Zgemma H7S First Impressions

Gerry Wicklow

Took the plunge and got a ZGemma H7S from WoS with openATV 6.3 pre-installed. I got this as a secondary box so my expectations are not as strict as they would be for a primary unit.

First Impressions:-
The manual makes a good attempt to cover the basics. However the screenshots are too small and dark to be helpful. Naturally, being a man, I didn't read it in any detail
Inside there are two identical power sockets for the HDD. A closer look shows one is 3V and the other the conventional 5V/12V. Confusingly the crude diagram shows them using the 3V socket. I didn't risk trying it.

Setup is the standard openATV wizard for language, timezone, network, initial tuner config and auto scan. The manual also explains things like setting preferred audio etc.
The OS found the HDD without a problem but I didn't find any mention of initialising the HDD in the manual.

CrossEPG and CoolTvGuide plugins will need to be installed and your skin of choice. I never liked the default metrix.

I had backups of my existing bouquets so cheated installing them.

Channel switching is more or less instant as you would expect for the processor and ram size. Picture quality is OK even on crappy Saorview. Not the best I've seen but OK for most viewers.

Downsides:-
The front display includes a very large bright "A" shaped Zgemma logo. I can't find how to disable or dim this although you can dim the rest of the display. I think a piece of tape is required. The rest shows only the time or channel number. There doesn't seem to be an option to show the channel name. That will take getting used to.

Source:- I got mine from WoS for £125GBP inc 2 day shipping. Ordered Thur night with openATV installed. Courier arrived 11am Monday. Image is dated last Friday, so literally hot of the press.

I already had a 120GB SSD knocking around which should be more than enough for normal use.

All in all, you get what you pay for. A budget 4K triple tuner box with reasonable performance.

dulpit

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

The front display includes a very large bright "A" shaped Zgemma logo. I can't find how to disable or dim this although you can dim the rest of the display. I think a piece of tape is required. The rest shows only the time or channel number. There doesn't seem to be an option to show the channel name. That will take getting used to.

I did some limited snooping to see if this can be changed, as far as I could tell it can't. If you come across something that would help, please shout, be great to fix this.

One other thing I have noticed with the front display - the time stops if a recording starts, and will stay at that time until the recording ends and then it reverts to the current time.

Shefwedfan

Sorry Im looking at a box now. Would you be able to post any images of the screen running? just to see what menu looks like etc

Gerry Wicklow

The appearance of menus etc is determined by whatever skin you have installed. The pics in NewClareMans thread for the Tiviar looks like the default "Metrix" skin or something similar. There are lots of skins available to suit your personal taste, some better than others. Changing or installing a skin is a simple task.

Gerry Wicklow

This is the "Vali HD Flex" skin







and for the nerds

Shefwedfan

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

The appearance of menus etc is determined by whatever skin you have installed. The pics in NewClareMans thread for the Tiviar looks like the default "Metrix" skin or something similar. There are lots of skins available to suit your personal taste, some better than others. Changing or installing a skin is a simple task.

Ahh ok, so just buy a box and then get a skin!! sorted

dubrov

Gerry, what would be your choice for a primary STB right now?

Gerry Wicklow

My primary is a VU+ Solo. Very pricey by comparison but you get what you pay for. Maybe it's the placebo effect but it just 'feels' more stable and better quality built all round. I got it as an early adaptor of 4K and paid ~€400 a few years back. Things like the mini screen on the front are handy but a bit over the top for most users.
I'm told the Gigablue is comparable but don't have firsthand experience of them.
In fairness most boxes with half-decent processors and RAM should suit most people. Most do a perfectly acceptable job and only give trouble when we "try to fix them" cough cough cough Older models like the Amiko Alien 2 were crippled by under-powered processors and limited RAM. At the end of the day, Sat boxes are really mini PCs so the same thinking applies.

dubrov

Thanks Gerry.
I am happy to pay a premium for the main STB and it looks like VU+ are the most expensive with Gigablue just behind. Hardware specs seem to be comparable but the Gigablue is a good bit cheaper. Only experience I have of either is my Dad has a Gigablue HD Quad plus which I setup and haven't had to touch it since.

