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Zgemma H2S - yes H2S - questions

Johnboy1951

Hi, I have acquired a used H.2S device for my 'playtime'. Free is always good

It had iPabTV installed which of course was not only completely out of date but had a boatfull of dodgy addons installed which no longer worked also.

To get me started I eventually managed to install OpenPLi 7.3 on the device. That at least has allowed me to see the Zgemma does work, but honestly not a lot else, as Enigma is a stranger to me.

What I would like to do is install the most suitable image for my initial test purposes, and need advice on which to choose.

I would like to use the Zgemma as a Sat>IP server for the two DVB-S tuners built in, and maybe add a couple of DVB-T tuners using USB tuner sticks also (AF9015). I want to investigate its use to feed a backend server for my distributed TV.

I did notice that Sat>IP client software was present, but that is not presently of interest. It did find my existing Sat>IP tuners.

Anyway, if I could be given basic advice regarding the selection of the E2 version and a few pointers how to easily find the sections of interest I would appreciate that.

Thanks.

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Johnboy1951

Four years since I started this thread, and nearly two years since I changed to satip which has not failed me.
All the same hardware is working as it should with little or no management.

One addition I did make was to put LMS (Logitech Media Server)(as a docker image) on the Tanix running CE, so the Tanix now serves all the radio channels I could ever wish for as well as all the TV channels.

This meant I could make good use of the three Logitech radios I have - a Boombox and two smaller radios (kitchen and bedroom). I acquired an additional Logitech Transporter earlier this year and this is used to blast out music via a heavy Panasonic Amplifier and some speakers.

Again the wee Tanix continues to surprise me. It should have long since retired but is doing well.

The Zgemma serving the two DVB-T tuners has not skipped a beat either and neither has the Telestar Digibit serving the four satellite tuners.
I really do like the separation of functions with this setup …. must be due to my old age and my long ago preference for 'separates' in my audio days ( 1970s :D )

Keep on rocking!

OG Red Devil

Appreciate this!

Johnboy1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120197551#Comment_120197551

Some/All? the BBC channels are changing so that is probably the cause.

Some information available on this thread

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2056038616/new-channels/p44

OG Red Devil

Not sure if this is the right place to ask for advice on the Zgemma H2S?

My parents have a Zgemma H2S box and BBC news has disappeared from the channels. I’ve offered to help sort it and as they say no good deed goes unpunished …

Before I disappear down the rabbit hole of learning all about the OS and updating the box. Does anyone know if the box can find BBC news in the channels and if they are still broadcasting.

I believe the box is connected to an old dish. Trying to figure out the UX but other BBC regional channels are there, along with Channel 4 and others, but no BBC news.

Johnboy1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133227#Comment_120133227

Hi there ....... best wishes for the coming year. 😀

I found the Zgemma to be under powered running TVH for my use. Maybe I was just unlucky, not sure, but I was never satisfied.

For my Saorview use I picked up a used Zgemma H5.2TC which gives me an extra DVB-S tuner as well as the two DVB-T tuners. This has been exceptionally stable - OpenATV 6.4.20220616 (2022-05-26) is what it reports presently.

~# uptime

22:10:39 up 19 days, 10:31, 2 users, load average: 0.01, 0.04, 0.00

The low uptime is due to some electrical work I was doing. It is on 24/7 and I have not had to go near it since I commissioned it.

Minisatip had the habit of disappearing irregularly and needed to be re-launched. So I switched to Satpi which has been much more stable.

In addition it has a nice web interface on <ip address>:8875 which makes setup and changes simple.

In truth the DVB-S tuner on that is VERY rarely used as I still have other tuners, so it is a 'fall back tuner' in case of a failure. The two DVB-T tuners are in constant use. I still have a couple of cheap USB dongles (RTL2832) as fall-back for the DVB-T tuners.

I still use the cheap AMLogic device (Tanix) as the TVH server running CoreELEC, and a variety of devices as clients, including a couple more cheap AMLogic devices running CoreELEC (one of those is on Kodi 20 now).

Of course soon they will decide to quit broadcasting by Satellite and leave me stranded! 😀😁😀

niallb

Happy New Year @Johnboy1951 .

I've recently been running tvheadend directly on one of these. Very low power usage single device solution.

I'm not trying to transcode or anything, but it gives good service to one or two devices running dream player for tvheadend on Android TV.

It's rock solid on a Nvidia Shield and on a "Chromecast with Google TV", but kept dropping the stream on a Philips android TV.

I installed OpenATV 6.4 on the zgemma H2S and added tvheadend using "opkg install tvheadend" .

I also picked up a Sony PlayTV from CeX for €12 which gives me two saorview tuners.

I'd previously used the "Xbox One Official Digital TV Tuner" which is still available from CeX at €10. It worked fine as a single tuner.

What improvements do you see with Satpi over minisatip ?

Johnboy1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120121315#Comment_120121315

I got mine free - they were unused as had been used as 'dodgy boxes' and people moved on to newer (smaller) hardware so they were being dumped.

