AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Jim S.]

T134 or others... I have a question about changing the recording path.

I know how to SET the recording path in the settings, but when I go back to it to try to CHANGE it, there doesn't seem to be a way to go upwards in the directory structure, so it appears that there's not a way to change it from one path to another.

Does anyone know a workaround for this? Does the path get stored in a config file somewhere?

Also, is this fixed in a newer firmware? I got my A3 around February 10th.

Thanks.

I'm running 2.0.70, so I don't know what earlier firmwares do, but on mine you can go up by pressing the left arrow on the ring around the select button. There's a "<" next to the directory name at the top of the filelist to indicate this. Or, in the web interface, you can go up by selecting ".." from the file list, just as you would in DOS or Unix.

 

[barleyguy]

I'm running 2.0.70, so I don't know what earlier firmwares do, but on mine you can go up by pressing the left arrow on the ring around the select button. There's a "<" next to the directory name at the top of the filelist to indicate this. Or, in the web interface, you can go up by selecting ".." from the file list, just as you would in DOS or Unix.

I tried the left arrow, and for some reason it exits the screen. I'll try it again. I may need to update. I want to record to NFS, and when I initially set up I put the record path to the internal hard drive.

While I'm posting, I ran into another possible issue today. When I set timers, it seems that the overlaps aren't always calculated correctly. For example, if I set a timer for Monday thru Friday from 9-10, and then try to set a different timer for Sunday from 9-11, it pops up the "this timer conflicts with another event, would you like to override it?" or something like that. Then if I select "yes" it deletes the other (M-F) timer.

Since they are on different days, they don't actually conflict. So it seems that the overlap calculation is buggy.

Overall, I it's a really cool receiver with tons of functionality. But the software seems to be at about 98% good.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I've been out of the A3 loop for several months what with all the moving to a new home and then with the A3 developing a serious problem that I dragged my feet on getting fixed until last night.

I searched the forum but didn't find anything new about aspect ratios and Squish-O-Vision..

I have two identical displays on my desk and the A3 is connected to one via HDMI. That's the display on the lower right.
The center display is connected to my Mac. I connected to the A3 via the web interface then I clicked the VLC icon and the browser passed the video over to VLC.
I made VLC go full screen and as you can see the same thing playing on both screens. But on the center screen (VLC on the Mac) it's playing in a 4:3 mode which is correct and what I prefer.
The black bars on the sides are how I would rather it be. But on the A3 there is nothing at all I can do to force it into a 4:3 mode. I've tried all the options that appear under "TV Settings - Conversion" to no avail.
I went to the system setup and tried all the options available in there as well. Other channels do allow me to change back and forth between the different modes like Letterbox, Ignore, Combined and Pan Scan.

I need to mention that on my MicroHD I can control this and it displays in 4:3 with black bars on the side as I like it. Honestly, I deeply despise this squished out mode, it's dreadful and whoever invented it should be drawn and quartered.

Is there any way to fix this? I have recorded Luken stuff and it plays back on my Mac (in VLC) as 4:3 without me having to do anything at all.
Recordings play back squished when play back on the A3. It seems that only Luken stuff does this.

At least it's not cutting anything off the top and bottom as I could see when I played the two side by side in real time.

 

[Jim S.]

Sometime in the last few weeks, my A3 has started converting Dolby channels to PCM without being set to. (It only does this for live TV, playback of files with Dolby audio works as expected.) A reboot didn't fix it. I haven't tried pulling the power yet, but since it's only affecting satellite channels I suspect it's a software issue rather than hardware, and I'll probably have to reload the firmware. (I may just wait til a new version comes out, since most of the Dolby channels I can receive are only 2-channel audio anyway.) Is this happening to anyone else? I'm running 2.0.70, but I can't say for sure if it started with that version, or just happened spontaneously.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Speaking of audio, is there a forum where one can get help connecting their TV to a stereo?

 

[KE4EST]

Speaking of audio, is there a forum where one can get help connecting their TV to a stereo?

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/forums/general-home-theater-discussion.41/

 

[primestar31]

Speaking of audio, is there a forum where one can get help connecting their TV to a stereo?

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-receivers-amps-processors/

 

[Dee_Ann]

Thanks guys!

 

[sanjap]

My Amiko A3 just stopped doing blindscan after the last update. Is anyone noticing thesame?

 

[Titanium]

Running 2.0.72 with no blind scan issues. Maybe delete all but one transponder from a satellite and try a fresh blind scan?

 

[KE4EST]

Same here Blind Scan is working fine on .72.

 

[bigg t]

Blind scan working good here on .72. It did good whether I deleted transponders or left them.

 

[Jim S.]

