A Few Questions

[aftermath]

First of all I have decided to purchase the Clarke Tech / Xtrend et9000 as opposed to the VU+ Duo

I hope to pay for it by Tuesday at the latest. I took the 500gb HDD out my old SKY+ HD box to install in it.

i have a few questions to ask.

1. does the EPG automatically scan in the background or do you need to run the EPG Download ?
2. Can you multiboot from this box, like HDD, USB ?
3. What Media files does it play, i have a 3D TV, and i can play mkv files in half SBS format H264, it would save me buying a media centre.
4. is this box stable for recordings of HD stuff, and no crashes.
5. What is the best/most popular image for it ? or i could start a new thread with a Poll.
6. can you play movies from an external HDD through it ?
7. is oscam available for it ? if so is it as stable as cccam. ?

i think thats it for now, i cant wait till i get it.. i need a new toy..

[Larry-G]

well i dont have a ET9000 my self but to answer what i can

1. you can set the EPG to download at your chosen time, i have mine set to 04:00 and it works fine, you can also do a manual download any time you want.
2. yes you can multi boot but most current teams do not support multi booting from within their images, but yes it can be done.
3. you can play most MKV'S along most other formats but these are not meant to be media players so any functionality in that area would be considered a bonus.
4. yes the box is very stable for recording
5. well that one comes down to personal preference. i'd say throw a few different images at it to see what you like, but most decent images come with some form of a backup manager allowing you to backup your current image and settings so you can flash back to it in a few minutes if needed / wanted.
6. yes you can use a external HDD i use both a internal HDD with my uno and a external NAS drive both work well.
7. yes oscam will work for the ET9000 providing you set it up correctly for the image etc.

as i said i dont have the box but i'm just working off general knowlege here so maybe one of the guys with one of these boxes will also chip in with their answers.

[blandie]

Yup, I have one of these for over a week now.. not disappointed at all to be honest :-)
Very stable so far and that even with me messing about designing my own skin to make it look like sly to please the missus.

The only thing is in hindsight I would like to have seen it running side by side with a duo and a DM800/8000. To see if they really are equal in terms of ZAP times and stability. So long as ViX keeps supportingitI think we'll be ok.

1. does the EPG automatically scan in the background or do you need to run the EPG Download ?
Yes you can schedule this, I use CrossEPG download set for daily at 4AM. And then use coolEPG as the default display (again mainly because the misus needed an easy transition and coolEPG has a preview window like the slyHD EPG).

2. Can you multiboot from this box, like HDD, USB ?
Never tried but heard its possible, but as said I also read most groups images require a flash install so far. But really with the backup/restore function it doesnt take long to revert if you dont like something.

3. What Media files does it play, i have a 3D TV, and i can play mkv files in half SBS format H264, it would save me buying a media centre.
I have 720p AC3 mkv mainly plus some .MP4 files from get_iplayer (I think h264) and they are playing fine. I am going to try some 1080p and older xvids aswell. I heard there is an issue with DTS audio on mkv down to a missing algo in the driver and so far no downmix.

4. is this box stable for recordings of HD stuff, and no crashes.
No crahses with the recording, only issue I had was when using a NAS over NFS mount via wifi. It was usually fine but recoding something while playing back another killed me and caused stuttering but I think that was bandwith related as my wifi network has lots of interference, I assume a cabled connection would be ok but I didnt yet test it but I will. I didnt have any such issue on USB HDD (and therefore internal HDD should be fine aswell as it faster still)

5. What is the best/most popular image for it ? or i could start a new thread with a Poll.
ViX of course :-).. but I'll be honest its the first I installed and havent bothered with anything else.

6. can you play movies from an external HDD through it ?
Yes the browser lets you select files from flash or disk.

7. is oscam available for it ? if so is it as stable as cccam. ?
I saw it listed as available, but not test it. I can and will let you know.

As you can see I am please, there are a couple of things you asked that I havent tried. My assumption is they would be fine but I am happy to test and give you feedback. (i.e. OScam etc)

[basilyoung]

Yup, I have one of these for over a week now.. not disappointed at all to be honest :-)
Very stable so far and that even with me messing about designing my own skin to make it look like sly to please the missus.

The only thing is in hindsight I would like to have seen it running side by side with a duo and a DM800/8000. To see if they really are equal in terms of ZAP times and stability. So long as ViX keeps supportingitI think we'll be ok.

1. does the EPG automatically scan in the background or do you need to run the EPG Download ?
Yes you can schedule this, I use CrossEPG download set for daily at 4AM. And then use coolEPG as the default display (again mainly because the misus needed an easy transition and coolEPG has a preview window like the slyHD EPG).

2. Can you multiboot from this box, like HDD, USB ?
Never tried but heard its possible, but as said I also read most groups images require a flash install so far. But really with the backup/restore function it doesnt take long to revert if you dont like something.

3. What Media files does it play, i have a 3D TV, and i can play mkv files in half SBS format H264, it would save me buying a media centre.
I have 720p AC3 mkv mainly plus some .MP4 files from get_iplayer (I think h264) and they are playing fine. I am going to try some 1080p and older xvids aswell. I heard there is an issue with DTS audio on mkv down to a missing algo in the driver and so far no downmix.

