Cost-Effective, High-Functionality, User-Friendly Replacement for Pay TV

davidm20 wrote: »

Balls, I just renovated and AFAIK got standard coaxial cable run from the SAT in...

Approx how many transponders are on Astra?

The number of transponders really doesn’t matter. If you’ve got satellite grade cable run in you’ve multiple options to use this box, with all the channels. These are just some options:

1. Fit a dish with a Unicable LNB.

2. Fit a dish with a Unicable 2 LNB. (Won’t matter a Rat’s rear end to the Tiviar, but allows you to receive many channels, simultaneously, with more expensive boxes.)

3. Fit a dish with a Sky Q LNB, with legacy outputs.

4. Use a Multiswitch to convert from a universal/legacy LNB TO Unicable/Unicable 2

If you don’t have a separate tv aerial cable you have various options to combine the satellite and terrestrial channels on the one cable.

It really boils down to what you are trying to achieve and how much money you want to spend. If you post more details we can help ...

vidapura wrote: »

Ooh.. any chance you'd throw up a link to the one you're getting ?
Wouldn't have a clue which one to get..
Thanks

I'm going to get this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-DVB-T2-Tuner-Enigma2-PC-/182632877162, unless someone has a better suggestion

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

The chipset was Realtek RTL2832U which should have the drivers in the Linux kernel.

That chipset is supported in OpenATV, where did you get them and how long did delivery take?

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Searching on Ebay or Amazon for RTL2832U will show many choices.

My only advice would be to get a device with a full sized socket for the aerial connector ..... some of the devices have a small connector and an adapter cable.
Of course if the dongle is plugged in directly to a USB socket on the STB, then those with the adapter cable might be a preferred option so the strain of the coax is not applied to the plugged in dongle.

Yeah, I've found a few on Amazon, I'm going to go with one fulfilled by Amazon.

I was looking foe one with a full sized socket, but, as you say, the adapter cable is actually a better option, in this case. I can just plug in to a rear usb and connect the adapter cable to the coax out on the box.

trabpc wrote: »

I've cancelled all timers but it's seems to be filling HDD with recorded programmes. Any idea what else I can do to stop recordings. Nothing shows up on timers or auto timers. It's seems like rte 2 is recording constantly.

I've just disabled auto record. Hopefully that will sort it.

What's the difference between auto timers and timers?
TIA

You’re on an early image, which was set to auto record the timeshift buffet. Disabling it will solve the problem.

The real issue was not auto record but that the recordings were stored, but that the recordings were stored in the same directory as other programmes. Had they been stored in a seperarpte directory, as they are in the current image, auto recording would have been fine. As the directory filled, older programmes would have been deleted, without impacting the space available for normal programmes.

Timers are one offs, i.e. record a specific program, or episode. Auto timers are similar to series link, though based on the programmer name, rather than the series link id.

trabpc wrote: »

I'm on your current image. I downloaded the latest.

Thanks for the reply - somehow the latest image inherited an old setting.
Turning off autorecord, solves the problem, and will meet most needs.

Just for information:

The timeshift starts after 20s to allow rewind of live TV. However, this means that the hard drive is being written to continuously, which is not ideal for laptop grade hard drives. The wear on the drive can be reduced considerably by disabling this function, increasing it’s expected lifetime. This still allows live TV to be paused. An alternative is to use a PVR grade hdd, I’ve given a link earlier in this thread.

(I tried avoiding this issue altogether by using usb storage, a class 10 memory card, for time-shifting. When/if this failed, it would be a simple matter to replace it, with no effect on permanent recordings. This approach gave intermittent on-screen errors, over a month, or so. I couldn’t find the reason and had to switch back. (Wifey doesn’t like error messages - things are expected to just work, like Sky!)

When using the external storage for usb, I automatically recorded the timeshift, so that I could watch paused programs, at another time. These recordings were automatically deleted, when the free space went below 8GB. I was going to replicate this functionality, using a dedicated partition on the hdd for time shifting. However, I understand from other forums that multiple partitions can be problematic.)

trabpc wrote: »

Luckily I saw the recommendation about the HDD so I got the recommended PVR drive.

Thanks for that. As you said my recording are mixed-up with other stuff I've downloaded can u share you settings so tv recordings are separate to the other .

It really depends on what you want to achieve. I use:

• /media/hdd/timeshift/ as the timeshift and auto-record locations.
  
• /media/hdd/movie for films (I set this location manually, at recording time.)
  (From time-to-time I move/archive films to external media, manually.)
  
• I let Movie Organisor manage the series folders.
  
• For films, I let Movie Browser manage the views and filters. As you can see in my posts on that topic, this gives a great deal of flexibility, and I don’t need a formal folder structure. However, Movie Browser accommodates a folder structure, at least two levels deep.
  
• For IPTV I set the recording location to either, RecordedTVProgrammes, Films, Music or Classical, depending or the particular plugin, and associated content.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It has an Afatech 9015/9013 chipset ...... and those dongles are old.

Well spotted! It is at least 8 years old and doesn't even have windows 10 drivers. Cost a couple of euro.

There are plenty of Realtek ones on Amazon, for around a tenner.

cuculainn wrote: »

Hi,

I have one of these boxes waiting for me at home. hoping to have it set up for the Christmas. I am waiting for a HDD to arrive.
Am i better to wait and flash it when i have the HDD installed or can i do the flash now and add the HDD when it arrives?

Also whose image would you recommend, THHBs or NCMs?
Obviously i expect ye to be biased in one direction or another!!

There’s no harm in flashing immediately, to start getting familiar with it. In regard to which image,that really depends on what you want to achieve. THHB’s image is a great general purpose image and is where I started. If you want to dig under the bonnet and get to know all about enigma2, it’s a brilliant starting point. My image is specifically designed for general family use. It has been made as easy to use as possible, for users with high expectations for ease of use. It is heavily customized, based on extensive feedback from family and other users. Most settings are locked down and it would probably frustrate technically proficient “twiddlers”.