OTHER Recommendation of a very STABLE receiver

[barleyguy]

Greetings,

I currently have an Amiko A3, and I'm angry at it today. It's gone corrupted and unstable for about the 5th time, and is locking up when I try to clear userdata. So I think I'm going to have to do a full reload from a boot disk for the second time. I'm kinda frustrated and done.

I'm a very advanced user. I am perfectly capable of fixing it, but tired of doing so. Also, I use about 10% of the features of the A3, so I'd prefer something simpler and more solid.

So to my question: What receiver would you recommend that is rock solid stable? I need these features:

1. Should support North American satellites with a USALS HH90 motor.
2. Should support modern video standards, i.e. MPEG2, MPEG4, h.264 etc. as well as AVC audio.
3. Should absolutely positively record when I tell it to. Should do so on all channels, such as COZI.
4. I should be able to easily transfer the files off the box to a computer, preferably over ethernet, and preferably with a shell script. An FTP server that runs all the time would be great. SSH/SCP would be even cooler.

That's about it. I don't need streaming or IP video or anything like that. I have a computer hooked to the same TV.

Thanks for your help, and pardon the intro rant.

 

[Jim S.]

I'm not sure you're going to find a currently-supported, non-feature-bloated receiver that allows remote access to its HD. You might have to settle for a portable external drive.

I share your frustration with the A3. Mine has got some problem whereby if it ever crashes, it takes several reboots to clear it, unless you reload the firmware. The first reboot, even if done by removing power, will 99% of the time either hang or result in the box coming up in an unusable state with error messages like "program not running" or "unable to get resources".

I DO frequently use the multimedia capabilities of my A3, but for the price, I could've easily got a cheaper satellite box and a cheaper Android box, and still had money left over! The big selling point of the A3 for me is unfortunately the one that seems to make it crash the most: the ability to view video remotely through the web interface or an Android app. It's so nice to not have to use a Slingbox, not to mention the fact that I can get HD without having to pay the high price for an HD Slingbox. But it's so frustrating to have to go to the TV to reboot the thing, usually multiple times, when it crashes at the slightest provocation like a flaky signal or a no-longer-existing channel, or sometimes for no discernable reason other than maybe it's just been running too long! At first I thought that the latest firmware, .73, had fixed it, because it behaved for about two weeks, but finally when it went down it went back to its old tricks when it came back up, so I think that the "fix" was just from being wiped by the upgrade, not anything actually fixed in the firmware!

 

[barleyguy]

I'm not sure you're going to find a currently-supported, non-feature-bloated receiver that allows remote access to its HD. You might have to settle for a portable external drive.

...

I guess #4 is negotiable. Right now I have a script that runs daily that pulls the last day's content off the A3, which is really handy. But having to spend time fixing the thing is less handy.

I could unplug a drive from a receiver, plug it into the computer that's 6 inches away, and get content off that way. Wouldn't be a huge deal really.

So on that note, is there anything that fulfills 1-3?

Thanks.

 

[ancient]

When you say, "I have a computer hooked to the same TV", my first thought is that you are looking for the wrong tool to do the job. If the computer hooked to your TV runs Kodi, then maybe what you really want (but just don't realize it yet) is a good PVR backend system. This is basically a computer running the TVHeadEnd software, and you install either internal or external USB satellite tuners. My preference has been to use internal (PCIe) cards from TBS but some people prefer external USB tuners. You then install Ubuntu (Ubuntu Server is okay, DON'T use Debian because it's not as well supported unless you like compiling your own software), and the TVHeadEnd backend software. The biggest hurdle you will have is figuring out how to configure TVHeadEnd, also with internal TBS cards there are a couple of tweaks that need to be made in Linux and in the TBS configuration to make sure you get clean recordings. There is a some useful information on this site although until you are actually running the software you may not understand some of it. I would suggest reading the review of the TBS MOI+, particularly the part about configuring TVHeadEnd, because it actually contains some setup suggestions for TVHeadEnd, although for an older version than what's currently available.

I will say that TVHeadEnd is not the easiest software in the world to set up for a first time user, but once you have set it up the first time, it seems totally intuitive. And once you have the backend running, it will just sit there and record your shows and then you can play the recordings from any device that can run Kodi, with the TVHeadEnd PVR addon installed and enabled. Same with live TV, Kodi will play it. The initial cost will be higher than buying a cheap receiver but at least in my case, it records reliably and almost never crashes (I say "almost" because there was a bug where if you manually tuned to a channel with no signal and just let it sit there for several seconds without stopping it, the backend would crash, but I believe this has been fixed now. I have never seen it crash when I wasn't trying to interact with it in some way). I will also note that either TVHeadEnd or the TBS cards are a little finicky when it comes to motherboards; I would tell you what kind I have that works well but I have honestly forgotten. So if you are buying a motherboard for the system, make sure you can return it if it doesn't work.

