AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Dee_Ann]

I wish I could find someone with a brand new MicroHD they would trade for my pristine A3, like new, never been around smoke.
I want reliable, not something I have to fight with 4 times a week. I don't need bells and whistles, I have other gadgets for that.

 

[pacificrim]

I have 2 very gently used original MicroHDs with 1 USB loader cable that I was going to put on ebay. If you're interested in 1 or both - let me know.

 

[Cham]

Updated to the latest firmware beta release 2.0.75 and it seems to work better than the 2.0.72 that was loaded in previously. Might be something to try.

 

[KE4EST]

Updated to the latest firmware beta release 2.0.75 and it seems to work better than the 2.0.72 that was loaded in previously. Might be something to try.

Same here, been running .75 for a couple of weeks and it runs nice and smooth. .74 didn't work so well with some the apps I run.

 

[Jim S.]

I just had the A3 do something it's never done before. I was watching the NASA press conference on the Reuters feed. When they dropped their retransmission of NASA, I tried to change the channel. The A3 wouldn't respond to the remote at all. It wouldn't even respond to the front panel button. The strange thing is, although I've had it quit responding to the remote before, usually it was visibly locked up. This time, the clock was still working and even the video on the channel was playing without even a glitch! It just wouldn't respond to the remote.

 

[KE4EST]

Mine has done that once or twice. Un-plug and plug back in fixes it. Just like any other computer something crashed.

 

[Jim S.]

My A3 is currently not logging transponders found during a blind scan if there's already a transponder listed at that frequency with a different symbol rate. It'll detect it and claim to be checking it for channels, but not find any. Then, going to the transponder list will reveal that it wasn't logged. I've verified this on two different transponders today -- the NASA press conference on 85W Ku and the Washington mux that changed its symbol rate on 123W Ku.

So what I'm wanting to know is, is this "normal" behavior or is mine just being flaky again?

 

[mc6809e]

Just checked my oldest A3 (running v2.0.75) and it does the same thing. It the TP already exists it doesn't overwrite it.

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah they all do that. The programmers had a good idea sorta. They just didn't program it to check the symbol rate.
It supposed to be a feature from what I remember so that if you go back in and fix a blind scan of "Ch 1" to "PBS West" say for example, it will skip that and leave it alone.
This way you don't have to constantly rename channels that are present all the time while scanning for wild feeds.

 

[Jim S.]

I love the fact that it doesn't overwrite channel names, but surely they could've taken care of that by some method other than not logging new symbol rates.

The new symbol rate on the Washington channel isn't a problem because I can look it up and change it myself. But I wonder how many wild feeds I've missed because they're running a skinnier or fatter stream than the last user on the same physical transponder?

 

[Babadem]

My A3 is currently not logging transponders found during a blind scan if there's already a transponder listed at that frequency with a different symbol rate. It'll detect it and claim to be checking it for channels, but not find any. Then, going to the transponder list will reveal that it wasn't logged. I've verified this on two different transponders today -- the NASA press conference on 85W Ku and the Washington mux that changed its symbol rate on 123W Ku.

So what I'm wanting to know is, is this "normal" behavior or is mine just being flaky again?

My A3 is currently not logging transponders found during a blind scan if there's already a transponder listed at that frequency with a different symbol rate. It'll detect it and claim to be checking it for channels, but not find any. Then, going to the transponder list will reveal that it wasn't logged. I've verified this on two different transponders today -- the NASA press conference on 85W Ku and the Washington mux that changed its symbol rate on 123W Ku.

So what I'm wanting to know is, is this "normal" behavior or is mine just being flaky again?

Unfortunately, I'm very familiar with both scenarios.

