Ferguson Ariva 120 Users Thread

Yep, you'll need a multi output lnb, twin, quad or octo and run a cable to each box.. you can split the terrestrial signal though.

Here's a post I stuck in another thread:

I bought a Ferguson Ariva 120 a couple of weeks ago. Cost me €150 (I didn't see the thread that says you can order them much cheaper from some Polish website. Then I got a 1TB hard drive from PC World for €65.
They seem to work fine together. I get the Digital Terrestrial Television channels (RTE 1, 2, News, Jr, TV3, E3, TG4) and free satellite ones (all of the various regional versions of BBC & ITV, Channel4, E4, More4, Film4, all of their +1 versions, and a whole lot of other crap like shopping channels)
I can record from one channel, while watching another.
Criticisms: Whoever did the programming for it needs to take a serious lesson in user friendliness, perhaps from the people who programmed Sky boxes. Print on on-screen-display is way too small and in a poor choice of colour for the print and background. The display is also cluttered with unneccessary info. Makes me miss the nice big yellow print on blue of the Sky box.

A friend got a hard drive from some other friend with about 450 movies on it, about 500GB worth.
I thought, Great, I'll copy them over to my new 1TB drive. When I plugged it into my new box, though, it wouldn't play them. I can hear the movie allright, but all that comes up on screen is "Video Codec not Supported".

Given that the experts appear to be here, I've a couple of questions:
1: Can I check somehow if there's a version number for the software in the machine, and whether there's more up to date software available?
2: Is it likely to be worth hooking up to the net to upgrade, as I don't currently have the net except only phone?
3: In newer versions of the software, is it anymore user friendly or readable, as I have mentioned in my criticisms above.
4: Does anyone know if a software upgrade would sort my "Video Codec not Supported" problem? The movies on the hard drive are in .avi format.

Thanks in advance.

locum-motion wrote: »

Here's a post I stuck in another thread:


Given that the experts appear to be here, I've a couple of questions:
1: Can I check somehow if there's a version number for the software in the machine, and whether there's more up to date software available?
2: Is it likely to be worth hooking up to the net to upgrade, as I don't currently have the net except only phone?
3: In newer versions of the software, is it anymore user friendly or readable, as I have mentioned in my criticisms above.
4: Does anyone know if a software upgrade would sort my "Video Codec not Supported" problem? The movies on the hard drive are in .avi format.

Thanks in advance.

3. I presume you are referring to the small print that the detailed programme information appears on. At the bottom of the window that the programme information appears on there is an option to enlarge the text.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

"Video Codec not Supported"

re-encode the video files to a supported codec is what is needed ....... but I guess you know that?

Thanks, but no, I didn't know that. I'm not the most tech-savvy person in the world! I'd never come across the word 'codec' before.
So, how do I find out what codecs are supported, and how would I go about re-encoding them?
Thanks again.

Tony wrote: »

2. I'd avoid using the net to upgrade a usb key is much more reliable

Thanks again.

So, in simplified language, that's;
A. Go to website and download the software.
B. Save it on a USB memory stick.
C. Plug the stick into the machine.
Is that right?

Trevord wrote: »

3. I presume you are referring to the small print that the detailed programme information appears on. At the bottom of the window that the programme information appears on there is an option to enlarge the text.

I know I can press the yellow button to enlarge the text, but it'd be better if it was just simply large enough to begin with, y'know?

Another thing that bugs me is how the ^ and v buttons work...
With Sky you can use CH+ and CH- to change channels instantly, or you can use the ^ and v buttons to browse around and see (on the banner at the bottom of the screen) what's on the other channels, but without actaully changing the channel. If you find something you'd prefer to watch, you can press Select or else you can just keep watching the channel you were on, without missing any of it. With the Ariva, though, the ^ and v buttons function the same as CH+ and CH-, so you can't see what's on other channels without interrupting your viewing.
When the banner is on the screen, most of its space is occupied by unneccessary and annoying graphs for signal strength and **** like that. All it needs to have is the channel name, what's on now and next, and what time it is now. But because most of the space is taken up by the extraneous ****e I mentioned already, the writing has to be small. Now, I don't have fantastic eyesight. In fact I wear glasses. But when I'm wearing my glasses, they give me 20:20 vision, or damn near. So why the hell do I have to squint at the screen to try to read it?

That's what I meant when I said it wasn't user friendly.

No problem, if its any help i have the latest firmware with a channel list built in which you are welcome to use http://www.mediafire.com/?frz54tnv1fjabra

Heres a how to guide , follow it to the letter apart from unzipping the file which you do not have to do http://www.mediafire.com/?ji0kdvqodn3v07i

Hope this helps

locum-motion wrote: »

Thanks again.

So, in simplified language, that's;
A. Go to website and download the software.
B. Save it on a USB memory stick.
C. Plug the stick into the machine.
Is that right?

locum-motion wrote: »

When the banner is on the screen, most of its space is occupied by unneccessary and annoying graphs for signal strength and **** like that. All it needs to have is the channel name, what's on now and next, and what time it is now.

This is a good point. I understand that the additiontal info may be of relevance to someone receiving multiple sateliites. Freesat boxes tend to have a cleaner look with just channel name number and now and next, but that is because all the technical stuff is hidden from the user and is being handled by the box itself.

Maybe the option to hide satellite and frequency info on the Ariva would be a good compromise.

Brian P wrote: »

Is it acceptable to split the cable from the aerial and then run , say, two cables to two receivers for saorview (not the sat .cable) without degrading the signal quality?

You will lower the signal level doing this so it really depends on what level you have to start with . If it does not work you can add an amplifier at the split point.

Thanks guys:)
Actually the more I think of it I might even replace the actual cable I have at the moment as in the past I simply joined two pieces of (similar)cable together to run to my main tv for an analogue picture ( wife likes Aertel in the morning). This tv has an excellent Sky HD signal for the Irish channels but I think that my saorview picture of the same channels( using the joined cable) is marginally inferior. The joined cable might possibly be the cause? I haven't read of any threads where posters found the Ariva picture to be in any way inferior to Sky.

Brian P wrote: »

Am I correct in assuming that when recording to an external drive, it is not possible to add a few mins to the beginning and end of the recording to allow for too early a programme start or a possible overrun as with Sky?

I'm afraid you are correct.

The Fergie doesn't have a regular automatic epg like sky. It has a basic 7 day epg for dtt, and just now/next for satellite.
Neither of which you can set to record from.

With the timer, or your manual recording, you basically just record the channel, at a specific time, which covers the run of your preferred program.
For all intents and purposes, like a vcr, you're simply recording the channel stream.

Mind you, with the timer, you can have a repeat recording. So if you add the extra few mins at start/end then activate the repeat feature, that's kind of what the sky box does in principal I guess. Ok, so it's a DIY jobby at best, but better than nothing. :cool:

Upgraded to the latest firmware version on Saturday. (version Tony uploaded referred to in Post #47 above)

Major lip sync issues on RTE 1 last night. 1 to 2 second difference I'd say.

(Checked freeview box at same time and it seemed to be in sync).

Issue resolved by switching to another channel and then going back to RTE1.

Anyone having similar experience with the latest release ?