What are Enigma2, Dreambox (TV), and TuxBox and how do they relate to each other?

[anik]

As some of you may know I have been on something of a quest to figure out what would be the best FTA receiver for me to buy when the weather gets a bit nicer, and I have pretty much decided that one of my absolute requirements is that programs recorded off the satellites can be viewed from other computers or Home Theater PC boxes on the local network - if I can't get that, I'll just keep my money in my pocket until I find a receiver that better fits my needs. But also, I'd very much like to be able to schedule upcoming recordings from other computers on the local network, possibly using a web interface, much as you would change settings on a router from another computer by going through a web interface.

In researching receivers that might allow this, I keep coming across some references to what I think are software programs that might be useful for that purpose, that either are bundled with certain receivers, or can be added later (I am not sure about that). But I can't seem to find good definitions that explain what these are, what they do, and how they relate to each other. They are Enigma2, Dreambox (not the receiver, but a piece of software called Dreambox or maybe Dreambox TV), and TuxBox. I assume the latter only runs on Linux-based receivers. Part of the problem is that searches on any of these turn up multiple items, many of which are not related to Satellite TV, or in the case of Dreambox, a satellite receiver with that name. Or you get terse and unhelpful explanations like "enigma2 is a framebuffer-based zapping application (GUI) for linux" . But the scattered references I see here and there refer to these as if they are FTA satellite related programs, not hardware.

So can anyone point me to a good, clear explanation of what these pieces of software are and do (or if any of them are unicorns that only exist in my imagination, let me know)? Or, if you don't know of any good links and have the time, can you give me an overview of what these pieces of software do and how they are related to each other, if at all (for example, does a receiver need to be running one of these in order to run another)? I just find it really confusing because most of the references I see to these are in various forums (or in the case of Enigma2, in receiver specs) and I guess people in those forums just assume that everyone knows what those are. I don't think any of these are intended to facilitate the sort of thing we aren't supposed to discuss, but if by some off chance they are, that's not what I'm interested in.

TIA.

 

[updatelee]

Dreambox is a company, their receivers (most) run enigma2 (enigma v2). enigma is an open source software frontend. Many other box's run enigma or can run enigma. Because its open source there are many forks (you take the code and change it, this is called a fork). OpenPLi, enigma2pc and others.

UDL

 

[catamount]

Just read today that Dream multimedia is closing their open source and OpenPli will not be supporting the new Dreambox models

 

[updatelee]

could be, Ive still got a dm800 but havent powered it on in years. I used to be pretty active in OpenPLi but have moved onto other projects.

UDL

 

[T134]

Enigma2 - Linux based open source operating system, can be ran on second partition of Alien/Alien2 and is standard single operating system on many EU boxes. Runs python based plugins, no blindscan except in a protected Dream Multimedia implementation for one or two of their boxes. No NTSC 480i/p support. Many "flavors" of E2 out there, some really bad, a few really good.

Dream TV or Dream Software - This could be anything you might be referring to. Dreambox Edit is a program for editing bouquets, satellite lists and other things for E2. DVB Dream is DVB Tuner software with zero relation to E2. Couple other programs with the name "dream" in them, mainly similar to Dreambox Edit.

Tuxbox - Component in Linux STB's that is part of live streaming rather than a standalone app. This is in Spark for A1/A2 and Enigma2. There is also a XBMC addon called Tuxbox but I think that is more of a standalone streaming app, I have never tried it.

 

[anik]

Thanks, that helps clarify things. So, my understanding is that Enigma2 is not really necessary or helpful for receivers used solely in the USA? I can only receive the western arc from about 89 degrees though maybe 139 degrees, and sometimes a bit further east in winter when the neighbor's tree loses its leaves (he keeps piling crap around the base of the tree so I keep hoping it will die, but no such luck so far) so can't get the international birds in the eastern arc anyway. But I suppose it is good to know that you can load Enigma2 on an Alien receiver if you want to, for some reason, though not having NTSC support would make it less than desirable because apparently there are still a lot of feeds using that format.

