How can I delete channels from my channel list please?

[janpiero]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum - and indeed new to my VU+ Uni 4K SE, which I've only had for around 2 weeks.

I'm hoping that someone can answer my query, as TBH, despite the sophistication of this box, I'm pretty disappointed that it doen't do something which I feel is fundamental and basic, without which I may decide to dispose of my new Vu+ on Ebay or somewhere else.

I've experience of scanning specific transponders, even starting again after deleting all channels, across 3 different satellites using 2 dishes connected to 2 tuners on my old Humax receiver. So I'm reasonably confident and knowledgable in adding new transponders when I find one on Lyngsat or other such sites. TBH I'm not interested in using autobouquet or building my own bouquet because 1) I'm not a programmer/developer and I thought I'd bought a receiver able operate with everything I needed 'out of the box' and 2) from what I gather, autiobouquets will simply bring down a pre-set range of channels,which miight not be all the channels I want.

By way of background, I had to upgrade to the Vu+ as RAI channels need a CAM and decoder card, which were both incompatible with my 16 yr old but trusty Humax. The VU+ came with TivuSat channels pre-set by the supplier, but I envisage scanning particular trasponders for Spanish, English and French channels on Astra 19.2 and finally I plan to scan all trasponders on Astra 28.3 for my UK channels. Last week I test scanned a couple of frequencies on Hotbird for channels not found in the Tivusat range. Apart from the handfull I wanted, I intended to delete various Polish, Russian and Arabic channels (as well as a fair number of X rated ones) which were on the same transponders, but I couldn't find a delete channel option! I've read 3 sets of manuals...been through the forum.

I'm hoping 'delete' is located in a hidden menu, or can be found with a particular combination of keystrokes. Otherwise, whilst 30-odd unwanted channels might not be a problem after my initial test-scans of a dozen transponders, when it gets to scanning Astra 28.3 I could be left with hundreds of unwanted channels. (Regularly after a full rescan of all 3 satellites I'd have nearly 1,000 channels on my Humax, many of which I used to delete). As another poster noted on the same subject, I also like to keep a tidy system.

As well as a delete option, the Vu seems to be short of 'add a new transponder' and 'edit an existing one', as I could on my Humax. This is because I know of at least one channel set up by the supplier no doubt using an autobouquet for TiVusat, which according to Lyngsat has the wrong standard and modulation - and I can't see how I can scan with the correct settings.

A final word - I'm probably out of my depth with the VU+ I know, although I was network admin some 11 years ago - but it seems to me that to do anything simple on the Vu+ is like taking on the admin of the Large Hadron Collider! Here's hoping you can prove me wrong!

Regards janpiero.

[Huevos]

If you have ViX loaded it is super simple to do basic stuff like you want.

You don't need to "add" new transponders. The satellites.xml file is updated every week and you just need to pull in the latest version using "xmlUpdate" in the tuning menu.

ABM makes your life easy. Just tell it to do a scan of Freesat and Saorview.

To delete a channel open the channel list, highlight the channel and press menu. There should be an option to delete there.

[Joe_90]

@Huevos - I don't think Saorview transmitters would be in range of UK North West (unless location was elevated). Freeview transmitters more appropriate.

[abu baniaz]

The simple answer to your question is: Press the Menu button and select Remove entry.



If you don't want channels that you delete to keep being re-added to your system, disable background scanning.
As Huevos mentioned, the xml file is updated every week, you can use the xml update to update this. That being said, if you use manual scan, you can manually enter the transponder details you want to scan.

You are probably mixing up satellites.xml and saved channels. The satellites.xml is only used to validate orbital positions for tuner configuration and for scanning purposes. It is not used for saving/storing the channels. They are saved in lamedb. There are several methods of you selecting and viewing channels. The options/view presented to you are based on the last mode you used. See here: https://www.world-of-satellite.com/s...nel-navigation

You need to decide what method you will use for selecting channels. It will be easier for you to make bouquets/favourites of what you want. Otherwise you will have to select from All, Orbital position or Provider.

Stay off the EPG button for now, I don't know why people are addicted and gravitate to it by default. If you are using the channel selection routine (i.e press Up next to OK near middle of remote, pressing Menu will allow you to add/delete/move etc, depending on what you want to do.

In my opinion, you are wasting your time trying to keep a "clean" system. Just add the channels to your favourites/bouquets. When the transponders change, delete dead one from your bouquet, scan new transponder, move the channel to your bouquet and move it to exactly where you want.