I might try and pick up the Ultimo 4k or the Gigablue UHD 4k second hand if one becomes available. I will report back on on how they run after a few months.

I actually quite enjoy the tinkering on the Enigma2 boxes but I agree, its the tinkering that usually breaks things. I just can't help myself though

Gerry Wicklow

Yeah I regularly warn people, these things are addictive . When I got the VU+, the Gigablue was "coming next month" for almost a year. I got fed up in the end and bit the bullet price wise. I don't regret it though. The VU+ is bomb proof.

dulpit

Apart from the front panel, what is the main difference between the high end box and a H7S?

Gerry Wicklow

Better quality components???

dulpit

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Better quality components???

I suppose what I meant was - from the user's point of view, how are they better? Or is the extra money for longer life?

Gerry Wicklow

To be honest I'm asking myself the same question. So far the ZGemma is doing everything I want. (thats put the curse on it now

Cyrus

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Yeah I regularly warn people, these things are addictive . When I got the VU+, the Gigablue was "coming next month" for almost a year. I got fed up in the end and bit the bullet price wise. I don't regret it though. The VU+ is bomb proof.

What exact model vu plus should I be looking at gerry and what do I need to have saorvoew and satellite ?

Thanks

Gerry Wicklow

The Vu+ Solo4k is the model I have but there are other equally good boxes out there now. For Saorview you will need an aerial preferably outdoors or in some cases in the attic may suffice. Don't waste your money on any plug in super boosted set top aerial, they are a con. If you are in a strong signal area you might get away with an indoor set top aerial but they are not recommended. For the UK channels you will need a satellite dish pointed at 28 east with either a twin or quad output LNB ( the yoke on the dish arm) An old Sky dish would suffice as long as it wasn't Sky Q. Sky Q uses a different LNB. Satellite needs 2 feeds from the dish so you can record on one while viewing with the other. Thus the need for twin or quad outputs.

Cyrus

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

The Vu+ Solo4k is the model I have but there are other equally good boxes out there now. For Saorview you will need an aerial preferably outdoors or in some cases in the attic may suffice. Don't waste your money on any plug in super boosted set top aerial, they are a con. If you are in a strong signal area you might get away with an indoor set top aerial but they are not recommended. For the UK channels you will need a satellite dish pointed at 28 east with either a twin or quad output LNB ( the yoke on the dish arm) An old Sky dish would suffice as long as it wasn't Sky Q. Sky Q uses a different LNB. Satellite needs 2 feeds from the dish so you can record on one while viewing with the other. Thus the need for twin or quad outputs.

Thanks we have an unusual set up here it’s a small estate with a communal dish and saorview aerial over fibre optic cable so I’m sorted on that front.

But that box can tune both correct ? Is there any benefit to the 4K apart from future proofing ? Are there any 4K transmissions?

Gerry Wicklow

At present there are no free 4k channels on 28E other than a demo. Chances are any future 4K will be subscription based. Even on the European sats, there are only a few 4k shopping channels, the Fashion Channel and NASA 4k (beautiful but soon gets repetitive)
I know nothing about fibre setups so cant advise there. Sorry

Cyrus

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

At present there are no free 4k channels on 28E other than a demo. Chances are any future 4K will be subscription based. Even on the European sats, there are only a few 4k shopping channels, the Fashion Channel and NASA 4k (beautiful but soon gets repetitive)
I know nothing about fibre setups so cant advise there. Sorry

Thanks I have figured out the fibre side myself it’s not terribly complicated you just need the right convertor for the particular set up

If there are no 4K transmissions is there any point in a 4K box?

Gerry Wicklow

There are other sources of 4K content such as Youtube

UrbanFret

This is the best bang for buck out there in my opinion.
https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers/Octagon/octagon-sf8008

Includes KODI and stalker.

Gerry Wicklow

Am I misreading it or is that a single DVB-S tuner?

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Am I misreading it or is that a single DVB-S tuner?

The pic shows one of each DVB-S2 & DVB-C/T2

Gerry Wicklow

Thats what I thought. You're stuffed if you want to watch one sat channel while recording another

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Thats what I thought. You're stuffed if you want to watch one sat channel while recording another

Same thing applies to Saorview channels on different mux.

I often wonder why this is not a consideration for most people.

