Azbox Ultra hardware blind scan test
- Thread starter LittleBob
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received my Ultra today late in the day and haven't had much time to do anything other than plug it in and confirm it powers up. Its a very compact receiver, just 2 LED on the front and USB behind the door, as well as one in back. mine initially booted up to PAL too which was a PITA to get to NTSC but once doing so hasn't lost sync yet. Its current set to 1080p via HDMI and I played back some 1080i ts files over the network without any issues. I hope to have some time to see how it blindscans tommorow as its too late to play tonite. I'll try a firmware update tommorow and see how it goes.
Against better judgement, I stayed up late last night and had to try out the blindscan. I'll try and write something more constructive and take some pictures later when I've had a chance to install the hard drive. unit shipped with 4001 and upgraded to 4690 over wired internet connection without any issue. To reconfirm what LittleBob already reported, the Ultra does appear to have hardware blindscan. I still want to see how an HD or 4:2:2 feed looks but thus far everything seems to be working. I have a 250GB 7200rpm notebook drive which I'll probably install as soon as I find adapter brackets.
I can confirm it does 4:2:2 HD. I would also like to thank mr3p for pointing out the best software to download. My Ultra is now working fine with no problems. With the latest firmware it does a pretty good job of blind scanning.
I would love to know how the blind scan time and accuracy compares the usual SD receivers out there (ie Traxis or Coolsats). And how stable the receiver OS seems to be. And how well the receiver works with a motor/switch combo.
As far as stability, I haven't had a lockup or crash yet. I've only had one glitch thus far which was when I was trying to scan a single transponder and it wouldn't let me select it. I exited out, turned it off/on with the remote and then worked fine and hasn't happened again. I don't have a traxis or coolsat to compare blindscan time. i have a pansat 2500 in the closet and at some point I'll probably see how it compares. I'm setting up my new dish ~ first week of april so I'll know how it works with a motor at that time. I would expect that works similarly to the other azboxs as they are all using same firmware. i anticipate installing the hard drive tommorow.
i have the
premium plus model.It takes 20 minutes to scan 87w yes i said 20
minutes.It took 20 minutes to scan 103w.It will not playback a high bitrate HD feed.It will not scan any Dvb-S2 feeds with an fec higher than
3/4.It is two steps down in performance from the regular premium
and the AZbox Elite.At lease they will both scan and play any feed.The software for the premium plus needs some serious work.20 minute hardware blindscan.Are you kidding?It is slower than the pansat 9200Hd blindscaning and that's saying alot.
this is true for the ultra as well. I'm optimistic it will get resolved but until they fix the firmware both units currently have limitations compared to elite or premium. I considered this before purchasing the ultra over the elite as I wanted hardware blindscan and was willing to deal with the limitations which had been recognized upon initial reviews of the premium +.
So how do you get into NTSC mode when you have no picture and no display on the front of the receiver?
It was sort of pain when I first received my receiver as it came configured for PAL and was doing the scrolling thing. My TV has a "freeze" option which allowed me to see where I was an after multiple times freezing the image I was able to navigate to change the setting to NTSC. Somewhere I think someone has posted the key sequence to enter on the remote to do it blindly.
I just leave a composite cable hooked up from the Ultra's composite output to the composite input on my TV. The composite always works, at least enough to figure out where you are on the menu.
For the Azbox Ultra
After a reboot the receiver defaults to pal format
To changed the setting in the Menu from PAL, back to NTSC
You need to do the following steps.
1) Reboot the receiver by the switch on the back of the unit.
After it powers up and you see the menu rolling, follow these steps:
2) Down Arrow 6 Times
3) Hit the OK button
4) Right Arrow 1 Time
5) Down Arrow 1 Time
6) Right Arrow 1 Time
You will now have changed the setting in the Menu from PAL, back to NTSC.
7) The receiver will ask you if you want to save your change and say YES.
Credit goes to Rick for this.
I should print this out if I have to do it again. I just got an ultra and I'm glad I found this. Very bad move, Azbox, by not having a front panel display.
No that doesn't happen. That's why it's important to periodically clean up your tp lists of unneccesary tp's . Eventually the stb memory will just fill up with useless tp definitions.
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