Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

The high horse brigade · 15-09-2018 01:32PM

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

@thhb
Is there a specific reason you use the USB rather than the HDD for picons?

Yes, it was mentioned earlier in the thread. The hard drive spins up on every single channel change if you have the picons on there therefore it's better to have them on a usb key to prolong the life of the hard drive

Alfie Tupper · 15-09-2018 01:38PM

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yes and in this you put all the individual picon files

Success. All up and running now.
Thanks again THHB for your patience in answering endless questions and to everyone else who offered advice.
It certainly seems like an excellent box which once set up can be made very easy to use.

Gerry Wicklow · 15-09-2018 01:48PM

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yes, it was mentioned earlier in the thread. The hard drive spins up on every single channel change if you have the picons on there therefore it's better to have them on a usb key to prolong the life of the hard drive

Fair enough. I use an SSD myself as the main box is in a bedroom. Chances are the box itself will either die or be obsolete by the time I'd start worrying about hard drives.

Payton · 16-09-2018 08:25AM

I'm getting this box soon as part a complete new install in the house.
I've read through a lot of the pages in this thread and there is some excellent advice, so I'll be in and out trying to get the most of it.
The box doesn't come with a Hard Drive..I take its a SATA connection? Im wondering what size HD to buy im thinking of a 350GB. I'll be recording a couple of serials and once watched they will be deleted, it getting time to view them. Roughly what size HD should I buy and is SSD better?

The high horse brigade · 16-09-2018 09:05AM

Payton wrote: »

I'm getting this box soon as part a complete new install in the house.
I've read through a lot of the pages in this thread and there is some excellent advice, so I'll be in and out trying to get the most of it.
The box doesn't come with a Hard Drive..I take its a SATA connection? Im wondering what size HD to buy im thinking of a 350GB. I'll be recording a couple of serials and once watched they will be deleted, it getting time to view them. Roughly what size HD should I buy and is SSD better?

It's the small size Sata 2.5 inch, the same as inside a laptop. There is an option to add a drive when you buy on world of sat, it's £40 for a fitted 500GB and £60 for a 1TB
https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/tiviar-alpha-plus

Recordings don't delete at all until you tell them to delete, then they go into trash for 7 days until they're permanently deleted. You've got to manage the box filling up. 500GB is fine for a fair amount of recordings, but you can go with 1TB of you're a very heavy user. Remember these recordings are not encrypted so can be removed from the box and stored elsewhere as they can be viewed on any pc using VLC player.

Gerry Wicklow · 16-09-2018 11:29AM

As a very rough rule of thumb, 1 hour of HD equals a 4Gb file.

kindalen · 16-09-2018 01:37PM

For anyone interested, I split the hdmi signal and have it feeding 2 TVs. Was very easy, perfect HD on both. Used an old set of Marmiteks to change channel.

Tried the scart to rf modulator to use exisiting magic eyes, but for me this didn't work at all for me for channel changing.

basill · 17-09-2018 01:40PM

Payton wrote: »

I'm getting this box soon as part a complete new install in the house.
I've read through a lot of the pages in this thread and there is some excellent advice, so I'll be in and out trying to get the most of it.
The box doesn't come with a Hard Drive..I take its a SATA connection? Im wondering what size HD to buy im thinking of a 350GB. I'll be recording a couple of serials and once watched they will be deleted, it getting time to view them. Roughly what size HD should I buy and is SSD better?

Brought a 1TB 2.5" Seagate Barracuda for £39 off Amazon. Works fine in the Tiviar.

andy1249 · 17-09-2018 07:43PM

Payton wrote: »

Roughly what size HD should I buy and is SSD better?

1TB is very cheap these days so no reason not too.

I wouldnt put an SSD into it, too expensive, and as its an always on box there would be zero performance improvements.

Also, I wouldnt be confident that the enigma OS is handling SSD,s as they should be handled in terms of trim and read write cycling.
An SSD might be short lived in a box like this.

Gerry Wicklow · 17-09-2018 08:42PM

andy1249 wrote: »

1TB is very cheap these days so no reason not too.

I wouldnt put an SSD into it, too expensive, and as its an always on box there would be zero performance improvements.

Also, I wouldnt be confident that the enigma OS is handling SSD,s as they should be handled in terms of trim and read write cycling.
An SSD might be short lived in a box like this.

I've used SSDs for years without issue. My main reason was because the box is in a bedroom and I didn't want to hear it spinning up during the night to record or update EPG. Initially it was simply that I had one lying around. The only failures I've had over the last 8 years or so have been mechanical drives. On the other hand there is no noticeable performance benefit from an SSD.

Alfie Tupper · 18-09-2018 01:02PM

SteM wrote: »

Not sure if I'm allowed link to another site. I've pmd you.

I wouldn't mind that link when you get a chance.
thanks in advance.

habeus corpus · 19-09-2018 11:56AM

Hi Folks,

I am now the proud owner of a fully functioning Tiviar running OpenVIX. Many thanks to a lot of contributors to this forum.

i have got my Head around Autobouquets E2 and I know that crossEPG downloader downloads the epg from OpenTv 28.2.

