What's So Great About Enigma?

rb25

As a complete noob to the Amika Alien 2 Triple Tuner - what are the important points I need to know about Enigma 2 as compared with the default (that I'm using now) Spark?

I've been reading through the Enigma thread but it's not telling me why I should use it compared to Spark.

Technofobe

rb25 wrote: »

As a complete noob to the Amika Alien 2 Triple Tuner - what are the important points I need to know about Enigma 2 as compared with the default (that I'm using now) Spark?

I've been reading through the Enigma thread but it's not telling me why I should use it compared to Spark.

Nothing wrong with spark it is a very stable operating system
When I got the AA2+ I used spark for a while to get used to the box
then I put on hyperion 4 ( enigma2 )
Gives a more up to date looking interface
For instance you can put a sky skin so that it looks like sky box when you go into the channel list or menu
OpenATV to me looks more Windows 8 kind of look
cool EPG & autoboquets are also useful too
there is also dreamboxedit for managing channel lists & boquets and
dreamdroid for streaming to another tv or android tab
Spark have their own versions of some of these
Dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with spark I used it for a while
The wife was happy with it but I thought it a bit basic but im more of a messer and love changing things

Nowso

the extras options you get on enigma2 can be got on your laptop

Spark is stable , better picture quality and my utlilites has most stuff you need

i think enigma 2 has come from people trying to replace a sky box and has grown from there

as i didnt change from a sky box and am more interested in watching and recording tv and for boxs to be stable and a good picture thats why i use spark

Enigma 2 is buggy as hell, you'll always be playing with it.

Enigma 2 is not recommended as a wife/gf/mother friendly box, chances are it will get broken off your head !

I Like the OpenATV 4.2 , it's more stable than others I tried but it's also buggy and crashes.

So I'm looking for a more stable image, having said that I think some plugins are responsible for crashing also so it's not just the image themselves.

Mayo Yid

Nowso wrote: »

the extras options you get on enigma2 can be got on your laptop

There's so much more than that, there are various plugins to automatically update the constant frequency changes, plugins to update picons, plugins to allow web login, streaming and remote control apps for mobile devices. Enigma opens a whole new world.

Nowso

theres android apps for spark 2

there are added extras for enigma 2 , if you want them and can and have the time to manage it properly

Mayo Yid

Nowso wrote: »

theres android apps for spark 2

It's very early days for Spark 2, wouldn't recommend it yet, they only got a working Oscam last week.

Bad news for Spark 1 users though, support will disappear, no more updates, when plugins break they'll not be fixed

Nowso

some support may stop yes . but no real support needed really as its working well as it is

Mayo Yid

Nowso wrote: »

some support may stop yes . but no real support needed really as its working well as it is

That's a ridiculous statement, of course you need ongoing support, you obviously don't remember when a change on the Yahoo weather forecaster service website Spark used for weather updates caused the boxes to crash and bootloop. Needed to flash a recovery image to fix, stores even Rma'd them.

Fresh Pots

I've tested pretty much all the e2 images out there and for stability hyperion v4 comes out on top. It lacks the ability to use the Ondemand plugin and a few other things but it's given me the least problems. Openatv 4.2 is a nice image but can be a little buggy. I'm happy enough with it on my box but if I was installing an image on anyone else's I'd still go with hyperion v4 as it pretty much problem free.

That's just my 2 cents!

bappelbe

for the OP.
As you can see that there are a lot of opinions on this, try enigma for yourself if you prefer it keep it, if not use Spark

mikom

Nowso wrote: »

the extras options you get on enigma2 can be got on your laptop

Spark is stable , better picture quality and my utlilites has most stuff you need

i think enigma 2 has come from people trying to replace a sky box and has grown from there

as i didnt change from a sky box and am more interested in watching and recording tv and for boxs to be stable and a good picture thats why i use spark

But can you do the following on spark........

1. Watch one channel while recording another.

2. Record two channels whilst watching something earlier recorded.

3. Have the sat channels and the saorview channels in the one epg ie. no need to switch between tv/sat on remote.

4. Have a series link/auto timer type recording option.

5. Box will autoupdate changes to satellite channels.

I have a new Alien 2 box sitting with openatv 4.2 pre-programmed on to it waiting to be hooked up to the cables.
Tied up with work at present so when I go to set it up I would go with spark instead if it can offer me all the above plus is more family friendly and less prone to crash.

