Saving EPG to USB....

[Genie30190]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of putting their EPG and possibly other bits on to a USB rather than HDD? I'm thinking in theory it should mean the HDD doesn't have to start spinning everytime I go on to the EPG. Firstly, is it OK to leave the USB stick in the rear USB slot of the Vu+ Duo?

Some details: Vu+ Duo, running the latest Vix image, Silverfox bouquets and picons. CrossEPG used with the 28.2 settings. Fixed dish at 28.2 with twin outputs to STB.

I'm only enquiring as I am constantly having to go into CrossEPG and force download to get my channel listings back when they mysteriously vanish every 1-2 days. Getting the VIX logo spinning every now and then when navigating the EPG and thinking its because the HDD is having to work. Thus, to my way of thinking, putting them on USB stick would eradicate this.

What I need to know is do I need to FTP any files across or is it all done via the menus? If so could someone tell me which files need to be transferred and also if there are any other files (such as picons etc.) that would be beneficial having them on a USB stick rather than HDD.

Thanks in advance.

[Stanman]

Yes USB is fine, Ihave both EPG and Picons on USB. Make sure its mounted as USB in the VIX mount manager

[mcquaim]

Yes, most people would save their EPG and picons to a USB stick. Just change the location of the EPG in the Menu->Setup->System->EPG->Settings to media/usb and then manually download to get them to store onto the USB stick. To get your picons onto the USB stick use an FTP software like Filezilla and put them in a folder called picon on the root of the USB stick formatted as FAT32.

[Genie30190]

OK, thanks for the advice, still quite new to this so hear goes....

1. How do you mount the USB?

2. Once it's mounted and I follow the menu instructions above, how do I manually download to get them on to the USB stick?

3. I'm OK using Filezilla, how do you format the USB as FAT32 or will it already be done? Will I have to create a new folder called Picon?

Once the above is all done do I have to do anything in the menus to make the STB aware of the Picons being on the USB rather than HDD or by moving the EPG across will it already know? IF that makes any sense lol!

Thanks again

[mcquaim]

Follow these steps, this should get you up and running..

1. Put the USB stick into your pc and open windows explorer (Assuming you use Windows..). Right click on the USB drive and select format with the file system set to FAT32.
2. Download some picons (These are really good
http://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?8056-ViX-Team-ALICE-Picons-For-UK-Channels-28-2E-and-DTT-By-Silverfox0786/page2 and save the whole folder picon from witin the zip file onto the root of the USB stick.
3. Take the USB stick out of the PC and put it in the back of the Duo and then reboot the Duo (Hold down the power button and select reboot)
4. Go to Menu->Setup->System->EPG->Settings and change the location to media/usb
5. Im not sure what EPG source you use but if it is OpenTV then within that highlight 28.2 and press the yellow button to manually download the EPG data

Now you should have EPG and picons on the USB stick.

[Genie30190]

Thanks mcquaim, I'll follow those steps later and see what happens.

Do I need to mount the USB as stanman previously said or will just following your steps work? If I do need to mount it could you tell me at what stage in the process you do this and how it is done?

Thanks again

Mike

[Rob van der Does]

To jump in:
1- for picons flash is the very best location.
2- epg.dat is only written on closing enigma, and read on starting enigma. As long as the box is alive all epg-data is in ram. So HDD is a perfect location for epg.dat

In other words: if the box has an internal HDD, there's no need whatsoever (and even no advantage) to add an USb-stick.

[75mak]

To jump in:
1- for picons flash is the very best location.
2- epg.dat is only written on closing enigma, and read on starting enigma. As long as the box is alive all epg-data is in ram. So HDD is a perfect location for epg.dat

In other words: if the box has an internal HDD, there's no need whatsoever (and even no advantage) to add an USb-stick.

Thanks for this new info.

So to confirm, putting epg on usb is not neccessary to stop the hard disk spinning up as it mostly resides in ram anyway?

Also, above you say flash is the best location for picons. Do you mean usb flash drive or internal flash? I take it you mean usb flash drive?

[Rob van der Does]

epg.dat does indeed not spin up the HDD, as this file is not in use when the box is alive (it's a kind of hibernate file).
And for picons I indeed mean internal flash: you've got plenty of it, and it's by far the fastest location available.

[75mak]

Is there any greater chance of internal flash "wearing out" or developing bad blocks/corruption by reading picons from there? Or does reading flash have no effect on its longevity?

Thanks

[Rob van der Does]

Reading has no effect on flash life span. To some extend writing does, but for modern, good quality flash as being used by VU (and probably other makes as well) this is no problem at all.
To give an idea: all my boxes must have undergone hundreds of full (re-)flashes, sometimes dozens a day.

[mauri]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of putting their EPG and possibly other bits on to a USB rather than HDD? I'm thinking in theory it should mean the HDD doesn't have to start spinning everytime I go on to the EPG. Firstly, is it OK to leave the USB stick in the rear USB slot of the Vu+ Duo?

Some details: Vu+ Duo, running the latest Vix image, Silverfox bouquets and picons. CrossEPG used with the 28.2 settings. Fixed dish at 28.2 with twin outputs to STB.

I'm only enquiring as I am constantly having to go into CrossEPG and force download to get my channel listings back when they mysteriously vanish every 1-2 days. Getting the VIX logo spinning every now and then when navigating the EPG and thinking its because the HDD is having to work. Thus, to my way of thinking, putting them on USB stick would eradicate this.

What I need to know is do I need to FTP any files across or is it all done via the menus? If so could someone tell me which files need to be transferred and also if there are any other files (such as picons etc.) that would be beneficial having them on a USB stick rather than HDD.

Thanks in advance.

I had these symptoms for months till yesterday, when I put epg.dat on HDD and picons on internal flash - following the suggestion of Rob van der Does - all my headache is gone! ;)