STB.

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Thats what I thought. You're stuffed if you want to watch one sat channel while recording another

They come in various configs. Combo or twin sat. They are not a triple or 4 tuner though. You could add a usb dvbt stick.

And Netflix. Albeit one that will require constant updating of the chromium browser.

The main advantage of all these 4k boxes is the h265 codec. Not a whole lot 4k content that wouldn't require a sub card.

Gerry Wicklow

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Same thing applies to Saorview channels on different mux.

I often wonder why this is not a consideration for most people.

Chances are whatever is on mux 2 is also available on ITV in far better res

Gerry Wicklow

STB. wrote: »

They come in various configs. Combo or twin sat. They are not a triple or 4 tuner though. You could add a usb dvbt stick.

And Netflix. Albeit one that will require constant updating of the chromium browser.

The main advantage of all these 4k boxes is the h265 codec. Not a whole lot 4k content that wouldn't require a sub card.

I'd sooner pay the extra £13 for the third internal tuner

soram

Coincidence - I too took delivery of the H7S yesterday! My OS3+ kept crashing everyday or so overnight and nothing I did would solve it.
The H7S looks pretty good at the moment though I don't want to tinker too much....

I also got OpenATV on it and would be interested to know what the best EPG data importer (Astra & Saorview only) would be. I put EPGImporter on it last night but is there something better?

I'd also like CoolTV if it didn't cause me any issues. I might try to put that on tonight.

dulpit

soram wrote: »

Coincidence - I too took delivery of the H7S yesterday! My OS3+ kept crashing everyday or so overnight and nothing I did would solve it.
The H7S looks pretty good at the moment though I don't want to tinker too much....

I also got OpenATV on it and would be interested to know what the best EPG data importer (Astra & Saorview only) would be. I put EPGImporter on it last night but is there something better?

I'd also like CoolTV if it didn't cause me any issues. I might try to put that on tonight.

CrossEPG? That's what I use anyway, seems accurate with no obvious issues...

scottigael

UrbanFret wrote: »

This is the best bang for buck out there in my opinion.
https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers/Octagon/octagon-sf8008

Includes KODI and stalker.

Still not 100% on whether to buy this box here or the zgemma h7s is there much of a difference? Mainly just want Saorview and Freeview and maybe iptv, don't care that much about recording stuff.

soram

My first impressions this week are good anyway!

The picture quality seems better than my OS3+ was, it responds immediately to the remote and it hasn't crashed in 4 days which is a first for me!

I only have a 32GB USB in it for recording at the moment and managed to leave the thing on pause so that it filled the USB It reported an error but then I couldn't delete the recording as the device was full and it wanted to put it in the trash can which of course is on the device.
I then tried initialising the USB again but that hung too. Gave up messing and just watched the telly so I'll have another look this evening.

I will have to have a look at dimming or disabling the big logo on it though. If anybody has a tip here I'm listening!

Gerry Wicklow

32Gb is too small for most people. A rough rule of thumb is to allow at least 4GB per hour of HD recording. If you have the box connected to your home network you could try accessing the drive from a PCs file browser and use it to delete content. This normally bypasses the trash bin. Another option would be to FTP into the box using Filezilla or similar utility. If it is a USB dongle simply format it in a PC and then initialise it in the box to return it to EXT4.

soram

I have an SSD I want to put into it but haven't had the time so just stuck in the USB stick. I'll sort it out over the weekend.

Gerry Wicklow

dulpit wrote: »

I did some limited snooping to see if this can be changed, as far as I could tell it can't. If you come across something that would help, please shout, be great to fix this.

One other thing I have noticed with the front display - the time stops if a recording starts, and will stay at that time until the recording ends and then it reverts to the current time.

In STB DISPLAY settings there is an option to show "nothing" if recording in standby. This in fact showed the static time. I can't get any indication of a recording either in standby or normal use.
Definitely the front display is the main weakness of this box. Apart from that it's working very well. I wonder if it is just an openATV snag. Perhaps other images have sussed it. For me, for now, "if it ain't broke......"

