VU+ ULTIMO DVB-C/T-Tuner

[easy]

Will this be capable scanning the Freeview HD channels or just SD only?
Or the best solution will be a usb tuner as Sicilian mention he has one on his ET9200,not sure which model you need.:confused:

Thanks....

[Rob van der Does]

The internal tuners of the Ultimo are exactly the same as those used in the UNO (you can swap them). As far as I know they are HD-capable. And since there are (freeview/FTA?) DVB-T2 channels in the UK I'm sure someone could confirm this to be working in his UNO.
And on the sponsors site I noticed the internal tuners to cost only 27GBP, the choice seems to be an easy one.

[Sicilian]

No, the UK Freeview HD is DVB-T2, the Ultimo terrestrial tuner is DVB-T.

Usb tuner I've been testing is the PCTV Nano 290e. This should work on the Ultimo ViX image, but not tested as yet.

[silverfox0786]

Just to Confirm on Sicilians Post

i have tested the PCTV NanoStick 290e on a Vu UNO

so if it works on there then theoretically it should also work on the Ultimo

[dfdream]

Thats a pity that the Ultimo isnt Freeview HD.
We in Ireland have had issues with usb DTT and I was hoping that the internal DTT Tuner would help.

In saying that the tuner has seemed to be working better in recent weeks updates. I know Andy had spooted some issues so maybe he has this one sorted.

[easy]

Maybe there will an option to buy a DVB-T2 tuner in the near future,anyway this is going to be a great box to have now:)

[silverfox0786]

Maybe there will an option to buy a DVB-T2 tuner in the near future,anyway this is going to be a great box to have now:)

T2 are very rare the only one i know of is the PCTV nano stick

albeit a great idea for ireland the reason why i think its not taken off for UK is ther is only 4 HD channels on Freeview and a 5th comming in 2013 over a year away

so SD Freeview is pretty much all you gonna need

[ekkostar]

Set Tuner to Terrestrial, scanned and UK Terrestrial works fine for SD channels. No HD obviously.

Switched Tuner config to Cable, scanned and it's returned nothing. Scan failed with no channels ?

[bassethound]

is the cable line active/been used recently as it might have been disconnected by the cable company if you no longer receive service of them

[Rob van der Does]

Switched Tuner config to Cable, scanned and it's returned nothing. Scan failed with no channels ?
You're sure you made all the correct settings for your provider?

[ekkostar]

Hi, line is active, official box works fine. On the Ultimo, switched to cable config then I just did a default UK scan, but nothing came up.

How do I make the correct settings for my provider please ? Virgin Media.

Thanks

[Larry-G]

Hi, line is active, official box works fine. On the Ultimo, switched to cable config then I just did a default UK scan, but nothing came up.

How do I make the correct settings for my provider please ? Virgin Media.

Thanks

The thing you wont be able to decode the channels even with a official card unless you have the RSA keys, which are as far as i know not in the public domain.

[ekkostar]

You still get FTA channels on virgin.

Anyhow I can't get it to scan anything for cable. There's nothing else in the settings. I've enabled all the frequencies and done a network scan, nothing.

Unless the defaults frequencies in the database are not primed for UK ?

[Larry-G]

Unless the defaults frequencies in the database are not primed for UK ?

That is a possibility, check the corresponding .xml file. sadly i cant help any further than that as i have never used cable.

[silverfox0786]

only UK cable provider is Virmin and i dont think you can use a non standard box for it

[Ev0]

You won't get any pay channels as mentioned above, and i'm not sure you would even be "allowed" to receive the free channels using an aftermarket box.

As for not being able to find any channels to begin with, iirc they use different frequency's for different area's of the uk and also have area id's

[Larry-G]

There should still be a corresponding .xml file that contains the frequencies like the terrestrial.xml and satellites.xml.

[Ev0]

that is true

[Larry-G]

that is true

have a look in ETC/ see if there is a cables.xml file there.

[Ev0]

there isn't on my box, (etc/tuxbox) I only have satellite and terestrial xml's.

