Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

greasepalm

3 working usb sticks i use are kingston.integral and cruzer and 8gb in size.Inserted into rear of box when powered off and powered on
Any buttons need pressing to start the flashing process?

If i download an image i extract it to my usb stick having formatted it to fat32 first.

spooner_j

brookedave wrote: »

Can anyone help by giving a link to a usb stick that will work for flashing an image? Or is there another way to do it?
I have tried 2 different ones (SanDisk and verbatim) and both fail (it boots into existing image).

Thanks

I had a few issues getting mine to flash before I figured out what the problem is...

For your USB you need to have a single folder on it called tiviarplus. In this folder, make sure you have your image unzipped in here.

If you're restoring a backup you made yourself (which is what I was doing) it wont work until you add another text file called "noforce". This is just a plain text file with the text "rename this file to 'force' to force an update without confirmation". Not sure that text needs to be there but that's what was in the OpenVix image file I used (see screenshot attached)

Your folder should look like the attached Tiviar image.

Once you have your USB this way, power off the box with the button at the back. Insert your USB into the back port, then power on. The front display should say "PressPWR" after a few seconds, at which point you press the white power light at the front. It should then flash for you.

Is there a quick and easy way to rescan the channels? I've not rescanned since I bought the box two years ago. I'd be afraid to mess with it too much incase it stops working

swoofer

Are you missing any channels if so say what they are? Do you know the image you are using? And you are correct, if it aint broke dont fix it.

wilsixon

swoofer wrote: »

I forgot to ask is this a new box or does it have an enigma 2 image already on it?

It has an enigma 2 image on it.

wilsixon

spooner_j wrote: »

I had a few issues getting mine to flash before I figured out what the problem is...

For your USB you need to have a single folder on it called tiviarplus. In this folder, make sure you have your image unzipped in here.

If you're restoring a backup you made yourself (which is what I was doing) it wont work until you add another text file called "noforce". This is just a plain text file with the text "rename this file to 'force' to force an update without confirmation". Not sure that text needs to be there but that's what was in the OpenVix image file I used (see screenshot attached)

Your folder should look like the attached Tiviar image.

Once you have your USB this way, power off the box with the button at the back. Insert your USB into the back port, then power on. The front display should say "PressPWR" after a few seconds, at which point you press the white power light at the front. It should then flash for you.

Tried all that but no joy. Will have to get my hands on an 8gb Kingston usb. Thanks.

swoofer

swoofer wrote: »

Are you missing any channels if so say what they are? Do you know the image you are using? And you are correct, if it aint broke dont fix it.

The image is openATV. I'm missing a few channels that were there previously, don't know if they've been removed from FTA or need to be rescanned. Sky News, Quest HD, Al Jazeera HD, CNN, Pick, More4, channel 4+1, Food network are all gone

swoofer

Have you tried pressing the power button before you switch on at the rear and wait? And make sure no other sticks in other slots.

There is a way to update online as well and can you say the name of the image you are using ie openatv, openvix etc with version. I have 2 of these boxes and holding the power button worked quite a few times.

swoofer

mascher they are all there give me a few mins.

There are a few ways you can sort this so you might as well learn.

1. use kingofsat you put in channel name and then add the details to signal finder and scan, you then need to add the new channel to the appropriate bouquet, ie press menu when on channel.

https://en.kingofsat.net/find.php?question=sky+news

2. You can go to automatic scan but NB make sure you say no to clear before scan. You will then get a new list of all the current channels so you search through and add to bouquet.

3. When you are on a channel go ok arrow up , press red button that says ALL and you get a list of all channels and you may see more than one entry eg more 4 and find the one that opens, then add etc

4. You can run autobouquets but you must make sure you have the option to keep non ABM to yes. Once run you then go to each bouquet and find the channel. There is a way of creating bouquets that you can run with ABM and it will populate them as you want but thats using echanneliser but to me that's too much effort.

I use kingofsat and signal finder but I dont watch a lot of channels.

Pick is now in HD and it may not get picked up, THIS IS IT FOR YOU TO TRY SIGNAL FINDER METHOD

12363.00 V 34 Europe DVB-S2 8PSK 27500 2/3

greasepalm

Would it be handier to set ABM which i use on openvix or on another box PLI it was autobouquets 28.2 and rescanned and notice a few new ones listed.

spooner_j

brookedave wrote: »

Tried all that but no joy. Will have to get my hands on an 8gb Kingston usb. Thanks.

It could be a problem with your image

As a test, download the latest OpenVix image from here
https://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/downloads/tiviar-images/tiviar-alpha-plus/

Unzip and copy the tiviarplus folder to your USB, plug it into the rear and power on.