I am not looking to stream anything and I am not looking to card share so any facilities that enigma offer on that front are not really attractive to me.

So would I be better going with spark?

Nowso

mikom wrote: »

But can you do the following on spark........

1. Watch one channel while recording another.

2. Record two channels whilst watching something earlier recorded.

3. Have the sat channels and the saorview channels in the one epg ie. no need to switch between tv/sat on remote.

4. Have a series link/auto timer type recording option.

5. Box will autoupdate changes to satellite channels.

I have a new Alien 2 box sitting with openatv 4.2 pre-programmed on to it waiting to be hooked up to the cables.
Tied up with work at present so when I go to set it up I would go with spark instead if it can offer me all the above plus is more family friendly and less prone to crash.

I am not looking to stream anything and I am not looking to card share so any facilities that enigma offer on that front are not really attractive to me.

So would I be better going with spark?

1 Yes
2 yes - depending on your hard drive
3 yes
4 Timers set manually
5 no but if you load my channel list that i update - takes 10seconds that does the job

mikom

I added replies.......

Nowso wrote: »

1 Watch one channel while recording another. Yes

Good stuff.

2 Record two channels whilst watching something earlier recorded. yes - depending on your hard drive

Have a Samsung M3 1TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive, like this one http://www.expansys.ie/samsung-m3-slimline-1tb-portable-hard-drive-25-usb-30-247066/

3 Have the sat channels and the saorview channels in the one epg ie. no need to switch between tv/sat on remote. yes

Great.

4 Have a series link/auto timer type recording option. Timers set manually

So, I record the 6.01 news tonight, then to record it tomorrow I have to go seek 6.01 news on Monday and set it to record, then do the same for Tues, weds, etc.
Would that be correct?


5 Box will autoupdate changes to satellite channels. no but if you load my channel list that i update - takes 10seconds that does the job

Fair play.
Thanks.

The lack of series link/auto timer would possibly be a deal breaker for me if I have taken you up correctly.
Then again I do not know how effective the auto timer is in Enigma.

Gerry Wicklow

Auto-timer in Enigma is very powerful and useful. It can be set for keywords and partial title matches, set for specific channels only if needed and specific time ranges.

Nowso

theres no series link on enigma or spark

you can set it to record every day, 5 days a week , sat. sunday only, every week on spark, when epg is loaded you can choose from programme names

as with enigma 2 if your recording 2 sd channels it uses up less capacity and would work better

icdg

I was going to start a new thread on this but this will do just fine.

Can the members who have set up multiple threads on the Alien2 please justify why there should be four separate threads for it on the front page of Terrestrial.

I am minded to merge them but if people can give me a good enough reason I will not do so

I will review any replies on Tuesday evening

Gerry Wicklow

Nowso wrote: »

theres no series link on enigma or spark

you can set it to record every day, 5 days a week , sat. sunday only, every week on spark, when epg is loaded you can choose from programme names

as with enigma 2 if your recording 2 sd channels it uses up less capacity and would work better

Auto-timer does the same function. E.G. you could set it for QI XL, only on BBC2 between 21:00 and 00:00 so as not to get the signed version, etc, etc.
Auto-timer can be set manually, from an existing timer or the EPG. You can set it to exactly match a program title or a partial match E.G. setting it for "Formula one" would record qualifying, the race, highlights or anything else containing the words "formula one". Much better than basic series linking IMO

Harold Finchs Machine

icdg wrote: »

I was going to start a new thread on this but this will do just fine.

Can the members who have set up multiple threads on the Alien2 please justify why there should be four separate threads for it on the front page of Terrestrial.

I am minded to merge them but if people can give me a good enough reason I will not do so

I will review any replies on Tuesday evening

Theirs a "spark for Amiko" "enigma for Amiko" and a "Firmware for Amiko". These are needed.

This one and i think theirs two others (im on phone), could be merged but they'll drop off down the pages themselves soon anyway.

Its new posters that dont know about the other threads.

bappelbe

Harold Finchs Machine wrote: »

Theirs a "spark for Amiko" "enigma for Amiko" and a "Firmware for Amiko". These are needed.

+1 they are different subjects (albeit related)
there is also one on Raspberry PI somewhere.

If these threads were merged I think they would get unwieldy, a problem with the original thread was that a question would be asked and because of a different discussion going on at the same time, the question would be answered several pages later or not at all. in short there were too many conversations going on at once.
This also led to problems with mod warnings disappearing off the 'last' page quickly and not being heeded as a result, currently there are warnings about what is acceptable in the first posts and it seems to be working better.