 

[FTA4PA]

Hi all! My wife got me an Amiko A3 a while ago. I am just now starting to play with it and really like it but have come across a stumbling block. As you know there is no video output on the A3 other than HDMI. When using our Amiko Mini HD SE we recorded to a Toshiba DVR-620 (to blank DVDs or VHS tape) through the rca composite line out cable. I know we can record to a hard drive but the Toshiba DVR is prefered by my better half. I told her not to worry, they make splitters and converters so it won't be an issue. I ordered this Amazon product ASIN B00J4D3RTU and this Amazon product ASIN B010BCM7S4. My plan was to hook the splitter to the A3, then send one output to our amp (with HDMI pass through to the tv) and the other output to the HDMI to composite/s-video converter. They arrived yesterday and I got the evil eye when I hooked everything up today and it won't work. When I boot the A3 there is a brief glimpse of the 'star field' logo then nothing - screen goes blank, tv says no input and stays that way. I tried this with the A3 set to 720p/60, 1080i/60 and 1080p/60 to no avail. I assumed I must have received a bad splitter but I connected it to the HDMI output of my Blu-Ray and it works fine. When I connect the A3 directly to the tv or amp video displays fine. The splitter I bought has excellent reviews and is supposed to support all formats through 4K. If someone is using another model that works with the A3 could you please post which one or is there something about the HDMI on the A3 that won't let it work with a splitter? Thanks!

 

[primestar31]

Time to come out of the '80's, and into the 2000's. Tell your wife it's just time to switch.

Flip the A3 over. See the little door under there? Open it. Plug in a 2.5 inch SATA laptop drive, 1TB units are cheap. Record shows to THAT. She'll get used to it quick, believe me.

Problem solved...

 

[KE4EST]

...and you can transfer the recording off the internal drive over your network to your computer and still burn DVD's if you wish.

It is very wife friendly too. My wife records and watches stuff all the time on the A3 and then switches over and watches stuff with Kodi all on the same box, and all by herself. She resisted at first too, said it was too complicated, till I made her do it. She won't admit I was right, but have not heard anymore whining about it.

 

[FTA4PA]

Time to come out of the '80's, and into the 2000's. Tell your wife it's just time to switch.
Flip the A3 over. See the little door under there? Open it. Plug in a 2.5 inch SATA laptop drive, 1TB units are cheap. Record shows to THAT. She'll get used to it quick, believe me.
Problem solved...

...and you can transfer the recording off the internal drive over your network to your computer and still burn DVD's if you wish.

It is very wife friendly too. My wife records and watches stuff all the time on the A3 and then switches over and watches stuff with Kodi all on the same box, and all by herself. She resisted at first too, said it was too complicated, till I made her do it. She won't admit I was right, but have not heard anymore whining about it.

I would be glad to. I told her about it but when she saw how 'complicated' the new remote was I got "I swear you just want these things so that I won't be able to use them (the reason I've held off installing the A3, I knew I'd hear that ). With the old one I could remove the DVD as soon as it was done recording". Meaning she doesn't need to wait for me to burn one for her from a file on a hard drive. If there is one, I really need to find an HDMI splitter that will work with the A3.

 

[primestar31]

Did you know you can bring up a virtual remote through the A3's webserver, and control it with a laptop? Let her do that instead of using the remote.

It's not that hard. Stop finding ways to fight it, and start thinking of ways it'll work for her, with what's available natively.

 

[FTA4PA]

Did you know you can bring up a virtual remote through the A3's webserver, and control it with a laptop? Let her do that instead of using the remote. It's not that hard. Stop finding ways to fight it, and start thinking of ways it'll work for her, with what's available natively.

Yep, did read something about that but she won't use a laptop (and even if she did it won't solve the recording issue). I'm not thinking of ways to fight it, I'm thinking of a reasonable solution that will keep both of us happy. She was nice enough to get it for me so I won't just tell her this is the way it is going to be, take it or leave it. I do have to live with her. So, any A3 compatible HDMI splitters out there?

 

[Titanium]

Is the A3 HDMI-CEC turned off? Is the TV HDMI-CEC turned off? Often, the settings on all devices must be set to manual resolution to work with the HDMI splitter.

CEC is the automated process of negotiating the highest HDMI resolution between connected devices.

 

[FTA4PA]

Is the A3 HDMI-CEC turned off? Is the TV HDMI-CEC turned off? Often, the settings on all devices must be set to manual resolution to work with the HDMI splitter.

CEC is the automated process of negotiating the highest HDMI resolution between connected devices.

There is no setting in the tv menus to turn CEC on or off so out of luck there. For the amp HDMI CEC (just called HDMI Control on my Denon) needs to be turned on in order for the HDMI pass-through feature to work but yes I tried it with CEC off and on with no difference.

 

[Titanium]

Have you tried different HDMI cables?