AZBOX AzBox miniMe American edition version 1.50 firmware

[pwrsurge]

AzBox Canada is proud to release the long awaited version 1.50 firmware for the miniMe American Edition.

It includes the following enhancements:

- Customized tuner driver for improved blindscan performance
* Added user configurable step size with a default of 5000 (Past versions used 20700!)
* Added user configurable minimum symbol rate with a default of 1000
* Fixed bug where last used blind scan polarity was not saving correctly
- Improved performance when locking low symbol rate transponders by tweaking tuner driver code.
- Added dropdown menu in antenna setup to more easily select various standard and universal LNB frequency configurations
- Added 22khz on/off in LNB settings
- Implemented display window of currently tuned channel when browsing channels list.
- Tweaked media player engine parameters for better performance and reliability.
- Implemented YouTube player
- Addded ability to delete channels from channel list.
- Fixed yellow button to enable selecting a satellite when viewing a channel.
- Added WION and updated SatelliteGuys Radio URL and updated a few other stations in online radio player.
- Added framework for future IPTV services
- Added LUA support for plugins
- Updated satellite list and transponders.
- Various bugfixes and performance enhancements.

Available for download now via the Internet update function of the receiver or download via our support page to install using your USB flash drive.


Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[pwrsurge]

A few notes on this firmware version:

- Due to tuner driver changes in regards to blindscan, only the "TP's found" field will update during the first stage of the scan when frequencies are being gathered. However during the second stage, you will still see details on each transponder that was found as the receiver attempts to scan them in. We will try to readd the current frequency being scanned during the first stage along with some sort of percentage display in a future firmware update
- Similar to when playing back a recording, video or online radio station, there might be a delay of up to 30 seconds after playing back a YouTube video. After a YouTube video is finished playing, you have to press STOP and/or Exit once and wait for the GUI to come back. We will try to reduce this delay in a future firmware version.
- When trying to use the YouTube player for the first time, you may get an error that it was not able to download anything. If this is the case, press MENU then increase the concurrent connections field from 0 to at least 1 or more and try to search again.


Best regards,

PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[manikm]

does this work on both ME and MINIME ?

also, does it work on Ku band \ Europe? Or purely for C Band?

thanks.

 

[scopus]

does this work on both ME and MINIME ?

also, does it work on Ku band \ Europe? Or purely for C Band?

thanks.

Works only on the MiniMe which you have to order from Canada as it won't flash on non American MiniMe devices. But I understand they are working on a version that will flash on European ME and MiniMe devices shortly
You can change the satellite XML file for a European version to give you a European satellite list, and yes it will scan both Ku and C Band on blind scan

 

[pwrsurge]

does this work on both ME and MINIME ?

also, does it work on Ku band \ Europe? Or purely for C Band?

thanks.

This firmware only works on the AzBox miniMe American Edition which is a different product than the AzBox miniMe that you would get from Europe. Yes, the blind scan works on any C or Ku band satellites receivable from your location.



Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[pwrsurge]

But I understand they are working on a version that will flash on European ME and MiniMe devices shortly

No we are not, this firmware is exclusively available for the AzBox miniMe American Edition. However, we will eventually release a modified version of AZtrino which will work on European Me and miniMe devices with fully functional blind scan on both C and Ku band.


Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[catamount]

Could you kindly put the 1.2 version back on your website? I tried 1.5 a week ago, then put it on again today. IMO, it's the worst version you've put out so far.

Catamount

 

[scopus]

Could you kindly put the 1.2 version back on your website? I tried 1.5 a week ago, then put it on again today. IMO, it's the worst version you've put out so far.

Catamount

Can you be more specific?

 

[pwrsurge]

Could you kindly put the 1.2 version back on your website? I tried 1.5 a week ago, then put it on again today. IMO, it's the worst version you've put out so far.

Catamount

I see that our admin that maintains the server did a bit of cleaning up of older firmware releases but no worries, I will get him to put version 1.20 back on. In order to assist us in resolving any issue, could you please clarify why you think it's the worst version so far? A few things changed as the GUI was refined a bit and several performance enhancements were made so perhaps there is something that you are not doing correctly or an issue related to your specific system.

Explaining the issues you are experiencing in greater detail will allow us to improve our future firmware releases.


Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
AzBox United States

 

[catamount]

The only issue I have is with the blind scan time . For me, it takes about 14 minutes on 103 ku. 1.2 version took around 7-8 minutes. It has logged anywhere from 33-46 transponders and takes a while to complete scanning for channels. Changing the step frequency back to 20000 didn't seem to matter. I blindscanned 91ku last week and logged 59 transponders.

I appreciate you making 1.2 available as it has worked well for me.

Catamount

 

[updatelee]

14min ! wow

My application does a full scan in 2min / polarity in the worst case, tp that acquire lock speeds up the process, it doesnt have to keep trying and trying it can just move on to the next. It does a smart scan (using a peak detector on a spectrum scan) in around 18sec (depends on how many tp it finds to try)

I think that blindscan code could use a little more optimization, Im positive I could even get mine going faster, just havent had a chance to look into it more.

Is that 14min for both polarities and both C and Ku ? That would be a little better, 3.5min per polarity per band. Is the start/stop freq set correctly ? ie its not trying to scan the entire lband is it ? even though most lnb's only use the first 500mhz of it.

UDL

 

[pwrsurge]

The only issue I have is with the blind scan time . For me, it takes about 14 minutes on 103 ku. 1.2 version took around 7-8 minutes. It has logged anywhere from 33-46 transponders and takes a while to complete scanning for channels. Changing the step frequency back to 20000 didn't seem to matter. I blindscanned 91ku last week and logged 59 transponders.

