Ferguson Ariva 250

O'Prez · 15-10-2012 10:26PM

<Ollie> wrote: »

There is no EPG, only now and next. You have to 'wake up' the channel at the program start time, so yes, manually input.

This is not as user friendly as a sky box, but it's a bloody great combo box for the price. I bought my third 150 box today for only €100. It's the exact same as the 250, but doesn't display the channel name on the box, and the remote doesn't work other devices like dvd players etc. Two features I have no interest in.

Great media player too, plays every file.

The Irish stations have 7 day EPG :cool:

STB · 15-10-2012 10:34PM

<Ollie> wrote: »

There is no EPG, only now and next. You have to 'wake up' the channel at the program start time, so yes, manually input.

This is not as user friendly as a sky box, but it's a bloody great combo box for the price. I bought my third 150 box today for only €100. It's the exact same as the 250, but doesn't display the channel name on the box, and the remote doesn't work other devices like dvd players etc. Two features I have no interest in.

Great media player too, plays every file.

"Wake up" On satellite yes, this is true. Whats actually happening you will notice is that when you pull up say BBC1, then the BBC2 epg will also populate. What it is doing is populating it per transponder (think frequency block for simplicity).

Unfortunately with practically all free to air receivers this will be the case as "Freesat" have decided to have one single transponder to hold its own epg data which these boxes don't populate from. There are normal non linux combo boxes (Technomate) that have hacked this or Sky Openeg's data but they are hacks that require manual interaction. Not done on Arivas unfortunately.

Thargor · 15-10-2012 10:37PM

O'Prez wrote: »

The Irish stations have 7 day EPG :cool:

And can you just highlight the programme you want and just hit record or whatever and it will do it? What exactly is the procedure for say taping the 9 o clock news, Im asking because anything more complicated will be too much for the people Im buying this for...

The Pontiac · 15-10-2012 10:44PM

O'Prez wrote: »

The Irish stations have 7 day EPG :cool:

STB wrote: »

"Wake up" On satellite yes, this is true. Whats actually happening you will notice is that when you pull up say BBC1, then the BBC2 epg will also populate. What it is doing is populating it per transponder (think frequency block for simplicity).

Unfortunately with practically all free to air receivers this will be the case as "Freesat" have decided to have one single transponder to hold its own epg data which these boxes don't populate from. There are normal non linux combo boxes (Technomate) that have hacked this or Sky Openeg's data but they are hacks that require manual interaction. Not done on Arivas unfortunately.

Didn't know the Irish channels had a 7 day EPG. :rolleyes:

Only hooked up a powered hard drive today, so just getting used to recording, pausing, etc. Thought I was an expert there for a while. Think I have just about grasped the difference between FTA and Freesat now. lol

STB · 15-10-2012 11:09PM

<Ollie> wrote: »

Didn't know the Irish channels had a 7 day EPG. :rolleyes:

Only hooked up a powered hard drive today, so just getting used to recording, pausing, etc. Thought I was an expert there for a while. Think I have just about grasped the difference between FTA and Freesat now. lol

I know, stuff you could really do without knowing!

SD_DRACULA · 16-10-2012 12:08PM

Does anyone have a link to the manual for the 250?
Also does this output in 1080p resolution?

Tony · 16-10-2012 12:18PM

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

Does anyone have a link to the manual for the 250?
Also does this output in 1080p resolution?

http://www.ferguson-digital.eu/en/download/HD-Satellite-Receivers/Ariva-250-Combo/manual_EN.pdf/

Capt'n Midnight · 16-10-2012 12:21PM

OK there is an android app for it for WiFi

Can it be controlled via LAN too ?

Is there a computer app for it ?

Can it stream output to the LAN ?

Capt'n Midnight · 16-10-2012 12:25PM

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

Does anyone have a link to the manual for the 250?
Also does this output in 1080p resolution?

Tony wrote: »

http://www.ferguson-digital.eu/en/download/HD-Satellite-Receivers/Ariva-250-Combo/manual_EN.pdf/

Looks like you could use a monitor with it

12.2 TV System
This menu is used to set the image parameters. Above all, you should determine the resolution
of the image sent over the HDMI connection. Select the highest possible resolution supported by
your HD television set in order to obtain the best image quality. The following resolutions are
available: 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p (50Hz), 720p (60Hz), 1080i (50Hz), 1080i (60Hz),
1080p (50Hz), 1080p (60Hz). If you select an unsupported resolution, your image will be lost or
become illegible – you can always use the F3key to return to the basic resolution, i.e. 576i.

SD_DRACULA · 16-10-2012 01:10PM

Thanks Tony.
Do you know if this will pick up uPnP players such as my NAS unit through the ethernet port or wifi dongle?
Could not find anything about it in the manual.

Tony · 16-10-2012 01:18PM

No idea sorry as I've not tried that.

