nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Zgemma H7s Guide

basemann

After taking the decision to get rid of cable I took the plunge and bought a Sat box. I was going to buy a Tiviar Alpha Plus due to its support on here but they were sold out at world of satellite and they suggested the Zgemma as it had similar specs.

Here is my guide to anyone new to the Sat world after getting this box . I hope it will help get through the initial frustration and hurdles you have to overcome. The H7S is relatively new so it's not discussed as much as the alpha plus but with the same software installed most guides can be used for both. I think the alpha would be equally challenging to set up. It takes time and patience and reading so be prepared for a bit of work but it's very satisfying in the end.
Some of this will be obvious to Sat heads but it's meant as a guide for beginners like I was who have some knowledge of the basics. This is from memory so excuse any vagueness of detail.

Here are the main things I learned..

1. To get Saoirview and Uk channels on the same epg listing you need to scan Saoirview 1st then do a second scan of the UK channels ensuring that the option to delete any previous scans is switched off. By doing that you mesh the two together so they can be gathered in the auto bouquets. (This took me ages to figure out!)

2. To install a skin easily you can put the downloaded skin found on the net on a usb and put it in the usb slot while live TV is playing (without any menu open). That will get a prompt to install the skin. If that does not work a plugin like Dreambox found in the plugin section will show all the folders in the sat box and the USB drive can be found and opened to try the install. If that does not work you need to connet a PC and use software like Filezilla to access files on the box from a PC. It's quite easily done if you follow the online guides.

3. A lot of people want the SkyNEW skin for the sky feel (without the sky channels of course!) and it does work but be warned it will prob make your epg crash every time you try and use it. To fix that you need to download a patch file to repair it. Dont install that skin unless you are prepared for that. You will need prob to connect a PC to do that and put it in the correct folder as per the instructions from where it easily found in a google search in places such as techkings etc. You might have to register an email to download these but there's no fee. It looks good when fixed but to be honest other skins are better that the sky menu which is comforting at first but you might feel it unnecessary and lacking functionality after a bit, but that's a personal preference.

Once you get it set up to your requirements its a great machine and very fast with a super picture so it's highly recommended. I hope this helps someone!:)

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Schorpio

Cheers all for the replies - very much appreciated.

Channel numbers isn't the biggest deal - like I said, the EPG is in the right order, and I'm coming off the back of using a freesat box for the past few years, so I have a feel for where everything should be.

I must sit down a compile a favourites list, which in reality will meet our needs for 95% of our TV viewing. I was going to compile an xml that would (supposedly) play nice with ABM. e-channelizer looks much easier (and less time-consuming). I'll have to see if ABM plays nicely with a favourites list compiled using e-channelizer.

@ Flex - cheers for the picons advice. I have actually already installed them, but the ones I got I stole from the Tiviar thread. The ones in your screenshot look better - much cleaner. Mind sharing where you got them?

On the OpenWebif front - does anyone know why I get loads of blank spacers in my bouquets (screenshot attached)? These aren't taking the place of scrambled channels - the bouquet in my screenshot is right at the top of the SkyUK bouquet, which is supposed to start with BBC1 etc. These aren't replicated on the box, so again, not the biggest deal. Just curious!

FlexMcMurphy

I got that picon set from here. There are a lot of picon/channel logo sets to choose from on there.

I took the first on the list:
enigma2-plugin-picons-snp-13e.19e.23e.28e.100x60-86x46.dark.on.reflection_2020-06-14--10-54-13_all.ipk

Because 100x60pixels is a good size to display in the enigma2 image. I also only needed picons for Astra 28.2. SNP stands for service name picon so the image is named according to the channel (service) name. Despite the snp in the file name that set has the same set of picons named using service names and service references (srp).

Don't know about those blank spacers. ABM gave me some spacers too and i just deleted them all when I imported the channel lists into dreamboxedit... same thing as e-channelizer.

Flex

swoofer

I think dreambox edit is easiest to use. PICK HD is on sky box now under other channels and freesports HD.

I take it you like vix now!! And you are on maghera like myself.

Did you add pick hd?

Sirted

Hi all,
Complete novice here, I am setting up one of these boxes replacing the current sky set up. Have two sat cables from dish and cable from aerial in attic for saorview. I have tried to set it up using the advice on here, I can do the scans no problem and it finds all the channels. I am struggling to make the next step so that I can have all the channels in order and with a working epg. Currently have the Irish channels in order after using autobouquetsmaker and saorview option. Epg is perfect for them. I then picked freesat uk in abm. The Uk channels are on 1101 onwards and the epg is patchy at best. They are separate entities at the moment it seems. I can't just press ch page up to get to the uk stations if on saorview and vice versa. I would like them all together and a single epg. I'd appreciate any help and forgive me I know there's lots on here but I've spent 2 days going through it all, downloading e-channelizer, on openwebif not knowing what I'm doing at all! Thank you!

FlexMcMurphy

@swoofer
I like the Pur E2 estuary skin a lot but it doesn't have Picture in Graphics, so there is no little tv screen when browsing channel lists or in the EPG.