But then I am using the BH image again now so don't know if there is a cable.xml in the vix image (don't recall seeing it but then I wouldn't have been looking for it as I don't have the cable tuner).

[Larry-G]

there isn't on my box, (etc/tuxbox) I only have satellite and terestrial xml's.

But then I am using the BH image again now so don't know if there is a cable.xml in the vix image (don't recall seeing it but then I wouldn't have been looking for it as I don't have the cable tuner).

yeah thought as much although as far as i understand it you would still need a official box just to pickup the FTA on uk cable, no doubt some one will let me know if i'm wrong.

[ekkostar]

My DM500C still works for FTA cable.

BBC News is on Modulation 64 QAM, Frequency 00411, Symbol 06887

When I try to do a manual scan on that working transponder the Ultimo returns nothing ?

[Ev0]

Can't you copy your cable.xml file from your dm500c to the ultimo ?

[silverfox0786]

you need the cable.xml but how upto date it is i do not know as you cannot generate an upto date one but use a generic one

here you go

[ekkostar]

Right, I'm going to scan the network via my DM500C then FTP the XML into the Ultimo.

I finally got to load one transponder and it seems the frequencies in the BH xml are out for the UK. That seems to be the problem me thinks.

[silverfox0786]

an eiser way would be to open the setting in DBedit and update the xml file and ftp that into the ultimo

same thing but less time

[ekkostar]

There's a 'terrestrial.xml' in there and it holds both the DVB T/C info. For the life of me I could not edit it correctly and get the box to recognise the edits.

Went back to scan manually. You have two options a complete scan or a transponder. The complete scan will not pick up anything.

The manual transponder set to Network scan does. As soon as you find one working transponder, then it downloads everything. I tried to scan Freq 387000 on Symbol 06887 and it kicked on to download everything off cable, 503 channels in all.

So, it seems there is a slight bug in BH on the Cable tuner side.

Most of the channels on cable as you would expect were scrambled, BBC News & Four are FTA.

Now for the really interesting news......

....there were 4 feeds on there transmitting...

BBC HD
Sky Living HD
E4 HD
SyFy HD

They all cleared FTA in glorious 1920x1080 !

That means the DVB T/C tuner can indeed handle HD on the cable side :eek:

[Rob van der Does]

There should still be a corresponding .xml file that contains the frequencies like the terrestrial.xml and satellites.xml.
I found no such thing in the PLi images.

[ekkostar]

There should still be a corresponding .xml file that contains the frequencies like the terrestrial.xml and satellites.xml.

There is, it's all in a file called 'terrestrial.xml' The frequencies appear to be generic as DVB C covers EMEA rather than UK. It's a Dreambox.de registered file so seems to be default untampered with, which is the problem.

I gave up trying to edit it for now.

As I have said the effort didn't go wasted, I have discovered that the DVB T/C tuner works perfectly with Cable HD. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that as it clearly opens up further possibilities with this box.

[silverfox0786]

Now for the really interesting news......

....there were 4 feeds on there transmitting...

BBC HD
Sky Living HD
E4 HD
SyFy HD

They all cleared FTA in glorious 1920x1080 !

That means the DVB T/C tuner can indeed handle HD on the cable side :eek:

Cable doesnt use a C or C2 standard all cable channels are just plain C and they will decode tghen you need teh receiver to be HD Ready to decode it so that was expected from the cable side

you just wont see it in the Terestrial Side in Mainland UK. Where T2 is required

[ekkostar]

so that was expected from the cable side

I wasn't expecting it but at least we now know that the Ultimo/Uno can receive and decode FullHD via Cable via this tuner :)

[Huevos]

Thats a pity that the Ultimo isnt Freeview HD.
We in Ireland have had issues with usb DTT and I was hoping that the internal DTT Tuner would help.It's not true that the Tuner is not HD compatible, it's just that it is not DVB-T2. It is currently only a handful of countries that are using DVB-T2. Everywhere else (here and in Ireland for example) HD channels are transmitted on DVB-T multiplexes and can be received fine using any DVB-T capable hardware. Here I'm using a Nova-T to receive the local terrestrial HD channels.