I am not sure of the boards policies on this type of thing but maybe a separate sub forum is what is needed, if the number of threads is bothering other Terrestrial members.

Mayo Yid

I think it's gotten to a stage the the box needs a sub forum. There are so many different images each having their own discussions

rb25

I asked this question because I could not find the answers to it after reading the other thread. Also I asked it separately because it's not clear in the other thread what's acceptable to ask there. I thought the other main thread was only for firmware & technical questions.

Fresh Pots

icdg wrote: »

I was going to start a new thread on this but this will do just fine.

Can the members who have set up multiple threads on the Alien2 please justify why there should be four separate threads for it on the front page of Terrestrial.

I am minded to merge them but if people can give me a good enough reason I will not do so

I will review any replies on Tuesday evening

No easy way around it to be honest apart from putting in a sub forum for receivers either here or in the sat forum. The box is quite popular and is dual os so merging all the threads together will just make for one almighty mess.


If we had to we could probably merge the rasp pi thread into the e2 thread but we still need a separate thread for the spark side and enigma2 side of this box.

Spark and e2 could share 1 firmware thread as long a every post was labeled clearly. Ideally the firmware thread could be locked and just added to when needs be. That would cut out the discussion in that thread at least. No active mods seem to frequent the aa2 threads though so that could be a problem.

FlexMcMurphy

I agree with Fresh Pots.

There could be one firmware thread but ideally it should be made a sticky thread and locked so you can only post to it by invitation or something. This way it could be used as we had hoped... a small thread with very specific info that people can find quickly. E.g: Links to peoples backup images and short step by step guides on how to install them.

People end up having conversations in those two firmware threads. If they are combined but not controlled then the resulting thread will just end up being a mess.

I also think the AA2/Raspberry Pi thread could be combined with the AA2/Enigma2 thread.

Flex

Mayo Yid

We need an active mod, one who is active in the community that can take care of things, not one that comes in once in a while dictating or waving a ban stick.

I propose Championc.

Balmed Out

As someone who finds it all a little confusing merging the threads would be a nightmare, spark/enigma are similar enough to easily think someone was talking about one instead of the other but that would lead people to making all sorts of mistakes

Mayo Yid

Balmed Out wrote: »

As someone who finds it all a little confusing merging the threads would be a nightmare, spark/enigma are similar enough to easily think someone was talking about one instead of the other but that would lead people to making all sorts of mistakes

That is the very reason the threads were split

Zardoz

I think the current number of Alien 2 threads is the bare minimum needed and is a great resource for the huge number of people with this receiver and indeed other similar Enigma 2 receivers which share similar code and plugins.
If anything a sub forum is required as I believe this would be of huge benefit and allow for more stickies and FAQ threads which would actually reduce the amount of people asking the same queries over and over on the current limited threads.

I realise that moderating the Cable and TV forums is a difficult and time consuming job as it encompasses 5 different sub forums .
The way technology and home entertainment is rapidly advancing is also a challenge as Cable & Digital TV is constantly adding new aspects .
Alot of receivers are now mini home entertainment centres ,which have a wide spectrum of uses ,live tv,catchup tv,media player,networking etc .
I'd never criticise the moderation as its voluntary work and of a very high standard but its a big job for one mod to oversee such a large forum that is rapidly expanding .

Nowso

the box is at Max popularity atm .

the enigma2 ans spark threads are among the busiest topics on the Terrestrial Board

in my experiences sub-boards do not work well

what might be a better options a satellite box/ equipment board . i feel it would be a good addition to the website and would leave other Cable/digital tv boards not being overtaken by various " box talk" and focus more on what there subject was set out to be

rb25

The way this thread/legitimate question was hijacked doesn't lead me to believe there has been or will be good organisation in the future. Suggest having a look at the way some of the android forums & complex threads on other sites are managed & working out a structure & set of rules similar from them.

As Nowso mentioned it's only going to get more complicated.

For example, where would I ask a question like the following in the current set of threads?

"Can I use a Raspberry Pi to control my Amika Alien 2 Triple tuner?"

Might be straightforward but I'm not sure if it should go under a Raspberry heading or an firmware heading.

Mayo Yid

A sub forum for all set top boxes would probably work, 4 Amiko threads would not be a problem there