OTHER Vigica c90 DVBs2 Quad CPU Android (USALS Issue)

[iBoston]

Anyone else own a Vigica? or knows the ins/outs of USALS and its calculating methodology.

I grabbed this thing to test the quad cpu. It has KODI pre-installed on it and seems to have nice display quality.

However, just like another Vigica i owned, the USALS is all screwed up, and i suspect just for the Western Hemisphere. I tried using Diseqc 1.2 and that failed horribly to. I had to adjust my Longitude to 94 when im located at 88. With that, i can use usals to track between 121 and 125, but when i try and jump down to 103 i loose the signal.

I thought maybe if i figure out the right lat/lon i could get it to work.

Anyone have thoughts?

 

[Titanium]

I am working on a few firmware issues, but haven't tested the motor control. Will try the USALS and DiSEqC 1.2 control next week and will report.

 

[iBoston]

I switched from tweaking the Longitude to tweaking the latitude. That seemed to maybe do the trick. I now am able to scan between 87-125 and still testing the reach. So, i think i got that licked.

Also, are you having issues with the HD channels not cropping correctly.. It's cutting off a lot of the lower screen. Like 30% of the image is missing... Eeeeks!

 

[iBoston]

If i change the resolution to 720p, then it works. That kinda defeats the purpose of having a 1080p TV.

 

[Titanium]

Haven't noticed any odd cropping. I need to check the resolution settings on the TV. Maybe mine is auto-setting instead of manual set to 1080p.

 

[iBoston]

Murphay's law. I get everything programmed in and NOW :

I have a new problem. I can get NO signal at all.
I get the following for Signal and Quality : Signal : 12C Quality :Error

Now, i can get no signals on anything. It appears the box is dead in terms of receiving a signal.

 

[KE4EST]

Can you make a back? Then do a recover on the box.
I don't have one, but I have almost hit the buy button about 5 times.

 

[iBoston]

Can you make a back? Then do a recover on the box.
I don't have one, but I have almost hit the buy button about 5 times.

Yea, hold off on that 'Buy Button'. I saved the user data, and did a RESET on the DTV data. That appears to reset all the satellite stuff. Still errored out . Ugh, cannot get any signal period.

Also, if i leave it in 1080p mode, my other TV (a second one) keeps blacking out on me. It doesn't like the signal at ALL. For that TV, i also had to knock the resolution down to 720p, and then i have stable video.

 

[KE4EST]

Maybe since Titanium has one he can chime with ideas later tonight.
BTW I'll hold off, I have had it in my Amazon wish list since sometime in February.

 

[iBoston]

PHEW! Okay, i left it unplugged all last night, and it is working again this morning. I tried unplugging it before, for at least 10 seconds, and apparently that didn't do the trick. Okay, i have it parked at the moment at 125w and am going to leave it at PBS.KIDS for my son all day today to see if it works all day.

Yesterday, before the failure, i was able to test the KODI portion of it. I successfully connected to my network and i successfully played a 15gigabyte high def movie with no problems. This video has been my test platform, as most hardware will NOT play this very well.

Bugs I am aware of to date :

• USALS does not configure correctly. I suspect it is just for the Western Hemisphere. I was able to modify the latitude higher than i am actually located to dial it in. (from 47 degrees to 65 degrees)
  
• Diseqc 1.2 for my USALS motor didn't appear to work at all. (titanium might test too)
• In the satellite list menu, when you go into the EDIT menu, make sure when you edit your western bird, that you always RE-SELECT west. As, even if it SAYS west, it will default back to EAST if you don't set it to east and then back to west.
• 1080p is causing issues on 2 different brand new (within 6 months) LED High Def 1080p TV's. On my samsung, it actually blanks the signal randomly, and i have to reboot the TV to get the signal back. On my Sanyo, it crops about 30% of the video on the high def channels. The fix i have found is to lock the receiver in 720p. That appears to have resolved both issues on both TV's.

 

[iBoston]

The Video is blacking out in 720p on the samsung. I have thrown in a different HDMI cable to see if that is what is causing that problem. It doesn't happen very often. Been running PBS all day. I ran into a weird scenario where the audio was stuttering. I changed the channel out and back in and it fixed itself. I was on the channel for well over 4 hours before it started doing that, and there was a gust of wind when it started.. So, maybe that triggered it. It just didn't recover until i did a quick channel cycle.

Channel surfing, the channels come in pretty quick. I would say just over a second, a bit longer than the Amiko HDSE.

This is planned to be a utilized hardware. It will be in the kitchen on its own dedicated KU 1.2m dish for our son to watch TV and the family. I wanted something that would replace our Media Network Player.

Also, this system uses a combiner/splitter to run both Antenna TV and Satellite TV through one RG6. I am able to receive all channels on the KU spectrum.

 

[iBoston]

Jeez.. When it rains is pours.. Okay, well, the blanking video turned out to be the 6 month old TV itself. I was on support with them and they had me RESET the TV. So, the blanked out video is NOT from the Vigica.