I appreciate you making 1.2 available as it has worked well for me.

Catamount

Thank you for providing more information. It's nice to know that you are only having issues with blind scan as we can now work on this area a bit more for the next firmware version. Did you try increasing the minimum symbol rate from the 1000 default to 2000 or perhaps even 3000? This should increase the blindscan speed a fair bit. Also, are you using a universal or standard 10750 LNBF in your system?

The bulk of the changes in regards to blindscan in this version were made in the tuner driver code as this is where the blindscan process actually takes place. We will work on further tweaking our code in order to enhance performance.

How do you find the changes other than blindscan that took place in the 1.50 firmware version such as the channel preview window integrated into the channel list? Do you appreciate being able to now delete individual channels from the channel list once feeds are over?


Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada & US

 

[catamount]

No, I haven't tried increasing the minimum symbol rate. I just blindscanned 95 and 91 west. No channels found. 54 transponders logged on 91. A manual scan will work okay for the ABC's on 91.

I use starchoice stacked lnb's 10750 standard. I scan from 11700 to 12800 vertical only. Maybe this newer firmware doesn't work as well as the 1.2 with my bandstacked lnb's


Preview window is nice, but I cannot find where to delete individual channels from the channel list.

Catamount

 

[pwrsurge]

No, I haven't tried increasing the minimum symbol rate. I just blindscanned 95 and 91 west. No channels found. 54 transponders logged on 91. A manual scan will work okay for the ABC's on 91.

I use starchoice stacked lnb's 10750 standard. I scan from 11700 to 12800 vertical only. Maybe this newer firmware doesn't work as well as the 1.2 with my bandstacked lnb's


Preview window is nice, but I cannot find where to delete individual channels from the channel list.

Catamount

Please note that there is no official support for stacked LNBF's yet at this time so you may have some issues until we have the chance to do more testing and officially add support for stacked LNBF's in a future firmware version.

However, you should still be able to use a stacked LNBF for blindscanning but keep in mind that the frequencies values found on one of the polarities (Horizontal I believe) will be off by quite a bit but you would still be able to watch these on your system. I do believe that your old starchoice stacked LNBF has two output ranges 950-1450MHz and 1650-2150MHz.

You will have to use one of the following methods in order to blindscan using a stacked LNBF with acceptable performance:

1: Blindscan 11700 to 12200 on vertical polarity ONLY then blindscan 12200 to 12800 on horizontal polarity ONLY

(or if method 1 does not find anything)

2: Blindscan 11700 to 12200 on horizontal polarity ONLY then blindscan 12200 to 12800 on vertical polarity ONLY

If you don't use one of the above methods, useless frequencies are being scanned which unnecessarily wastes time during the blindscan process.


Best regards,

PwrSurge
AzBox Canada & US

 

[catamount]

Agreed! Method 1 should work. It should be the same as just scanning 11700 to 12800 vertical in one sweep. This works on all my other receivers and works with your older firmware.

What's the process in deleting channels? Saw a delete button once but can't find it again.

 

[pwrsurge]

What's the process in deleting channels? Saw a delete button once but can't find it again.

To delete individual channels, first tune to a channel other than the one you want to delete. Then, display the channel list by pressing OK and select the channel you want to delete with the arrow keys without tuning to it and press the menu button. The edit menu should then appear with Delete as an option. Select this option and answer Yes on the following confirmation dialog box in order to delete your channel.


Best regards,

PwrSurge,
AzBox Canada & US

 

[updatelee]

easy way would be to setup two different lnb's for the one lnb. Set both the 18v, bandstacked lnb's should always be run at 18v. I believe starchoice puts the V on the low end and H on the high end right?

lnb0 lof = 10750
lnb1 lof = 10050

lnb0 will be vertical
lnb1 will be horizontal

then the freq's scanned in will be correctly displayed.

UDL

 

[catamount]

UDL, Yes I may resort to that.

For starchoice bandstacked:

lnb0 lof = 10750
lnb1 lof = 10175

I'd probably need to use the editor, which I'm trying to avoid! If I had more than 3 fixed sats I probably would do that.

The new firmware doesn't include user defined lof's. I think the older versions did.

 

[danleeper80]

I just purchased the MiniMe and it came pre-loaded with 1.50 (nice) I have to agree on the comments about the blindscan but not for speed. It picks up more TPs than my RS-1933 even 103w with the oddball skew on a 0'ed LNB however if the channel doesn't have a provider the channel is ignored I wanted to use the MiniMe as my primary receiver and control the motor but because of this limitation I'm keeping it connected to the non-motorized connection. As I don't have a previous firmware to test against I can't compare however I can compare that it definitely has a more sensitive receiver than the RS-1933 but ignoring most channels in the sky I got to say is definitely a shortcoming.

 

[pwrsurge]

I just purchased the MiniMe and it came pre-loaded with 1.50 (nice) I have to agree on the comments about the blindscan but not for speed. It picks up more TPs than my RS-1933 even 103w with the oddball skew on a 0'ed LNB however if the channel doesn't have a provider the channel is ignored I wanted to use the MiniMe as my primary receiver and control the motor but because of this limitation I'm keeping it connected to the non-motorized connection. As I don't have a previous firmware to test against I can't compare however I can compare that it definitely has a more sensitive receiver than the RS-1933 but ignoring most channels in the sky I got to say is definitely a shortcoming.

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your new AzBox miniMe American Edition receiver. We are aware of the issue you described where channels with no service name set by the uplinker won't scan in normally. However as a temporary workaround, these can still be scanned in with no issues by manually entering the PID information via the manual PID entry function.

Please be aware that we have already identified this as a priority issue so it will soon be resolved in a future firmware update.



Best regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada & US