AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Titanium]

Likely there is a command history in the Android OS, but if implemented, it overwrites itself. I am only aware of Android debugging tools that can be activated during development /troubleshooting.

 

[barleyguy]

The 7:57 recording was from the 8th, not the 9th. I checked the timers list and it only shows a move event at 5:59am and a 1hr recording at 6:00am. Is there an events log to show what its doing?

There is an A3 log viewer app in the F-Droid store. It allows viewing the current system log and dumping it to a file. It shows pretty detailed information on what's happening, but you need to trigger it almost immediately because it only goes back 5 minutes or so.

 

[Jim S.]

you need to trigger it almost immediately because it only goes back 5 minutes or so.

I thought it went back further than that, but the real problem is (at least the last time I tried it) that something as simple as pressing a key on the remote causes between 3 and 5 lines to be entered into the log!

Scrolling through it in the app is utterly hopeless for that reason. As you said, you have to dump it to a file and pick through it on your computer.

 

[pacificrim]

So here is a weird thing. The date and time is correct on my A3, but when I go into the recordings list the show I recorded (timer set m-f 5-6am) this morning at 5am is listed under 2015-07-09, just as the 7min recording is under the wrong date banner 2015-07-08 but was in fact recorded yesterday. The recording I made this morning by hitting the record button on the remote is at the top of the page, above the 2015-07-09 banner - where it should be.

 

[pacificrim]

Of the 18 channels scanned into AMC 21, I am only seeing EPG info on HD1 and VME.
Am I missing something?

 

[primestar31]

Of the 18 channels scanned into AMC 21, I am only seeing EPG info on HD1 and VME.
Am I missing something?

These are the only 2 channels that have epg on that sat so far. Take note that the epg system isn't completed as of yet:

125W Ku
PBS VME
PBS EAST HD

http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=36905

 

[pacificrim]

Thanks primestar for posting. Hopefully the EPG fills in. Thanks also to whoever is running ftalisitings.com

 

[pacificrim]

I only get EPG on KU, not C band. 99w is blank. I did a manual update hoping that would work but didn't. Any chance that it is not recognising the channels because I have 99w at 107.2 ?- the cband is a sidecar. The sat name was not changed, just the longitude.

 

[primestar31]

I deleted all but ONE transponder on 101w c-band, re-blindscanned channels, and completely lost all but one channels epg on all sats. Perhaps something like that has happened to you. I think the epg system is very fragile at the moment. Try this to fix it: http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=36987

If not, here's what fixed me up: I deleted all tv and radio channels from all sats, then downloading the latest satellite list and rescanning fixed me up. You might not want to try this first. I did this before he came up with the fix above.

 

[Dee_Ann]

How do you stop this from happening?

I was copying recordings from my A3 into my Mac and I got a popup on my Mac that the connection had been broken. I looked at the A3 noticed it was completely locked up and unresponsive.
There was nothing I could do except pull the power cord.
When I plugged it back in it began to boot and then it came up with the screen below, saying that "Android is upgrading".
It has been stuck on "Optimizing app 14 of 24" for half an hour and is again unresponsive BUT the little animated activity circle is still animated.
I do not want this thing (or anything) to automatically "upgrade" anything at all without my approval first. I was not signed in to any google accounts or the play store, I thought that by being signed out it wouldn't update anything.
But I guess the operating system does whatever it wants.

Is there a way to block this thing from accessing the internet completely but still be available to my Macs on my home network?

 

[pacificrim]

The easiest way to block access to a domain name it is to blank out the DNS 0.0.0.0 in the nework settings, or put a fake internal IP for the DNS - like 192.168.1.99, assuming your router/gateway is something else than that. You likely have to change the A3 IP address to static IP to change the DNS, but not always.

 

[barleyguy]

The easiest way to block access to a domain name it is to blank out the DNS 0.0.0.0 in the nework settings, or put a fake internal IP for the DNS - like 192.168.1.99, assuming your router/gateway is something else than that. You likely have to change the A3 IP address to static IP to change the DNS, but not always.

It would actually be more effective to just set the gateway address to the IP of the box. Turning off DNS will still allow access by IP Address, whereas setting the gateway address to the local IP will allow it to access everything on the local network but not access the internet. Also, in this case the DNS should be set to the address of the router.

So in the network settings:

IP: static IP on the local network, such as 192.168.1.127
Gateway: same as static IP
DNS: Address of router

 

[pacificrim]

Its a shame to turn off the internet component off an android box. As a satellite box it has about even strengths and weaknesses. It is largely still in beta and hardware wise is getting old. What is nice is having a media box with functional fta. If you aren't getting anything but sat out of it, I'd sell it while it is still worth something. I'm positive there are better, simpler fta boxes with fewer quirks.

 

[barleyguy]

Its a shame to turn off the internet component off an android box. As a satellite box it has about even strengths and weaknesses. It is largely still in beta and hardware wise is getting old. What is nice is having a media box with functional fta. If you aren't getting anything but sat out of it, I'd sell it while it is still worth something. I'm positive there are better, simpler fta boxes with fewer quirks.

If I was doing it over again I would probably buy a Mini HD SE instead of the A3. I'd really prefer a box that's rock solid but has less features. I have a PVR computer on the same TV, so I don't use the streaming functionality.

On the other hand, if the A3 was a full featured PVR competitive with Myth TV or Next PVR, I could re-task that computer to do something else. The main features it would need are:

- automatic commercial skipping (which never gets in STB's because programmers hate it, but having ComSkip as an app in the store might be a way to get around having it on the feature list)
- a customizable EPG with multiple sources such as Schedules Direct
- Full support for OTA tuners (HDHomeRun is sort of supported now, but without EPG it's not very useful)
- Rock solid stability. You should be comfortable betting significant money that when you set a recording it will record.
- An eSata port for my 4 TB eSata hard drive would be a plus.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Thank you for the ideas on how to restrict this thing.


I continue to have many problems with it and I have to pull the power cord 2-3 times a week, sometimes 5-10 times a day.

It seems to do whatever it wants to do or not do what it should do. I'm not going to complain about the problems because I'll just be called an idiot, again.


OUTSIDE of the serious problems there are severe annoyances with what it's based on. GOOGLE.

I have an extreme distrust of google and android. I'm also extremely angered by political ads (ALL ads for that matter) that are being pushed through into apps that are running on the A3.

I don't tolerate ads on any of my computers, phones or tablets but it seems I have no choice with this thing.

I have a proxy server running on one of my Macs that I route all my stuff through that filters out 100% of internet ads and other garbage. It also blocks access to websites I find offensive or anything I care to blacklist.

I can not find any way to set the A3 to go through a proxy. Yes, it can go through a VPN but that's not what I want, I want to run it through my own proxy server running here in my home to block things I don't like.

My distrust of this device really gives me no other option than to just cut it off from the world outside of my home.

Everything I own (except the A3) has an option that allows me to determine if I want to have automatic updates enabled or not. And I do not want them enabled, ever, on anything.
The only thing I've found close to that is where you can turn off app updates through settings in the google play store.
I've disabled those updates then deleted the account from the A3 as there is no option to log out, you have to delete the account to log out.
But as to the core operating system there is nothing I can find to stop that from updating whenever it bloody feels like it.
I would feel about 60% better if there were a way to cut off access to all google services and networks but they have so many millions of IP addresses that change constantly that it's all but impossible to block the entire google empire.

Until I can find a way to force this thing through my proxy so I can control and limit what goes in and out of it, I seem to have no other option than to cut it off from the outside world.

 

[Titanium]

DeeAnn, No one has ever called you stupid. EVER!!! EVER!!! EVER!!!

Yes, we suggest that you read/follow instructions.... but that is addressing being stubborn, not stupid!

Once again I am going to suggest (and this time even beg of you) to PLEASE set-up a RMA to get this resolved once and for all! You spend soooooo much energy and time talking about what is happening and what you hate than the few minutes that would take fill out a RMA and send it in to Amiko Americas.

I have an A3 on 24/7 and DVR about 6 hours each day and media center music and Kodi. The only times that it gets power cycled is after I manually update to latest firmware. It does not force an update or lock-up. I am not the only one that has this positive, rosy experience! Maybe some members will back me up on this!

Would you PLEASE RMA your A3? PLEASE???

 

[primestar31]

I have never had my A3 auto-update itself, or force ads on me for that matter. I thought I had it lockup once, but I found out later all I needed to do was wait a little longer, as it was actually doing something, but taking much longer than normal.

I did have the epg stop working properly when I was playing with it trying to add a channel, but I got that resolved by downloading the latest US sat list, and rescanning.

You can search all over the internet, and you will discover that the A3 is one of the few fta receivers that has very little 'bad' posted about it. I would say that's because almost nobody has problems with it. We all know forums typically post bad stuff before good stuff, right? So the fact that you can't find much bad about the A3 is very telling, based on the amount of users running them.

 

[KE4EST]

Mine would get used more than 24 hours a day if that was possible. My wife has taken it over for the most part and uses it for everything from Kodi to FTA to Netflix to....well you get the idea.
Anyway I never have had any issues with it and have never had an ad forced that I have saw.
DeeAnn just get it replaced, even the best swimmers drown, looks like you have gotten one with some issue.

BTW, mine is one of the first batch the same yours came out of.

 

[Comptech]

Same here no forced updates, no lockups all works fine. I love my A3 it does all kinds of cool things.

 

[mc6809e]

I've got two A3s. The oldest one is from the original shipment and I received it on August 18th of last year. Neither of them has ever performed an automatic firmware update. I've had to specifically select the menu options to upgrade each time. They are both used every day but don't usually stay on all the time. They are by no means perfect and there are many things they may not do but I'm very satisfied with them.