Chwcks to see if a Vu+ box is counterfeit?

STG.Otaku

Hi all. I received my Vu+ Solo 2 today from Satnet.ee and wondered what checks I could perform to make sure what I bought is genuine?

The seller seems to have a good reputation from what little I have seen posted. Coming from Estonia too meant there was not VAT etc to pay.

I'm sure everything will be grand but just for peace of mind I'd like to see if it is the real deal.

Thanks all.

swoofer

I looked at that website and could not see a Solo2 for sale!! But tried ebay and found it!! When you say no vat etc to pay what do you mean?? Did you get vat knocked off? Its 279 plus 22 postage = 301 euro. Not cheap so I would say not a clone.

look at this thread and check carefully but if you paid a good price highly unlikely it will be a clone. if it was cheap then ...

http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/threads/how-to-detect-solo2-clone-box.16332/

if it is a clone send it back not worth bothering with it

STG.Otaku

Brilliant. Thanks for that excellent link. Just checked over everything according to that list and it appears to be kosher.

The above aside, the postage was excellent too. Free tracked shipping from Estonia and bulletproof shipping packaging.

So far Satnet.ee seem spot on!

Need to find a newbie guide now. I wonder will this work with my legit Sky card now so I can dump my Sky+ HD box and use the Solo 2? I'd love to get it all set up and pointing to my Plex HMS, Star Sports legit subscription etc and have the streaming to my phone set up too.

EDIT Yep got mine on eBay from the same shop. They had one for auction recently. I won it for £190 with free shipping. The price I won it for was what had me a little concerned but their rep seems fine. I was referring to the import duty etc as Estonia is in the EU so no customs etc to worry about.

swoofer

If the card is HD then no it will not work. All HD cards are paired. What is Plex HMS and Star Sports?

Choosing an image is the hard bit. That site I linked is for Blackhole Image and loads of instructions.

Here is a link that explains flashing, same applies to all other images.

http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/threads/howto-flash-update-vu-images.11819/

Openvix is liked by people and that has its own forum as well at world of sat.

Take your time. I have guides but cant upload them, too large.

That box is unreal you will be amazed. And if you get a play tv usb tuner you can get soarview and as it is a twin usb tuner you get both muxes.

But you need a HDD and a usb stick to make it really work.

190 is very good so you have money for HDD, usb stick and sony play tv. I got a seagate hdd, its 2.5 only.

As with any box it will have quirks, eg it might not like your usb stick. I used kingston, lexar and others with no problems. It might show hdd as external but that is a quirk of the image and so it goes. Go slow and you will be fine.

NB read the big thread on here, see below!!

STG.Otaku

Cheers sir. Yep I had a 1tb HDD laying around and just installed it. Its not a normal laptop HDD, slightly thicker so it touches the STB lid. So I covered the HDD in kapton tape and just installed it anyway. Seems fine and is formatted and mounted.

Currently scanned 28.2e on both dvb-s tuners and it is picking up channels.

Yeah my Sky sub is for an HD+ box. Oh well I guess I will have to wait until my sub runs out in 2 months before I can properly use the Vu box. No use ditching the Sky box while I am paying for it. The Vu box came up for a cracking price hence why I took the plunge now.

I bought a Climax UK Dual DVB-T DV395 USB stick in advance. Plugged it in to my laptop yesterday and it picks up no channels with the tiny packed in aerial. Going to get a high gain indoor one at some point and stick that in the Vu for Saorview!

Is Blackhole too advanced for family use? I was going to use OpenVix because I need family and frienda to be able to use this box with minimal effort. Switch it on, record her stories, PVR etc etc.

Plex HMS is sat on my Ubuntu server at home. Basically an alternative to a NAS in my setup. Star Sports is the sports package I have which I use in a web browser or an Android app. I pay for it legitimately so there's nothing dodgy going on. I heard Vix has a web browser buikt in. Maybe I could use that?

Just testing the Vu image for now. Will flash it later and read about configurations before swapping back to the Sky+ HD box later tonight.

Thanks a million everyone for your help. Glad I took the plunge so far, all looks very exciting and I love Linux so yay. ::D

kingtiger

why not use your Sky card in the VU?

STG.Otaku

kingtiger wrote: »

why not use your Sky card in the VU?

swoofer said it would likely be paired to my Sky+ HD box?

bored_stupid

Afternoon lad,s if your useing blackhole only talnet this command into your box useing DCC 150 for ondemand plugin
{opkg install enigma2-plugin-extensions-ondemand } as you won,t find it in the plugin feed and openvix or openatv are the best images for this box, and people still thinking these are build on openpli core are mistaken .vix & atv moved away from this a long time ago and are the most advanced images you could use on a vu solo2 and user & famaliy friendly aswell openvix everthing can be downloaded from there feeds i mean everthing you,ll need, and STG.Otaku if you google digitalworldz there,s plenty of clone pic,s & original pic,s of the motherboards there just to make sure before flashing any images , have fun with your new toy regards bored_stupid

STG.Otaku

Having fun with the Vu is an understatement! What damn rock have I had my head under for so many years????!!!!

Been messing with it this afternoon and I LOVE the Vu Android app more than the Sky+ app.

Have OpenVix installed and tried ABM but am finding it a bit confusing when bringing up the so had to put the EPG prompt on to choose the Freesat bouquets every time which is a bit annoying.

Have Dreamplex and On Demand installed. Got to do some network configuration though on my Ubuntu server. Building my network up from scratch again as it was in bits.

Loads to discover though. Loving it! Thanks all for your advice and links and tips.

bored_stupid

STG.Otaku if you go to google and type in openvix abm the first one at the top is step by step guide in pdf free downlad aswell ,i just downloaded it to check this is form the openvix team all credit to them ,and if you go to plugins then goto exstensions and download hbbtv this install,s youtube & opera web browers these are great plugins for you aswell regards bored_stupid

radiowaves

STG.Otaku wrote: »

swoofer said it would likely be paired to my Sky+ HD box?

