I bought a new Openbox S10 and..

[Dee_Ann]

it's quirky...

(I started a new thread because my original thread had strayed off the original topic, and I am the one who strayed off of my own topic!)


The problems I have now with it are:

1. Overheating. It gets really, really hot. Dangerously hot. That can not be right.
2. The clock. It doesn't work right. It changes when I change channels and resets to 1/1/2010 when the machine powers up.

The firmware, I found it online, I can not remember where now. It is listed in the info screen as follows: "CSHS2-11-09-14:03F5CMT"

I ~think~ it's the most current one available.

I don't know if the thing is a "clone" but then again, are ANY of them legit? This one came from the factory, brand spanking new with pirate features built in. That is not a good sign.

It also had absolutely NOTHING in it about the US. There is no way to set your location to anywhere in North America. It came with a list of only European and Asian satellites. All the satellites were easten sky and zero western sky satellites.

It took me a lot of time and effort to find a file with US satellites and install it into the machine. It's a confusing process.


Another problem I had which is not related to the tuner, I made a dish out of mismatched parts. Well........... I ended up having to flip some parts over and then some parts were hitting each other and that made me have to adjust the motor up to a higher point than it is supposed to be. This messed with it in a whole bunch of ways and stopped it from seeing all the satellites.

One of the problems was that the wires stick out in a stupid way on the SG-9120 motor and they were in the way of hitting the brackets on the dish. That's why I flipped parts around upside down, to clear those wires. Well guess what I found in the Dollar Store this morning?? L shaped adapters!

So now I have the dish down and apart and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it where it sees the whole arc of satellites. At least this is a problem that I was able to solve myself.

But my biggest concerns are the overheating and the useless clock.
Is there a way to put a fan in the tuner like a PC has? It's so tiny I don't see how that could happen. And the clock. OMG that annoys me so much!

Thanks!

 

[Mr Tony]

1. Overheating. It gets really, really hot. Dangerously hot. That can not be right.

shouldnt be. I had one and it was cool to the touch

2. The clock. It doesn't work right. It changes when I change channels and resets to 1/1/2010 when the machine powers up.

correct. That is a flaw in the Openbox's. You power them off you lose time. Plenty of conversation on that issue

It also had absolutely NOTHING in it about the US. There is no way to set your location to anywhere in North America. It came with a list of only European and Asian satellites. All the satellites were easten sky and zero western sky satellites.

the openbox is designed for overseas use. The original ones had a European plug. The S10 has a US plug but there is a file that has the US sats. Chcek the downloads section

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah something wrong with this picture. My S10 runs 24/7 and it runs cool.

 

[Jim S.]

I could swear that the more recent firmware updates for the S10 were said to make the clock work... I hope I'm not losing my mind...

Dee, are you sure that you loaded an S10 file rather than an S9 file? You can do that. (You can't go the other way though. Well, you can with the more recent ones, but they won't let you do anything useful.)

 

[Dee_Ann]

I could swear that the more recent firmware updates for the S10 were said to make the clock work... I hope I'm not losing my mind...

Dee, are you sure that you loaded an S10 file rather than an S9 file? You can do that. (You can't go the other way though. Well, you can with the more recent ones, but they won't let you do anything useful.)

Well, all the menu icons are across the top of the screen rather than down the side like my folks' S9. Everything in the menus and operation of it is very different than the S9. So I am assuming it's right.

Also, I plugged the USB disk into my pc and I looked around in it, I see that it is recording videos in the .ts format. For each recording it creates two .dvr files and one .ts file. The .dvr files don't appear to be video, I don't know what they are, maybe info files about the recording?

Oh, and another thing it has, there is the option for blind scan and "accurate scan". So I guess the other scans are to be considered inaccurate? Pretty strange naming of options. But then again, it's all in Engrish. I hate that after a scan it pops up a box that you have to press a button to clear it and the only option in the box is "YES". Even on a failed scan where it finds nothing at all, you have to press "YES"..

I wish, I really, really wish, that someone would make a GOOD, DO ALL tuner box here in the USA where the manual is readable, the menus are readable and make sense and everything works as one would expect it to. No shady options or features and no deceptive advertising. That will never happen though..

Anyway, I hope some of that will help indicate what the machine is running.

The file I put in it is "OPENBOX_S10_110914.abs" and it has the date and time of "Wed 14 Sep 2011 11:08:28 AM CDT"

I just can't remember where I found it. I google stuff and click on things all over the place, where ever I can find them.