My question is what function does the EPG Importer plug-in fulfill.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!!!

The high horse brigade · 19-09-2018 12:02PM

habeus corpus wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I am now the proud owner of a fully functioning Tiviar running OpenVIX. Many thanks to a lot of contributors to this forum.

i have got my Head around Autobouquets E2 and I know that crossEPG downloader downloads the epg from OpenTv 28.2.

My question is what function does the EPG Importer plug-in fulfill.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!!!

It's for pulling in an EPG XML file from an online source. Crossepg pulls the info from satellite.

Autobouquetmaker is better than Autobouquets btw. It arranges and updates the Freesat and Saorview list as opposed to just Sky

habeus corpus · 19-09-2018 12:18PM

So am I correct in thinking that running EPG Importer is superfluous if CrossEPG is operational ?
I note also your comments about Autoboquetmaker . i will pursue further.

Many Thanks !!!

The high horse brigade · 19-09-2018 12:21PM

habeus corpus wrote: »

So am I correct in thinking that running EPG Importer is superfluous if CrossEPG is operational ?

Yes, unless you have channels from other sources that don't have EPG

kindalen · 19-09-2018 07:54PM

Hi,

I have picons on usb stick in box, they are showing up. How do I save them, or set box to use usb stick?

Thanks.

The high horse brigade · 19-09-2018 08:13PM

kindalen wrote: »

Hi,

I have picons on usb stick in box, they are showing up. How do I save them, or set box to use usb stick?

Thanks.

It should just see them. If not initialise (format it to a Linux format Windows won't read) the stick using the storage settings in software and copy the picon folder across to /mnt/usb using FileZilla on your pc

kindalen · 19-09-2018 10:06PM

Thanks High Horse for answering all the very basic(stupid) questions, as a newbie to Enigma2 setup it is a new skillset needed and without the support from everone on here I would be lost.

Am really delighted to have binned sky and enjoying the Tiviar.

Payton · 24-09-2018 03:47PM

Well my install didnt go as planned. Right in the line of sight is a tree...an tall slim tree, the engineer said he is only getting 13-15% signal and there is no other place on the back of my house to put it (No chimney either).
The council own the housing units at the back and ive been told its the tenants responsibility to maintain the tree...Can't see that happening!!!
Gutted is an understatement!

swoofer · 24-09-2018 04:17PM

get a bigger dish and leaves go soon.

whoami1 · 24-09-2018 08:20PM

I received my box today and played with it for a while before flashing the image from here. Now the web interface is not working (was working before flash), showing an error "web.Server Traceback (most recent call last):
exceptions.ImportError: No module named controllers.i18n"

Any thoughts anyone?

The high horse brigade · 24-09-2018 08:30PM

whoami1 wrote: »

I received my box today and played with it for a while before flashing the image from here. Now the web interface is not working (was working before flash), showing an error "web.Server Traceback (most recent call last):
exceptions.ImportError: No module named controllers.i18n"

Any thoughts anyone?

Check the settings in the webif plugin

whoami1 · 24-09-2018 08:41PM

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Check the settings in the webif plugin

Thanks for the quick reply. No, I've tried changing all the settings, but no joy. And I've tried using Firefox and Chromium.

The high horse brigade · 24-09-2018 08:49PM

whoami1 wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply. No, I've tried changing all the settings, but no joy. And I've tried using Firefox and Chromium.

Have you rebooted the box? Are you sure it's still got the same IP address? Have you tried changing the http port to 81 then putting :81 after the IP address?

whoami1 · 24-09-2018 08:54PM

A reboot has worked - very odd, because I thought I had already done that. Usually I'm the one saying "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" 8-)

Thanks for your help. Now for some customisation...

Payton · 24-09-2018 09:02PM

swoofer wrote: »

get a bigger dish and leaves go soon.

He said a bigger dish still wouldn't get the signal.
The leaves go soon but will be back again, it doesnt solve the issue.

whoami1 · 25-09-2018 11:36AM

My customisation has gone well, and many thanks to The high horse brigade. I now have one TV bouquet with just under 100 combined Saorview & FTA channels laid out how I want them. I also have one radio bouquet likewise with Saorview and FTA radio stations.

Now my next task is to get the supplied remote control to control power and volume instead of my TV remote. I thought that the 'CEC Settings' might have been the place to go, but that didn't work for me, apart from disabling the Mute button on the Tiviar remote, which I have now corrected.

basill · 25-09-2018 12:22PM

Harmony remote would probably be much easier and less hassle. Future proof as well as it will likely work with any new AV equipment you invest in.

The high horse brigade · 25-09-2018 12:59PM

I can't help with CEC, I have it disabled because I use a Harmony, it gets in the way

whoami1 · 25-09-2018 01:01PM

basill wrote: »

Harmony remote would probably be much easier and less hassle. Future proof as well as it will likely work with any new AV equipment you invest in.

Won't be anything new for quite a while as I've 'future invested' the next two-and-a-bit months savings from my Sky bill in the new box.

Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

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