So is 5020 better than 5306 too? I was just looking for something that would blind scan quicker is all as now it takes 15+ minutes to do that. I guess my Openbox S9 has spoiled me in that respect as it will complete a scan in 5 minutes.
AZBOX New firmware version 0.9.5402 for AzBox Elite, Ultra, Premium and Premium Plus models
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So is 5020 better than 5306 too? I was just looking for something that would blind scan quicker is all as now it takes 15+ minutes to do that. I guess my Openbox S9 has spoiled me in that respect as it will complete a scan in 5 minutes.
Well I must admit after using a microHD my disdain for the AZBox has grown exponentially. 5306 had file navigation issues for me. But I've always had issues of some sort with it no matter what FW was on it. Now that I'm not using it much I'm going to experiment a bit and see if I can get some more reliability from it. I mostly use a DVBS PC setup. The wife uses the MHD.
I believe the settings and satellite list format did change with the jump to 0.9.5300 and the default satellite list did change in 0.9.5308 and again in 0.9.5400/5402 so at the very least, a factory reset followed by a rescan of all satellites is required in order to ensure proper operation if upgrading from an older firmware such as 0.9.5020. Even better yet, you may do a "Format application area" before installing 0.9.5402 via USB which will not only do a factory reset but also reformat the partition used to hold the settings. This may improve things as reformatting the partition essentially "defrags" it which can improve performance depending how bad it was fragmented before.
Best regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
Increasing the minimum symbol rate in the parameters everytime before doing a blindscan from 1000 to something like 2000 or higher will greatly increase the scanning speed. Most wild feeds are at least 2000 SR anyways so you will miss very little by doing this.
Regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
Thanks for the info as I thought I had read somewhere that a bunch of stuff changed along the way but I wasn't able to find that doing a search here.
The satellite/channel list I use goes WAY back to when I first got my Elite and to be honest, I really don't want to have to completely re-do that. I was never able to get Maze to work so I had to do that via the remote, which is painfully slow at best. The ethernet circuit on my Elite is fried now so I do scans with the Ultra then transfer the channel.bak file to the Elite via USB to update it.
Will respectfully disagree with you on the "defrag" thingie as Linux doesn't fragment files like Windowz does. I run Ubuntu and or Mint Linux on all my computers here in the house and shop and have looked into the fragment issue and found it doesn't exist in Linux. So, since the AZ OS is linux, that eliminates the fragmented file issue.
I'll try changing the SR and see if that speeds it up the scans any but it's doubtful that it will ever be anywhere near as fast as the S9s.
And thanks again for the info.
The satellite/channel list I use goes WAY back to when I first got my Elite and to be honest, I really don't want to have to completely re-do that. I was never able to get Maze to work so I had to do that via the remote, which is painfully slow at best. The ethernet circuit on my Elite is fried now so I do scans with the Ultra then transfer the channel.bak file to the Elite via USB to update it.
Will respectfully disagree with you on the "defrag" thingie as Linux doesn't fragment files like Windowz does. I run Ubuntu and or Mint Linux on all my computers here in the house and shop and have looked into the fragment issue and found it doesn't exist in Linux. So, since the AZ OS is linux, that eliminates the fragmented file issue.
I'll try changing the SR and see if that speeds it up the scans any but it's doubtful that it will ever be anywhere near as fast as the S9s.
And thanks again for the info.
There is a defrag utility for Linux called shake. I've tried it and it destroyed all of my video files. Defragging Linux is not recommended.
Most articles say to back up your data to another drive (either by a USB attached drive or over your network to another PC), reformat the old drive, re-install the OS, then copy the files back. Supposedly, it's the best/safest way to "defrag" a Linux (or Windows) drive.
Most articles say to back up your data to another drive (either by a USB attached drive or over your network to another PC), reformat the old drive, re-install the OS, then copy the files back. Supposedly, it's the best/safest way to "defrag" a Linux (or Windows) drive.
Yeah I was aware that there was a defrag utility for Linux but if you search the Ubuntu forums you'll find that the "gurus'" say it's not needed for reasons I stated above.
