Amiko Alien A3 opinion please

Hootanany · 04-09-2014 07:01PM #1

Are they any good has anyone got one?
I have a avia 150 at the moment not great TBH.
WAS THINKING OF GETTING ONE.
I have android tv box and apple tv am i mad?

Ronan Raver77 · 05-09-2014 01:45AM

Also interested in this..believe some people are trialing them if not shipped already

Hootanany · 05-09-2014 07:04AM

A few website have them for sale but would like someones honest opinion before I pull the trigger.

Nowso · 05-09-2014 01:48PM

one the lads sad they were triallling it . id wait as of yet

Hootanany · 13-09-2014 09:00AM

Bump:rolleyes:

Ronan Raver77 · 20-09-2014 05:23PM

Anyone??

Irreverent · 24-09-2014 01:16PM

Interesting looking box. I see on a US website they are advertising XBMC compatibility. Pity there is no terrestrial tuner on board. I wonder if it is possible to add one even by USB and play through XBMC frontend. Would love to hear a review too if anyone has pulled the trigger.

27-09-2014 10:58AM

I wish the Amiko A2 had XBMC , I really love XBMC, though switching channels can be slow I think this is more to do with the plugin.

Irreverent · 30-09-2014 05:25PM

Just ordered one of these today. I'll update with some impressions when I've had a chance to play with it.

hallo dare · 30-09-2014 05:28PM

The fact that it's only a single tuner put me off straight away. The Alien 2 has turned into a beast of a box over the last few months.

Irreverent · 01-10-2014 11:57AM

hallo dare wrote: »

The fact that it's only a single tuner put me off straight away. The Alien 2 has turned into a beast of a box over the last few months.

I think you're right. I have an Alien 2 also so the A3 will be a spare room job until I get to know it inside out. I like the XBMC and other android app abilities though and it plays an impressive range of video formats from NAS also. E2 is coming soon to it so we'll see how that goes. You would have to ask how hard it would have been to incorporate a 2nd sat tuner or maybe even a terrestrial tuner.

Mayo Yid · 01-10-2014 07:56PM

Irreverent wrote:

I think you're right. I have an Alien 2 also so the A3 will be a spare room job until I get to know it inside out. I like the XBMC and other android app abilities though and it plays an impressive range of video formats from NAS also. E2 is coming soon to it so we'll see how that goes. You would have to ask how hard it would have been to incorporate a 2nd sat tuner or maybe even a terrestrial tuner.

The Alien 3 is Spark ported to Android. It has an Arm CPU and Arm has full Android support which brings lots of goodies, apps, games etc. Not sure you'll ever see proper enigma development for it and even if it does get it it can never offer all the goodness and stability Android offers out of the box. There will be dual tuners once they've tested the waters.

Irreverent · 06-10-2014 01:03PM

So I got this on Friday and was playing with it over the weekend. For anybody interested my initial thoughts are:

Pros:
Looks great. Its small with an aluminium chassis. I bought from Satworld who were out of stock in silver so I got the red receiver. Some people might not like that but I think it looks good.
The HDD installation is very easy. It's as easy as changing a battery in a remote control. Just click out the cover on the base of the unit and slot in a 2.5 hdd. I installed a 500gb drive and formatted it very easily.
Picture quality is excellent. I tuned in Astra 2 using Spark 2 and it was very easy to choose the satellite. The blind scan was comprehensive and much quicker than on the Amiko Alien 2 which I also use. I couldn't find Eutelsat 9E on the box but I am told it is easy enough to add satellites. I've emailed Amiko for a how-to guide.
The remote control is fantastic for a €200 box. The air mouse works great and was just the right sensitivity on unpacking. The headphone jack on the remote works fine. The scroll wheel works well for scrolling though live tv channels or through apps in Spark 2 / Android.
The onboard media player doesn't look pretty but plays just about anything I have stored on either my NAS or on local storage.
XBMC works very well. The version that comes installed is Frodo and I have left it at that for now following advise on another forum. My media library indexed in no time at all and I have installed 1channel, mashup and all usual goodies in no time.
The fact that this one box can do all that is a great selling point. If I can get rid of the Now TV box and my WD Live Streaming Player that is a benefit in my book.
Picons are automatically downloaded which is handy. Some did not download however but I haven't had a chance to investigate further.

