Formuler F1 Twin Satellite Tuner plus hdd for sat and saorview.

pigtail33

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

To check that the tuners are working and getting a signal
MENU>SETUP>SERVICE SEARCHING>SIGNAL FINDER>
Use left-right buttons to select either tuner. Both should have the same readings.

I checked both tuners, and there was no issue with either. Looks like I have resolved the problem though. I'm using a temporary USB stick and something had become corrupt on it. I wasn't able to delete one particular recording either from the box or through WEBIF. I plugged the USB stick into my laptop, deleted the corrupt recording and the timer seems to be working again now. Just in case anyone else has the same issue.

Thanks again for your help

Gerry Wicklow

Glad you got sorted. It might have been a power blip during the storm that messed things up.
As a general rule a proper external HDD is preferable to a USB stick as they are not really designed for this kind of work.

mun1

Was in the market for a skybox replacement last month and longtime lurker on here.

Thanks to Gerry and everyone here for the advice .
In the end I bought both the formuler f1 and the tiviar alpha plus from world of satellite .

This was my first foray into Linux/enigma2 boxes.
Have to say both are fantastic and even my good wife finds it easy to use ( series setup etc)

Spec of both boxes
Formuler 1

Openatv 6.1
Triple tuner
500GB USB HDD (external)
Vali.HD.flex skin installed

Tiviar alpha plus

OpenATV 6.1
Triple tuner
500GB internal SATA HDD
Sly K HD skin installed

Bought the formuler F1 first and was so happy went to buy a second one for mobile home but WOS were out of stock and offered Tiviar for same price (+£40 for HDD)

Both operate in the same fashion but the main difference is the Tiviar internal SATA HDD is much smoother for recording and playback. Also Tiviar has nicer remote.
NB, have since bought a Logitech harmony ultimate remote (class bit of kit) to operate everything.

Had a multitude of problems and beginner mistakes over last few weeks:
Tuner setup (A=B)
Sat feed into wrong connection on rear giving only one feed in (Duuhhh !)
Had to reflash openATV using FTP manager (first time Ger doing anything like this)
WiFi not setting up due to incorrect password using TV remote (took me 3 hrs to sort this one) advice: re-enter and then re enter again your router password as I inadvertently put in a space at end of password using tv remote, which caused message “network not working” to come up.

All in all great fun to play around with and not as daunting as i thought coming from a sky box. Amazing the amount of things you can change like epg,auto bouquets, skins etc.

Loads of videos on line eg . Freetv.ie to help with setup and problems, but the best help is right here, as i seemed to always end up scouring boards.ie for help.

Thanks again to everyone here. Any questions, not an expert but will try to answer.

greasepalm

hopefully your external usb hdd gives no issues as i would be using an externally powered one.

Zilog

mun1 wrote: »

In the end I bought both the formuler f1 and the tiviar alpha plus from world of satellite

Be interested mun1 to hear how the Tivar compares to the Formuler F1, if you don't mind?
Have an F1 myself and it works great.
Would like to get a box for my folks and the Tivar would be neater, with it's internal disk.
Cheers!

mun1

They are very similar Zilog, although the more I’m using the tiviar , the more smoother it seems.
More or less same processor chip, same manufacturer, Fortis.
The remote for tiviar is better quality with more useful dedicated buttons
The display on the front of the tiviar has more detail shown .
All the connections are the same on front and back
The main difference is the built in HDD on the tiviar.
Playback of recording is smoother due to the HDD in Tiviar being eSATA and better MB/s transfer rate.
other than that, there’s not much to say.
The tiviar is an incrementally better box than the formuler but not much between them .
Great to be away from sky box though. These boxes will pay for themselves in four months.

Zilog

Thanks for that reply mun1, great to hear.
As I said no complaints about the F1, but the Tivar is neater looking.
Also using Harmony remote with the F1 ; the original F1 remote is a bit busy all right!
Cheers, Zilog

JB81

Read through this thread, and its a wealth of information.
I posted in another thread about options like this.
So if someone with knowledge has a minute I would love to know some more:

I have a Panasonic TV, 3 Mobile Broadband, Sky+ Tv, Old Saorview and Free to Air boxes in Attic. That is what I have. So I have 2 cables coming down to Sky + box from Satelite and one coming from Saorview/Free to air set up in Attic ( we don't use these at the moment, but they are still working.

So questions:
In relation to the two mentioned boxes above ( Formuler F1 Twin Tuner, and the Tiviar ) the only real difference is the Tiviar has a built in Hard Drive?

They can both record / series record on English Channels and Irish channels ( as i have a Saorview box )?

They can both record 1 programme and you can watch another?

Would it be the Formuler triple Tuner you would need to record 2 programmes and watch another?

Is there any access through these boxes for RTE Player / 3 Player / BBC player etc...
Or is it just a matter of connecting a lap top to my TV for this? Is this the easiest way?

