Tiviar regularly freezing - what to replace it with?

whoami1

I have had my Tiviar Alpha+ for about 18 months and it's start to lock up once a week or so. The clock freezes and the remote won't do anything, neither will the physical button on the front panel. The only solution I have found so far is a hard reset via the power button, but I don't like doing that.

I thought it was a faulty hard disk, so I replaced the disk, but it's still happening. I now suspect faulty RAM, but as the memory is integrated into the motherboard instead of being a DIMM, I have no way of testing this.

Therefore, and with great reluctance, I feel that the next step is to replace the box. As the Tiviar is no longer made although still available, what can anyone recommend as a suitable modern replacement? It has to be a triple-tuner with the ability to run Enigma2 and I would definitely prefer the front display to show the channel name rather than a channel number.

Gerry Wicklow

Have you tried disabling crossepg? I had a spate of crashes during the night which stopped when I stopped using it.

NewClareman

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Have you tried disabling crossepg? I had a spate of crashes during the night which stopped when I stopped using it.

I was having lots of issues with CrossEPG, too. It’s not needed with OpenATV 6.3 and I’ve had no issued since I upgraded to it.

Gerry Wicklow

NewClareman wrote: »

I was having lots of issues with CrossEPG, too. It’s not needed with OpenATV 6.3 and I’ve had no issued since I upgraded to it.

I don't have a Tiviar myself but had similar crashes to the OP. I've now updated to openATV 6.4 with crossEPG behaving itself again. I use it for the non-Freesats such as CH4HD, some +1s and CNN etc.

NewClareman

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I don't have a Tiviar myself but had similar crashes to the OP. I've now updated to openATV 6.4 with crossEPG behaving itself again. I use it for the non-Freesats such as CH4HD, some +1s and CNN etc.

AFAIK some of the crossEPG code is now embedded into OpenATV. In any case, it is no longer needed for any of the UK Channels. I now use EPGRefresh, instead. All this does is zap onto the EPG channel, at the scheduled time, to allow the data be downloaded. It still allows the full set of UK Channels, including CH4HD and CNNHD.

Note to OP: You can download my latest image from here and flash using the instructions here. Flash using the instructions in this post and then configure your local transmitter in ABM. You should update the service providers in ABM, first. That's it, good to go.

mburke

Hi,

I currently have the original THHB image and on occasion get the issue of the Saorview channels not populating but I can work around it.

Is it possible to update to the latest image from NCM by firstly wiping the current hard drive as it has a mix of folders from the THHB image and older NCM images. Would a format of the drive be the best approach and how would I get the latest image onto the drive if the USB method has issues?

NewClareman

mburke wrote: »

Hi,

I currently have the original THHB image and on occasion get the issue of the Saorview channels not populating but I can work around it.

Is it possible to update to the latest image from NCM by firstly wiping the current hard drive as it has a mix of folders from the THHB image and older NCM images. Would a format of the drive be the best approach and how would I get the latest image onto the drive if the USB method has issues?

I don’t see why you have to wipe the hard drive. Worst case you would have recordings in two different folders. You can access all the folders from windows explorer so it’s easy to move them around.

Full details on installing the latest image here.

whoami1

Thanks all for the suggestions. I will start off with removing CrossEPG and see how that goes. I can also say that it happens randomly, so is unlikely to be a rogue scheduled task.

NewClareman

whoami1 wrote: »

Thanks all for the suggestions. I will start off with removing CrossEPG and see how that goes. I can also say that it happens randomly, so is unlikely to be a rogue scheduled task.

If it happens randomly it is unlikely to be CrossEPG. It is far more likely that the firmware is corrupted in some fashion. This happened me, following an online software update.

To bottom out whether it is a software or hardware issue the easiest way is to flash a known stable build. If you still have an issue then it is most likely hardware. If you’re concerned about using my build then I suggest you try the latest build of OpenATV 6.3, from the nightly feed.

whoami1

NewClareman wrote: »

If it happens randomly it is unlikely to be CrossEPG. It is far more likely that the firmware is corrupted in some fashion. This happened me, following an online software update.

To bottom out whether it is a software or hardware issue the easiest way is to flash a known stable build. If you still have an issue then it is most likely hardware. If you’re concerned about using my build then I suggest you try the latest build of OpenATV 6.3, from the nightly feed.

Thanks for that. I used your build at the weekend and thought it was looking OK. I noticed on Monday evening when I put the box into standby that the clock was flashing on and off for about 3 seconds each and this lasted for just under 10 minutes when it returned to its usual display format.

This morning however the display panel was completely blank and the two status lights were on as normal. The box wouldn't respond to the remote and I was forced to do another power-cycle with the switch.

I can no longer assume that it is software, so I return to my original question: what new box will give me the same functionality with a front panel showing the channel name and status messages and not just a 4-digit channel number? Can anyone recommend anything?

Due to the age of the boxes, I am reluctant to commit to another Tiviar but will do so if I can't get a suitable replacement.

dubrov

ZGemma H7S
Octagon SF8008

Both solid mid-range boxes that are well supported.
the Octagon is cheaper but only has one sat tuner in case that is important for you.

whoami1

dubrov wrote: »

ZGemma H7S
Octagon SF8008

Both solid mid-range boxes that are well supported.
the Octagon is cheaper but only has one sat tuner in case that is important for you.

The triple-tuner aspect is important, yes. So the H7S is the way to go, it seems.

swoofer

Is the box well ventilated? it can get got and that will cause freezes. As a last resort I would try latest openvix and then a grogbuild from techkings. I have 2 tiviars and they have been faultless. and keep box cool