USDTV Reciever DB-2010 (walmart)

[adavis720]

My brother picked up 2 of these at Walmart about 6 months ago. $25 bucks a piece. I have just gotten around to fooling with it.

USDTV went tits up, but I understand these boxes are still very usable for OTA.

I am currently getting OTA HD with the Accurian (radio shack) tuner with a set of bunny ears (I am about 1.5 miles clear line of sight to the towers) and my Dish Network 622.

This box does not seem to perform nearly as well as the Radio Shack. It doesn't get as many channels and takes a reaaallly long to time to scan and the levels are lower.

The upside is it seems to move quicker once it scans - no lag issues changing channels or bringing up the EPG.

I did some reading and found out there is a firmware upgrade for it, which I downloaded. I am running into a roadblock loading the firmware.

Has anyone done a firmware update on these? It requires formating a USB drive in a specific way and loading it in. I was hoping to get some first hand experience so I don't brick this thing.

Anyone using this box?

 

[Jim5506]

Tried this? Hisense - Embeddedlinux

Looks like all you have to do is unpack the correct tgz file. It sounds like all you have to do is put the correct files on a flash drive. No experience here.

 

[navychop]

At 1.5 miles away, I think a bent coat hanger would work for you, literally. The USDTV box may be over saturated. You might try an attenuator. Rat Shack can help there.

 

[adavis720]

Tried this? Hisense - Embeddedlinux

Looks like all you have to do is unpack the correct tgz file. It sounds like all you have to do is put the correct files on a flash drive. No experience here.

Thanks.

I read this readme:

After and upgrade you should see something like:

====

System Software version 2.7.11 (2.4.18-15)
Hardware Version db2020

USDTV-MediaWorks Software Copyright (c) 2001-2005
U.S. Digital telebision, Inv. All Rights Reserved

====

The two directories (and NOT DELETEME.txt!):

000_signatures
diagnostics

need to be copied into the first partition on a
USB stick formatted as "ext2"

YOU MUST NOT INCLUDE THIS FILE ON THE USB STICK!

The upgrade appears to ignore the filesystem if there
are any other files.

If the upgrade has already been installed you will see
this text:

====

This update is already installed.

Please unplug the update module,
then press "OK" to proceed.

====

Original sticks were 64MB, but that might not matter.

Once you have a proper USB stick with ONLY the two update
directory trees in an ext2 partition, plug the stick in
back of your DB-2010 and cycle the power on the unit.

A soft reboot holding the power button in for 5 seconds
does seem to trigger the same code as a cold power cycle.


The confusing part was formatting the Jump drive as "ext2". Does anyone know how to do about doing that on a PPC Mac?

 

[adavis720]

At 1.5 miles away, I think a bent coat hanger would work for you, literally. The USDTV box may be over saturated. You might try an attenuator. Rat Shack can help there.

Yea I am pretty close:

I can actually get 4 or 5 channels using the wiring in the house as the antenna.


Do you think that this box is more sensitive than my Radio Shack box? Otherwise it seems like I would need an attenuator for that as well?

 

[Hall]

You may need a linux box to do this. Not sure if there are utilities that will format using ext2 for MACs or even on PCs (think there is though).

 

[navychop]

Yes, it would seem you'd need an attenuator for both, but who knows?

 

[roashru]

Most people have been just using a Linux Live-CD to make the bootable USB update drive.

Hisense - Embeddedlinux < Update Page

 

[wayne1426]

This sounds like maybe the same problem I'm having. The receiver tries to update its software but can't do it. In the meantime, it shuts the TV off 8-10 times a day and this is very annoying. Any solutions that a novice can understand? Thanks.

Wayne

 

[gordonzo]

i have one of those boxes also and i get lots of channels.i belive the updates are for boxes that where used in areas it was active in.if the service wasnt in your area and it recieves channels i wouldnt mess with it.ive got a copy also just in case i need it later.remember signals are at half strength and scheduled to go full in feb 2009.if you feel you must and im no expert but you could decompress with winrar or 7-zip(dont use winzip)or burn a copy of ubuntu or knoppix which will run off the cd without installing on your computer.

i think the file to be deleted is the readme file after reading.
my tivo files cant be run in windows xp as xp adds a recovery file.

 

[BryanSat88]

Also remember that your signal strength problem may be because you are TOO close. The main signal beam may be mostly passing over your antenna site and you are picking up sidelobes and scatter off of the main beam (which still should be plenty strong, but not as strong as being at the optimal distance). Just a thought!

 

[dodge]

At 1.5 miles, take a piece of coax , attach it to the back of the box take the other end of coax and strip back about 2 feet of shield and center insulation to expose the copper center. Hang the copper center on a wall with a thumb tack.