Would love some help

Regards
JB

tkeogh.

has anyone got a few screen shots from the abm on how to get channels set up correctly for irish numbers? rte1= 101 etc...

mun1

JB81 wrote: »

Read through this thread, and its a wealth of information.
I posted in another thread about options like this.
So if someone with knowledge has a minute I would love to know some more:

I have a Panasonic TV, 3 Mobile Broadband, Sky+ Tv, Old Saorview and Free to Air boxes in Attic. That is what I have. So I have 2 cables coming down to Sky + box from Satelite and one coming from Saorview/Free to air set up in Attic ( we don't use these at the moment, but they are still working. So you have 2 satellite feeds and one saorview feed.

So questions:
In relation to the two mentioned boxes above ( Formuler F1 Twin Tuner, and the Tiviar ) the only real difference is the Tiviar has a built in Hard Drive? Yes.

They can both record / series record on English Channels and Irish channels ( as i have a Saorview box )? Yes

They can both record 1 programme and you can watch another? Yes

Would it be the Formuler triple Tuner you would need to record 2 programmes and watch another? You can record 2 sat progs and watch saorview. You can record 1 sat Prog and 1 saorview Prog and watch another sat Prog. Basically only one saorview tuner so if you are recording one Prog you can’t watch another saorview Prog .

Is there any access through these boxes for RTE Player / 3 Player / BBC player etc...
Or is it just a matter of connecting a lap top to my TV for this? Is this the easiest way? Not best place to explain but think IPTV works on both boxes.

Would love some help

Regards
JB

ok

mun1

tkeogh. wrote: »

has anyone got a few screen shots from the abm on how to get channels set up correctly for irish numbers? rte1= 101 etc...

Think abm is for openvix, autobouquets e2 is what I am running on openatv.

I use openwebif on my iPad for all setup and changes, much easier for setting up my favorites bouquet

Go to settings>Channel selection settings. Tick box for “alternative numbering mode”
This gives me rte1 as channel 1, rte2 as channel 2 etc.
I only let my favorites bouquets show on epg etc so I don’t Int have to trawl through everything.
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JB81

mun1 wrote: »

ok

Thanks for your help!!

STB.

JB81 wrote: »

Would love some help

Regards
JB

I've been meaning to do up a tut for common questions that come up about E2 boxes. I'll do it over the next few days including how to use Dreamboxedit (free channel software that you can keep on your PC and flash over your LAN to the box) which eliminates the need for autobouquets (which is messy).

As regards your questions, you are right about the tuners as regards recording. The only limitation when recording Saorview channels is the ability to watch another Saorview channel on the other multiplex. There are two multiplexes. So you do have the ability to watch the channels on the same multiplex when whilst recording.

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

I've been meaning to do up a tut for common questions that come up about E2 boxes. I'll do it over the next few days including how to use Dreamboxedit (free channel software that you can keep on your PC and flash over your LAN to the box) which eliminates the need for autobouquets (which is messy).

As regards your questions, you are right about the tuners as regards recording. The only limitation when recording Saorview channels is the ability to watch another Saorview channel on the other multiplex. There are two multiplexes. So you do have the ability to watch the channels on the same multiplex when whilst recording.

Dreamboxedit, is a Windows only application I believe.
So it will not run on my PC.

Is it not strange that there is no similar Linux editor, particularly as E2 is running on Linux?

Maybe there is one and I have not seen mention of it?

STB.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Dreamboxedit, is a Windows only application I believe.
So it will not run on my PC.

Is it not strange that there is no similar Linux editor, particularly as E2 is running on Linux?

Maybe there is one and I have not seen mention of it?

Dreamboxedit is only available for Windows and MACOS.

Not many box users use Linux as a computer environment.

Dreambox edit downloads channels lists for as many satellites as you like and you can then flash to box. You can regularly update the TPs as you have the master list on your PC. That then overwrites the channel list on the box with a quick flash.

Thats all it does! Its all menu driven.

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

Dreamboxedit is only available for Windows and MACOS.

Not many box users use Linux as a computer environment.

Dreambox edit downloads channels lists for as many satellites as you like and you can then flash to box. You can regularly update the TPs as you have the master list on your PC. That then overwrites the channel list on the box with a quick flash.

Thats all it does! Its all menu driven.

Given your description, it would seem like a good idea for such an editor to be built in to E2 ..... but of course it would have to run on Linux then

I found it strange is all, given that E2 development takes place on Linux that there is not a Linux equivalent to Dreamboxeditor.

Thanks.

Gerry Wicklow

Maybe because Linux users are more likely to have the know-how to tinker more directly

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Maybe because Linux users are more likely to have the know-how to tinker more directly

TBH, I doubt there are any more (%) using Linux than Windows, that have deep knowledge of the OS.

From what I read on fora most users do not know much about the OS, regardless which one they use.