This is not a solution for everyone; some people are so locked into the STB paradigm that they just can't envision being better off without one, and for some people the mere mention of Linux makes them recoil in horror. And in some usage cases a STB may really be all you need. But I have never found one I really liked; either it had limitations I found unacceptable - such as not having a way to view recordings over the local network, or not being able to receive 4:2:2 signals - or it was buggy as all get out and suffered from unexpected reboots or corrupted recordings, or just had frustrating ways of doing what should be simple tasks, like displaying transponders in a specific order. Anyway, you just sound like you might be someone who would appreciate the advantages of running a PVR backend system, with Kodi on your frontend computers and devices, so you might want to consider it.

EDIT: After rereading your initial post, I should add one caveat: I have never attempted to use TVHeadEnd to control a positioner. I understand that it's possible, I just haven't personally done it, so cannot comment on how easy or difficult it may be to set that up. I can tell you that it will control standard DiSEqC switches with no problem, at least in my experience.

 

[barleyguy]

I actually pondered going with a USB DVB tuner card back when I got the A3. I can't do PCIe because the case the computer is in is too small. (It's a Morex 557, which is Mini-ITX and only a couple of inches high. I'm using an MSATA SSD so I have room for a full size fan.)

The computer is currently running Windows with NextPVR. I really like NextPVR, but could be persuaded to switch to Linux if that's the better choice. (Heck, my WIndows computers have Cygwin on them so I can write bash scripts.)

Ironically, the reason I went with a STB is because I thought it would be more stable and lower maintenance. I'd actually love to have a DVB tuner on the computer, because then I could run TSReader (or whatever the newer competition to it is), which would allow me to do more detailed scans of satellites.

So though this makes me sound indecisive (which I am, hence this thread), a USB (or ethernet) tuner is definitely a viable option.

EDIT: As I sort of implied, I'd like to stick with the computer I already have rather than building a new one. I could convert this computer to the backend and run Kodi on something else.

 

[N6BY]

I agree with ancient on not being able to find an STB that meets my needs. I thought the HDVR3500 was the answer, but it really fell short. In my opinion, the Mini HD SE is the most stable STB, but its lacking in IPTV.

Several months ago I built a Mini iTX system with a TBS6983. The card fits because TBS included a half-height back plate for these cases.

Currently using it with Windows and EBSPro. Going to try switching it over to Linux if I can get the TBS drivers to install.

 

[barleyguy]

I agree with ancient on not being able to find an STB that meets my needs. I thought the HDVR3500 was the answer, but it really fell short. In my opinion, the Mini HD SE is the most stable STB, but its lacking in IPTV.

Several months ago I built a Mini iTX system with a TBS6983. The card fits because TBS included a half-height back plate for these cases.

Currently using it with Windows and EBSPro. Going to try switching it over to Linux if I can get the TBS drivers to install.

Interesting. More questions:

1. If I don't need IPTV, should I just go with the Mini HD SE?

2. Will TVHeadEnd run on Arm? I have an NVidia Jetson board collecting dust...

3. Any suggestions on a USB DVB-S2 dongle? Is the LinuxTV list relevant: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-S2_USB_Devices ?

Thanks for the help.

 

[ancient]

2. Will TVHeadEnd run on Arm? I have an NVidia Jetson board collecting dust...

I am pretty sure that the TBS MOI+ that was reviewed in the article I mentioned previously is an ARM-based unit, but I don't have any idea what they had to do to get TVHeadEnd to run on it. Not something I'd personally attempt in a million years, but then I'm not all that fluent in Linux.

3. Any suggestions on a USB DVB-S2 dongle? Is the LinuxTV list relevant: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-S2_USB_Devices ?

My only concern about USB-based devices is whether the throughput will be limited due to the USB connection. So I have never tried one. I have had fairly good results with the TBS cards, but no experience at all with their USB devices.

You do need to be careful what you buy because you can run into interesting and perplexing issues. For example, if you buy a particular card or device and like it, don't assume you can add another of the same model at some future date - depending on the device, operating system and/or backend software, you may be limited to seeing only one such card or device (I believe this is more of an issue in Windows than in Linux, though). Also before you buy, check the most recent update date for the drivers - if more than a couple of years old you may have issues installing the devices in a modern OS (particularly Linux). TBS releases updated drivers fairly often (not saying they are the only one that does).

I've never used NextPVR but it may very well detect and use a USB device. If that's what you're familiar with, I'd try it and see what happens!

 

[ancient]

Going to try switching it over to Linux if I can get the TBS drivers to install.

Shouldn't be an issue. I generally followed the instructions on this page, except I used the most recent drivers for my card since I din't have the same model he has. Not that it matters because I suspect when you download the TBS drivers, you get drivers for every device they've ever made. Those instructions are a bit old so if you find newer ones (particularly on the TBS site) I'd follow those instead. Either way, it's pretty simple, even for someone like me who hates messing with anything that can't be installed using apt-get.

I've been told that any time there is a Linux kernel update, you should reinstall the TBS drivers too. So I have always done that; it only takes a couple of minutes. Not 100% sure it is absolutely necessary each time, but figure better to be safe rather than perhaps start experiencing weird errors. But I do wish TBS could get their drivers into the Linux kernel. I'm not sure why that hasn't happened, but it would make things a little easier if they could.