You should see "PressPWR" on the front of your box. Dont press it unless you want to use OpenVix! But if you see that message then it means the USB is working and the box can see the flash image. If it shows the message for the proper OpenVix image but not your image then its a problem with the image youre trying to flash.

NewClareman

brookedave wrote: »

Can anyone help by giving a link to a usb stick that will work for flashing an image? Or is there another way to do it?
I have tried 2 different ones (SanDisk and verbatim) and both fail (it boots into existing image).

Thanks

If you're using OpenATV you need to use the "flash local" option: just browse to the location of the USB stick, select the ZIP file with the image (no need to extract the files before copying to the stick) and off you go.

hs5424

Great box.
I have setup about 20 of these in the last 2 years and not a bother on them. I flash them with the Vix image and load the Vix blue HD skin which looks the same as a S#Y box. The epg never fails using crossEpg.

hs5424

Another useful tool that works with this box is Dreambox edit. It allows you to view and edit all the channels on the box from your PC.
You can drag and drop channels into bouquets, delete, rename etc,etc. Save a copy to your C drive and send back to the box if you mess up.

_Kaiser_

hs5424 wrote: »

Great box.
I have setup about 20 of these in the last 2 years and not a bother on them. I flash them with the Vix image and load the Vix blue HD skin which looks the same as a S#Y box. The epg never fails using crossEpg.

How does it compare to the zgemma being suggested in the other thread do you know?

greasepalm

I will assume it is the zgemma h7s 4k model which is a newer box than the tiviar and i bought one and love it as usually cursed the previous models as clones.Running Openvix and had to update tv for 4k and picture and sound has blown me away and yes not much stuff on 4 k

hs5424

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

How does it compare to the zgemma being suggested in the other thread do you know?

As I don't have a Zgemma myself so I cannot compare, however when I set them up they both seemed to function the same. With all these things ''time will tell''.
By the way if anyone has any power supply problems with the Tiviar Alpha + don't bother to try and repair it. Just remove old psu and pop any 12v 5A one inside and hard wire it to the main pcb. It only delivers 12v to the main board so its a simple fix.

teach nua

firstly, great info and help on this thread.

I was thinking of getting one of these boxes and had a question.

I will be using it with a TV that already has a saorview tuner and I only have one terrestrial cable coming from aerial in attic to TV.

If I split the signal behind the TV, then put one cable from the split into TV directly and the other cable from split into DVB T2 on box, will I be able to watch one terrestrial channel on one mux and record another terrestrial channel on another mux at the same time?

greasepalm

Yes should be able to split saorview for both.
View on tv record on box is what i do on my H7s

swoofer

This thread is for the TIVIAR alpha plus and not the zgemma. If you mean the tiviar, which is a better box, then it has rf out so you don't have to split. Aerial to Tiviar then short lead from RF out to TV.

teach nua

Sorry should have clarified, it's Tiviar I'm interested in

swoofer

No your ok you have to split cable for a zgemma but not tiviar

hs5424

Yes you can split any RF feed providing you have enough level in the first place, ie you can split it 100 times if you end up with 55dbuV for DVB-T tuner.
Just to clarify.

swoofer

are you saying you could have 100 tv's from one feed??

teach nua

thanks for that, one other question.

I will put the TA box in living room.

Is there options for me to watch the recording from the box on my tv (non smart) in the kitchen?

I have fibre BB and the modem is beside the living room tv

hs5424

swoofer wrote: »

are you saying you could have 100 tv's from one feed??

Of course. How do you think cable TV systems work. One feed into head-end feeding 1000's of subscribers

hs5424

teach nua wrote: »

thanks for that, one other question.

I will put the TA box in living room.

Is there options for me to watch the recording from the box on my tv (non smart) in the kitchen?

I have fibre BB and the modem is beside the living room tv

If you would like to have access to the TA in all rooms throughout you house you could install it in the attic, take the HDMI feed from it and plug into an encoder modulator. This connects into your coaxial aerial feed to all the rooms. It also supports IR so you can use the TA remote in any room. One draw back is that there is about 1.5 / 2 seconds latency when you press the remote control button until things change on the screen.

teach nua

i was hoping to leave TA box in living room

is there any other way?

If I was to get a wifi dongle for box and if I got something like an android box for my tv in the kitchen with some type of app, could I stream over my wifi recording from the box? sorry i'm not great with this sort of thing

DopeTech

teach nua wrote: »

i was hoping to leave TA box in living room

is there any other way?

If I was to get a wifi dongle for box and if I got something like an android box for my tv in the kitchen with some type of app, could I stream over my wifi recording from the box? sorry i'm not great with this sort of thing

With a xiaomi mi TV stick or similar you could use the dream player app to stream channels and recordings.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.cyberdream.dreamepg.tv.player

teach nua

Okay, so I would need streaming device

Would I need WiFi dingle for TA box and if so what would a good one be?