Gerry Wicklow

I'm a relative noob to Linux and know even less about the nuts and bolts of Enigma. But I still reckon a Linux user would be far more comfortable FTP'ing a file or editing an XML or whatever compared to someone on a plug and pray environment.*


EDIT:
*Sorry. That's not meant to sound snobby about such OS's:o

greasepalm

hahaha plug and play brigade not heard of that for a weee while.

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I'm a relative noob to Linux and know even less about the nuts and bolts of Enigma. But I still reckon a Linux user would be far more comfortable FTP'ing a file or editing an XML or whatever compared to someone on a plug and pray environment.*


EDIT:
*Sorry. That's not meant to sound snobby about such OS's:o

It might well be an attitude difference ..... maybe Linux users are a bit more adventurous and prepared to try things even though they are not comfortable doing so?

There is also the matter that if they do muck up their install they can have it back again in about 15 mins, and it has cost them nothing so they are not as invested in it as users of other OSs.

Of course there is the other option ..... you were absolutely right and I was wrong

STB.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It might well be an attitude difference ..... maybe Linux users are a bit more adventurous and prepared to try things even though they are not comfortable doing so?

There is also the matter that if they do muck up their install they can have it back again in about 15 mins, and it has cost them nothing so they are not as invested in it as users of other OSs.

Of course there is the other option ..... you were absolutely right and I was wrong

I'd say its more likely that it just hasnt been compiled due to user numbers.

Install Wine and it'll work that way.

Q&A

I've dug out a couple of old hard drives which I'm thinking of using with my F1. How do most folk connect them?

I see the esata port but I've never used one - Does a esata to sata cable work well? Are there any pro'd and cons to doing it this way? They seem to be pretty cheap on Ebay.

Would I be better off connecting via the USB port? I had an old USB 2.0 enclosure (with a Y splitter cable for powering it). It was a bit fiddly on the laptop and the cable eventually packed it in. I was also thinking of getting a cheap 3.0 enclosure but worried that it might not get enough power given the F1's ports are only 2.0.

Any advice welcome

greasepalm

get an enclosure that is powered externally is better than just usb.that should have a usb to plug into box.

Gerry Wicklow

I use a basic USB 3 enclosure without issue even though the ports are USB2. A small 2.5 inch laptop HDD should be OK but larger 3.5 inch desktop HDDs would need extra power.

madrarua959

Gerry Wicklow,

I have just had Formuler F1 installed after goving up Sky. The Openatv 6.1 is installed. It scanned and found both saorview and sat channels. There are hundreds of sat channels, many encrypted and many empty. Is there an easy layman's way to have just free-to-air Uk channels and saorview and to have them in a combined EPG ? Any advice would be appreciated.

The high horse brigade

madrarua959 wrote: »

Gerry Wicklow,

I have just had Formuler F1 installed after goving up Sky. The Openatv 6.1 is installed. It scanned and found both saorview and sat channels. There are hundreds of sat channels, many encrypted and many empty. Is there an easy layman's way to have just free-to-air Uk channels and saorview and to have them in a combined EPG ? Any advice would be appreciated.

There's a bit of a leaving curve. Delete all bouquets of channels and make your own

I'd in fact I'd delete all channels and start a fresh and then scan both sources again. Then get the autobouquets plugin and set it to FTA and it will organise channels into bouquets for you. You'll have to manually add the Saorview channels to a bouquet. You can also add favourites to the favourites bouquet.

Good luck with the box

Gerry Wicklow

madrarua959 wrote: »

Gerry Wicklow,

I have just had Formuler F1 installed after goving up Sky. The Openatv 6.1 is installed. It scanned and found both saorview and sat channels. There are hundreds of sat channels, many encrypted and many empty. Is there an easy layman's way to have just free-to-air Uk channels and saorview and to have them in a combined EPG ? Any advice would be appreciated.

You need to create a list, known as a bouquet, of your favourite channels. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is by using the WEBIF app. If you have a PC or laptop on the same home network just enter the network address (192.168.xxx.xxx) of the F1 box into any web browser to access the webif. To find the box network address:
press BLUE>NETWORK>NETWORK INTERFACE and look for IP address.

You can actually create as many bouquets as you like for example a news list or kids list or whatever. You can have any mix of terrestrial (Soarview) and satellite in the same bouquets(s) in any order you fancy.
Alternatively there is a plugin called autobouquets but someone else would have to talk you through that as I don't use it myself.

madrarua959

Thanks, Gerry. I'm a bit reluctant to delete anything at this stage. One thing I have tried is to connect the F1 to the WiFi, but I can see no way to enter the network password with the remote. Have you managed to do it ?

mun1

Button 1 is ABC, 2 is DEF etc . Like old style texting on pre smart phone mobile phone eg press 1 twice for B , 2 three times for F. It should come up on the screen while pressing buttons . A bit clumsy and needs a bit of patience