[adm]

To delete a channel open the channel list, highlight the channel and press menu. There should be an option to delete there.

Also if you use Autobouquetmaker (ABM) and Openvix use the Bouquet Editor in the web Interface (Webif) to delete entries.

First find the IP address of your box
Menu -> Information -> Network -> IP

Now on your PC open up your web browser and type the IP address of you box into the address bar.
This should open the web Interface (Webif) to your box

One on the options in the web interface is a Bouquet Editor.

Go to the Bouquet Editor, select the relevant Bouquet, highlight the channel and press the delete button.
You can also re-order the channels by highlighting them and moving them up/down the list with your mouse.

[janpiero]

Hello all once again,

I meant to say thanks some days ago. However, grateful though I am for your help, I'm sorry to report back that the exact solution I wanted - ie, the remove option described by Huevos and shown on the useful menu screen provided by Abu Baniaz doesn't work!

I tried the remove channel option last Tuesday when I went through the remove option on the channels which were 'visible' that night. Only to find the next night they were back. So I realised that as well as the smaller list of channels, perhaps I needed to delete them from the red button 'all' channels list. (don't ask - I have no idea what this smaller list of channels was/is or why there's more than one list of channels anyway - and why deleting from one list doesn't remove a channel from all the possible lists the system might hold somewhere in it's system!) So after realising this issue on Wednesday, I deleted my unwanted channels from the 'all' channels list. Guess what? On Thursday they all reappeared. So this time I ensured that the bouquets were showing too and as well as deleting the channels from the 'all ' list I deleted them from each of bouquets where they were also listed. Friday they were all back once again. I decided to leave that issue whilst I let off some steam!

Two important factors here - Firstly I tend to unplug the VU+ overnight or if I'm out all day, but I can't see why that has any effect at all - if a channel is deleted it ought to be deleted! Also since before I tried deleting my Hotbird channels my Hotbird LNB decided to fail - and I'm still waiting for the satellite engineer to visit to fix this dish (his meter is broke!). So it's not somehow background scanning the channel list from the satellite or even via WiFi. (My Wifi on the VU+ is not yet setup as there's enough to cope with besides that just at the moment).

However, since Hotbird is out of action I decided to manually scan Astra 28.3E for UK channels, so I can at least watch some UK channels and get some enjoyment out of the VU+. But it does mean I've now a whole load more channels I want to delete but can't. I don't see how setting up a bouquet would help as I just want a simple delete routine and I don't want to mess around with xml files and xml updates, at least not yet. I was a bit taken aback that the remove option was on a hidden menu which is nowhere described in any of the 3 manuals I checked. How many other hidden options are there?

Whilst I'm reporting my problems I might as well add that now I've a couple of hundred channels on my VU+ I'd quite like to create a favourite list. I thought that's bound to be easy, as there's a favourite's option on screen shown in blue font. Over this weekend I've tried almost every remote button to try to pull up an 'add service to favourites' option for my highlighted channels. It even describes this in one of the VU+ guides I've downloaded, but this option is also nowhere to be seen. Is there some other hidden menu I've not found? Sorry for a note of cynicism but I have to say - besides some of the clever stuff the VU+ does (such as the screen within screen and timeshift back and then forward again to live which are both far more impressive than on my old Humax) it seems like the VU+ just can't do the simple things at all. Please prove me wrong.

Regards,

janpiero.

[janpiero]

Hello,

I thought I posted a new reply last night but it is nowhere to be seen...

In essence, my reply gave details of what I tried following your help above - the remove channel option described by Huevos and Abu Baniaz doesn't work. After a frustrating week last week trying again and again to delete the channels I decided to focus on something more constructive and build my list of favouirite channels. That didn't work either.

If the moderator has not yet released last night's post please please do so, as posting on this forum seems to be the only way to get support for my Vu+. If my post has somehow got lost in the ether, well that just about puts the tin hat on this Vu+ system.

[abu baniaz]

As an anti-spam/bot measure, new joiners have to have their posts approved. Hopefully you will clear that threshold soon.

You have not said what mode you are using to view the channels. If you are addicted to press the EPG button, you are will struggle.

Deleting a channel is pointless if you are going to use that transponder, it will just get added again by background scan. I won't be repeating this again for you.