Tuxbox sounds interesting, especially if it would facilitate streaming video from an Alien or Alien2 receiver to XBMC - that would actually be useful to me since XBMC is a cross-platform HTPC program (a pretty good one, actually). I found this video about installing tuxbox xbmc plugin:



There is a reference in this video to "your satellite dish receiver" when he talks about entering the IP address in the plugin, so I would assume that would be where you put the address of the Alien if you have one of those? When I find a video made in Europe I am never sure if what they are discussing will work here. And if you put "tuxbox" into a YouTube search, most of the results other than the one above seem to be in a foreign language, and some do make reference to Dreambox, though I suspect that may be an artifact of YouTube pulling in what it thinks are related videos when you do a search.

Only potentially bad thing about that tuxbox XBMC plugin is that since it does not appear to be in one of XBMC's official repositories, it may only work with a particular version of XBMC. XBMC is one of those programs that is continuously being upgraded, and the developers seem to suffer from that particular syndrome that afflicts some software projects of not being able to leave well enough alone, and each new version seems to require modifications to plugins that worked in previous versions. Very often a third-party plugin developer will only maintain their plugin through one or two releases of XBMC and then go find something more interesting to do. The video I posted above is only about 7 months old, so I would hope that plugin still works, but I would not guarantee it.

 

[T134]

I haven't tried to talk to an Alien or get anything from an Alien using XBMC but I'm sure there are many ways to do it. A1/A2 HDD's can be made to show up on your network so XBMC could pull files that way. The normal live satellite to computer stream is just UDP so XBMC livestreams or many other add-ons probably can pull it just fine.

E2 does support NTSC TV's and NTSC formatted signals, it just doesn't do 480i/480p output for those with ancient analog TV's. The usefulness in North America isn't so much on the satellite end, it is for the various streaming plugins and modes that E2 can do.

A straight from Europe E2 version really sucks here for satellite as they have all or many of the EU subscription service channels pre-programmed. You've got to tear out all the EU crap (which sometimes is a PITA) and then get a NA satellite list in there working. Then you have a somewhat goofy setup procedure for motor and switching. When that is done you can then auto scan transponders. While doing so, go shovel the driveway and watch a movie because scanning with E2 is super, super slow.

Most guys with the A1/A2 that even bother with E2 use Spark on the primary for satellite and switch to E2 on the secondary only for streaming and VOD stuff. Any box that only can run E2 IMO would be a doorstop as I can't stand the satellite end, even in the Americanized E2 versions.

 

[anik]

Sounds good T134. The Alien 2 is definitely on my short list of desirable receivers. Whatever I wind up getting, I will find out exactly what can be done via the network from another computer or XBMC and post some kind of review. Just waiting for the mini-glaciers in my yard to melt before buying anything because I have no desire to wade through three to four feet of snow and brave frigid cold temperatures to work on my old C-band dish. Not that I couldn't hook up a receiver right now but in order to move the dish and change V/H polarity I'm going to have to change out the LNB, and probably get a VBOX to control the positioner. The old stuff still works as far as I know, but my understanding is that the Alien receivers don't contain any circuitry to control an old style positioner arm and polorotor because everything is DiSEqC/USALS now. And, I originally bought the feedhorn and polorotor used, and that was well over a decade ago, so I think maybe it's time to put it out to pasture and get a new integrated LNB, and that is what I do not want to have to attempt to install until the weather gets a lot nicer. Assuming that I actually survive this miserable winter that we are having, that is!

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Enigma2 - Linux based open source operating system, can be ran on second partition of Alien/Alien2 and is standard single operating system on many EU boxes. Runs python based plugins, no blindscan except in a protected Dream Multimedia implementation for one or two of their boxes. No NTSC 480i/p support. Many "flavors" of E2 out there, some really bad, a few really good.

