Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

NewClareman

brookedave wrote: »

I am using Open ATV. Can anyone direct me to a good image for it?
Thanks

I have posted a number of images, see the link in this post.

NewClareman

peking97 wrote: »

I'm using the Tiviar with NCM's latest image and all good!

I notice that in OpenWebif if I go into > Extras> Settings> Packages> More> Update from Feeds is available.

Is this something that should be done manually on a regular basis or is it done automatically?

Or perhaps it shouldn't be done at all!!?

My advice is to leave well enough alone. I started out with OpenATV 6.0 and now use 6.3. There's been little, if any, improvement in functionality. However, from time-to-time an update itself has caused problems.

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

Hi Guys,
If you are having a problem loading Vix make sure that you first have the proper boot loader installed. If the box did not come supplied with an E2 image then you will need the boot loader. I made this mistake in the past. Some of the suppliers used to charge for the boot loader. If you need it I have a copy and can mail it to you.

The flashing procedure is different depending on the boot loader and image. If the box is on the original Fortis OS, I have put the instructions on changing toEnigma2, at the link on this post.

If using recent versions of OpenATV you need to use flash local and navigate to the usb.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

Normally you set your region in the saorview setup and scan.
Might be a second MUX the box does not know.

If ABM is used the region needs to be set with that. Any other setting will be overwritten, when ABM runs.

greasepalm

Yes ABM is a very handy plugin that can update channels when they move.

hs5424

Listen lads that are having problems with your Tiviar.
I have setup about 30 of these boxes to date. I have advised customers to buy them from sat world in Dublin as they are local so if you have a problem you don't have to send back to China. By the way, I don't know or have any business connection with sat world. Load your box with the latest Vix image. I never bother with add-ons such as picons etc as they can load the system no mater what anyone tells you. If you don't want to manually tune in the terrestrial channels then Vix comes pre-loaded with all the RTE transmitters including their transposer sites also. I have never seen this in any box having been in the business for the last 38 years. Select your local transmitter and away you go. Download crossEpg and setup it to update epg guide every night for what ever time suits you using OpenTV providers . It NEVER fails. Download any skin of your choice. I like the Vix blue HD as its almost identical to the one that's used on the Sky HD box so people changing from Sky to FTA will love it.

greasepalm

If downloading epg its best to have a mounted usb or hdd for storage and not to internal flash.Never power off box as just put it in standby.

hs5424

correct.
Use USB stick to download your EPG guide.

hs5424

robinwing wrote: »

Hi I am on Tiviar box and cannot get RTE 1 on terrestrial ( Kippure) but can get Virgin Media and RTE2. Do I rescan the Tiviar for terrestrial and how do I do that ?. The Tiviar came preloaded I think , it was just plug and play. Anybody who has tips and info would be greatly appreciated

Kippure use adjacent channels 33 & 34 so try to manually tune these.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

Yes ABM is a very handy plugin that can update channels when they move.

My point was that if ABM is installed then that is where you input your Saorview details.
You then scan from within ABM.

ABM not only updates channels if they move, it also handles new channels and channels closing.

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

Listen lads that are having problems with your Tiviar.
I have setup about 30 of these boxes to date. I have advised customers to buy them from sat world in Dublin as they are local so if you have a problem you don't have to send back to China. By the way, I don't know or have any business connection with sat world. Load your box with the latest Vix image. I never bother with add-ons such as picons etc as they can load the system no mater what anyone tells you. If you don't want to manually tune in the terrestrial channels then Vix comes pre-loaded with all the RTE transmitters including their transposer sites also. I have never seen this in any box having been in the business for the last 38 years. Select your local transmitter and away you go. Download crossEpg and setup it to update epg guide every night for what ever time suits you using OpenTV providers . It NEVER fails. Download any skin of your choice. I like the Vix blue HD as its almost identical to the one that's used on the Sky HD box so people changing from Sky to FTA will love it.

Any enigma2 box will have similar capabilities. For many people it comes down to best value. €277 from Satworld, with a 1TB drive fitted, is a bit steep. I would suggest the newer Zgemma H7S, at €190 from World of Satellite, is a far better buy. They are UK based, so no problems with returns.