4. is this box stable for recordings of HD stuff, and no crashes.
No crahses with the recording, only issue I had was when using a NAS over NFS mount via wifi. It was usually fine but recoding something while playing back another killed me and caused stuttering but I think that was bandwith related as my wifi network has lots of interference, I assume a cabled connection would be ok but I didnt yet test it but I will. I didnt have any such issue on USB HDD (and therefore internal HDD should be fine aswell as it faster still)

5. What is the best/most popular image for it ? or i could start a new thread with a Poll.
ViX of course :-).. but I'll be honest its the first I installed and havent bothered with anything else.

6. can you play movies from an external HDD through it ?
Yes the browser lets you select files from flash or disk.

7. is oscam available for it ? if so is it as stable as cccam. ?
I saw it listed as available, but not test it. I can and will let you know.

As you can see I am please, there are a couple of things you asked that I havent tried. My assumption is they would be fine but I am happy to test and give you feedback. (i.e. OScam etc)

This is a very accurate answer, well done, and thanks for taking the time to answer in such detail, brilliant post

[Cucosat]

3. What Media files does it play, i have a 3D TV, and i can play mkv files in half SBS format H264, it would save me buying a media centre.
I don't have a 3D TV, but I tested playback of a 1080p half SBS MKV 3D test movie from LG, it played fine and I expect your 3DTV can do the conversion from side-by-side panels to 3D on it's own. Remember to install the autoresolution plugin if you want 1080p/25Hz or 1080p/30Hz instead of the usual 1080i (1080p/60Hz isn't supported but given that this is a DVB reciever this is hardly to be expected anyway).
I haven't come across any mkv's or avi's that I wasn't able to playback yet (drivers for kernel 2.6.18), but I haven't exactly sought out any exotic files or ancient encodes either. As others have mentioned DTS is still not handled completely, I haven't tested it out, I imagine pass-through of the DTS audio to a DTS decoder should work though. With project valerie you get a XBMC-like menu system for your movies and tv-shows, it handles pretty much everything automatically once you tell it where to search for the files (check it out here:

http://code.google.com/p/project-valerie/

) and lets you edit the media database through a web-interface.

[punisher]

One or two points of interestm have a look at this topic

http://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?9511-Zap-times&highlight=Digidude

[beson]

I have two ET9000 boxes, and I'm very satisfied with them. I have oscam on both, and it works without any problems.

There is one thing though, that is not discussed here on VIX forum, and it is the "tuner B bug"
"Tuner B bug" means that you can not watch channels with SR 30000 on tuner B.
Clarke Tech support says. They know the problem, and they are working on it.
So they have said now for half a year at least, but still no solution.
You can read more about it here

http://www.clarke-support.com/Forum/showthread.php?97-Tuner-2-does-not-work-with-SR-30000-channels

beson

[halflife]

it is not 100% true. I have a problem with s/r 30000 on HD programs on thor 1 W and eutelsat 7 E. but on 16 E, hd programs with s/r 30000 works quite well ( arena1 HD or F1 HD )! so there must be something in transponder data what crash tuner B. it's about digiturk and cd nordic hd programs.

[beson]

I watch CD nordic on Thor 1W, and there are 5 or 6 channels using SR 30k. And all of them will crash tuner B. They are all HD channels.
No SD channels with SR 30 k exist on 1 W.

But shouldn't the tuner drivers be the same for both tuners?
These SR 30 k channels work fine on tuner A.

beson

[Larry-G]

I have two ET9000 boxes, and I'm very satisfied with them. I have oscam on both, and it works without any problems.

There is one thing though, that is not discussed here on VIX forum, and it is the "tuner B bug"
"Tuner B bug" means that you can not watch channels with SR 30000 on tuner B.
Clarke Tech support says. They know the problem, and they are working on it.
So they have said now for half a year at least, but still no solution.
You can read more about it here

http://www.clarke-support.com/Forum/showthread.php?97-Tuner-2-does-not-work-with-SR-30000-channels

beson

actually that bug has been discussed many times on this forum.

and please in future code your links.

[beson]

Ok sorry, I forgot coding the link.

I must have missed that discussion, though I read a lot here on the forum.
But has anyone of you admins heared of a solution from CT for the tuner B problem?

beson

[beson]

Not an answer

[basilyoung]

as far as I am aware, so far, there is no solution as yet, sadly, but its not to much of an issue, for most user,s

[beson]

Not an answer from admins on my question in last thread.
But I'm not surprised. This seems to be a discussion that nobody wants to take.
Nor CT and as it seems, not VIX either.

Is the reason that programmers on CT are incompetent, or....
I have mailed them, and the only standard replies I get is
"Dear Sir,

we are working on it !



Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards

CT Support Team"

Other people I know have got this answer
"We don't have a programcard, so we can not test"

How difficult would it be for CT to get a programcard for testing?

beson

[beson]

as far as I am aware, so far, there is no solution as yet, sadly, but its not to much of an issue, for most user,s

If you watch the discussion on CT forum, there are many users who have this problem.
And the first thread is from first days in january. Nine months ago.
I only want to know if CT actually are working with it, or if they don't care about it.

beson