Vu+ Duo Newbie

[mforbes6186]

Hi all,

I have just ordered my vu+ duo box (previously used openbox s11) and was looking for a bit of advice on images/plugins etc. With the openbox it was all preloaded so didn't really have to do too much to get it to do what I wanted. I've done a bit of research and I think I know what I need for the vu+ duo but was really just looking for confirmation. The other thing is I think the box may be a clone given the price (?175 delivered) but i'm ok with this, I just don't want to brick it with the wrong images etc.

Anyway, I think I want the vix image with crossepg, auto timer (??), cccam & newcamd plugins. Basically I want a good stable image with a decent (7 day hopefully) epg and the ability to use something like a series link. These are the main 2 reasons I upgraded to be honest. So...

Can anyone confirm if I am on the right track with the above?

I have 2 dishes joined with a Diseqc switch that I would like to continue using too (Astra 28.2e & hotbird 13e), can these be used with the twin tuner?

I hope to use the box as almost like a 'media centre', so can anyone advise if this is possible and stable?

Can I use 'apps' like youtube or netflix (not specifically those but along those lines)?

And can I stream to my PC or mobile device from the box and if so do I need a seperate plugin to do that?

Any other tips/advice is greatly appriciated! I won't have the box till the end of the week but it's just so I can hit the ground running when it arrives.

Cheers all!!

[dell_xps]

One word to answer everything.....YES.

[mforbes6186]

lol thanks mate, it all seems a bit too easy...

[dell_xps]

It is, for a first timer I recommed the Vix image, then once confident with using that, try different images, ie black hole etc.
Personally I've stuck with the vix images, but thats just me.
Any probs, just ask or shoot a pm ok.

[mforbes6186]

ideal, thanks for the advise. do I need to download any specific vix image as this box may be a clone?

[RuberDuck]

ideal, thanks for the advise. do I need to download any specific vix image as this box may be a clone?


If the box has a V2 sticker then it has already been updated and therefore any image will work. if it's the V1 box then you will need to update the box via the supplied RS232 null modem cable and IC board. note though you must use a dedicated comm port not a USB to serial adapter as these do not work.

[mforbes6186]

will check that then mate. cheers for the help!

[mforbes6186]

one last thing, is there any pre-configured channel boquets that I need or do these come with the epg plugins? thanks

[dell_xps]

Check out sgtflipflops on the forum or the ones Rubber Duck posts, both good bouquets m8.

[mforbes6186]

sorry I might be being a bit thick here but is there a vu+ section in the downloads page that i'm missing or is it in with one of the other categories. tried searching but the 3 character search rule limits 'vu+' & 'duo' lol

[RuberDuck]

sorry I might be being a bit thick here but is there a vu+ section in the downloads page that i'm missing or is it in with one of the other categories. tried searching but the 3 character search rule limits 'vu+' & 'duo' lol

Any enigma2 bouquet pack will work. try this one.


http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f216/sgtflipflop-skyuk-bouquets-updated-regularly-163750/index99.html#post1504402

[mforbes6186]

Well got my clone box today, turned it on and thought it was bonfire night! Counted at least 3 separate components blowing within the first 10 secs of switching it on. Safe to say, don't buy a clone!!

[dell_xps]

Well got my clone box today, turned it on and thought it was bonfire night! Counted at least 3 separate components blowing within the first 10 secs of switching it on. Safe to say, don't buy a clone!!

Jeezo m8, first person I've heard with that problem, will you get your money back ok ?

[mforbes6186]

fingers crossed! I paid by paypal through aliexpress so should be ok.

I should have known something wasn't right because it had the whistling sound you get with a dodgy transformer. the red led was on at the front, i tried pressing the power on button on the remote but the light went orange then back to red when i let the button go a couple of times then it popped! raging too because I was all set up for it arriving today!

[damiensk]

might have been knocked about in transit or something!!
where did you buy from? someone on e-bay or a search round the internet, would be interesting to see if anybody else has had troubles of the seller, i know its not much consulation for you, but it might save other peeps buying from them.

[mforbes6186]

it was off the wholesaler website aliexpress, basically the guys that supply ebay etc in bulk but I use them for my own business stock so got a trade discount. i'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt to get it sorted before I name and shame lol

on a side note, it looked as though the components that blew where around about the power supply in the back left hand corner and i've read a few places that the power supplies are a bit dodgy on certain boxes, could this be something I can replace if I don't get a refund? I'm handy with soldering/electronics etc so could handle the fitting if it's relatively basic.

cheers!