You could use some of the money saved to fit a modern Unicable LNB. This requires only one satellite cable to your box and avoids the need for a cable farm. If using an installer to fit your system check with them the combination of Unicable LNB and dish they use.

I haven't seen any loading effect with picons, when stored to an internal HDD. However, they are a pain to keep updated and are purely eye candy. I no longer use them.

There have been problems with CrossEPG with some builds of OpenATV. However, I agree that it is the best option, at the moment. I also use EPGRefresh to ensure that the terrestrial channels are refreshed, as I am sometimes away for long periods. I use Freesat for the radio EPG, which I use a lot.

I consider ABM to be an essential plugin/add-on for keeping channels up to date, automatically. It works seamlessly with satellite and terrestrial channels. A favorites list can still be used, giving the best of all worlds.

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

correct.
Use USB stick to download your EPG guide.

I've seen many posters recommend using a USB stick, but I don't consider this necessary, where an internal HDD is used. I have installed seven Tiviar's, all working fine with the EPG stored on the HDD. From my point of view a USB stick is just another item that can break, or be accidentally unplugged.

greasepalm

Usb wont spin up like a hdd does.

Gooey Looey

The EPG is fine on the internal HDD, just not the local flash. Picons should be on a USB as these get loaded with every channel change.

hs5424

I have purchased some Zgemma H7's from World of Sat in the UK also as they were my source for the Tiviar before they ran out of stocks. I could not see any difference between the Tiviar and Zgemma with Vix installed. The remote on the Tiviar just feels better but that's just me personally. One customer that I fitted 3 X H7's for has commented that he occasionally has to power cycle the H7's when it acts up. I haven't yet had any complaints from customers with the Tiviar units. That said both boxes are great compared to the VU+ duo I had a few years back. I replaced a smd chip on one occasion and some cap's on the main board also. It seemed to work great after it was first flashed and get progressively sluggish after a few month's. I think it cost 480 euro at the time and had two sat tuners.

greasepalm

Yes had the duo but red light of death it finally ended it

hs5424

greasepalm wrote: »

Yes had the duo but red light of death it finally ended it

My red light was a smd regulator chip. I managed to repair it but 6 months later having carried out another repair I lost all faith in the box. If I wasn't a bench technician I would have been really pissed.

NewClareman

greasepalm wrote: »

Usb wont spin up like a hdd does.

Gooey Looey wrote: »

The EPG is fine on the internal HDD, just not the local flash. Picons should be on a USB as these get loaded with every channel change.

Again, using a USB key for either the EPG or Picons is just adding an additional point of failure. Even very large HDD's have spin up times less than 0.2s, so changing channels is simply not an issue. (In the builds I posted automatic time shifting is enabled, so the HDD is spinning permanently. However, that is not necessary.)

NewClareman

hs5424 wrote: »

My red light was a smd regulator chip. I managed to repair it but 6 months later having carried out another repair I lost all faith in the box. If I wasn't a bench technician I would have been really pissed.

Yeah, working with SMT is tricky. (I did a small amount of work with them, many years ago, in a production environment.) What kind of rework station do you use?

Gerry Wicklow

NewClareman wrote: »

Again, using a USB key for either the EPG or Picons is just adding an additional point of failure. Even very large HDD's have spin up times less than 0.2s, so changing channels is simply not an issue. (In the builds I posted automatic time shifting is enabled, so the HDD is spinning permanently. However, that is not necessary.)

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

NewClareman

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

It depends on how you are configuring your stb. If you don't want "Instant Rewind", I agree with you. If you do want instant rewind there is is a continuous write/read cycle in operation, while the box is active. This will reduce the lifespan of SSD's which are still not optimal for this Use Case. In this scenario a proper video-optimised hard drive is a better option.

However, the durability of SSD's, particularly the more expensive ones, is increasing. This will likely make SSD's more suitable for all Use Cases.

MayoForSam

Evening all, my Tiviar Alpha Plus has been chugging along nicely for the past 2 years or so running one of THHB's or Clareman's Enigma2 images (can't remember which one exactly) without any major issues (except for Channel 4 EPG data not being shown).

