Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

john_doe. · 29-04-2018 10:48am

The Wireless dongle that comes with these as an option , is there anything special about it?
I'm assuming I can fit my own SATA drive and a wireless dongle later.

Also any way to share recordings from this box to allow playback on other device.
For example I have a number of Kodi boxes running on Minix hardware in house. If I recorded a TV show on these it would be great if could watch it from the Minix in the bedroom.

Also I'm guessing series link works okay on the enigma images ?

Gerry Wicklow · 29-04-2018 10:58am

In my experience not all wireless dongles are linux compatible. You would need to check if the drivers are available. They aren't great for streaming HD either. Hard-wired or powerline adaptors would be better. You can access almost all the box functions and stream live or recordings from any web browser on the same network using a built in 'Webif' plugin. Series linking uses an 'autotimer' plugin. This is simple to use but can also be far more powerful and flexible than simple series linking

The high horse brigade · 29-04-2018 11:11am

There are also Android apps like Dream Player which allow you to remotely view the EPG, set timers and stream live TV and recordings. If you know a bit about networking you can even configure your network so you can do this from outside your network

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.cyberdream.dreamepg.tv.player

john_doe. · 29-04-2018 12:39pm

The high horse brigade wrote: »

There are also Android apps like Dream Player which allow you to remotely view the EPG, set timers and stream live TV and recordings. If you know a bit about networking you can even configure your network so you can do this from outside your network

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.cyberdream.dreamepg.tv.player

jeez , this is great, was going down the route of setting up a tv headend server for client android boxes, but this would do al lot of what i needed.

one another question - how does these compare to the other enigma type boxes out there?
would you rank them in the top 3?

The high horse brigade · 29-04-2018 12:46pm

Also note, I wouldn't run an enigma 2 box without some sort of storage for the 7 day Epg. Saving the 7 day Epg to the internal flash storage will cause the box to glitch and crash as it's a huge database. A usb key will do if you've no hard drive, make sure there's nothing on it as you will need to format it to a Linux format to initialise it. Picons go there also

john_doe. · 29-04-2018 7:23pm

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Also note, I wouldn't run an enigma 2 box without some sort of storage for the 7 day Epg. Saving the 7 day Epg to the internal flash storage will cause the box to glitch and crash as it's a huge database. A usb key will do if you've no hard drive, make sure there's nothing on it as you will need to format it to a Linux format to initialise it. Picons go there also

Thanks ya.
I was wondering how these compare with other enigma boxed on the market now . Reading the thread people seem very impressed with it.

The high horse brigade · 29-04-2018 8:17pm

john_doe. wrote: »

Thanks ya.
I was wondering how these compare with other enigma boxed on the market now . Reading the thread people seem very impressed with it.

I've setup plenty of Enigma boxes when card sharing was popular. This is up there with any of them Vu+, Gigablue, Technomate etc costing 3 times the price. It's got a very fast CPU, plenty of ram, has space for an internal hard drive and has good support thorough OpenAtv or OpenVix. It's a serious box for the price, it was over 300 quid sterling when released in 2013 with a proprietary OS.

greasepalm · 29-04-2018 11:16pm

I also like e2 boxes like vu and xtrend and picked up a triple tuner and added internal 1tb hdd.

SteM · 30-04-2018 8:32am

Mine arrived on Friday and I spent part of Saturday setting it up to how I wanted it. Very happy with it, it's very snappy. It seems very good for IPTV streaming too, no glitching yesterday at all.

Gerry Wicklow · 30-04-2018 10:30am

SteM wrote: »

Mine arrived on Friday and I spent part of Saturday setting it up to how I wanted it. Very happy with it, it's very snappy. It seems very good for IPTV streaming too, no glitching yesterday at all.

If you are running openATV make sure to use the BLUE button to backup your settings. It only takes a few seconds but can save hours of hassle if you manage to mess things up.

SteM · 30-04-2018 12:01pm

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

If you are running openATV make sure to use the BLUE button to backup your settings. It only takes a few seconds but can save hours of hassle if you manage to mess things up.

