Zgemma H7s Guide

greasepalm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121820526#Comment_121820526

Dots to right of your posts like 2040 give you 1 day edit allowance

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121820853#Comment_121820853

Thanks yes, had trouble finding something better than 'code block'. Tried 'quote' which looked worse. In the end stuck with 'code'.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121820850#Comment_121820850

I imagine we were the biggest market for those combo boxes , they don't really need them in the UK as there are plenty of freeview boxes for them.

Given customs and handling whack a great big premium on top of buying from the UK these days , they are probably just trying to get rid of em.

You can buy these on Amazon.de for cheaper than the final amount from WOS after customs have added their fees

Charles Slane

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121822920#Comment_121822920

What are the customs fees?

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823153#Comment_121823153

Fedex charge 35.68 euros , this on top of UK VAT being added , so for example , and at 100 Sterling , its gonna cost you 143 euros once sterling vat is added , then a handling charge of 36 or so , so 179 euros.

If by any chance you had to return it , I can only imagine the hoops you would have to jump through.

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823153#Comment_121823153

Customs fees are the %23 Irish VAT. If the shop is any good (are set up for exports) they subtract the British VAT first. Which WoS apparently do. On the checkout page for my Irish address they go with the ex VAT price.

(lol at the possible delays due to brexit & covid, wonder will they still have that message in 5 years time)

You pay Irish import VAT on the full purchase price including the shipping. £99 are roughly €116 lets call it €120) + 23% VAT (€27.60) comes in under €150. If AnPost want a €10 handling fee (its probably less) this is still good. Considering even on amazon.de I dont see them for less than €200 with shipping.

If I didn't have one already I'd get it from WoS. Has the added value of getting a UK plug, too. Not a biggy but still. Hate those flimsy adapter stacks or god forbid buying an extra UK plug power supply which is another tenner or more.

Edit: Overlooked the Fedex bit. I dont know what Fedex charge for 'handling' the VAT money/process. It if was €35 Euro like Andy says that would change things a bit. On the upside I dont feel so bad having bought locally now. ;)

wassie

There wont be any An Post charges as Fedex will be doing the delivery. I imported an Android car stereo from China via Fedex in early Jan. Stated value of unit was €165 (was actually 3 times this) and was charged 23% VAT (approx €38) plus €11.35+VAT admin charge. Also I only received the customs invoice from Fedex 2 weeks ago, after receiving my package in mid-Jan.

Returns are straight forward with An Post (not cheap though).

Returns can be sent using Click & Post or at your local Post Office. The Customs related electronic data and labelling (where required) should indicate that the item is a return. We recommend you retain your receipt of posting. Please note, An Post do not process any refunds of VAT or Customs Charges if you are returning goods after the item has been delivered.

Or if you're close to the border you can send it via Royal Mail fairly inexpensively.

Bellie1

A few times now, the box freezes,.I realise when the remote doesn't have any effect. Turning off and on at the plug sorts it. Are you meant to regularly restart the boxes?

CalamariFritti

Not really, typically this means one plugin or the other is going rogue/crashing. The thing itself and the base software should be solid enough.

The flash memory could be full, too. Check at Menu/Information/Memory

If you have the webif plugin for terminal access or know how to get onto the box with ssh login you can find crash logs at /home/root/logs.

Other than that...what have you installed last or what was the last config change made if any?

greasepalm

Mine goes like that every now and again and have to power off at rear and then on again , basic plugins with 28.2 and Saorview.

Epg to hdd and nothing on logs as far as i remember.

Always setup as a clean reflash and setup from scratch.

John_Mc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121820295#Comment_121820295

Thanks a million for this!

I haven't connected satellite cables up as we still have Sky Q to use as we serve out notice period. I've trying to configure the box for Saorview and I am only seeing SD channels, no HD. Any ideas on why that might be? I'm using an amplified indoor aerial which should be ok as we're only 7km from Woodcock hill antenna.

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836745#Comment_121836745

Saorview doesn't mark channels as HD. RTÉ1, 2 and TG4 are HD. The plus one channels and VM etc are SD only.

Also Saorviews idea of HD is 1440x1080 not 1920x1080

John_Mc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836907#Comment_121836907

Thanks. The drop in quality compared to Sky is disappointing to be honest. Is there a way of verifying what I have is really the HD version?