NewClareman

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

In STB DISPLAY settings there is an option to show "nothing" if recording in standby. This in fact showed the static time. I can't get any indication of a recording either in standby or normal use.
Definitely the front display is the main weakness of this box. Apart from that it's working very well. I wonder if it is just an openATV snag. Perhaps other images have sussed it. For me, for now, "if it ain't broke......"

I used OpenATV because I was building on the THHB’s image. If I were starting out again I’d try OpenVix as:

1. It has far more comprehensive user help.
2. CrossEPG is now built in.
3. ABM is included by default.

dulpit

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

In STB DISPLAY settings there is an option to show "nothing" if recording in standby. This in fact showed the static time. I can't get any indication of a recording either in standby or normal use.
Definitely the front display is the main weakness of this box. Apart from that it's working very well. I wonder if it is just an openATV snag. Perhaps other images have sussed it. For me, for now, "if it ain't broke......"

I'm using openvix, so assume its a general issue...

Zardoz

soram wrote: »

My first impressions this week are good anyway!

The picture quality seems better than my OS3+ was, it responds immediately to the remote and it hasn't crashed in 4 days which is a first for me!

Picture quality will be slightly better as the chipset is ARM as opposed to MIPS.
I still believe that there is room for improvement though in the drivers for ARM receivers ,picture quality in SD should be sharper than it is.

Set the picture type to BT709 instead of Auto ,that gives a better picture ,you could try autoresolution too .

Cushtie

Would I be correct in saying you need 3 cables coming to your TV location for this unit. 2 from the satellite dish and 1 from the Saorview Aerial.

What if you only have the 2 and no option of running a third?

Cushtie.

soram

You can multiplex the Saorview signal and one SAT signal onto one cable and demux it at the STB. Buy them online or PowerCity. Works a treat.

https://www.freetv.ie/tv-aerial-and-satellite-combiner/

Cushtie

soram wrote: »

You can multiplex the Saorview signal and one SAT signal onto one cable and demux it at the STB. Buy them online or PowerCity. Works a treat.

https://www.freetv.ie/tv-aerial-and-satellite-combiner/

Cheers, thanks for Info.

emclau

My heart is almost broken with this box! It keeps crashing now almost on a daily basis...

Can anyone tell me what I need to do to reinstall openatv? Is there much to it? Will I lose all my existing bouquets etc?

Thanks!

Sconsey

Where are you downloading skins from? I know that you can go into Setup > Plugins > and there is an option for downloading plugins, skins is one of the categories in the list there. But this list doen't seem to have the 'Sky' type skins. Is there a site anyone can reccomend?

My First impressions of the Zgemma, got it last weekend: like it, I prefer it to the Tiviar that I am replacing, seems to be much smoother.

dubrov

It's in the menu under something like Settings->User Interface->Skins

Sconsey

dubrov wrote: »

It's in the menu under something like Settings->User Interface->Skins

Yeah I found a bunch of skins in there but I am wondering where you get other skins from, for example I have seen some videos of a skin called something like 'SkyQ' which looks like the Sky interface. Could'nt find any of thise in the list of skins available from the box's download list.

dubrov

They likely won't have Sky in the name.
There should be one called "Blue HD" which is very similar to Sky.

Cyrus

Sconsey wrote: »

Yeah I found a bunch of skins in there but I am wondering where you get other skins from, for example I have seen some videos of a skin called something like 'SkyQ' which looks like the Sky interface. Could'nt find any of thise in the list of skins available from the box's download list.

The proper sky q theme has to be downloaded outside the plugins section and ftp it over

Google it the 1080 version

swoofer

@emclau, what exactly is wrong? did you set it up yourself? what image and skin are you using? How old, maybe you got a faulty box

Pyro Boy

Just a quick question. How many channels can you record and view at the same time? Say for satilite and terrestrial.
Could you record 2 sat and 1 terrestrial at the same time?

Gerry Wicklow

Pyro Boy wrote: »

Just a quick question. How many channels can you record and view at the same time? Say for satilite and terrestrial.
Could you record 2 sat and 1 terrestrial at the same time?

Yes. I have done often.
In theory you could actually record more if they were on the same mux or TP.

dulpit

Im using the Pure2 image on my H7S, I've noticed that the default audio output is (when available) audio description, I keep having to switch it to the normal audio. Any ideas how to switch the default?