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

Thanks Tony.
Do you know if this will pick up uPnP players such as my NAS unit through the ethernet port or wifi dongle?
Could not find anything about it in the manual.

bmaxi · 16-10-2012 02:44PM

gg69me wrote: »

i got a 250 lately aswell but not that impressed as it completely froze three times already and the only way to get it working again was to switch off the box at the back and allow it to reboot . seems to happen alot when i go into the entertainment section and try to download movie clips etc or it happened once when i was recording onto my mains powered hard drive....has anyone else had problems with their box freezing up completely or am i just jinxed?

Yes I've had that too. Doesn't bother me much as I don't really use the entertainment function but I can understand how it would annoy someone who does. I don't think all the questions regarding LAN operation have been addressed by Ferguson so we can only hope it will be solved in a future firmware update.

gg69me · 16-10-2012 05:25PM

bmaxi wrote: »

Yes I've had that too. Doesn't bother me much as I don't really use the entertainment function but I can understand how it would annoy someone who does. I don't think all the questions regarding LAN operation have been addressed by Ferguson so we can only hope it will be solved in a future firmware update.

Thanks for the reply bmax about your box completely freezing up aswell , i was beginning to wonder if i had bought a dud box . its a fair pain when you are recording an important program and it freezes up like happened to me last week but as you say maybe the next firmware upgrade will sort this problem out . this never happened to me when i was using the Ariva 120 box which is now moved to the kitchen and i am using the 250 in the sitting room as my main box buti might be swapping them around again , i see how it goes for a while...the weather app dosent seem to work either no matter how many cities i put in but sure not to worry it will probably be raining anyway , i am in ireland after all.

The Pontiac · 16-10-2012 05:33PM

gg69me wrote: »

Thanks for the reply bmax about your box completely freezing up aswell , i was beginning to wonder if i had bought a dud box . its a fair pain when you are recording an important program and it freezes up like happened to me last week but as you say maybe the next firmware upgrade will sort this problem out . this never happened to me when i was using the Ariva 120 box which is now moved to the kitchen and i am using the 250 in the sitting room as my main box buti might be swapping them around again , i see how it goes for a while...the weather app dosent seem to work either no matter how many cities i put in but sure not to worry it will probably be raining anyway , i am in ireland after all.

Is the hard drive partitioned? Also is the format NTSF or FAT32?

petersburg2002 · 16-10-2012 05:59PM

A friend on mine got me one of these for my TV. Am i wasting my time using an indoor UHF aerial? Im in the centre of Dublin and never had problems receiving the old analogue with the indoor aerial.

The Cush · 16-10-2012 06:05PM

petersburg2002 wrote: »

Am i wasting my time using an indoor UHF aerial? Im in the centre of Dublin and never had problems receiving the old analogue with the indoor aerial.

The indoor aerial might work, the only way you'll know for sure is to test it with the box.

bmaxi · 16-10-2012 09:16PM

<Ollie> wrote: »

Is the hard drive partitioned? Also is the format NTSF or FAT32?

It will happen whether recording or not if that's where you're going, has happened to me with Youtube and CNN.

bmaxi · 16-10-2012 09:32PM

gg69me wrote: »

Thanks for the reply bmax about your box completely freezing up aswell , i was beginning to wonder if i had bought a dud box . its a fair pain when you are recording an important program and it freezes up like happened to me last week but as you say maybe the next firmware upgrade will sort this problem out . this never happened to me when i was using the Ariva 120 box which is now moved to the kitchen and i am using the 250 in the sitting room as my main box buti might be swapping them around again , i see how it goes for a while...the weather app dosent seem to work either no matter how many cities i put in but sure not to worry it will probably be raining anyway , i am in ireland after all.

I don't remember the 120 having full LAN capabilities but I could be mistaken. Weather app doesn't work for me either, STB gave a plausible explanation here
" A lot of issues with the entertainment functions are sorted in firmware V1.20B1. The one issue that remains is the weather link it is based on a google link which keeps moving stuff around. That is affecting the API from working."
It's a wait and see game, the box has so many qualities, I'm prepared to forgive it a few foibles.

gg69me · 16-10-2012 10:33PM

<Ollie> wrote: »

Is the hard drive partitioned? Also is the format NTSF or FAT32?

i connected up a brand new hard drive to my original 120 box and formatted it.
i used this hard drive for 6 months on the 120 box with no problems and just reconnected it to the new 250 box with no trouble in playing my old recordings just some trouble with the box freezing sometimes when recording....bye the way the box is on file system is NTFS as this was recommended in the original 120 manual if i remember correctly . what is the best system do you think...fat 32 or NTFS FOR THE 250 BOX.

grayface · 16-10-2012 11:01PM

grayface wrote: »

Does anybody have a link for firmware version 1.19B1 for Ariva 250, as I want to upgrade to this firmware on a friends receiver, and dont want to get it wrong.

