AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Lehman bud farm]

Also a shame that the A3 and A3 Quad were dogs.

The A3 was built around using the internet so much it bloated the system IMO.
This also increased the risk of having more problems with the receiver whenever a newer version of a progam would come out you never knew if it would work or not.

The A3 Quad.... This post about sums it up properly!

The A3 Combo uses the same HiSilicon 3796 as my U4 Quad which both have problems that make them obsolete before launch. Namely, they can't do 60 FPS UHD without stuttering. They can't record UHD, and they don't handle 10-bit (High Dynamic Range).

Releasing obsolete equipment, (because one does not do their due-diligence), is doomed to failure.

 

[pacificrim]

Unfortunately, the site was a store site primarily, so with the store gone...also goes the reason for the site. If you bought an Openbox or Amiko from overseas or any other vendor not tied to the site, you were not welcome to post. That is a shame. I recognize that bills need to be paid, but just never understood the need for flaming fellow FTAers who purchased from elsewhere. I also understand how small the legit FTA market is, so I like to support those who take chances. I wish Joe well and hope that new products from others continue to keep the hobby fresh.

 

[Titanium]

Easy to armchair a call with 20/20 hindsight. The problem with the first release h.265 units was due to the chipset developers making a bad call several years ago and developing for 8bit instead of 10bit. H.265 was only a proposed standard at the time the chipsets were developed and most everyone thought that the market was going to launch with 8bit.

Almost everyone got a big surprise when the majority of services used 10bit instead. The A3 quad was built with the 1st gen chipsets and has been on the market for over a year. It was released at the time the first h.265 services were launched. The same 8bit problem has hurt other DVBS 4K manufacturers (an example is the Wetek). The 2nd generation chipsets are now on the market with H.265 capability. I expect to see quit a few h.265 10bit STBs hit the market in the upcoming months.

I wish Joe well and we close yet another chapter in the FTA history book...

 

[starwatch]

Titanium, or anyone else ..Do you know where I can get the .72 rom for the A3?
was given one new in the box and it has the original rom still on it..The A3
I bought is running the .72 ok so far but it doesn't do a lot of switching, just straight
satellite work, lnb to recv..I backed up the to have just in case I want to play with this
thing but would like the .72 rom as a backup..the only option rom it gives me to upgrade is.78
thanks .. good luck

 

[Titanium]

Should be able to create a back up of your .72 receiver and then load that file onto the other receiver. If not, contact Joe at FridgeFTA. He might have a copy.

 

[starwatch]

I have the backup of .72 rom from the other recv, just didn't know if each has a different
way of using it with the files..

 

[Babadem]

I have had my A3 for about 2 years and I just experienced the dreaded system wipe out of the A3 after rebooting. And here I was thinking that the issue was a phantom one! I will reinstall with my backed up files later.

 

[KE4EST]

Mine did the same things a couple of months ago. I restored a backup and all was good.
I just have to remember to do a back up at least every couple weeks so I am not too far behind.

 

[Babadem]

Mine did the same things a couple of months ago. I restored a backup and all was good.
I just have to remember to do a back up at least every couple weeks so I am not too far behind.

That's the way to go.

 

[Titanium]

Just sold my bench A3. No longer an A3 owner, but ordered a few more quad-core samples.

 

[Babadem]

Will the quad-core be available for sale after going through your rigorous testing?

 

[Titanium]

Have a few interesting projects that will be ready to launch after the sales non-compete agreement ends next year. Will evaluate the market as the time gets closer and make a final decision then.

 

[Babadem]

Based on your tests and future analysis maybe you could drop hints without violating your no compete clause which Receivers we true FTA users could pickup.

 

[gpflepsen]

Titanium, can you sell me a couple postage stamps, affixed to, say, I don't know... some old receiver you have laying around? ?

 

[Comptech]

Knock wood, mine has been behaving for almost a month now. I know it will revert, but when it works it is nice.

 

[gpflepsen]

Knock wood, mine has been behaving for almost a month now. I know it will revert, but when it works it is nice.

I absolutely love the A3. The menus are the best laid out of any receiver I've used. The remote being rf and airmouse w/ voice to text is great. I love tuning to a tp on C hand, and it stops moving when it acquires signal. Setting timers is easy. Blind scan works very well.

Then the A3 gets bombed and abuses me, then locks itself away until I console and reset it.

Then the honeymoon is on again and life is great! Until it gets bombed and freaks out again.

I recently did the complete nand rewrite recovery to get it back stable. It's been going 2 days without issue, but I need to get a week out of it before I feel good about it functioning in a reliable manner.

It's a great receiver, until it gets bombed and pukes on the floor.

But I love using it! Kind of a love/hate relationship....

 

[Comptech]

Amen! And the tuner is really sensitive. I have done the nand flash and it still pukes when it wants to. I wish there was a android expert out there that could figure this out.

 

[Titanium]

As the engineers phase out support, they should release one final firmware update that defaults the recovery to use a local back-up file rather than the online. This way the user could have a current local back-up and the recovery could be seamless to latest saved firmware and configurations.

 

[gpflepsen]

I wonder if it's (stability) a heat related issue? Joe said in his original reviews that heat should never be an issue. My A3 heats up pretty good, it's frame is a huge he at-risk, maybe the thermal bridge is breaking down?

After I did the nand recovery, I left it on. 72 and only recovered the satellite downloader and F Droid store. I grabbed the western satellites and rebuilt from scratch everything from 30w to 125w.

I hope it stays happy...

 

[gpflepsen]

I think back to deann and her issues with spontaneous reversion to European software. I had mine try to do that shortly after I got it before I had a chance to make the backup. I was able to interrupt it then.

Always felt bad for Deanne in a way, people were sure she was causing the issues, but was instead just a bit stubborn in dealing with the issues.

I've resolved to only use mine for FTA, no internetting or additional app use.