AZBOX AzBox miniMe American edition version 2.00 beta firmware
- Thread starter pwrsurge
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OK... I was able to get into Safe Mode. In the previous firmware version, it was a different way of getting there. Now it is holding down the power button for 5+ seconds and waiting for it to flash. I was then able to update the firmware to 2.0 for a second time and it seem to complete and reboot on its own this time. All seems to be functioning at the moment, but I do have a dumb question. How do you enter a decimal point into the Latitude and Longitude setting. I can't seem to get that to happen and was the reason I tried to change the coordinates last time. They were not exactly legitimate entries without the decimal included. The old version seemed to figure it out, but not in this one. So thanks... things are looking better.
Now... I also had the same blank screen issue that scopus does after the 2nd time around with the upgrade. What I learned in my case is that my TV would detect the signal from the AzBox and power on, that is no longer the case. When I thought nothing was working, I tried turning the TV itself off and back on to "wake it up" and there it was. The unit was in safe mode all along, but I saw nothing. For some reason, my TV no longer senses that it is getting a signal after the upgrade. I hope that helps you in some way scopus, but your situation may differ.
Now... I also had the same blank screen issue that scopus does after the 2nd time around with the upgrade. What I learned in my case is that my TV would detect the signal from the AzBox and power on, that is no longer the case. When I thought nothing was working, I tried turning the TV itself off and back on to "wake it up" and there it was. The unit was in safe mode all along, but I saw nothing. For some reason, my TV no longer senses that it is getting a signal after the upgrade. I hope that helps you in some way scopus, but your situation may differ.
Is it possible that the USB method worked differently from the Internet method? USB seemed to complete the upgrade correctly where the Internet version did not in my case. Just a thought. I will test things out more once I find out how to put that decimal in to the Long and Lat settings of the USALS options. 
That's great to hear that you were able to get safe mode working and restore your unit!
Holding down the power button for 5+ seconds until it flashes then letting go does a hard reboot, similar to pressing the reboot button on a PC. This should be done if ever the unit becomes unresponsive rather than simply pulling the plug as it avoids the risk of corrupting the flash memory.
To enter a decimal point, use the down arrow key to scroll the displayed number until it goes one level below "0". Once the proper number is entered, press the OK key to save. Please note that the entered numbers won't refresh on the menu until you go Back twice which returns you to the Installation menu. Sorry that it's not so obvious but it's easy once you know about it. Now that our new firmware version is released, we will finish our work and release a user manual which would explain things like this.
You might be on to something as there could be an HDMI handshake issue which only impacts certain TV brands. Out of curiosity, what TV brand do you have?
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Pwrsurge, could you please tell me why the minime won't recognize my storage device? After the firmware upgrade I cannot install the pervious configuration file. It's really strange because I was able to browse the Western digital 1TB storage device before, but I couldn't record TV on it. It would crash the unit.
Please hold off entering numbers on USALS at the moment as I was able to replicate your issue. There might be an issue based on the way the numbers are entered which causes the flashing AzBox starting... message.
Ok, I can confirm that entering a number without the decimal point is what caused your issue as it causes a number higher than 360 to be saved which eventually causes an overflow. The USALS options menu was changed a bit and it appears that user input validation was not implemented properly for the latitude and longitude fields. As long as you are careful when entering the values to ensure that the decimal point is properly entered and each value is 360 or less, there will be no issues.
This will be fixed on the next firmware update.
I am using an older Hitachi 42 inch plasma. The "black screen" problem quit after configuring the unit and the TV now senses the HDMI signal as it used to. Go figure.That's great to hear that you were able to get safe mode working and restore your unit!
Holding down the power button for 5+ seconds until it flashes then letting go does a hard reboot, similar to pressing the reboot button on a PC. This should be done if ever the unit becomes unresponsive rather than simply pulling the plug as it avoids the risk of corrupting the flash memory.
To enter a decimal point, use the down arrow key to scroll the displayed number until it goes one level below "0". Once the proper number is entered, press the OK key to save. Please note that the entered numbers won't refresh on the menu until you go Back twice which returns you to the Installation menu. Sorry that it's not so obvious but it's easy once you know about it. Now that our new firmware version is released, we will finish our work and release a user manual which would explain things like this.
You might be on to something as there could be an HDMI handshake issue which only impacts certain TV brands. Out of curiosity, what TV brand do you have?
New issue with upgrade. Audio changes on NBC channels on 103w causes corrupted or no sound. For example, I switched from aaa to aac and it worked for a time and then no audio at all. Changing channel and returning restores the audio. I also switched to aag and the sound became choppy. Switching back to aac caused either choppy or no audio at all. A channel change again corrects the audio, at least for awhile. This did not occur before version 2.0
This happened alot in earlier firmwares. It can be fixed I believe as 1.86 had no issues.
Catamount
Hmm... after watching an NBC feed on 103w for about 15 minutes, the sound just quit. Switching channels did not correct. I tried switching audio from aac to others and nothing helped. Switched channels and back again and the audio sync was way off from the video by several seconds. Powered down with remote and powering back on restored it.
Thanks for that info K17, something else to try when I get home again, I'm not at home at present. The 5 second power button push with the blue light flashing is also a new one on me. Hopefully I should see a picture this time.