Running openvix, must remember to do a backup when I get home. Thanks for the reminder.

P.C · 30-04-2018 1:24pm

Hello stem

Is the picture of good quality in openvix.
I was thinking of changing over to openatv.

SteM · 30-04-2018 1:39pm

P.C wrote: »

Hello stem

Is the picture of good quality in openvix.
I was thinking of changing over to openatv.

It's been fine for me. I have a Sony Android TV with built in sat tuner so I run a cable from the box to the TV and have compared the picture from the two sources. The picture from the TV tuner does seem a bit better to my eye but nothing incredible. My wife doesn’t notice any difference between the two.

Does the image you are using on the box effect the picture quality?

P.C · 30-04-2018 2:28pm

SteM wrote: »

It's been fine for me. I have a Sony Android TV with built in sat tuner so I run a cable from the box to the TV and have compared the picture from the two sources. The picture from the TV tuner does seem a bit better to my eye but nothing incredible. My wife doesn’t notice any difference between the two.

Does the image you are using on the box effect the picture quality?

I have a Sony 32 smart TV, like you with sat tuner. Also I find the picture that bit sharper on the Sony compared to the box. Thanks for the comments.

SteM · 30-04-2018 2:37pm

Forgot to mention that the Movie Organisor (sic) plugin is well worth installing on this box. It scans your hard drive at a user-defined time and puts all of your shows that have multiple recordings into their own folders.

So if your kid records Postman Pat on series link it will put all of the episodes into their own folder. Very handy, stops the drive from getting clogged up with one big list of shows.

P.C · 30-04-2018 3:32pm

Hi SteM

May be I will try a different image
Thanks.

greasepalm · 30-04-2018 8:40pm

I will through something else into the mix quality of hdmi cable and they are not all the same as i have found out.

P.C · 30-04-2018 9:03pm

greasepalm wrote: »

I will through something else into the mix quality of hdmi cable and they are not all the same as i have found out.

Yes I tried that too did not see any difference
Good call through.
This emgima stuff takes some getting used to but interesting. Just takes a time to set it all up.

Zardoz · 30-04-2018 11:54pm

SteM wrote: »

Does the image you are using on the box effect the picture quality?

I find Openvix default picture settings are inferior to Openatv.
The contrast and brightness levels are too high. Gamma settings are way too low as well. The whites are crushed.

The Tiviar is a Mips based receiver, so it's never going to have very good picture quality, like an Sh4 receiver.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

funkey_monkey · 01-05-2018 11:02am

Hi. I'm going to pull the trigger in this today.

Only need the internal drive. Not getting the WiFi option as I have a network point available - only one though. Can the smart tv access Internet through the STB? If not, should I get the WiFi option?

Is Openatv the best option for the OS?

vincent17 · 01-05-2018 11:22am

Hello.
I have had the box for nearly 2 days and i am still getting to grips with it but it is a great box.
Doeas anybody know how to set the front lcd display to show just the time only and not the channel name.
The box is in a study/man cave/spare bedroom and there is no clock in there and i use to have a Zgemma and that use to show the time which was handy.

Thanks.

JB81 · 01-05-2018 11:35am

Cancelled Sky yesterday.
Box being delivered today.
I might be busy on here for the next few days trying to get all set up.
Apologies in advance for all the questions

JB

Gerry Wicklow · 01-05-2018 11:39am

vincent17 wrote: »

Hello.
I have had the box for nearly 2 days and i am still getting to grips with it but it is a great box.
Doeas anybody know how to set the front lcd display to show just the time only and not the channel name.
The box is in a study/man cave/spare bedroom and there is no clock in there and i use to have a Zgemma and that use to show the time which was handy.

Thanks.

Try MENU>SETUP>USAGE+GUI>SKIN

Dr_Colossus · 01-05-2018 12:44pm

Zardoz wrote: »

I find Openvix default picture settings are inferior to Openatv.
The contrast and brightness levels are too high. Gamma settings are way too low as well. The whites are crushed.