 

[osu1991]

the openbox is designed for overseas use. The original ones had a European plug. The S10 has a US plug but there is a file that has the US sats. Chcek the downloads section

From her pics in the other thread her S10 came with the Euro plug and adapter

 

[PKII]

Mine is hot as well. The 9/15 update didn't have American satellites programed in when I just tried it a few minutes ago. I just downloaded the 8/15 American version. Seems to work so far. Clock doesn't have an English/American setting on any update for some reason. If you unplug the unit you lose the time.

 

[Dee_Ann]

From her pics in the other thread her S10 came with the Euro plug and adapter

Say, don't they use like 220v over there? Maybe the overheating is because it's running on the wrong voltage?

 

[Pixl]

Say, don't they use like 220v over there? Maybe the overheating is because it's running on the wrong voltage?

Not really an issue. The S-10 like most everything electronic you buy today has a switching power supply designed to run on a wide range of voltages and 50 or 60 hz, so will work most anywhere in the world with no setting on the users part needed.

 

[DK_Sat]

Dee_Ann


Were did you get the S10 from? i have the S10 and it runs cool and it has the American electric plug.

 

[Mr Tony]

From her pics in the other thread her S10 came with the Euro plug and adapter

hmmm...almost all the S10's I've seen have the US plug (even all the ones on Ebay)

 

[Jim S.]

Oh, and another thing it has, there is the option for blind scan and "accurate scan". So I guess the other scans are to be considered inaccurate?

Not that this has any relevance to your problem (which sounds to me like there are two different versions of the S10 out there, ugh!), but...

Nobody else understands the scan anymore either. Sometime like last winter, they put out a firmware version which was much more accurate at scanning than the old one (which would frequently miss symbol rates below about 3000, and always miss them if they were really low). But, it was also slower. Ludicrously slower on some satellites. Naturally, people who liked the super-fast blind scan complained that they wanted it back. So, a few months ago, a version appeared that offered blind scan and "accurate scan". The blind scan was indeed a lot faster, although not quite as fast as the original. So, what's the part that nobody understands? It's that this blind scan, although faster, still finds everything the old super-slow blind scan, or the new accurate scan, finds! So why have the accurate scan at all?

I don't know what it is about the ALi 3602 chip that invites incompetent firmware development. The Manhattan apparently tried to re-invent everything from scratch and still doesn't have it right. I have no idea what the new Pansat box does or doesn't do, because I have yet to encounter anyone who has actually used one. And the new SatelliteAV box isn't on even on the market yet. (The Pansat supposedly will be available from Hyper soon.) Me, I'm not giving any of them a chance, I'm waiting for the new AZboxes before I decide whether to upgrade from my S9. I know that no 3602 box will do 4:2:2, and I'm guessing that they won't offer network access to the hard drive either.

 

[DK_Sat]

OpenBox S10 on ebay with the European electric plug.

OPENBOX S10 HD PVR FTA RECEIVER S9 MINI | eBay

 

[Mr Tony]

interesting. I thought the S10 was designed with the US plug

 

[Dee_Ann]

OpenBox S10 on ebay with the European electric plug.

OPENBOX S10 HD PVR FTA RECEIVER S9 MINI | eBay

That is THE one I bought..

 

[KE4EST]

interesting. I thought the S10 was designed with the US plug

Mine came with the Euro plug too, have to use an adapter for US.

 

[bruin95]

So, what's the part that nobody understands? It's that this blind scan, although faster, still finds everything the old super-slow blind scan, or the new accurate scan, finds! So why have the accurate scan at all?

This has not been my experience. When I scan a bird using "blind" scan, it misses a bunch of channels. When I use "accurate" scan, all the missing channels scan in. For instance, on G18, when just blind scanning, it only picks up UWTV. If I use accurate scan, all the other channels come in. It's like that on every sat for me. I'm just wondering how many feeds I'm missing with this receiver.

 

[Jim S.]

Do you have an S9 or S10, and what firmware are you using?

 

[skysurfer]

interesting. I thought the S10 was designed with the US plug

Mine came with a european plug too. I _wish_ they came with an American plug so when you buy one off ebay and it has a european plug, you know it's a clone. (grin)

 

[sergei]

My S10's came from Ebay and have the US plugs and neither have any issue with heat, so it all depends on who your buying from.