Mine will, with any software version including the current one, sometimes fail to find anything on blind scan or lock up hard when starting a blind scan. Usually it does this when it hasn't been rebooted for a while. Sometimes it even needs to be physically powered down to correct it. There's got to be some sort of memory leak somewhere, a decent system shouldn't need to be rebooted routinely. Even Windows behaves itself these days.

 

[fred555]

Mine will, with any software version including the current one, sometimes fail to find anything on blind scan or lock up hard when starting a blind scan. Usually it does this when it hasn't been rebooted for a while. Sometimes it even needs to be physically powered down to correct it. There's got to be some sort of memory leak somewhere, a decent system shouldn't need to be rebooted routinely. Even Windows behaves itself these days.

I don't own an A3, but as a former developer I just want to chime in for a second. The problem could possibly lie in any App that has been installed since the unit was purchased. There are plenty of developers out there that write crap code that don't "clean up after themselves" and leak memory, due to laziness while coding mostly. Consider how many Apps have been installed since purchase and consider uninstalling them all at once, or time permitting, one by one until a possible culprit is found.
Not owning an A3, I don't know if a reset to factory defaults is an option, what that entails or how it would affect the unit.

 

[Babadem]

Mine will, with any software version including the current one, sometimes fail to find anything on blind scan or lock up hard when starting a blind scan. Usually it does this when it hasn't been rebooted for a while. Sometimes it even needs to be physically powered down to correct it. There's got to be some sort of memory leak somewhere, a decent system shouldn't need to be rebooted routinely. Even Windows behaves itself these days.

That has been my experience too.

 

[Titanium]

Not trying to stir a pot, but I can't think of a single subscription or FTA satellite receiver that I have owned that hasn't required a power cycle to restore some function.

Had to take the Z3 to the dealer a few weeks ago to reset a traction control error code that seemingly had no cause. My F350 had a check engine light pop on this winter with no defect or service required. My wife swears at her Android phone and I at my iPhone at least once a week.

Not saying that this is the way it should be, but it is the reality with almost every electronic device. Do I believe in Gremlins? You bet.... We live in a complicated world and sometimes I almost forget to breath. In fact, occasionally I require a reset to continue functioning!

 

[primestar31]

Not trying to stir a pot, but I can't think of a single subscription or FTA satellite receiver that I have owned that hasn't required a power cycle to restore some function.

Had to take the Z3 to the dealer a few weeks ago to reset a traction control error code that seemingly had no cause. My F350 had a check engine light pop on this winter with no defect or service required. My wife swears at her Android phone and I at my iPhone at least once a week.

Not saying that this is the way it should be, but it is the reality with almost every electronic device. Do I believe in Gremlins? You bet.... We live in a complicated world and sometimes I almost forget to breath. In fact, occasionally I require a reset to continue functioning!

Yeah, but you are all ready high voltage! lol.

Not too many people survive well after being hit by lightning... Years ago I was in the Bay City Aerospace plant, and got nailed by 440volts. Cauterized a path from my left palm, and came out my elbow. That hurt like HELL. I can't imagine getting hit by lightning.

 

[Titanium]

LOL!!! Think that it is my physical presence causing these unexplained electronic gremlins? You might be on to something!

 

[Cham]

440 volts... ouch! A buddy of mine works at a business where they have 850v triple phase wiring running around their yard. One day a squirrel completed a circuit and they though one of the transformers had blown up... Made quite the bang and light show. Think if anyone completes a circuit at that voltage there won't be much left.

Back on topic, I have one of the Jenny Red units and it works well but I have had to re-boot it at least a few times so far. Might be a combination of wrong keys on the remote that gets pressed at the wrong time, or too many things happen at once.. or Gremlins (maybe AMC Gremlins?)

I have been getting the streaming to work on my limited bandwidth here, some of the old movies will stream with only a few re-buffering sessions. Anything more high definition won't work at all, just sits there with the little wheel going around. Can stream nicely from the A3 to the Ipad on the LAN really nicely, works great aiming dishes etc! I found the unit to be fairly easy to operate with most functions easy to figure out. Did the backup right away, and have a copy on my NAS as well as the hard drive on my PC. I don't trust USB or SD card memory, they seem to be more subject to failure more so than an HDD.

 

[primestar31]

Running 2.0.72 with no blind scan issues. Maybe delete all but one transponder from a satellite and try a fresh blind scan?

I'm running the latest 2.0.72 needed to get the epg software. Anyway, I still get a LOT of channels that scan in as "PT x" (x=various numbers). I just scanned 99w last night, and the Caribbean channels scanned in like this. Some sats and channels scan in with what they are supposed to, so it's not all channels.

Does this happen for everybody? 87w Ses-2 RTV channels are scanning in the same way. I have to manually go through, figure out what they are, and renamed them one by one. That's a big hassle...