I ran Ubuntu 9.04 up until late last summer and never saw any problems with it from day one until I replaced it with 12.04 w/Mate desktop. In the end it seemed to be just as fast as it was in the beginning.
RE: AZBox Linux OS? Granted there "may" be some old files in that thing that aren't used any more but that doesn't = fragmented files. Formatting the
application area would get rid of those unused files though, if there are any in there.
I had the same issue with my elite, I tried reverting back but had a host of issues. To solve the issue remove the priority manager plugin, something in it screws up the elite. I didn't bother trying to figure out exactly which part locked it up after recording (seemed to lock up after 1 hour of recording for me)
Has been stable ever since.
Has been stable ever since.
Slight change in subject matter but may be related to the latest update... When I reboot the Ultra it takes quite a while for it to read any signal strength from the LNB. Checked this once with the feedline off and noted only about 2v at the IF input connector for about 2-3 minutes then it jumps up to 18v. Also if I switch TPs or satellite it seems to "jump start" the LNB power. Tried unchecking the LNB power in the channel menu and re-checking it, made no difference when I tried that. Could be a hardware issue too I suppose with the power supply but it is difficult to check this when under load without making up some special cables etc. Has anyone experienced this? I never had this happen with previous software versions... but maybe this is just a coincedence.
I also upgraded my Premium+ directly from 5020 to 5402. The picture is fine, but I can't get the dish to move anywhere other than Gal 28 (where I had stopped the dish to do the firmware upgrade). I can't even get the dish to move using the settings window. So, I suspect I'm in for a factory reset. I have all of my satellite positions saved in my GBox, so I'm hoping it won't be that big of a deal.
my elitehd says its failing to update. can i use this url in the internet update box ....http://fw.azbox.ca
so which fw... 5020 or 5400?
so which fw... 5020 or 5400?
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There are many different questions put out here so to try answering them is not going to be easy as there is not enough info on some of what is being said.
first: for MarkVA:
Have you checked your satellite settings? It is possible they changed when you put in the firmware.
Also check to see how much flash memory is available in the receiver.
You check that by using Maz take a look to see the % of the flash. The higher the number the better you are.
When you open Maz and connect to the receiver you will see 5 bars near the top center of your Maz screen. EMU; FLASH: HD: USB1: USB2 :
Doing a "Format application area" before installing and after the installation helps you with obtaining more flash memory.
Remember:
Whenever you format the Application area you will wipe out all your ip settings and satellite settings so everything must be redone. A PITA at times but worth the effort to keep the receiver running smoother in the long run.
As for which firmware is better: Just because there is a newer number does not make it better. When they came out some were trying to fix the you-tube which no longer works again anyway due to the way you-tube has made changes to accessing their network. Others were trying to correct the satellites with no transponders in them. All of them have to much un-necessary transponders listed that the receiver can not pick up which bogs the blind scan feature down making it take longer to scan new transponders.
If you have North Americanized your sat/channel list then the newer way the satellites are listed in the receiver become a "Non-Issue", as you have already taken care of that problem.
Firmware 0.9.5020 was and still is one of the better firmware's out there. The ones after it had minor changes in the way channels were deleted so if you were in the advanced scan area and deleted a channel or transponder it does not always delete the info from your viewing list but creates either a blank spot or the names were still left in there and you have to also delete it there as well.
This was not the case in firmware 0.9.5020.
Also with some of the later firmware's it did not list the actual firmware number under the system info so later on you have no clue as to what firmware is really in the receiver.
I believe anything after 0.9.5311 has that problem.
The channel deleting problem is on 0.9.5309 and later firmware's.
I have not seen anything in improving picture quality with or with the way the receiver handles it's operation from the 0.9.5020 firmware. This has also been verified by many others out there. However, you must remember that if you are using firmware 0.9.5020 that you need to North Americanize the satellite list due to one of the satellites not having any transponders in it. This is why I mentioned earlier about if you have north Americanized your sat/channel list there is no need to upgrade from that firmware.