The other evening however, it developed a problem - we had a brief power cut and the box lost power - when it re-booted, all the Saorview channels had disappeared (the UK sat channels are working fine off the other 2 tuners).

I checked the Signal Finder in the System menu and it's showing no signal at all coming through on DVB-T2, Channel is set at 21 (not sure if this is the default) and normally I would be pointed towards Maghera. The aerial is fine as I am running a pass-through to a TV out in the kitchen from the Tiviar and Saorview is working fine there.

Do I need to change the channel or should the signal bar be showing something?

hs5424

If your on Maghera you need to see ch's 46 & 48.
Manually scan both these and see what you get.

andy1249

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

These days SSDs are so cheap I see no reason to use a HDD or USB unless you had a spare knocking about already. IMO

Just looked , there is still a very significant difference in price

1TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 50 euros
1TB SSD averages about 150 euros

2TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 80 euros
2TB SSD averages about 250 euros

SSD's still cost more than the satellite boxes being talked about in the threads on here , and in some use cases as mentioned above , are not suitable.

Given the issues and cost , and the fact that the benefits of an SSD in terms of faster reads and writes are irrelevant in a satellite box , there seems to be no point in spending the extra money.

Gooey Looey

andy1249 wrote: »

Just looked , there is still a very significant difference in price

1TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 50 euros
1TB SSD averages about 150 euros

2TB 2.5 inch hard drive averages about 80 euros
2TB SSD averages about 250 euros

SSD's still cost more than the satellite boxes being talked about in the threads on here , and in some use cases as mentioned above , are not suitable.

Given the issues and cost , and the fact that the benefits of an SSD in terms of faster reads and writes are irrelevant in a satellite box , there seems to be no point in spending the extra money.

You can get a 500GB SSD on Amazon for 50 sterling

MayoForSam

hs5424 wrote: »

If your on Maghera you need to see ch's 46 & 48.
Manually scan both these and see what you get.

Didn't work, nothing picked up, signal strength is showing 0%. Could the tuner be blown?

Gerry Wicklow

I use 120Gb SSDs which cost less than €25 delivered. IMO 120Gb (30 hours HD) is more than enough for a sat box, anything more than that will probably never be watched.:) I have a NAS for long term storage. Being silent an SSD also suits a bedroom box.
At the end of the day each user will have their own wants/needs. For me SSDs are the way to go YMMV

greasepalm

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I use 120Gb SSDs which cost less than €25 delivered. IMO 120Gb (30 hours HD) is more than enough for a sat box, anything more than that will probably never be watched.:) I have a NAS for long term storage. Being silent an SSD also suits a bedroom box.
At the end of the day each user will have their own wants/needs. For me SSDs are the way to go YMMV

Dare we ask the size of your NAS box as thinking 4 or 6?

NewClareman

MayoForSam wrote: »

Evening all, my Tiviar Alpha Plus has been chugging along nicely for the past 2 years or so running one of THHB's or Clareman's Enigma2 images (can't remember which one exactly) without any major issues (except for Channel 4 EPG data not being shown).

The other evening however, it developed a problem - we had a brief power cut and the box lost power - when it re-booted, all the Saorview channels had disappeared (the UK sat channels are working fine off the other 2 tuners).

I checked the Signal Finder in the System menu and it's showing no signal at all coming through on DVB-T2, Channel is set at 21 (not sure if this is the default) and normally I would be pointed towards Maghera. The aerial is fine as I am running a pass-through to a TV out in the kitchen from the Tiviar and Saorview is working fine there.

Do I need to change the channel or should the signal bar be showing something?

I doubt that you're using one of my images as they should populate the CH4 EPG. If you are just do an update within ABM, rather than a manual tune.

There is a small chance that the power cut caused a power surge that cooked your terrestrial tuner. If you are unlucky all is not lost - you can buy a usb one that works with this box for a few euro. Another possibility is that you have a short between the core cable and braid in the coax cable. If you have a multimeter you can check with that, otherwise carefully check for a "whisker".

Good luck ��

greasepalm

I always wonder why people dont want to use home protection as could be a very expensive oversight.