) which I find much better.

Johnboy1951

ShaneOC wrote: »

DreamBoxEdit is OK but there is a newer application called E-Channelizer (https://echannelizer.com/) which I find much better.

Corrected link

Is there no native application for this purpose?

swoofer

I had a go with the latest VIX on a solo2 today and I have amended my post above. When it comes to bouquets you can do stuff with remote as well but will tell you later.

NB get rid of all the sky stuff ie select FTA only.

54and56

Right, I'm home, the dinner is done and the rest of the family are heading out for some late night Xmas shopping. There's no interesting football on TV and the UK election means there's no political action on TV until after 10pm so I'm going to have a crack as setting up the box (again) from scratch as that's effectively the state it's in since the new 5.3 OpenVix image was flashed.

The HDD is still giving trouble so I guess I should probably remove that straight away but for now I'd like to get the family off my back by getting "regular" TV back up and running albeit without the ability to record until I sort out the old HDD or install a new one.

I searched the WOS website and this (https://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?37956-New-Box-Set-Up-Guide) is the only "Set up from scratch" tutorial I can find but it was originally posted in 2014 and looks completely out of date.

Anyone recommend a good tutorial for the 5 version of OpenVix and preferably someone configuring 2 DVB-S2 and 2 DVB-C/T2 tuners then blending the channels into one 7 days EPG!!

swoofer

OOPS that guide is too old, when you flashed it as above that is new I would try from where I said first. If you can.

54and56

Hi swoofer,

First of all thanks for the detailed instructions, much appreciated.

I've been making progress.

swoofer wrote: »

To get you going here is how you configure the tuners.

menu setup tuner config tuner setup,
The 4 tuners will appear A,B. C, D, select A configuration mode, make it SIMPLE use arrows. then select 28e, SINGLE green to save, . Now exit out do same for B tuner.

C. mode make it enabled, country IRELAND region use arrow to select your transmitter, , off no, green save do same for D.

I think I've managed to do this first step and have the 4 tuners set up correctly.

swoofer wrote: »

Next bit is tricky and may not work as I think there's a bug but at least try. I hope you have a good signal for SAORVIEW. In tuner setup go to autobouquet maker and you have to configure it your self, its self explanatory. When all done go to automatic scan, NB if this fails disable tuner D and try again. If it fails again you need to disable both saorview.

Done, have loads of channels both Sat and Saorview. I configured FreeSat UK to Region "BBC Northern Ireland", didn't configure FreeView (UK) or NL Terrestrial, configured Saorview, configured Sky ROI to Region "ROI HD" but didn't configure Sky UK.

swoofer wrote: »

When you done that and got channels, change SKIN, go setup,user interface, skin setup,skin, ok, select Youvixblue for now. When it restarts it should look nice.

Done and yes, that is indeed a nice clean modern looking Skin.

swoofer wrote: »

The next part is dreambox edit. Good luck

I'm ready to rock with the Dreambox edit whenever you are!!

swoofer

Phew, I was worried. Do You need sky ROI?? Play with remote, on a channel press ok then again ie 2 presses. Then note the colour buttons they do something but not now. Now press ok and then hit up arrow, again colour buttons appear, ow hit blue and you should see bouquets. Favourites = bouquets.

Report back

54and56

swoofer wrote: »

Do You need sky ROI??

I don't know what I need!! I want all UK FTA channels and Sky News is one of the most used channels in the house so I assumed it would only be on either the the Sky ROI or Sky UK Provider. If All I need are the FreeSat UK and Saorview Providers I'll drop Sky ROI.

swoofer wrote: »

Play with remote, on a channel press ok then again ie 2 presses. Then note the colour buttons they do something but not now. Now press ok and then hit up arrow, again colour buttons appear, ow hit blue and you should see bouquets. Favourites = bouquets.

Report back

Here's what I get when I follow your instructions:-

swoofer

When that is onscreen scroll up they may be at back!! And can you just confirm you ran autobouquetsmaker.

54and56

FYI i ditched Sky ROI as Sky News (SD which is fine) is on FreeSat UK so now I just have the two providers, FreeSat UK + Saorview.

swoofer wrote: »

When that is onscreen scroll up they may be at back!!

Not sure what you mean by "they" but I'll have a go!!

swoofer wrote: »

And can you just confirm you ran autobouquetsmaker.

Yes, I believe I did. I did the following:-

Menu -> Setup -> Tuners & Scanning -> AutoBouquetsMaker -> Start Scan

The result was 166 video and 48 radio.

54and56

swoofer wrote: »

When that is onscreen scroll up they may be at back!!

When I'm on that screen scrolling just toggles between the Saorview and FreeSat UK folders (Sky ROI is now gone) but there is a menu option to the right and when I press Menu I get