Remember that if you are wanting to rid yourself of the Eastern satellites for good, you
should use the ACC program to send the North Americanized sat/channel list to your receiver. This places the file in the main working directory and the back up directory as well at the same time.
Then once you do this use the receiver to make the changes to the Antenna settings for all your satellites the way you want them or the way you use them. DiSEqC switch settings, LNB Freq., Positioner setup ect... Then download the file after you make the changes and resend that file back to the Azbox once more using the ACC program.
Now you have saved your backup directory to be exactly the same as the main working directory with all your satellite settings.
This helps in case you ever run into a problem later on if the receiver ever defaults to the back up directory since the sat settings will still be the same for you in either case now.
All the firmware's out there have way too much junk put in them for their transponder listings . This includes many transponders that the receiver will never pick up such as digicipher 2 transponders. This only slows down the receiver when you want to do a blind-scan. So making your transponder list "lean" and "clean" by only putting in one or two transponders in your listing then using the blind scan feature (if the receiver has it) makes it run faster and your not putting in unwanted junk into the receiver. Another reason to clean out the transponder list is some signals have changed and the receiver will not pick them up due to having the incorrect ones listed in them from the firmware.
IMO, it is a good idea to put in a dummy TP like 3600 for c-band and 11000 for ku on each satellite so it will operate properly. Just do not do as one did and put in a dummy transponder that is out of the range which caused them more problems until they figured it out and changed it.
If you have never done it before (North Americanizing your sat list), it does take a couple of hours to do it properly from scratch, but that is the best way of doing it to ensure you have a listing the way you want them. Also with some newer sats launched recently like Sat Mex 8, Anik G1 and Mex Sat 3, it would be a good time to redo the list now and check out Lyngsat for future launches that may be coming in the next year or two and add those as well while your at it. This will keep you up to date for a few years and only redoing your list one time.
If your unsure how to do it you may want to read a post I made on it back in 2010 here:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...ight=North+Americanizing+you+sat+channel+list
first: for MarkVA:
Have you checked your satellite settings? It is possible they changed when you put in the firmware.
Also check to see how much flash memory is available in the receiver.
You check that by using Maz take a look to see the % of the flash. The higher the number the better you are.
When you open Maz and connect to the receiver you will see 5 bars near the top center of your Maz screen. EMU; FLASH: HD: USB1: USB2 :
Doing a "Format application area" before installing and after the installation helps you with obtaining more flash memory.
Remember:
Whenever you format the Application area you will wipe out all your ip settings and satellite settings so everything must be redone. A PITA at times but worth the effort to keep the receiver running smoother in the long run.
As for which firmware is better: Just because there is a newer number does not make it better. When they came out some were trying to fix the you-tube which no longer works again anyway due to the way you-tube has made changes to accessing their network. Others were trying to correct the satellites with no transponders in them. All of them have to much un-necessary transponders listed that the receiver can not pick up which bogs the blind scan feature down making it take longer to scan new transponders.
If you have North Americanized your sat/channel list then the newer way the satellites are listed in the receiver become a "Non-Issue", as you have already taken care of that problem.
Firmware 0.9.5020 was and still is one of the better firmware's out there. The ones after it had minor changes in the way channels were deleted so if you were in the advanced scan area and deleted a channel or transponder it does not always delete the info from your viewing list but creates either a blank spot or the names were still left in there and you have to also delete it there as well.
This was not the case in firmware 0.9.5020.
Also with some of the later firmware's it did not list the actual firmware number under the system info so later on you have no clue as to what firmware is really in the receiver.
I believe anything after 0.9.5311 has that problem.
The channel deleting problem is on 0.9.5309 and later firmware's.
I have not seen anything in improving picture quality with or with the way the receiver handles it's operation from the 0.9.5020 firmware. This has also been verified by many others out there. However, you must remember that if you are using firmware 0.9.5020 that you need to North Americanize the satellite list due to one of the satellites not having any transponders in it. This is why I mentioned earlier about if you have north Americanized your sat/channel list there is no need to upgrade from that firmware.