I've let mine flash up to 15 times trying to get it to boot . Let it go and still hangs on splash screen. Last few times, it's booted within three tries. I reflashed in safe mode three nights ago and redid my settings from scratch. Haven't turned it on today though LOL.
Good luck restoring your boxes, Scopus
Thanks Catamount, I might need some luck. I can't even get the splash screen on either of them. The TV on/off trick is yet to be tried.
Once I got past the struggle of the actual upgrade process (using the USB method was the more successful option for me), I am finding that My AzBox miniMe American is now a far more stable box! My frustration level with it has dropped considerably. Is everything fixed with the new version? Of course not, but it does appear that a more solid foundation is there to build on now. I am trying to put this thing through all of the paces I can, but I am admittedly new to this STB and have much to learn yet. I will post what I find still needs some work here, but I have to say that it is worth the effort to upgrade to this new firmware. I have not had to do any kind of reboots or power cycles to fix any problems at all yet! That alone is a big difference. I am no longer ready to just toss it in the drawer.
A couple of Questons;
How do I setup the USB drive for recording. Although I was able to use it for the upgrade by just copying the file to it and connecting it to the box, I get the following when attempting to record;
ERROR:
Unable to start recording as external disk is not connected or writable.
Please ensure the movies directory on your disk exists and is writable.
I go to the System Settings / Hard Disk Drive-USB / and the drive is shown there. I try formatting (ext2, ext3 and ext4) and it says "Unmount". I go to the previous menu and select "Unmount" and tried again but it just says "Unmount".
I was also using a small flash drive fine before the upgrade, now it doesn't even know its connected. Any thoughts?
Any advice appreciated.
How do I setup the USB drive for recording. Although I was able to use it for the upgrade by just copying the file to it and connecting it to the box, I get the following when attempting to record;
ERROR:
Unable to start recording as external disk is not connected or writable.
Please ensure the movies directory on your disk exists and is writable.
I go to the System Settings / Hard Disk Drive-USB / and the drive is shown there. I try formatting (ext2, ext3 and ext4) and it says "Unmount". I go to the previous menu and select "Unmount" and tried again but it just says "Unmount".
I was also using a small flash drive fine before the upgrade, now it doesn't even know its connected. Any thoughts?
Any advice appreciated.
I had mentioned this earlier on in the thread, but pwrsurge either overlooked it or ignored it. I e-mailed Dr. Sat about this issue because he said that he was testing the beta firmware for the Minime. He said he was going to forward it to AZbox. Maybe it is not an important issue for them. Add it to the list for the next release?????
PWRSURGE: how do I revert back to the pervious firmware? I did a factory reset and loaded the pervious firmware, but it doesn't take. I check the information tab and the receiver reboots. I check the information again and it is still 12.18.14. IMO, this beta version is really a waste of time. The unit was running ok for me before hand. It was my stupid mistake to upgrade to this firmware, when it is obvious there are even newer issues with it. The YouTube player is very limited because when I do a search on something particular, it searching for personal posts of people, nothing official.
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Unfortunately, you can't downgrade to previous firmware versions at the moment as the older firmware versions are in IMG format rather than KFL so they don't include the kernel.
The 1.x versions including 1.86 use a different kernel version than version 2.00 so if the system allowed the 1.86 IMG firmware to be flashed, the receiver would fail to boot and safe mode would not work either as the kernel would not have been downgraded as well.
We will soon create a KFL version of the 1.86 firmware for people who wish to downgrade to the 1.x firmware versions.
P. S. Recording was tested as working under the new 2.0 firmware so there's no need to try and downgrade because of this. As per my other post, please ensure your recording directory is correct in recording options. Only thing that does not work 100% yet is timeshift but manual or scheduled recordings should have no issues.
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As the error message states, please ensure that the movies directory exists on your USB drive. As well, please verify the directory specified in recording options to ensure it is valid.
When selecting a directory location, right arrow key moves forward inside a directory, left arrow key moves up to the parent directory and the OK key selects the current location as the recording destination.
I believe the correct directory path should be /media/sda1/movies but not 100% sure as i'm not in front of my computer at the moment. There should be at least one entry in the /media directory which represents your connected USB disk if sda1 does not exist.
I SPOKE TOO SOON! I grabbed the remote to do a simple channel change and I accidentally pressed a different key on the remote (I think the down arrow or EPG but not sure) and the picture was frozen and "AzBox Starting" instantly popped up. The box would not respond to the remote so I held down the power button until it flashed and let it restart. I was back to the endless flashing "AzBox Starting" situation again. I had to pull the power and then start it in safe mode which it did. I then just rebooted it back to normal boot and the flashing starting screen was back. All I could do was go back to safe mode and re-flash the firmware. And guess what? The problem with the black screen was back again. I had to turn the TV off and on to wake it up again so I could see what was going on with the box. I had to do that once for safe mode, and once for the regular starting. Now I have to reconfigure and scan the sats again. This, along with several other scanning problems such as not being able to cancel a scan (you start it, you are stuck with it until done) and the fact that it cannot seem to blind scan the NBC MUX on AMC-6 (Quick or Detailed) is driving me crazy. You can find them with the auto scan, but not with blind scan. I live for the wild feeds so I wonder what else I am missing in the scans. Enough for now. I am back to the old STB so I can watch some TV this weekend.