The Tiviar is a Mips based receiver, so it's never going to have very good picture quality, like an Sh4 receiver.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Was close to pulling the trigger on this given all the positive feedback here. Have an unused dish which was on the long finger to connect but had been using Virgin's analogue service in the interim. Virgin are pulling all analogue service next week so the long finger has maxed out.

To add, recently bought an OLED TV which I've yet to install but looking to get the most out of it in terms of picture quality so are there better boxes out there than the Tiviar Alpha Plus. New TV does have a satellite tuner but no recording functionality which could be useful plus ideally want to use box for older tv in the interm and as a future second TV.

Don't watch much TV personally so not interested in Sky and yet more monthly subscriptions so the free to air list is sufficient. Recent reviews of the Ariva 4k Combo seem to be giving trouble so anything else that should be considered?

SteM · 01-05-2018 12:45pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Hi. I'm going to pull the trigger in this today.

Only need the internal drive. Not getting the WiFi option as I have a network point available - only one though. Can the smart tv access Internet through the STB? If not, should I get the WiFi option?

Is Openatv the best option for the OS?

You could get a router and plug it into your network point, then cables from that into the Tiviar and into the Smart TV.

Not sure why you need to connect the Tiviar to the internet unless you're using it for IPTV to be honest. It's not needed for normal satellite use.

lawred2 · 01-05-2018 1:02pm

SteM wrote: »

You could get a router and plug it into your network point, then cables from that into the Tiviar and into the Smart TV.

Not sure why you need to connect the Tiviar to the internet unless you're using it for IPTV to be honest. It's not needed for normal satellite use.

it is required for CrossEPG though

The high horse brigade · 01-05-2018 1:05pm

SteM wrote: »

Not sure why you need to connect the Tiviar to the internet unless you're using it for IPTV to be honest. It's not needed for normal satellite use.

To set timers, view Epg and stream live TV and recordings to any laptop, smartphone, tablet or Android/Apple TV box in your house. Open up your network firewall and you can do this from anywhere in the world.

The high horse brigade · 01-05-2018 1:10pm

lawred2 wrote: »

it is required for CrossEPG though

If you use opentv in CrossEpg it decodes the sky epg from the satellite

SteM · 01-05-2018 1:42pm

lawred2 wrote: »

it is required for CrossEPG though

Not from what I've been told in the past.

SteM · 01-05-2018 1:43pm

The high horse brigade wrote: »

To set timers, view Epg and stream live TV and recordings to any laptop, smartphone, tablet or Android/Apple TV box in your house. Open up your network firewall and you can do this from anywhere in the world.

But not fit normal satellite use, which is what I said.

lawred2 · 01-05-2018 2:35pm

The high horse brigade wrote: »

If you use opentv in CrossEpg it decodes the sky epg from the satellite

interesting

is that not possible with OpenVix?

because CrossEPG is the only reason that I connect it to my home network

Zardoz · 01-05-2018 2:53pm

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

To add, recently bought an OLED TV which I've yet to install but looking to get the most out of it in terms of picture quality so are there better boxes out there than the Tiviar Alpha Plus. New TV does have a satellite tuner but no recording functionality which could be useful plus ideally want to use box for older tv in the interm and as a future second TV.

A receiver with an Arm cpu will give a better picture than the Tiviar .
I have a Mutant HD51 receiver ,its an Arm chipset and gives a slightly better picture quality than a Mips receiver.
I use the Bt 709 color profile for Satellite tv ,this is not available on the Tiviar or other Mips receivers I have used,at least I could not get it to work.

A SH4 cpu ,like in the Alien 2 will give the best picture but they are an old receiver now and run a ported version of Enigma 2 so they don't run as smoothly as a Mips/Arm receiver.
Picture wise though ,especially in the native Spark mode they cannot be beaten ,but they are too old and slow so I would not recommend one.

I've tried most of the receivers on the market to get one with a picture quality I am happy with.
The Mutant is currently the best I have found ,running Openatv .
Its a holy grail for me to get one as good as an SH4 .