Oh yes, I also changed to Satpi instead of minisatip.

swoofer

These are old now, I have one unused. I'm in Clare. look on adverts and ebay but dont pay €135.00

huddlejonny

Hey,

Where would I pick up Zgemma H2S?

Cheers anyone..

Johnboy1951

(mod, I know this is a late addition to this thread but it clarifies a problem I posted about above)

I think I found why I was having some trouble with one tuner ....... been doing some testing during the last couple of days.

I am using a Unicable II LNB as I posted, and at least one tuner does not lock on if I select to use at least one of the 32 available Channels (SCR).
When I changed this to the next available one both tuners worked perfectly.

This had nothing to do with Minisatip, as it is apparent when that is not running --- dunno if I missed that previously.

I can now move on and test again with minisatip on this spare box.

Johnboy1951

This is really getting dragged out.
I continue to discover things I was previously unaware of.

I went back to basics yesterday, and instead of providing the two DVB-S inputs with separate feeds from the Unicable LNB, I used the 'Loop Through' connection to feed the second tuner.
Strangely, it seemed to me, Tuner B is the primary and Tuner A gets the loop feed.

OK, all good when testing tuners and recording.

Next came attempting to use minisatip to share those tuners, having first shut down Enigma, leaving the OS running (using init 5 from terminal).

I met with the same problems I had met before ..... difficulty in getting the expected result from commands I tried.

It was during this phase of my journey that I found minisatip has a GUI page available showing connections and other info!
(that should be a good indication of how little I know about this stuff

)

minisatip -R /usr/share/minisatip/html -x 9090

makes the info page available at

http://<ip of Zgemma>:9090

This can be combined in the one command for the tuner set up

minisatip -R /usr/share/minisatip/html -x 9090 -j 1:21-1716,2:22-1752

The '-j' (jess) is because I use a Unicable II LNB.
I believe '-u' (unicable) would be used for a Unicable I LNB feed.

The details as I understand it are as follows:
A:S-F,A:S-F .... the separators are important.

Adapter number[B][COLOR="Red"][SIZE="4"]:[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]Tuner slot number used[B][COLOR="Red"][SIZE="4"]-[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]Tuner Frequency for that slot[COLOR="red"][B][SIZE="4"],[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]<next tuner details>[COLOR="red"][B][SIZE="4"],[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]<and another etc.>

I have yet to hit on the correct combination in the command which allows minisatip to share the tuners correctly and have them fully useable.

I did have partial success at one point, so I believe I am missing some essential command option.

If you know or have suggestion please post, thanks.

************
I realise that most of this is well known to many of you, but hopefully my ramblings here will be useful to those who know as little as I did and found it equally difficult to know where to start or even what to look for during searches.
************

EDIT:

It appears with minisatip running, the SNR drops off to such an extent that the channels cannot be used.

When using the box as standard, there is no problem with any of the channels ..... no breakup of video or other indications of low SNR.

So I conclude that I am doing something wrong with the command used, but what that might be I have no idea at this time.

This is the terminal output from a command I used this morning

root@zgemmah2s:~# minisatip -R /usr/share/minisatip/html -x 9090 -j 0:32-2148,1:31-2112
[14/04 11:44:43.412 main]: Setting jess adapter 0 slot 32 freq 2148 pin -1
[14/04 11:44:43.414 main]: Setting jess adapter 1 slot 31 freq 2112 pin -1
root@zgemmah2s:~#

Johnboy1951

I must try again using the TVH server on the Zgemma.
It is available through opkg.

root@zgemmah2s:~# opkg list | grep -i tvh                                                                                                            tvheadend - 4.3+git10844+52b2559-r0 - Tvheadend: TV streaming server and recorder                                                                     Tvheadend: TV streaming server and recorder.

I did an initial try but the configuration for using Unicable II LNB had me lost.
I will, hopefully, try again later.

Choices, choices .......

1. minisatip with external server
2. SatPi with external server
3. Tvheadend server running on Zgemma.

This is what the Zgemma 2.S shows in TVH. I have one RTL2832 USB dongle plugged in also.
I have no idea what the 'extra' DVB-T tuner is ........ seems to be from the DVB-S tuner in the Zgemma.
Is this implying that the tuner is capable of both DVB-S and DVB-T?
Strange ...

Johnboy1951

Having failed with minisatip, I changed to use Satpi which is installed by default on the more recent images of OpenATV.

It was nice to have a GUI means of setting up Satpi through a browser.
Wiki pages have very helpful (if sparse) information.
It was sufficient for me to set up the Unicable II LNB inputs, which is all that I needed, and TVH had no problem seeing the output.
I was rather taken aback to see 4 tuners and not two as expected, resolved when I discovered from the WIKI that Satpi can generate virtual tuners if required.
https://github.com/Barracuda09/SATPI/wiki

Almost all good it seems ..... I have had a couple of instances when channels did not lock on, but am unsure what the cause might be. For now all is good.

Johnboy1951

Has anyone reading got some experience of using minisatip on a box running E2 being fed by a Unicable LNB?