Have you read the guide/pdf I linked to? If you use the channel selection coding instead of the EPG code, all the options are there and they work. Press up next to OK, not the EPG button. Select the all/orbital viewing mode and you can add to favourites. If you are in a bouquet, e.g "last scanned", you have to enable edit mode. (You are probably in that bouquet after your last scan and have incorrectly concluded the other orbital position has been removed.) It works. If it doesn't, you are doing something slightly differently to what is being explained to you. Post pictures of what you see. There is a guide to screenshots in my signature if you need it.

[janpiero]

Thanks Abu Baniaz. The manual you link to is not one of the 3 I've already downloaded, so I've read through it tonight and I’ll follow it on my Vu+ later as its already gone 3am. However, so far none of the other 3 guides I've previously read exactly represents my own version of VIX - or WIX as my provider perhaps erroneously referred to it... Maybe this is what you refer to as a difference in the skin used, or maybe just because as I mentioned in my earlier post above, the ‘add to favourites’ option just doesn’t appear anywhere.

I have used EPG but I am not addicted to pressing EPG. Although I might have occasionally selected a channel through EPG, increasingly I use what you describe as the 'all channel' list by pressing down whilst watching the channel in full screen mode. The screen then reverts to the "all channel' list in AZ order on the right of the screen while the programme continues to be shown in the top left of the screen. (This is what I referred to above as a ‘screen within a screen’ mode). Or I might occasionally press the red 'all'' button just to ensure I'm in the ‘all channel’ list, as sometimes just the TiVuSat bouquet list in channel number order appears on the right with the programme streaming in the top corner).

After reading your guide, I can say that at least one of my delete attempts was whilst I was in this bouquet numerical channel list view, which was a mystery why the channel numbers appeared and then disappeared, why the unwanted channels sometimes appeared in the TiVuSat list (even though NOT TiVuSat channels) and other times in a separate channel list starting at 4001. These are what I described earlier as the ‘shorter list’ of channels such as found within my pre-installed Tivusat bouquet.

BTW I discovered this odd quirk of the system, which is why I described in my earlier post that eventually I tried deleting these channels from the bouquet lists (hence from TiVuSat if found in the TiVuSat bouquet list, and from the recently scanned list starting at channel 4001) AS WELL as from the ‘All channel’ red button list. I thought this belt and braces delete approach would be foolproof, but as I mentioned the next day they were all back grinning at me!

Also please note, that as mentioned above, Hotbird is currently not functioning. In fact an engineer is calling tomorrow (at last!) to check the coax and mono-block LNBs, because around 27th July, my Hotbird dish/LNB/cable developed a fault, meaning I've not been able to manually scan or watch any Hotbird channels since. So logically for the last 10 or 12 days there can not have been any background scanning to add back those Hotbird channels which I've tried to delete 3 times now. Tomorrow I will look into how I can turn off automatic scanning as I don’t want these channels added back in, assuming I can get rid of them in the first place.

Tomorrow I’ll work through your guide once more but this time whilst using the VU+, although I don’t see it answering my basic questions as there’s a heck of a lot of references to the EPG which you say I ought not use! It helped to put some of the jigsaw pieces of my understanding into place, so thanks for that!

I will also use your other guide so I can get some screen shots to post, so I can describe exactly where I am and what I am trying to do.

Regards, janpiero.

[ronand]

Two important factors here - Firstly I tend to unplug the VU+ overnight or if I'm out all day, but I can't see why that has any effect at all - if a channel is deleted it ought to be deleted!

How are you turning the box off - if you are just putting it in standby and pulling the power then that is probably a lot of your problem. You must put the box in deep standby first or changes tend not to be saved. A linux box is like a PC and must be shut down correctly. In any case they will use almost no power in deep standby (only the clock runs) so there is no need to unplug.

[adm]

How are you turning the box off - if you are just putting it in standby and pulling the power then that is probably a lot of your problem. You must put the box in deep standby first or changes tend not to be saved. A linux box is like a PC and must be shut down correctly. In any case they will use almost no power in deep standby (only the clock runs) so there is no need to unplug.

A box in deep standby will take less than 0.5W (about £3.50 if left in this state 24 hours a day for a whole year at current UK electricity prices)
A box in just standby saves little power over being fully on.

As ronand has indicated a box has to be put into deep standby before the power is removed. There are also power timers that you can configure to put your box into deep standby at a certain time of day or if you don't touch your remote for x hours etc.