However, the cropping Video on my other TV is still a problem. I might be able to modify a setting on the TV to resolve that.

 

[pacificrim]

Mine just showed up 3 days ago and I've had a chance to play with it a bit. Yes, the USALS issue cropped up but I added 15 degrees to my Latitude and now it tracks correctly. When I first set it up it was accurate until I moved the dish to 113w and it scanned in 111w. I guessed at the amount it was going off by and picked 15 degrees, making my Lat 64 instead of 49 and it worked. Having to add all of the sats for North America was a bit annoying, but at least they can be done without an external editor and plugging in a keyboard makes that easier too.
It crashed a couple times watching PBS HD after I adjusted the Time Shift feature - it was fine again after I put it back, so it was probably a buffering problem due to the very high bit rate of that channel.
So far, so good for $100. One thing is that this is the first sat box my wife (who is a highly technical person) is interested in using. She just never cared about using the other receivers. Having all of the Android features a click away is definitely cool.

I haven't noticed any video problems - like cropping, but my Toshiba TV suddenly started to display the TV menu randomly. I took the batteries out of the Vigica remote in case it was sending random blasts, but it kept going. Then I plugged a HDMI hub in-line with the C90s and the problem disappeared - weird but fixed.

Also, there is no manual - not really. I would not recommend this to a newbie without setting it up for them completely. Any other FTA person should have no problem as long as they can take successfully take a wild guess at their "new" Latitude.

 

[iBoston]

Mine just showed up 3 days ago and I've had a chance to play with it a bit. Yes, the USALS issue cropped up but I added 15 degrees to my Latitude and now it tracks correctly. When I first set it up it was accurate until I moved the dish to 113w and it scanned in 111w. I guessed at the amount it was going off by and picked 15 degrees, making my Lat 64 instead of 49 and it worked. Having to add all of the sats for North America was a bit annoying, but at least they can be done without an external editor and plugging in a keyboard makes that easier too.
It crashed a couple times watching PBS HD after I adjusted the Time Shift feature - it was fine again after I put it back, so it was probably a buffering problem due to the very high bit rate of that channel.
So far, so good for $100. One thing is that this is the first sat box my wife (who is a highly technical person) is interested in using. She just never cared about using the other receivers. Having all of the Android features a click away is definitely cool.

I haven't noticed any video problems - like cropping, but my Toshiba TV suddenly started to display the TV menu randomly. I took the batteries out of the Vigica remote in case it was sending random blasts, but it kept going. Then I plugged a HDMI hub in-line with the C90s and the problem disappeared - weird but fixed.

Also, there is no manual - not really. I would not recommend this to a newbie without setting it up for them completely. Any other FTA person should have no problem as long as they can take successfully take a wild guess at their "new" Latitude.

Well, I'm not running into cropping problems on my Samsung. We are actually using the Vigica in the Kitchen/Dining room, and our son is using it to watch OETA Kids, and we use it to watch News. So, it appears to be working fine. Haven't yet played much with the timeshift.... The KODI on it works just fine. We had a media box. So, this is installed swapping out another hardware..

All in all, I am happy with this unit. I have had no problems watching any channels on it. Although, I'm only running KU on it right now. I was just happy that i figured out the USALS problem. That scared me for awhile.....

I am still in the works of establishing a more reliable support connection with them.

 

[iBoston]

I adjusted the Time Shift feature - it was fine again after I put it back, so it was probably a buffering problem due to the very high bit rate of that channel.

Hey, with regards to the timeshift... Have you figured that out? I hit pause once, it started timeshift, i had to hit pause a second time to actually get it to pause. Then, i finally figured out how you resume.. You have to hit Exit to unpause. But, how the heck do you roam around the video??? I hit the fast forward / rewind button, and it wouldn't do anything. Once i started messing with that, i couldn't do anything other then continue back to the live stream???? I put in times, and that didn't seem to really work either... Did you make heads and tails of it??

 

[pacificrim]

No it didn't make sense to me either and I had the same experience you did trying to figure it out. Playing back recordings also seems less than intuitive.

 

[pacificrim]

The more I play with this thing the more I love it, though not for the uninitiated in either Android or FTA.

 

[iBoston]

I have uploaded JP1 discrete codes.

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload.php?action=file&file_id=13331

 

[iBoston]

I actually got a hold of support. I have been told the USALS issue will be fixed.

Vigica Said : We will change the latitude on the boxes in the next production.

 

[Titanium]

Maybe I have too high of expectations for STBs... The C90S is sitting on the shelf until new firmware is released. Has possibilities if they put some more development into it! Not a STB to recommend for a newbie...

The android store apps run great on the quad core and the SDR waterfall never looked smoother. Nice graphics and menus... Then I remind myself, I want a satellite receiver first and a media box second. The C90S is a media box first and a satellite STB 2nd. Satellite functions are there, but not fully implemented and operation / set-up not always intuitive. Don't get me wrong, much better than 90% of the other generic STBs out there. Time will tell if the development continues to produce a great STB or if it is already what it will be.