Two boxes into one?

NyOmnishambles

Hi All

I got some very helpful advice several years ago about setting up a Formuler 1 box and it has served me well

But it has started to not cooperate with my tv and I was thinking this might be an opportunity to tidy things up a bit

So the Formuler 1 has 2 sat tuners and 1 Saorview tuner and an external hard drive hooked up to it for recording

I also have a separate android box that we use for Plex, IPTV and Youtube and also to stream TV from the Formuler to the TV so we can just use one remote

So I was wondering is anyone aware of a box that combines the TV and Android elements so I could consolidate everything in the one place?

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058342893/two-boxes-into-one

Ive been looking , and as far as I can tell such a box does not exist and is never likely too.

Most Sat boxes use Enigma2 which is linux based open source software distributed under a General Public License , which includes a clause that says any software included is also under that license and therefore free !

Plex , Youtube , and most other streaming apps are closed source software , and you don't mix the two for legal reasons.

You can use a centralized PC server which includes the HDD, Sat Tuners and TV Tuners in one box. Run TVHeadend server on it and this can then send your streams and media to any Android box in the house running Kodi.

Its a bit more complex to setup and the Sat tuners tend to be quite expensive (we use a Xbox terrestrial TV tuner at about €20 and a SATIP server at about €150) but its far more versatile since you only need one place for all the resources and then a relatively cheap Android box is the only thing you plug into your TV. Your also not relying on a company to support your hardware with firmware updates into the future which means it can function almost indefinately. A decent PC can run for 10 or more years as a media server which in the end makes it a cheaper option.

martco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925098#Comment_121925098

is that not really expensive to run tho? surely eats juice or do you diligently shut it down and start it up whenever u want telly?

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925156#Comment_121925156

Servers can be set to sleep when not in use and to " Wake" on request. They also dont need fancy graphics or sound or any of that. So they are not necessarily expensive to run as long as hardware is selected carefully.

The OP however , asked about a one box solution , and a server /client setup is about as far away from that as you can get isnt it ?

These days , in this country at least , a TV box and a Smart TV should cover all the bases.

TV box needed for combined Saorview and FTA Satellite 7 Day EPG , and the smart TV takes care of all the apps you need , Youtube , Netflix , Amazon , Disney etc.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925156#Comment_121925156

Its certainly going to be a bit more expensive to run if you go down the PC route, but there are some really excellent new Intel based Mini-pc 's with very low power consumption (5-20W). There are also ARM based Single Board Computers such as the RASPERRYPI which can do the same but are less durable in the long run. You can scale the solution to whatever suites your needs. My server does all sorts of other tasks such as add filtering for the whole house.

My guestimate is that dedicated Sat boxes have a typical life of about 2-3years before the hardware either packs up or can't cope with the work. A server based setup will easily outlive 3-4 generation of sat boxes. Given that such a box might cost €200 each time then the potential savings are significant.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925223#Comment_121925223

I get what you are saying but as someone else on another thread found out these one box solutions often don't have the 7 day EPG feature which makes them a real pain to live with if you want to do any sort of series recording.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925287#Comment_121925287

For sure , buyer beware.

For 7 day EPG you want an Enigma2 box.

Saorview Connect box , the so called " official" box , is a disaster , biggest pile of dung on the market , my poor mate bought one ..... awful !

As said above , there is no real one box solution , best you can do is a smart TV and a combo box. In this country that is as low a box count as you can get , and make sure its the right combo box.

andy1249

" There are also ARM based Single Board Computers such as the RASPERRYPI"

Rasperry pi is a single circuit board and costs just under 50 quid , its for electronics hobbyists and you need a lot of knowledge to turn it into anything useful , I have lots of them strewn about , used to build streamers , dacs , squeezboxes , learn a bit of coding , etc.

They are great for learning tech subjects , they are no replacement for a decent off the shelf solution. Most of the kits end up looking like something an electrician forgot to sweep up after a job.

By the time you've bought a nice case and all the extras you need the price is not much different to buying a decent off the shelf solution and no matter what anyone says , they are never quite as good as the properly manufactured thing it was made to replace.

For every tech solution that is discussed on any forum , someone always brings up the pi.

I like them as a learning tool , but they are no replacement for most gear , at best you gain an appreciation for why most things cost what they do and how good modern manufacturing can be.

NyOmnishambles

Thanks for all the informative replies, they are very much appreciated

I can live with what we have now and see what options I have further down the line

For now the TV is good enough but not very smart, hence the android box, I can't justify a new TV currently but good to know that a decent TV and sat box will do the job and keep things simple for everyone to use

martco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925260#Comment_121925260

yeah its a direction I wanted to take myself but could never resolve that power consumption bit, been a few years tho since I looked into it. fantasybrain wants to turn the panel into a media server....figure out is howto replace the supplied operating system on the panel with a hypervisor and then mount a set of virtual machines to deal with whatever inputs sat/ip etc. (with all that spare time I have heehee)

You can get an Odroid N2, run OpenMediaVault bare metal and all your required services bare metal on top of it. Another option is an N2 running Coreelec and then use TVHeadend and USB for both HDD and SAT/Terrestrial reception. All for a few watts of power.

I am not a big fan of virtualization - it adds all sorts of complexity to a relatively simple setup.

Apogee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058342893/two-boxes-into-one

You can get Android-based DVB-S2/DVB-T boxes e.g. Amiko A6 combo. Might find users here who have actually used them.

https://vimeo.com/680355457

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925823#Comment_121925823

Not very stable solution as the drivers for the tuners are almost always closed source and quickly go stale. Also since IPTV this has died as a market segment so they are very hard bought. The tuners are usually fairly **** to boot.

Been there, done that, never again.