[janpiero]

Thanks Ronand and Admin - I'll try Deep Standby - I've seen this somewhere but I didn't think it had any bearing on this issue. It's definitely worth a try if that turns out to be the issue.

I've also tried to turning off auto update of bouquets (I'm not at the Vu+ now, so whatever the exact wording is... ) in case immediately the receiver connects it downloads all the channels I've deleted. As I noted it can't be the cause right now as my monoblock for Hotbird 13E and Astra 19.2E has failed since I took delivery of the Vu+. So whilst I successfully manually scanned some transponders 3 or 4 weeks ago, it's not yet been fixed so there's no way the deleted channels are being re-imported 'behind my back as it were...'. Just that I don’t intend to let that happen going forward.

In passing, on Wednesday I followed all Abu Baniaz's instructions to the letter. After spending an hour deleting the unwanted channels sure enough on Thursday evening they were all back. I fact it was a bit irritating even during my delete operation. I'd delete a channel from the 'all channel' AZ list and it would more often than not take me back to the first channel in the AZ list, sometimes part way through the list, for reasons I know not why. But neither was unreasonable as it allowed me to scroll through at the channels from the top again quite regularly. Every so often I'd find a channel back in the list that some minutes earlier I'd just deleted. It wouldn’t be the last channel deleted, but regularly I’d find a channel creeping back into the list. At first, I thought maybe I'd missed that channel, but after several instances I realised that it wasn't my imagination playing games.

Trying to be more positive and less critical of this system, I thought, maybe there's more than one channel on the same transponder - even though by that logic there should be more than one channel with the same name etc on the list. More likely perhaps is that perhaps the same channel is found in more than one bouquet (which by the way I haven't deliberately created - it seems they have appeared just because these channels are on a different bouquet than the RAI channels on the TiVuSat bouquet More on bouquets later).

I also noticed that initially I’d ‘tune’ into one of these channels I was trying to delete As I didn’t have my list of channels to delete in front of me, I wanted to ensure I was deleting one that I didn’t want – such as a Polish channel. I realised that maybe whilst on screen trying to delete the same channel would be likely to fail as logically they couldn’t be deleted whilst tuned in. So I soon ensured I’d tune into another channel before trying to delete a channel I’d just viewed on screen. Nonetheless, I ended up deleting a handful of channels sometimes 5 or 6 times, despite folowing the instructiions and taking all these precautions. That’s what makes me somewhat cautious of the idea that Deep Standby will cure the problem, as there’s something seriously amiss when I’m deleting a channel and the system is clearly ignoring that instruction in real time, minutes after I’ve instructed it to do so. No message saying ‘delete has failed’, or ‘delete is not possible’. Just my reasonable expectation that after accepting ‘Y’ for 'are you sure you want to delete’ (or whatever the exact words are) delete really, really ought to happen. Instead, delete is being ignored by a function which in my mind is clearly faulty.

I think I’ve spotted an answer to the other issue I raised namely the absence of ‘add service to favourites’. I’ve spotted a favourites bouquet and I suspect I need to add channels to the bouquet, as the ‘add service to favourites’ option doesn’t appear on any menu described in the 3 guides I’ve found. If so, I'll retain my TiVuSat bouquet which I might need to ensure my relatively expensive TiVuSat CAM card continues to work (once the monoblock is repaired) as well as the favourites bouquet if that’s the only way to generate a favourites list. Apart from these two bouquets, I’m very sorely tempted to delete all the other bouquets which have suddenly appeared as a result of my manual scans of specific transponders. I have no need for them. I will continue to manually scan as that is part of my enjoyment of discovering new channels which I’ve identified through Lyngsat. To be blunt, if bouquets (auto or otherwise) could be part of the problem behind these undeletable channels, then the only way to remove that variable means I’ll want nothing to do with bouquets. My Humax functioned perfectly well for years, from day one, without any of these seemingly pointless bouquets.

Regards Janpiero.

[abu baniaz]

Until we know from which "All" list you are deleing channels from, we are wasting time. ABM reads channels, it does not scan. Some providers transmit on multiple satellites.

You have this the wrong way round, you want your own bouquets.

EDIT: Start using the EPG button for selecting channel when you are comfortable with navigation around the system.

[ronand]

Manual scans do not create bouquets (apart from the "last scanned" bouquet).

[Huevos]

it does not scan.

What does "scan" mean in this context?