The high horse brigade · 01-05-2018 2:54pm

lawred2 wrote: »

interesting

is that not possible with OpenVix?

because CrossEPG is the only reason that I connect it to my home network

CrossEpg is the same on every image. You must have it configured to import XMLs. Set the source to opentv which pulls down the sky epg from the satellite.

funkey_monkey · 01-05-2018 5:18pm

Zardoz wrote: »

A receiver with an Arm cpu will give a better picture than the Tiviar .
I have a Mutant HD51 receiver ,its an Arm chipset and gives a slightly better picture quality than a Mips receiver.

I've tried most of the receivers on the market to get one with a picture quality I am happy with.
The Mutant is currently the best I have found ,running Openatv .
Its a holy grail for me to get one as good as an SH4 .

Is there much difference in the picture quality?
Is that the only adv between the mutant and the Tiviar?

JB81 · 01-05-2018 11:46pm

Just plugged in the box, and was wondering if anyone else was having this problem. The two cables coming from my satelite dish ( which would have originally went into my sky box ) do not fit the threads on the two tuners on the Tiviar. Anyone any suggestions.
Could I leave them in the old sky box and connect it to the Tiviar?

Regards
JB

greasepalm · 02-05-2018 12:33am

F connectors are standard on any sat box or cable but sometimes fiddly with big hands.

JB81 · 02-05-2018 12:50am

Ive been at them for an hour and they just wont go on, I really think the they are too small for the ones on the triviar.
Will keep trying.

So basically what I am connecting is the 2 satelite cables to tuner 1 and 2. the aerial cable to tuner 3. The HDMI from box to TV. Wifi dongle in. And usb ( with updates downloaded from further up this thread )in as well.
I assume this is all I need.

Where do i go, or how do i manage to get the updates from the USB to the box?

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 7:31am

It's a standard f connector. If the cable is thin shotgun cable then the connector will be to suit that cable but the important other end that connects to the satellite box will be a standard size. Make sure the protruding centre conductor core goes into the female connector socket on the satellite box connector.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_connector

To add the usb key you'll need to use the box to initialise it which will wipe it and format the usb to a Linux only compatible format. Then you add the update image and picons over your network using a software called FileZilla.

JB81 · 02-05-2018 8:14am

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I've updated my backup once again, this image is now set to 720p.
Complete backup: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DFUXnt5bhEPIOKV5ZSuOMajSDvOeRBhw

Tiviar flashing guide: http://www.openvix.co.uk/openvix-builds/Guides%20and%20Tutorials/Flashing%20Guides/Tiviar%20USB%20Flashing%20Guides/How%20to%20flash%20a%20Tiviar%20Alpha+.pdf

Picons pack, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1epgDfivdpeh3JjGjbWdT0JRkAIkKtN9i (all credit goes to MK on the world of sat forum) you need to use Filezilla to put the picon folder on your hard drive /media/hdd/picon (username: root, password: tempass)

When done you'll need to edit your own weather location ID in the MyMetrix Lite plugin, you can find your own location ID here http://weather.mynonpublic.com/locationid.html

Webif is enabled and does not need a pass on the standard port (80) (if you're adding a firewall rule be sure to enable encryption in the OpenWebif plugin or use port 443). Connect to the box in your web browser using it's IP

CrossEPG is enabled, it will download the 7 day EPG for the satellite channels to the hdd once a day at 4.00AM. You need to manually download once after install

AutoBouquetMaker is configured to add Saorview first and then Freesat category bouquets and is set to automatically run daily (this updates any frequency changes in line with the Saorview and Freesat EPG). Change your Saorview region in menu -> setup -> service searching -> AutoBouquetsMaker -> providers -> saorview area, then press green to save and then start a scan

Resolution set to 720p, if you need to change to 1080p menu -> setup -> video -> basic settings -> change mode to 1080p

Hi Highhorse.

Just a quick question. My box came from WOS with OpenATV.

Do I still need to follow your flashing guide for Openvix?
In the Picon pack, it states pick an image? What does this mean and where do i pick it from?
Also when setting all this up, do I just do this all on my laptop and put it all onto a USB stick and plug it into the box and it should upload automatically or do I need to have my laptop connected to the box? Or does it be done wirelessly?