That simple ten eighty skin on OpenVix just does everything right even if it's dated looking. I added Pick thanks for the heads up about that didn't realise it will show 25 of the remaining 92 Premier League games free to air.

@Sirted
Did you manage to import all your channels into e-channeliser? You don't have to use autobouquetsmaker at all. In OpenWebIf (or e-channeliser) you could delete all the bouquets then make your own and add channels to them one by one in whatever order you like.

Flex

Sirted

FlexMcMurphy thanks a million, I got sorted through openwebif. Really appreciate the help!

paulhardman

Schorpio wrote: »

On the OpenWebif front - does anyone know why I get loads of blank spacers in my bouquets (screenshot attached)? These aren't taking the place of scrambled channels - the bouquet in my screenshot is right at the top of the SkyUK bouquet, which is supposed to start with BBC1 etc. These aren't replicated on the box, so again, not the biggest deal. Just curious!

So the box always starts from channel "1" for each bouquet. If you want BBC One HD to be on 101, you need 100 spacers before it to take up channels 1 to 100!

SkySter

I'm having trouble flashing my H7S. I downloaded my Vix image and inserted in the USB at the back of the box. I've no other USB plugged in. I power on and then press the little black button at the front as per OpenVix guide. The display is supposed to go from BOOT to FLSH and then start flashing. However I only see FLSH for a split second and it boots as normal.

I have used 3 different USB sticks. All 4GB. I've formatted to FAT32. I tried all USB ports. Still no flash. I've done flashing on other boxes like VU DUO2 and Amiko Alien without a hitch using these USB sticks so I'd consider myself fairly familiar with flashing. This has me stumped.

What am I doing wrong here? Any tips?

dulpit

Quick/possibly pedantic question - when turning it on do you have the button on front pressed before you press power at back or not?

Cyrus

SkySter wrote: »

I'm having trouble flashing my H7S. I downloaded my Vix image and inserted in the USB at the back of the box. I've no other USB plugged in. I power on and then press the little black button at the front as per OpenVix guide. The display is supposed to go from BOOT to FLSH and then start flashing. However I only see FLSH for a split second and it boots as normal.

I have used 3 different USB sticks. All 4GB. I've formatted to FAT32. I tried all USB ports. Still no flash. I've done flashing on other boxes like VU DUO2 and Amiko Alien without a hitch using these USB sticks so I'd consider myself fairly familiar with flashing. This has me stumped.

What am I doing wrong here? Any tips?

Just ftp it to a hard drive and flash that way instead ?

SkySter

dulpit wrote: »

Quick/possibly pedantic question - when turning it on do you have the button on front pressed before you press power at back or not?

Tried both pressing it before power on and just after. Still no joy. I know I can FTP to HD and flash from there, but that assumes the box can boot. For peace of mind I will want to have a way of recovering outside of that. Anyway thanks everyone for your help. I'll give it another go over the weekend.

Movie Maestro

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I was trying so many things. But I did restart the box at one point and even plugged it out as you suggested. I think that was when I was trying other crossepg versions I was finding on the web that I don't think were compatible with the Zgemma. The version in the plugin feeds is the only one I should have been trying!

This I think is the cheapest place to get a ZGemma H7S. But I paid a little more and bought from WoS to get the two year warranty.

It came with OpenATV 6.4 in slot 1. There are 4 slots to play with which is really useful. You can switch between images in no time. I have OpenVix and two versions of OpenATV and now I'm setting up Pur E2. First impressions I really like its GUI which is modeled on Kodi. I find it easier to read the menus on it compared to the OpenATV Metrix HD skin. Actually the Simple_Ten-Eighty skin on Openvix gives me the least eye strain but I think it looks so dated.

Flex

I've finally decided to buy a Zgemma from WOS and was wondering what image would you guys recommend I get flashed on it? This my first combo box, I'm coming from a Humax Freesat box.

FlexMcMurphy

SkySter wrote: »

Tried both pressing it before power on and just after. Still no joy. I know I can FTP to HD and flash from there, but that assumes the box can boot. For peace of mind I will want to have a way of recovering outside of that. Anyway thanks everyone for your help. I'll give it another go over the weekend.

I had the same problem. I think what worked for me finally was pressing and holding the front button then powering up with the button at the back of the box. I had to try about ten times and think I was just lucky that I guessed when to release the front button right when FLASH appeared on the front display, because the word FLASH would flicker on and off again after less than a second.

I think that USB method is the only way to get the box working again if it gets stuck on boot. Is the OS actually running so you could FTP an image to it? Don't think so?.. hopefully it won't happen to me again. Not sure if you've seen this thread already on WoS?

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

Movie Maestro wrote: »

I've finally decided to buy a Zgemma... and was wondering what image would you guys recommend I get flashed on it?

The Zgemma H7s can have up to four images on the box each booting from their own partition slot. OpenATV makes it easy to flash any image into any other free slot. Pur E2 is the same. I don't think it's easy or possible to do that from within OpenVix. If someone knows how I'm all ears.

I got the box with OpenATV and from there I flashed OpenVix and Pur E2 to other free slots. Have settled, for now, on OpenVix, it has a good support forum.