Remember that if you are wanting to rid yourself of the Eastern satellites for good, you
should use the ACC program to send the North Americanized sat/channel list to your receiver. This places the file in the main working directory and the back up directory as well at the same time.
Then once you do this use the receiver to make the changes to the Antenna settings for all your satellites the way you want them or the way you use them. DiSEqC switch settings, LNB Freq., Positioner setup ect... Then download the file after you make the changes and resend that file back to the Azbox once more using the ACC program.
Now you have saved your backup directory to be exactly the same as the main working directory with all your satellite settings.
This helps in case you ever run into a problem later on if the receiver ever defaults to the back up directory since the sat settings will still be the same for you in either case now.
All the firmware's out there have way too much junk put in them for their transponder listings . This includes many transponders that the receiver will never pick up such as digicipher 2 transponders. This only slows down the receiver when you want to do a blind-scan. So making your transponder list "lean" and "clean" by only putting in one or two transponders in your listing then using the blind scan feature (if the receiver has it) makes it run faster and your not putting in unwanted junk into the receiver. Another reason to clean out the transponder list is some signals have changed and the receiver will not pick them up due to having the incorrect ones listed in them from the firmware.
IMO, it is a good idea to put in a dummy TP like 3600 for c-band and 11000 for ku on each satellite so it will operate properly. Just do not do as one did and put in a dummy transponder that is out of the range which caused them more problems until they figured it out and changed it.
If you have never done it before (North Americanizing your sat list), it does take a couple of hours to do it properly from scratch, but that is the best way of doing it to ensure you have a listing the way you want them. Also with some newer sats launched recently like Sat Mex 8, Anik G1 and Mex Sat 3, it would be a good time to redo the list now and check out Lyngsat for future launches that may be coming in the next year or two and add those as well while your at it. This will keep you up to date for a few years and only redoing your list one time.
If your unsure how to do it you may want to read a post I made on it back in 2010 here:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...ight=North+Americanizing+you+sat+channel+list
DiSEqC 1.2 motor positions work perfectly fine with firmware 0.9.5402 so I suspect that either your settings somehow got unset or your channel list got corrupted. In order to get the full performance benefit of using this new firmware when upgrading from an old version such as 5020, it is best to do a factory reset once 5402 is installed and install 5402 again on top. This will avoid any issues caused by leftover data from the older firmware versions.
Best regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
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Yes, that update URL remains valid. 0.9.5402 is the current latest version at this time but we will soon be releasing a new version.
Best regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
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Incorrect as this issue was resolved with the release of our 0.9.5400 firmware and is also fixed in all subsequent versions as well such as 0.9.5402. You can now delete a transponder even if it has a one or more channels still scanned on your channel list. When the transponder is deleted, any associated channels are deleted as well from the channel list.
This is NOT an issue with our 0.9.5400 and 0.9.5402 firmware versions and only impacts 0.9.5310 and 0.9.5311 versions. This is either lazyness or carelessness from the OpenSat developer who released these two firmware versions as it only takes a few minutes to update the version number in the firmware before buliding it. This is a moot point now however as 5310 and 5311 are essentially the same as 5308 except for an updated Youtube module which now does not work anymore due to Google changing the Youtube API once again so there is currently NO reason in using 0.9.5310 or 0.9.5311 firmware versions over 0.9.5308.
This is false as firmware 0.9.5400 and up features greatly improved performance with several bugs fixed over the previous versions such as streaming, channel list handling and more... You even posted yourself on this thread at http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...and-Premium-Plus-models?p=2912735#post2912735 that channel changing speed was enhanced with this firmware version.
This won't be an issue with our next firmware version coming soon since it will come North Americanized "out of the box"! As OpenSat won't be releasing any new updates of this firmware, we are now able to create a North American version of it and will continue supporting it in the future.
Best regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
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5402 also corrected one of the annoying bugs that appeared with 5303 and up, where you could not rename a channel in TV mode without screwing up your channel list (and could only rename in Advance Scan). See post #65 in this thread for more information.
Yes, a few minor bugs in channel list handling were resolved including the corruption of channels when renamed.
Regards,
PwrSurge
AzBox Canada