[dell_xps]

Paypal are ~~~~ing useless too, fingers crossed for ya though m8,
will you buy a genuine one now ?

[mforbes6186]

well if I can't get a refund i'll prob try and fix it myself if poss, couldn't really afford a real one so I think i'll be back to my openbox s11 if not :(

[potrobber]

m8 sorry to here about your box cant see why you wont get refund there is bound to be more than one faulty box

i have had a lot of clones now and open every one before switching on to check all connections are pushed home

ive had 2 non starters and one box came back after a week all due to plug connections inside not being connected right all boxs are working ok now but as a rule now i open them up to check before letting them go

i dont know if this is happening in transit or just build quality but i have found a few more with loose connections from psu to the main board and the 2 none starters this connection was not connected at all

so please everyone reading this if you own a clone open it and check all wire connections are pushed fully home

[mforbes6186]

i'm going to suggest to the seller that I can open it and have a look for anything obvious. I don't really want to just go ahead and do it in case he blames that for the malfunction but fingers crossed its a simple(ish) fix! does anyone know where to find a good PSU? thanks

[potrobber]

m8 open it and check what i say about the main lead from psu to main board and all other connections

i cant stress this enough now for anyone else thats getting or owns a clone box

there is no security seal on them anyway and you are allowed to open to fit hdd so will do no harm to have a look

goldwafers do psu for around 50 quid

[dell_xps]

Check link I posted earlier, guy selling a Vu duo on eBay m8.
?51 for a power supply :-(

[mforbes6186]

hi, so opened it up, it looks like there was a short between the hot/cold transformer and the heatsink on the hot side of the power board. there was a small piece of plastic blown off the heatsink screw guard but I don't know if that caused the short or was a result of the short. either way it looks like i'm getting a replacement PSU shipped over by DHL so should have it by the end of next week. I'll give that a bash and let you know how I get on!

[dell_xps]

Doddle to fit a power supply on the vu m8, take you 5 mins tops :-)

[mforbes6186]

yeah I got it out in a couple of minutes too. to be honest I thought it was one of the capacitors that went with the bang but I suppose a 240v short would sound the same! fingers crossed it hasn't blown anything on the mainboard though!

[dell_xps]

Mines went on my genuine box, posted pics of it, have a search for it, see the mess of that, main board was ok :-)

[mforbes6186]

Got a bit of good news, the seller agreed that it looks like the power board was damaged in transit so is sending a replacement to me free of charge, with the promise of a refund of the box if it still doesnt work. Hope it does though!

1 question though, my box came with a 2 pin EU plug on the power cord, can anyone recommend a 2 pin EU to 3 pin UK adapter as the only ones I can find are rated 1A and i believe the box draws 6A? I would just cut the plug off and wire on a UK one but I'm conscious that i may need to return the box for a refund if the new PSU doesn't work. Cheers, Mark

[dell_xps]

3amp fitted on my Vu Duo and Ultimo m8.
Have you not got an old cable lying about, same cable they used on video recorders, epson printers, old type radio etc etc, check the fuse in it, change it to a 3 amp, keep the lead you got intact :-)

[mforbes6186]

no worries, did yours come with a UK plug or are you using an adapter?

[dell_xps]

I have a genuine VU's m8, they come supplied with a UK 5 amp plug, but I always change the fuse to 3 amp :-)

Adaptor plugs may I add :-)

[mforbes6186]

ah ok, I've got an old sky box 'shotgun' type power cable lieing around so might just use that and stick a 3A fuse in it. The glass fuse on the PSU is 3.15A so better to have the 3A on the plug IMO. Will let you know how I get on with the new power board, i'm dying to get this thing up and running!

[mforbes6186]

got the power board and all is working now!

deleted part

[dell_xps]

What is it your using a sealion or nlion ?

[mforbes6186]

deleted msg

[dell_xps]

Sent you a pm ok.

[mforbes6186]

thanks for all the help guys, got the box almost perfected but there's one thing that's still stumping me a bit, the EPG...?

I have cross EPG installed and am using the vix image but even though iv'e (think) set it all up correctly I can't get it to load the data in to the epg. It's downloading it fine and it says parsing summaries then when I got in to the multi epg it's all blank, but the funny thing is in the single epg it's got all the programmes for the next 7 days, any idead what i'm doing wrong? I've tried installing other epgs from tspanel but they are all doing the same. cheers!