Flex

Cyrus

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I had the same problem. I think what worked for me finally was pressing and holding the front button then powering up with the button at the back of the box. I had to try about ten times and think I was just lucky that I guessed when to release the front button right when FLASH appeared on the front display, because the word FLASH would flicker on and off again after less than a second.

I think that USB method is the only way to get the box working again if it gets stuck on boot. Is the OS actually running so you could FTP an image to it? Don't think so?.. hopefully it won't happen to me again. Not sure if you've seen this thread already on WoS?

Flex

Useful link if anyone gets stuck

Got me out of a bind

https://www.techkings.org/threads/flash-vix-via-command-line-from-the-creators-grogbuild-freerange-leading-the-way-to-simplicity.144800/

Movie Maestro

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

The Zgemma H7s can have up to four images on the box each booting from their own partition slot. OpenATV makes it easy to flash any image into any other free slot. Pur E2 is the same. I don't think it's easy or possible to do that from within OpenVix. If someone knows how I'm all ears.

I got the box with OpenATV and from there I flashed OpenVix and Pur E2 to other free slots. Have settled, for now, on OpenVix, it has a good support forum.

Flex

Cheers Flex, I went with OpenATV in the end:)

timmyjimmy

Howdy. I have a zgemma H7S that was working ok but now all I have is sound but no picture. I've been told to flash it but it doesn't seem to start to flash, all I see is the openatv 6.3 logo and then it goes to the blank screen with no sound. Any ideas?
TJ

Gerry Wicklow

Presumably you tried changing channels or going into the menu when at the blank screen?

timmyjimmy

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Presumably you tried changing channels or going into the menu when at the blank screen?

Yes, sound but no picture. Saying that, it seems to be working again. No idea what I did to fix it!

danIrl

With the Zgemma H7S, is it possible to configure recordings to be saved to an NFS mount instead of local USB or SATA disk?

FlexMcMurphy

Did you get it working Dan?

There are a few different ways to do it.

I used CIFS (not NFS) and set up a Samba share to a folder on a USB drive connected to another machine on my LAN. You can test mounting the network folder to that test folder with something like:

mount -t cifs //192.168.1.124/USB /mnt/test -o username=root,password=mypassword

//192.168.1.124/USB == This is the ip address of the remote machine on your LAN and USB is the Samba share name.

/mnt/test == This is a folder on the ZGemma you will need to make it.

If it works you should see the contents of the network folder in /mnt/test

After that you set up the recording paths in the Zgemma...
Menu >Setup > Recordings, playback & timeshift > Recording & Playback > Default movie location

Press "Enter" to switch between the File List and Bookmarks selection areas.

Now navigate to the movie folder where you want recordings to go to and Blue Button to Add a Bookmark.
Then make sure the "Default movie Location" points to the network path.

To set up the network mount permanently via the enigma2 image... unmount the test mount from above:
umount /mnt/test

Menu > Setup > Network > Mounts > Mount Manager > Add a new Network Mount Point

Mount Using: I had a problem with Autofs so chose "Enigma2 old format" instead and it worked fine even after a reboot. But you could chose NFS here.
Username and password: Enter details to get in to the Samba share.
Local share name: can be anything
Server Share: the name of the Samba share you created as named in /etc/samba/smb/conf on your remote machine.

You will now see the contents of the network share on the Zgemma in: /media/net/<Local share name>

.. > Mount Manager > Mount points management
If there is a mount problem, the left icon will have a red 'x'. There should be a green tick beside the icon on the right (active/inactive)

From testing, recording to a network location doesn't work as well compared to sending recordings to locally attached media. I didn't see problems with SD recordings but one HD recording locked up the box when I was trying to play it back. The speed of your network, bitrate of the recording and more will influence things.

Cheers,

Flex

danIrl

Thanks Flex. About to order the box, so was curious if I needed to order a local disk also. Can always add a local disk afterwards if there are issues recording to NFS.

Movie Maestro

Hey all,

I decided to open my new Zgemma today to install an internal hard disk and found a broken SATA connection. I bought from WOS so hopefully it won't be too much hassle getting a replacement box:(

Morrisseeee

Just got this box and tweaking\messing about with it atm with advise here. I've a couple of questions:
1] can I use the sky wireless USB dongle? ie. I can get it going on an old PC with modprobe ath6kl_usb command, not working on this box tho!
2] ultra HD channels show up in web viewer but not the SD or HD ones? missing a codec I presume?!
Cheers

Irishder

Just bought one of these box's. I will have a satalite going to it but no aerial will I get rte and network 2

Gerry Wicklow

No you will need an aerial for Irish TV as they are not free on the Sky satellites.

Irishder

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

No you will need an aerial for Irish TV as they are not free on the Sky satellites.

Thanks would an indoor aerial do?

DopeTech

Irishder wrote: »

Thanks would an indoor aerial do?

Depends on your location and walls etc but an amplified indoor one should definitely work.

dulpit

I use an indoor aerial plugged into a booster and it works fine for me here (Cork City)

Irishder

Thanks All bought this one, ill let you know how i get on:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0828KV43C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1