Cheers and thanks in advance for feedback.:):)

Anyone find any link.?

Tony · 16-10-2012 11:06PM

grayface wrote: »

Anyone find any link.?

ftp://ftp2.ferguson.pl/ferguson/

Just wondering why the confused smileys ?

Thargor · 17-10-2012 06:17PM

Had a 250 and a dish delivered to the parents house the other day from Satellite.ie, thanks for the quick delivery, Im going down to set it up this weekend, just wondering if all the channels are already on it apart from the Saorview channels, as in once I get the dish pointed the right way with the sat finder they should all just show up?

Also should I bother updating to the latest firmware? It wont be used for anything except watching tv or the odd recording, no wi-fi stuff...

winston_1 · 17-10-2012 06:41PM

Even if the channels are already tuned they will be out of date. The BBC have just changed a lot of their frequencies (again). Satellite frequencies change regularly.

www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_frequencies.shtml

Tony · 17-10-2012 06:49PM

Thargor wrote: »

just wondering if all the channels are already on it apart from the Saorview channels,

Yes they are as per the product page , if the receiver was shipped before last Friday you will need to retune BBC news and BBC 3 ,4

On 12 October:

BBC Three / CBBC and BBC News will move to
10.818 V 22000 5/6

BBC Four / CBeebies and BBC Red Button stream 1 will move to
10.773 H 22000 5/6

Source: BBC Blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_frequencies.shtml

Tony · 17-10-2012 06:54PM

winston_1 wrote: »

Even if the channels are already tuned they will be out of date.

That's an assumption on your part , any box shipped after last Friday should have the changes reflected in the channel list assuming the supplier provides this service.

winston_1 wrote: »

Satellite frequencies change regularly.

Regularly is over stating the case

winston_1 · 17-10-2012 07:26PM

Tony wrote: »

Yes they are as per the product page , if the receiver was shipped before last Friday you will need to retune BBC news and BBC 3 ,4

On 12 October:

BBC Three / CBBC and BBC News will move to
10.818 V 22000 5/6

BBC Four / CBeebies and BBC Red Button stream 1 will move to
10.773 H 22000 5/6

Source: BBC Blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_frequencies.shtml

Also BBC Alba, BBC 1 NE and Cumbria, and all the BBC radio stations except 5 Live and 5 Live sports Extra. In fact the radio stations are still in a state of flux as they are not yet labelled in their new positions.

winston_1 · 17-10-2012 07:31PM

Tony wrote: »

That's an assumption on your part , any box shipped after last Friday should have the changes reflected in the channel list assuming the supplier provides this service.

I very much doubt if they will. The radio changes are not yet complete so retuning will be required.

Tony wrote: »

Regularly is over stating the case

Don't think so.
There seem to be changes on Astra 2 every month, though admittedly most do not affect the BBC channels.

Tony · 17-10-2012 07:59PM

winston_1 wrote: »

I very much doubt if they will. The radio changes are not yet complete so retuning will be required.

Indeed but I was obviously referring to the recent change

winston_1 wrote: »

There seem to be changes on Astra 2 every month, though admittedly most do not affect the BBC channels.

Perhaps I missed these as they were minority channels but from my own experience I've only had to change the channel list twice so far this year. Also for some reason many freesat users had to re load their lists after Fridays change

Thargor · 17-10-2012 08:24PM

Sorry for all the questions but whats the handiest way for keeping track of these changes, it wont really matter as long as all the Saorview channels never move anyway.

STB · 17-10-2012 08:38PM

gg69me wrote: »

i connected up a brand new hard drive to my original 120 box and formatted it.
i used this hard drive for 6 months on the 120 box with no problems and just reconnected it to the new 250 box with no trouble in playing my old recordings just some trouble with the box freezing sometimes when recording....bye the way the box is on file system is NTFS as this was recommended in the original 120 manual if i remember correctly . what is the best system do you think...fat 32 or NTFS FOR THE 250 BOX.

This could be the cause of your problems.

You will notice that in the root of your drive that there are several files including: AMP_M.lst, AMP_I.lst and a few DVR files. Your recorded files will be in a directory called ALIDVRS2.

It is plausible that if they are files that were copied over from the 120 that they are not fully compatible with the 250. I suggest you delete (but keep a copy of) the AMP files and DVR files in the root directory.

I would also suggest you turn off Timeshift in the media menu.

I dont have issues with my drive, so I am wondering why yours is locking up the box. Is it independently powered and does it have the suggested write and read speeds as per the Ferguson manual ? If not this would certainly contribute to the smooth running of the box.

In other news, the latest patch version of 1.20 has Grooveshark in the entertainment menu not included with the original firmware. The patched version has issues with some of the epg data on some channels on satellite, so its your call whether you need one over the other.

Ferguson Ariva 250

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