I just got interested in enigma 2 and flashed my Azbox Elite with it but you have to use the Windows based AZuP utility to do the initial flash. . At first I thought the enigma menus weren't user friendly but it's just another learning curve. I haven't played with it extensively but it does work even though there are some issues I need to address. It took a while to figure out how to configure the LNBF info - you have to select a tuner first (only one in Azbox) and then you get access to the LNB setup but you have to go into advanced setup to get all the options. Once that was done I got into another menu to select a satellite - ALL sats are initially loaded but that's the same for the Azbox firmware. There are Windows based editors available so that you can edit the satellite list but so far I haven't found a way to do multiple deletions of sats to speed things up - I'm using Dreambox editor 6.0.2. I haven't found a suitable Linux editor yet - strange how they build a linux based STB and then write a lot of Windows based software to configure the STB. After selecting SES3 (103W), I was able to scan the pre-installed transponders for that sat and it was slow but got the job done. I haven't figured out how to keep it from scanning encrypted programming but that could be done by editing the sat list first. I got 68 hits on 103W. Some people say that blind scanning isn't possible with enigma but I did see a plugin for blindscanning. I don't think the Elite tuner can blind scan so I didn't try the plugin. Anyway, another issue is that I had trouble getting the date and time set. There's a menu option for setting the timezone but the time never updated to show the correct local time and the date was wrong also - even UTC wasn't correct. I couldn't find a ntc setup. A Time plugin was helpful but I haven't found a way to make the timezone stick yet. So, on a reboot the time would change to the UTC time and date - at least that was progress. Since my Elite is currently slaved to the Ultra I haven't tried out the dish moving capabilities. My son and I watched some programming on SES3 with the Elite running enigma 2. There are a lot of other software and plugins available for enigma and I'll probably try out a few. I haven't tried recording programs - that's not something I care to do - I probably wouldn't have time to watch all the stuff anyway. Besides, with all the commercial junk that's in the program video who would want to do that? I long for the "clean" TV feeds from a couple of decades ago. Anyway, I'm hoping that the enigma2 software will make the Azbox Elite/Ultra worth keeping around for awhile longer. I'll have to check the above comment about there being no NTSC 480i/p support. I set up my Elite for HDMI 1080p and had to change the scan rate from 50 to 60. Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Stay tuned. OpenRSI Linux azboxhd 3.9.2-opensat.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Thanks, that helps clarify things. So, my understanding is that Enigma2 is not really necessary or helpful for receivers used solely in the USA? I can only receive the western arc from about 89 degrees though maybe 139 degrees, and sometimes a bit further east in winter when the neighbor's tree loses its leaves (he keeps piling crap around the base of the tree so I keep hoping it will die, but no such luck so far) so can't get the international birds in the eastern arc anyway. But I suppose it is good to know that you can load Enigma2 on an Alien receiver if you want to, for some reason, though not having NTSC support would make it less than desirable because apparently there are still a lot of feeds using that format.

So far, it works fine here in the U.S. All sats are pre-programmed and there are internet updates available. The "Bouquets" are unique to Europe but other than that this firmware works fine with some issues that I haven't resolved yet.

Tuxbox sounds interesting, especially if it would facilitate streaming video from an Alien or Alien2 receiver to XBMC - that would actually be useful to me since XBMC is a cross-platform HTPC program (a pretty good one, actually).

I haven't used Tuxbox yet but it sounds like something worthwhile.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I figured out how to scan just the free channels. Enigma is OK, just got to remember how to get around in the menus. I think enigma could have been better done though. But, I'm thinking of putting it on the Ultra. I got some editing of the channel lists to do, also. Still haven't got the date/time issue resolved but since I don't record anything it's not a major issue for me. Too bad the Elite doesn't blind scan.

Maybe all this will keep me from getting something like Alzheimers (sp?).

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Well, I had difficulty getting around in the enigma menus and I spent hours looking for a manual or some documentation that would help explain a few things but couldn't find anything suitable - just some tips here and there. I tried to d/l a manual for a DreamBox but the d/l kept hanging so I gave up on that. I tried different flavors of enigma 2 but I had trouble flashing to the different firmware after the OpenRSI install. It was a challenge restoring the Elite back to the OFW, also, since the procedures I read didn't mention a "special" patch file that had to be flashed to the box before the OFW could be restored. I stumbled upon the solution but it took several hours of searching over several days to find this solution. Anyway, if I ever do find documentation for the enigma software I'll try again. I did like the enigma GUI options even though the default fonts were sometimes too small. But, I'm more familiar with the Azbox original GUI.

Also, I used the DreamBox editor software. It downloaded everything from the box but it would't upload everything after editing - some kind of XML issue. I didn't find a way to do block satellite deletes with this software but did find some other software to do it. The edited file imported back into the DreamBox editor without problems.