I cannot work out what options are needed for the minisatip command to preovide the tuners to my server.

The following is from the minisatip help page but I could do with a real life example if possible, thanks.

-u --unicable unicable_string: defines the unicable adapters (A) and their slot (S), frequency (F) and optionally the PIN for the switch:

The format is: A1:S1-F1[-PIN][,A2:S2-F2[-PIN][,...]] eg: 2:0-1284[-1111]
When * character is used before frequency, force 13V only for setup

I thought I had it figured but it did not work at all for me.

Johnboy1951

Muahahaha wrote: »

cheers, where did you get the USB tuner, ebay or elsewhere?

ebay or amazon ..... don't remember now.
Most likely the link, if I found it, would not be valid now.

Muahahaha

cheers, where did you get the USB tuner, ebay or elsewhere?

Johnboy1951

Muahahaha wrote: »

Think I know the answer to this question but just checking if a Saorview box is also needed alongside the Zgemma in order to receive Irish channels from an aeriel? TV is old so it doesnt have a Saorview tuner built in.

No, you can add a USB tuner to the Zgemma and use that tuner.
It would be advisable to have it on a fairly short USB extension cable so that it does not strain the USB port.

I used a USB tuner I bought for about €8 delivered. I also tested a second USB tuner.

Both were
RTL2832U chip using dvb_usb_rtl28xxu driver
if I remember correctly

The driver had to be installed from plugins.

Muahahaha

Think I know the answer to this question but just checking if a Saorview box is also needed alongside the Zgemma in order to receive Irish channels from an aeriel? TV is old so it doesnt have a Saorview tuner built in.

Muahahaha

Thanks swoofer I probably wont get away with a loft aeriel as there are mountains/forests where I am. Will just go ahead with the chimney one to be sure of a decent signal, no point faffing about.

swoofer

I would advise an ssd 500gb. 16km is 10 miles but if there are no trees, or big hills ie you can see the transmitter you may get away with a loft aerial. Look at other houses and see what they have. Also ask free tv.

andy1249

Muahahaha wrote: »

Found the box on WoS for £110 which seems a good price. They are also offering to build in a 500GB hard drive for an extra £40. Wondering is this worth it, I have an old 250GB hard drive doing nothing. Is there any major advantage to how the box works in having it in built?

They will fit a hard drive , this is easy to do yourself , they fit crappy HGST hard drives and 40 quid for 500GB is not cheap , you can get a WD Blue 1TB drive for that.
The unit takes 2.5 inch laptop type hard drives , so if your drive is that size it will do. Otherwise I recommend you buy your own 2.5 inch drive separately.

Muahahaha

Yeah meant the H7S. I checked out the nearest transmitter and it is 16km, is that considered close or far?

swoofer

Do you mean the H7S? The hard drive depends on how much you record and keep and its easy to fit yourself. The best image to get if your a beginner is openvix with the vix blue skin and the H7S is a multiboot box in that you can have 4 images.

go to saorview ie and put your eircode and it will tell you your nearest transmitter and distance. Closer better for aerial. freetv.ie does aerials and if you tell them your channels they will advise on best, start at 16 euro.

Muahahaha

Going to pull the trigger on this box in the next few days to get set up in the new year, just cancelled Sky with a months notice today.

Found the box on WoS for £110 which seems a good price. They are also offering to build in a 500GB hard drive for an extra £40. Wondering is this worth it, I have an old 250GB hard drive doing nothing. Is there any major advantage to how the box works in having it in built?

Will also be needing to get an aeriel on the chimney to pick up the Irish channels, any ideas what ball park price these are? Or should I leave that to the installer, maybe different locations need different height aeriels?

bassy

swoofer wrote: »

I thought I had posted earlier, that dongle wont work. I can download the driver but it is not picked up by box. I am using openatv 6.3 and I have 2 of those dongles.

If you want a dongle that works try the VU+ WI FI ones but not cheap and tricky to set up .

Had a zgemma h9t and cheap black aerial dongle worked on that with open atv

swoofer

I thought I had posted earlier, that dongle wont work. I can download the driver but it is not picked up by box. I am using openatv 6.3 and I have 2 of those dongles.

If you want a dongle that works try the VU+ WI FI ones but not cheap and tricky to set up .

bassy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

just wondering ...
What is the purpose of adding a wifi dongle if the Zgemma is already connected to the router via ethernet cable?

Wanna be able to use it away from the router

Johnboy1951

just wondering ...
What is the purpose of adding a wifi dongle if the Zgemma is already connected to the router via ethernet cable?

Originally Posted by bassy
Yes pc and box are connected to router via ethernet cable.

Johnboy1951

swoofer wrote: »

no he wont unless he does a hard reboot and that dongle he is using comes with proprietary boxes, also the image he is using may rfuse to install the driver i recommended and I cant get him to tell me the image name and version or if he did a hard re-boot.

I expected a similar report as I get from my Linux install ...... expecting too much I guess.

swoofer

ie 6.4 and did you do a hard reboot??