Do you know anywhere I could get a step by step guide to doing all this. I am mostly good with these type of things, but a lot of the terminology and phrases in this thread is going way over my head. Im not sure if I will be able to follow all here.

I really am sorry for all the questions, and tell me to F off if you want.

Genuine Thanks
JB

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 8:29am

The guide to flash the box is there. My backup is also Openatv but it is fully configured with most things to get you up and running as quick as possible. Get it flashed and then come back here for further guidance.

The picon pack is a zip, you extract and copy it to the box storage after you've flashed the image. To do this you copy it across the network with your laptop using a software called FileZilla. Come back here for advise when you get to this stage

JB81 · 02-05-2018 8:36am

The high horse brigade wrote: »

The guide to flash the box is there. My backup is also Openatv but it is fully configured with most things to get you up and running as quick as possible. Get it flashed and then come back here for further guidance.

The picon pack is a zip, you extract and copy it to the box storage after you've flashed the image. To do this you copy it across the network with your laptop using a software called FileZilla. Come back here for advise when you get to this stage

Will do, and again thanks a million

Just need to sort out the connections first

Zardoz · 02-05-2018 4:11pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Is there much difference in the picture quality?
Is that the only adv between the mutant and the Tiviar?

The difference is minor ,but more noticeable on bigger and better sets.

The Mutant is a 4k receiver with a more powerful processor.
It supports H.265 video playback.
It has the newer DVB-S2x tuners .
The Flash memory is 4GB ,so you can have 4 images installed ,one on each 1GB partition and multiboot.

Most of these difference wont be of use to the majority of people though.
The Mutant only has twin tuners ,but a cheap USB DVB-T tuner works fine.

funkey_monkey · 02-05-2018 4:58pm

Zardoz wrote: »

The difference is minor ,but more noticeable on bigger and better sets.

The Mutant is a 4k receiver with a more powerful processor.
It supports H.265 video playback.
It has the newer DVB-S2x tuners .
The Flash memory is 4GB ,so you can have 4 images installed ,one on each 1GB partition and multiboot.

Most of these difference wont be of use to the majority of people though.
The Mutant only has twin tuners ,but a cheap USB DVB-T tuner works fine.

Thanks - I've just purchased a 4K TV so I would prefer a STB capable of 4K pictures - even though there is minimal channels provided in 4K at present.

Are they difficult to setup and work?

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 5:07pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Thanks - I've just purchased a 4K TV so I would prefer a STB capable of 4K pictures - even though there is minimal channels provided in 4K at present.

Are they difficult to setup and work?

The mutant is another Enigma box it is identical to setup if you know your way around setting up Enigma.

funkey_monkey · 02-05-2018 5:16pm

Would you recommend it over the Tiviar if you had a 4K TV? Or is there another 4K STB in that price range which you would recommend?

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 5:26pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Would you recommend it over the Tiviar if you had a 4K TV? Or is there another 4K STB in that price range which you would recommend?

I don't see the advantage of it tbh, there's no content for it from satellite.

lawred2 · 02-05-2018 5:51pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Would you recommend it over the Tiviar if you had a 4K TV? Or is there another 4K STB in that price range which you would recommend?

Is there anyone even broadcasting 4k content on freeview/Freesat?

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 5:57pm

lawred2 wrote: »

Is there anyone even broadcasting 4k content on freeview/Freesat?

None worth talking about on any of the satellites. 4k uses up a full transponder, it's why the providers like Sky are adding IPTV

http://en.satexpat.com/4k/

The high horse brigade · 02-05-2018 9:23pm

SteM wrote: »

Forgot to mention that the Movie Organisor (sic) plugin is well worth installing on this box. It scans your hard drive at a user-defined time and puts all of your shows that have multiple recordings into their own folders.

So if your kid records Postman Pat on series link it will put all of the episodes into their own folder. Very handy, stops the drive from getting clogged up with one big list of shows.

Got a link to this plugin?

SteM · 02-05-2018 9:27pm

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Got a link to this plugin?

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

Tiviar Alpha Plus Combo STB

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