John_Mc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837535#Comment_121837535

Actually never mind, I can see it in OpenWebIf and I do have HD

greasepalm

Your wasting your money on an amplified aerial so close to a transmitter i would say.

swoofer

For SAORVIEW only RTE 1 &2 PLUS tg4 are in HD but not bad. Its the DOGs that do my head in. All the rest are SD and as you have discovered pretty awful and especially if you have a 4K screen. To get the resolution will depend on the skin and the basic sky one wont show it. I take it you have IMAGE OPENATV and the default skin when you press OK while on a channel will give the info you need. Here are 2 pics .

You may be aware but unless your Sky Q lnb is a hybrid you will need to change it or you will have great fun trying to get the satellite channels.

IMG_5003.jpg

IMG_5010.jpg

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834462#Comment_121834462

Flash has 558m left so that's fine. Crossepg failed to download the previous night so maybe that's the plugin that failed and caused the box to freeze.

Haven't installed anything at all since got the box so can't be related to anything like that.. At least know can restart whenever happens again,.a bit annoying though

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839133#Comment_121839133

Ye agreed, would really annoy me tbh. Have you the OpenWebif plugin installed? If you do you could check in the terminal if there are any crash logs in /home/root/logs.

Hard to know with CrossEPG, a failure to download doesnt necessarily mean it crashed (and froze the box). But if it crashed it would show up in the logs.

phil49

Has anybody else have this problem I couldn't see the box across my network without switching samba on the receiver off then on After that I could download from my computer my movies to the box until the next time and I would have to repeat it again although on the box it showed samba as running.

Recently I cant see samba anymore on latest openatv version 7.3. Any fix for this.

swoofer

yes, from within your current image you can fllash online to a new partition but this time use openvix image and set that up, most of that is automatic. once done you can then go back and flash openatv 7.3 to another partiton but set it up from scratch but i would not bother with openatv, it keeps getting updated bad sign. its on 7.4 now.

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121842798#Comment_121842798

I wouldnt use samba I would use nfs if possible at all. I find samba quite flaky and also clunky IMO especially for a relatively smallish box wrt to RAM etc. And nfs is already running on openatv as it is. You just need to define your share(s).

Maybe nfs isnt an option for you, but if it is you'd go about it like so:

Terminal or ssh onto the box, create an export folder

mkdir /export
mkdir /export/movie

The edit /etc/fstab (e.g 'nano /etc/fstab') and add the following line

/media/hdd/movie	/export/movie	none	bind	0 0

Then edit '/etc/exports' and add the following line to define your nfs share. if you want to restrict access to a certain computer replace * with computer name, I use e.g. *.fritz.box for all computers in my home network

/export/movie *(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,insecure,fsid=21)

reboot or execute the following command

/etc/init.d/nfsserver restart

From your computer mount/access the share with 'nfs://zgemmah7/export/movie'

Edit: never mind, samba is also running by default lol. I mostly use nfs cos I come from a mac so samba would be quite roundabout for me.

greasepalm

I have both running on all my boxes but i use OpenVix.

FastFullBack

A few questions on the Zgemma:

• Is it still considered a good / boards recommended upgrade from the tiviar box?
• What are the dimensions of the box? Is it smaller than tiviar? Can't find consistent info online.
• Anyone ever hidden this behind a wall mounted TV on a shelf?
• If yes, does it support IR signal extension somehow?
• 
  

Gerry Wicklow

better specs than Tiviar so faster performance

260x210x50 not counting plugs/cables

no external IR support that I know of so not suitable for hiding

EDIT: you probably could use one of those repeater type IR things that stick onto the front panel.

FastFullBack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121847056#Comment_121847056

Thanks for the info Gerry. So something as simple as this should work to extend the IR coverage

https://www.freetv.ie/remote-control-extender/

Gerry Wicklow

yeah something like that should work

greasepalm

Are the days of hiding stuff behind tvs now are long gone?

Or is it where you have tv mounted on a wall and want to hide it?

FastFullBack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121847203#Comment_121847203

Yes this will be a wall mounted TV, so yeah hiding devices like this out of site is definitely still in fashion.

On that note has anyone ever wall mounted the Zgemma? Seems light enough so should work once I can get the right mount.

[EDIT] This should be perfect for wall mounting it:

https://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?manufacturer=MANHATTAN&mancode=462075&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgo7NtqfahAMVtpxQBh0eMwPbEAQYAyABEgLhi_D_BwE

Bellie1

the remote control that came with the Gemma has to be aimed at a particular angle to the box to work. Is there any workaround for this? Am sick of having to put my arm out to aim remote correctly. First world problem I know

Alun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121847538#Comment_121847538

I agree, it's a PITA. It's definitely the remote as well, not the positioning of the IR receiver, as I have an old Logitech remote that is a lot less fussy about aiming. A Bluetooth remote like I have for my Sony TV would be nice.