He meant the HD subscription channels.

As for images:-

Vix are updating on a daily basis which is a major flag that their images are problematic (many people are ditching them now).

If you wish to record two subscription channels (or watch one whilst recording another) then the newer Blackhole images are to be avoided. They are also the least "family-friendly".

OpenPLI is probably the most user friendly after Vix - and OpenATV is also a great image.

STG.Otaku

Cheers for the info there. I put Vix on it and it seems great so far, at least in that it appears to do what I want it to do. Though the IPTV side is a bit complex, need to look in to that a bit more.

I have Plex up and running though, works perfect, even on files with DTS-MA. Set up the Android app too and was able to stream to my phone with no bother. The Opera browser is odd though. I got Star Sports loaded up but the player is flash-based so I need to install flash player. Not sure if that will work on it or not? Is there something else I could do?

Blackhole is one I keep reading a lot about, but because it doesn't appear to be as family friendly, and because of the amount of stuff that would be watched and recorded simultaneously, I'd likely need to give it a miss unfortunately.

STB.

@STG Otaku

The (ITE/Alfatech) USB Stick that you bought will work in the USB port of the box.
Infact you will probably find the IT9135 (thats the chipset) firmware is the feeds under drivers in Vix or Blackhole. Blackhole are normally better on the dvb-t devices side as one of the coders, angelofsky knows his stuff when it comes to getting those devices working (it will appear under tuner devices when installed) .

If it doesnt work in Vix, it will in Blackhole. You could manually get the firmware "usb-it9135-02.fw" and FTP that to the /lib/firmware, if in doubt.

As regards those little aerials that come with them sticks, they are crap and will pick up little. Get an "RF Coaxial to MCX TV Antenna Cable". They are about €2. It will allow you connect your house or indoor aerial to the stick.

STG.Otaku

Cheers for that. I tried plugging it in yesterday but it won't detect it. Installed the driver for it too from the download plugins section.

Hopefully the usb stick isnt at fault here. It installs fine on the computer so assuming it is ok. The little aerial picks up no channels so I am getting an indoor aerial today. I cant get an outdoor one so indoor is the only choice.

STG.Otaku

Picked this up this morning from Maplin for €17. Works a charm on my laptop with the USB stick.

EDIT: Also works when plugged in directly to the TV. Crystal clear. Don't need the rabbit ears pulled up, just tilted the UHF fin to the side and shoved the whole thing in the corner behibd the telly. No problems at all.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/indoor-digital-tv-aerial-with-signal-booster-a42kj

Need to get the Vu Solo 2 to see the USB stick now though in Vix. Any ideas? Don't want to change from Vix to BH.

STG.Otaku

I tried BH yesterday. Gone back to Vix today. Can't stand BH. From the ugly UI (and skins) to the way everything needs to be done manually.

It did detect the USB DVB-T though, but no channels. Which is odd as a direct connect to the TV aerial got all of them.

Vix is the winner for me. Despite the USB stick not working. I don't have the time or inclination to put in to BH. Wish it was as friendly as Vix.

swoofer

you should not give up on BH. The way to get the best out of it is to use the app TSPANEL 7.3. Use VUUC ver8 to upload tspanel as an ipk, it will install automatically and box will reboot. And voila you can download everything no more manual. Or to save you time try a backup image from linuxsat, use BH2.0.7 as I know everything works on that and image will come pre-loaded. For the usb dtt did you configure the tuners europe midlle east africa dvb t?

and which version of Vix are you using? Aso I have openatv on another box and its pretty impressive. I dont rate VIX but may try the one you are liking.

STG.Otaku

The big downfall for BH for me was the hassle configuring it to be 'just so'. It doesn't feel family friendly at all either.

I am using the very latest version of Vix with Lraizer ABM, Cross EPG and the Blue HD skin (which is perfect as it looks like the Sky GUI so offers familiarity for the family).

I am also using Dreamplex which works great with my Ubuntu server. Ondemand works great too though 4OD isn't working? The Vu official app is brilliant too. We used it in Portugal last week and it worked great with no issues.

Really all that is left is to get to grips with IPTV. Maybe some other stuff I've yet to discover too I don't know I am still new to all of this. The DVBT thing is definitely a problem though. I might look at a Sundeck (is that the right name?) stick and see if that works out the box. Saorview works for now connected directly to my TV with the indoor aerial I got from Maplin earlier this week. So we just change the inputs on the TV and AV receiver.

Genuinely, for a total newcomer (granted with some Linux and networking knowledge), I really like Vix. It just does what it is supposed to do. With minimal faff. Unlike BH which appears to be very powerful and very configurable, but requires a greater degree of 'faff' to get it to function the way you want it to. Which is a shame as I like to faff and tinker about but with something as central to the family as the TV and VOD services etc, faffing about falls down the list of priorities.

Vix DVB-T and IPTV are next on my list.

Edit: Sorry for the long-winded post!

Edit 2: Never answered your question! Yep I had the DVBT tuners set to EMEA and did a complete scan. It found no channels yet I kept the aerial in the same position and when the aerial is plugged in to my TV directly, it picks up every channel, crystal clear first time. So it's something up with the USB stick and/or driver? The stick works on my Win 7 computer with the aerial too so I don't know, it's annoying. Sundeck (sic) may be the answer?

swoofer

nice reply, makes sense but I tried vix a few times and got green screen quite a few times. I may give it another go with your settings.

I have usb play tv and I cant recall if I got it working with Vix, my time at box depends on weather, if good no time but if bad I get more time.

In the end go with one that is easiest.