AZBOX 24 hours and heres my list of BUGS

[iBoston]

I have had AZbox MiniMe Americas unit about 24 hours and here are the bugs i have come across.

• Multiple hangs,freezes and reboots when running through menus or doing blind scans.
  
• If you go to do a blind scan, switching between C/KU, It will default to KU frequencies for Cband, and Cband frequencies for KU band. Have to play around to get it finally to show correctly.
  
• Dish still moving when doing a scan, so it misses the first few transponders. Have to basically scan twice to get all the channels. Ofcourse, this would only be an issue the first time you scan a satellite and their are no channels on it to begin with.
  
• Sometimes no audio or no video on a channel. Have to turn away from channel, back to channel to correct.
  
• Blind scan pulls a lot of scrambled channels when told to only pull FTA. So, then because it takes so long for a channel to come in, i have to sit at each channel for like 20 seconds to be sure it is truly scrambled and not just taking forever to come into the clear. It would also be nice if in the info tab where it shows some channel details, it shows a key if the channel is discovered to be scrambled. I kept having to click the OK button to see the channel listing menu to see if it was marked as scrambled.
  
• on 55.5 degrees, it scanned 80% of the radio stations as tv stations.
  
• Slow to turn from channel to channel. It takes so long on some channels it is unnerving.
• I still don't have recording/timeshifting working and I am not going to play with that again until someone tells me how to backup my configuration settings. Everytime i attempt to play with this, I get a lot of freezes/hang ups.

Now, on the other side, i really would like to like this receiver. It has some nifty features I really like. #1 , it plays the 4:2:2 channels, and #2, i can stream my channels full screen on my windows pc and change channels. I also really like the DCedit program. It makes it much easier modifying the channel names so i don't spend 5 hours trying to do it through the remote control.

I really home the issues above are addressed.

 

[iBoston]

Oh, heres a great one. So, i enter in the BYU transponder on 91w . 3925v4250 and do a transponder scan for 91w. It finds two channels and says all done. I click exit, and it then magically moves the dish to 97 degrees. I go back to 91 degrees and it did NOT add the channel. So Bizarre! I have tried it 3 times, and reboot as well. I have even tried adding it via Manual PID. Same result. It moves the DISH after the scan.. Ps, I was on 91 on a valid channel before i started the scan, so there is NO reason for it to decide to move the dish to 97... Don't get this one!

Update :
Well, apparently there is another BYU at 97 and me putting in the transponder settings was forcing it to wanna jump to 97. I ended up doing a FULL blind scan to be able to finally grab the transponder i wanted. Bizarre.

 

[iBoston]

Something I'm doing is bogging down the AZbox. (Maybe scanning) It started acting slow and would not decode high def. channels. Had to reboot.

UPDATE :

Its worse than i thought. I was watching the CW national feed for about 10 minutes. I turned to the channel above it, TV Azteca, and then turned back to CW. Now, it will NOT view CW or any of the CBS feeds. No matter how many times i turn away and back to the channel. Have to reboot! Only had the darn thing up for 10 minutes. I bet i can fully repeat this step to recreate this error.

UPDATE :

Hung at "AzBox Starting..." again. I also did a PROPER shutdown. Maybe it thinks i meant Permanently!!?? I clicked the menu item, and chose for the box to shutdown. Now It wont start. I will attempt right now to uplug everything out of the back for 30 seconds as suggested. (please hold) Okay, waited more than 30 seconds, and then plugged all the wires and connectors back in and turned back on. (waiting...) 60+ seconds.. 5+ minutes... Still says AzBox Starting..... I can think of about 1/2 dozen curse words I would like to use right now!

 

[iBoston]

Well, i must say i am extremely frustrated. This product SHOULD NOT be available to the public. You cannot run a company like that. I mean these problems are so bad, I cannot imagine there is one happy customer with this STB. I've seen posts from AZbox on here talking about feature updates. HECK, forget that, just fix the stability issue. After last nights DEAD BOX, I put my Amiko HDSE back on. What good is 4:2:2 channels when the product is riddled with so many problems it renders the box useless.

 

[KI7FK]

I sure can relate to iBoston's experience. I have also had my AzBox Mini Me American for about a day and things seem to be gowing from bad to worse. I have the exact same issues and can even add more bugs to the list. One would be that you cannot cancel a scan. I hit EXIT and it asks if I Want to stop scanning. I say yes but it never does stop. In fact the unit seems to be less stable after doing so. Another is that it misses a lot of channels even during a DETAILED blind scan my other STB's do not. I was able to scan in the NBC MUX channels on AMC-6 one time, and now cannot scan them at all for some reason. I have had to do the recovery procedure several times already for one reason or another, but usually because it freezes at start up. I like a lot of features on this and the picture quality is the best I have seen, but it just is too frustrating to live with. I may have to just send it back as defective. I have spent way too many long hours fighting it!

 

[iBoston]

I like a lot of features on this and the picture quality is the best I have seen, but it just is too frustrating to live with. I may have to just send it back as defective. I have spent way too many long hours fighting it!

I know , its frustratingly tantalizing. It's got some great features, i liked some of the many advanced features including setting up the red/green/yellow/blue to custom functions. I REALLY REALLY was hopping once i successfully got through all the setup that maybe there would be light at the end of the tunnel. I was WRONG!

 

[pwrsurge]

• Multiple hangs,freezes and reboots when running through menus or doing blind scans.

To our knowledge, the unit never totally reboots under the current firmware but does hang for a few seconds on occasion if trying to tune in a transponder with no signal. Thankfully, this has already been addressed in the upcoming new firmware version.