Cons:
EPG is now and next only. I am told by a seller of this box in Ireland that some system like Crossepg will roll out soon. It remains to be seen.
I downloaded an Amiko channel editor which did not work. It is not a big deal editing the channels manually but it can take time naturally.
Obviously there is only one tuner. This needs to be borne in mind by people who like to record. I don't record frequently and it is clearly advertised as single tuner so this is not really a con.
Some apps are clearly just Android tablet apps and don't look optimised for this box (because they are not). I successfully installed Netflix and Now TV which worked fine but I had to use the air mouse rather than arrow buttons. That being said the video streams played well.
I'm not sure if it was just my wifi but the box performed much better via ethernet. Wifi streams cut off and dropped however this did not happen over ethernet.

That is all I can think of for now but I'll update again when I get a chance.

roadrunnermick · 18-10-2014 08:25AM

Irreverent wrote: »

So I got this on Friday and was playing with it over the weekend. For anybody interested my initial thoughts are:

Pros:
Looks great. Its small with an aluminium chassis. I bought from Satworld who were out of stock in silver so I got the red receiver. Some people might not like that but I think it looks good.
The HDD installation is very easy. It's as easy as changing a battery in a remote control. Just click out the cover on the base of the unit and slot in a 2.5 hdd. I installed a 500gb drive and formatted it very easily.
Picture quality is excellent. I tuned in Astra 2 using Spark 2 and it was very easy to choose the satellite. The blind scan was comprehensive and much quicker than on the Amiko Alien 2 which I also use. I couldn't find Eutelsat 9E on the box but I am told it is easy enough to add satellites. I've emailed Amiko for a how-to guide.
The remote control is fantastic for a €200 box. The air mouse works great and was just the right sensitivity on unpacking. The headphone jack on the remote works fine. The scroll wheel works well for scrolling though live tv channels or through apps in Spark 2 / Android.
The onboard media player doesn't look pretty but plays just about anything I have stored on either my NAS or on local storage.
XBMC works very well. The version that comes installed is Frodo and I have left it at that for now following advise on another forum. My media library indexed in no time at all and I have installed 1channel, mashup and all usual goodies in no time.
The fact that this one box can do all that is a great selling point. If I can get rid of the Now TV box and my WD Live Streaming Player that is a benefit in my book.
Picons are automatically downloaded which is handy. Some did not download however but I haven't had a chance to investigate further.

Cons:
EPG is now and next only. I am told by a seller of this box in Ireland that some system like Crossepg will roll out soon. It remains to be seen.
I downloaded an Amiko channel editor which did not work. It is not a big deal editing the channels manually but it can take time naturally.
Obviously there is only one tuner. This needs to be borne in mind by people who like to record. I don't record frequently and it is clearly advertised as single tuner so this is not really a con.
Some apps are clearly just Android tablet apps and don't look optimised for this box (because they are not). I successfully installed Netflix and Now TV which worked fine but I had to use the air mouse rather than arrow buttons. That being said the video streams played well.
I'm not sure if it was just my wifi but the box performed much better via ethernet. Wifi streams cut off and dropped however this did not happen over ethernet.

That is all I can think of for now but I'll update again when I get a chance.

Hi can an external tuner for Saiorview be added ?

Thanks

roadrunnermick · 19-10-2014 08:09PM

Bump

Any help would be appreciated , , About to pull the trigger and buy it if I can get RTE saiorview

Mayo Yid · 19-10-2014 08:39PM

roadrunnermick wrote: »

Bump

Any help would be appreciated , , About to pull the trigger and buy it if I can get RTE saiorview

Doubtful, unlike the older boxes and enigma it's early days for this box, there is little development for it yet. It's got a Arm CPU and Android, nothing like it has been released before

roadrunnermick · 19-10-2014 10:01PM

Thank you , Much appreciated

brill will stick with Amiko 2 triple tuner box so

Irreverent · 21-10-2014 05:56PM

None of the literature or manuals suggest that a dvb-t tuner can be added. There is also no option to tune terrestrial channels in the settings of the box, just satellite. Even then, channels are displayed only as now/next. I emailed Amiko and they suggested (vaguely) that an enhanced EPG will roll out in an upcoming version of the firmware.