[mforbes6186]

just to add, when i check the crossepg directory via ftp I can see the following files and sizes,

crossepg.aliases.db 0KB
crossepg.descriptors.db 19,963.9KB
crossepg.headers.db 0KB
crossepg.indexes.db 0KB
crossepg.log 2.1KB

and the contents of the log file are


06/05/2012 12:31:32 SIFTeam CrossEPG Downloader 0.6.2+git290+6defade) (c) 2009-2011 Sandro Cavazzoni (crossepg - An EPG for enigma2 based dvb receivers - Google Project Hosting (http://code.google.com/p/crossepg/))
06/05/2012 12:31:32 This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Interactive: OPEN cmd received
06/05/2012 12:31:32 EPGDB opened (root=/media/hdd/crossepg)
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Clearing old aliases...
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Loaded 0 aliases
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Adding new aliases...
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Completed
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Interactive: OK action sent
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Interactive: WAIT cmd received
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Interactive: DOWNLOAD cmd received
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Started OpenTV events download
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Reading dictionary '/usr/crossepg/providers/skyuk_astra2_28.2.dict' ...
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Completed. Read 512 values
06/05/2012 12:31:32 Reading channels...
06/05/2012 12:31:43 Read 937 channels
06/05/2012 12:31:43 Reading titles...
06/05/2012 12:31:49 Read 3.39 MB
06/05/2012 12:31:49 Parsing titles...
06/05/2012 12:31:54 Titles parsed
06/05/2012 12:31:54 Reading summaries...
06/05/2012 12:32:04 Read 12.87 MB
06/05/2012 12:32:04 Parsing summaries...
06/05/2012 12:32:17 Summaries parsed
06/05/2012 12:32:17 Ended OpenTV events download
06/05/2012 12:32:18 Interactive: WAIT cmd received
06/05/2012 12:33:17 Interactive: QUIT cmd received
06/05/2012 12:33:27 SIFTeam CrossEPG DB Info 0.6.2+git290+6defade) (c) 2009-2011 Sandro Cavazzoni (crossepg - An EPG for enigma2 based dvb receivers - Google Project Hosting (http://code.google.com/p/crossepg/))
06/05/2012 12:33:27 This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1
06/05/2012 12:33:27 EPGDB opened
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Creation time: 06/05/2012 12:33
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Last update time: 06/05/2012 12:33
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Headers db size: 0 bytes
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Descriptors db size: 19.04 MB
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Indexes db size: 0 bytes
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Aliases db size: 0 bytes
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Total size: 19.04 MB
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Channels count: 0
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Events count: 0
06/05/2012 12:33:27 Hashes count: 0

[dell_xps]

Click on cross epg---look for open TV----- look for Astra 28.2, tick it, then press the yellow button to download i think it is, it will change to a radio station, let it download
, check epg, you should have a full 7 day epg :-)

[mforbes6186]

That sorted it mate!

Cheers for all your help, would have been pulling my hair out without it!

[cactikid]

curious if people use surge protection and if not expect it to happen again.

[mforbes6186]

Yes I use surge protectors. To be honest I know the problem wasn't a surge as the protector never tripped and all the fuses were fine on the plugs, it looks like it was damaged in transit and the damaged component shortest something

[cactikid]

ah good you would be surprised how many dont.

[mdt]

ah good you would be surprised how many dont.


i have never used surge protectors in 15 years and never had any problems with any stb/tv ect ect.. i thought thats what the fuse was for although im not too bright LOL, regards mdt

[mforbes6186]

they're kind of similar but do different jobs, a surge protector protects against voltage surges in the mains supply whereas a fuse protects against the device drawing more current than it's rating (usually due to a short circuit/malfunction etc).

some people see protectors as an expense too far but for 20 quid to protect your grand or 2 tv and the rest that goes with it, i'm of the mind it's an expense worth paying, an insurance policy if you like

[cactikid]

same here and added a dirty power cleaner to improve quality of picture and every sat cable is protected also,its the same as driving a motorbike without a helmet.

[paulyd5567]

1 question though, my box came with a 2 pin EU plug on the power cord, can anyone recommend a 2 pin EU to 3 pin UK adapter as the only ones I can find are rated 1A and i believe the box draws 6A?




i recieved the same plug with my vu+duo. i just switched it for the power cord from my sky + box.works fine.

[dell_xps]

Fit a 3amp fuse on yer plug m8 :-)

[alec]

[QUOTE=paulyd5567;1686207]1 question though, my box came with a 2 pin EU plug on the power cord, can anyone recommend a 2 pin EU to 3 pin UK adapter as the only ones I can find are rated 1A and i believe the box draws 6A?



I just change it to 3 pin plug.