• If you go to do a blind scan, switching between C/KU, It will default to KU frequencies for Cband, and Cband frequencies for KU band. Have to play around to get it finally to show correctly.

I assume you are referring to the start and end frequencies in the blind scan options. These values currently default to frequencies based on the currently tuned in satellite so if you are currently tuned to a KU band satellite and try selecting a C band satellite without first tuning to it, the default start and end frequencies will remain to the KU band defaults but can always be adjusted manually to the proper C-band frequency range. This will be resolved in a future firmware update but if you first tune in to a channel on the satellite you wish to blind scan, the default start and stop scan frequencies should have the correct values.

• Dish still moving when doing a scan, so it misses the first few transponders. Have to basically scan twice to get all the channels. Ofcourse, this would only be an issue the first time you scan a satellite and their are no channels on it to begin with.

This is not really a bug and is caused by a motor moving speed parameter which is too low for the dish motor you are using. The default motor moving speed defined in the firmware is 1.8 degrees per second which is appropriate for most systems. However in your case, it appears to be not high enough so you need to increase it by going to: Installation -> Setup tuner -> Setup tuner 1 and increase the motor moving speed parameter from the current default of 18 to a higher value based on how fast your motor moves.

• Sometimes no audio or no video on a channel. Have to turn away from channel, back to channel to correct.

This has been resolved in the upcoming firmware version

• Blind scan pulls a lot of scrambled channels when told to only pull FTA. So, then because it takes so long for a channel to come in, i have to sit at each channel for like 20 seconds to be sure it is truly scrambled and not just taking forever to come into the clear. It would also be nice if in the info tab where it shows some channel details, it shows a key if the channel is discovered to be scrambled. I kept having to click the OK button to see the channel listing menu to see if it was marked as scrambled.

There is actually an indicator in the info bar displaying the encryption type being used if the channel being tuned is scrambled but it's not so obvious for a new user. On the right hand side of the dot matrix display bar, there should be a letter indicating the encryption type such as I for Irderto, N for Nagravision and P for PowerVu. Please note that some scrambled channels don't necessarily scan in as encrypted at first but once you tune in to the channel for the first time, the scrambled flag will update and the encryption type will be detected automatically.

• on 55.5 degrees, it scanned 80% of the radio stations as tv stations.

Please provide the transponder that this is occurring on so that we may attempt to replicate this issue.

• Slow to turn from channel to channel. It takes so long on some channels it is unnerving.

This is already resolved in our upcoming firmware update

Now, on the other side, i really would like to like this receiver. It has some nifty features I really like. #1 , it plays the 4:2:2 channels, and #2, i can stream my channels full screen on my windows pc and change channels. I also really like the DCedit program. It makes it much easier modifying the channel names so i don't spend 5 hours trying to do it through the remote control.

I really home the issues above are addressed.

We appreciate the feedback you have provided and your patience as we strive to improve the performance and features of our products. As noted, a new firmware version will be released within the next few days.


Thank you

 

[pwrsurge]

Oh, heres a great one. So, i enter in the BYU transponder on 91w . 3925v4250 and do a transponder scan for 91w. It finds two channels and says all done. I click exit, and it then magically moves the dish to 97 degrees. I go back to 91 degrees and it did NOT add the channel. So Bizarre! I have tried it 3 times, and reboot as well. I have even tried adding it via Manual PID. Same result. It moves the DISH after the scan.. Ps, I was on 91 on a valid channel before i started the scan, so there is NO reason for it to decide to move the dish to 97... Don't get this one!

Update :
Well, apparently there is another BYU at 97 and me putting in the transponder settings was forcing it to wanna jump to 97. I ended up doing a FULL blind scan to be able to finally grab the transponder i wanted. Bizarre.

Have seen this issue as well on a few specific channels such as BYU that you mentioned in cases where the same channel using the exact same PIDS and channel name is being carried by two or more separate satellites. I do believe this was resolved in our upcoming firmware update however but thanks for bringing it up to our attention.

 

[pwrsurge]

Something I'm doing is bogging down the AZbox. (Maybe scanning) It started acting slow and would not decode high def. channels. Had to reboot.

UPDATE :

Its worse than i thought. I was watching the CW national feed for about 10 minutes. I turned to the channel above it, TV Azteca, and then turned back to CW. Now, it will NOT view CW or any of the CBS feeds. No matter how many times i turn away and back to the channel. Have to reboot! Only had the darn thing up for 10 minutes. I bet i can fully repeat this step to recreate this error.

Next time this happens instead of rebooting, please press MENU then the BLUE key twice to go in the Picture viewer application press and exit a few times to come back out. This should cause video and audio to pop right in. The upcoming new firmware version will greatly reduce the chances of this issue from occurring.

UPDATE :

Hung at "AzBox Starting..." again. I also did a PROPER shutdown. Maybe it thinks i meant Permanently!!?? I clicked the menu item, and chose for the box to shutdown. Now It wont start. I will attempt right now to uplug everything out of the back for 30 seconds as suggested. (please hold) Okay, waited more than 30 seconds, and then plugged all the wires and connectors back in and turned back on. (waiting...) 60+ seconds.. 5+ minutes... Still says AzBox Starting..... I can think of about 1/2 dozen curse words I would like to use right now!

By previously unplugging in the past without first doing a proper shutdown, the main flash chip in your unit most likely now has one or more bad blocks which is preventing it from booting. As per my post in your other thread, you will need to reflash your unit while in safe mode with using a USB key with the firmware on it in order to get the flash chip reformatted. The only caveat of installing the firmware this way is that all your custom settings will be lost so please back them up on USB first while in regular mode.