I have this box in the spare room and it is a good solution for that with its XBMC, android and FTA capabilities. I would stick to the Alien 2 for now however until this box is improved upon. Just my two-cents worth.

An Cigire · 22-10-2014 12:21AM

I understand you can record one channel only.

Question is can you access other features like XBMC while recording the satellite feed?

Cheers

Cig

Irreverent · 22-10-2014 03:15PM

An Cigire wrote: »

I understand you can record one channel only.

Question is can you access other features like XBMC while recording the satellite feed?

Cheers

Cig

Yes you switch between satellite and XBMC when you are recording. I have only tried it once but it seemed to work fine on that occasion.

An Cigire · 22-10-2014 03:17PM

Irreverent wrote: »

Yes you switch between satellite and XBMC when you are recording. I have only tried it once but it seemed to work fine on that occasion.

Cheers

patmcd · 03-11-2014 01:15PM

New modified firmware now available and new Oscam version working.
Just an occasional audio glitch.

Irreverent · 04-11-2014 11:03PM

patmcd wrote: »

New modified firmware now available and new Oscam version working.
Just an occasional audio glitch.

Nice one. Fair play to you. Just set it up too. This changes things a bit.

Hootanany · 17-12-2014 06:23PM

Irreverent wrote: »

Nice one. Fair play to you. Just set it up too. This changes things a bit.

For good or bad:D

Hootanany · 20-12-2014 07:55PM

Hootanany wrote: »

For good or bad:D

Just got one will set it up in the morning any tips or tricks I need to know?

20-12-2014 08:21PM

Hootanany wrote: »

Just got one will set it up in the morning any tips or tricks I need to know?

Probably the No. 1 tip.

Don't have the Amiko as your main source of TV if you have a Wife/Gf etc or it will end up broken off your head.

Seriously, this is a geeks decoder and the Enigma 2 is full of bugs.

The one really cool feature is the fact it's dual bootable and very handy if the E2 image goes tits up, you can revert back to Spark.

mass_debater · 20-12-2014 08:24PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Probably the No. 1 tip.

Don't have the Amiko as your main source of TV if you have a Wife/Gf etc or it will end up broken off your head.

Seriously, this is a geeks decoder and the Enigma 2 is full of bugs.

The one really cool feature is the fact it's dual bootable and very handy if the E2 image goes tits up, you can revert back to Spark.

Eh, this is the Alien 3 thread, it's not dual boot and does not run Enigma 2, it runs Spark 2 on Android

20-12-2014 08:26PM

mass_debater wrote: »

Eh, this is the Alien 3 thread, it's not dual boot and does not run Enigma 2

Oh crap, you're right, sorry !

Didn't think I had subscribed to the A3 Thread.

I would hope the Android A3 is a lot more stable ?

mass_debater · 20-12-2014 08:29PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh crap, you're right, sorry !

Didn't think I had subscribed to the A3 Thread.

I would hope the Android A3 is a lot more stable ?

Stability comes as OS's mature, it's very early days for this.

BTW, I'm running an Alien2 for months on the same image (Fresh Pots Hyperion 4, removed the Sky skin), no bugs, just works. You're doing something wrong

20-12-2014 09:05PM

mass_debater wrote: »

Stability comes as OS's mature, it's very early days for this.

BTW, I'm running an Alien2 for months on the same image (Fresh Pots Hyperion 4, removed the Sky skin), no bugs, just works. You're doing something wrong

I'm Running (or was until today on both recievers) fresh Pots latest and it's decent but it's not perfect and it's running on 2 different receivers.

I'm not doing anything wrong, the forums are full of problems with E2 images. Doesn't stop me playing around with it though !

I just installed Hyperion 4.5 today uploaded by djrobijay on linuxsat but didn't get much time to play with it but it looks good at least.

Hootanany · 21-12-2014 12:30PM

Hi playing with it now what satellites should I scan for ?

Amiko Alien A3 opinion please

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