AZBOX AZBox Ultra PVR Problem

[Lone Gunman]

I've had these AZ Ultra and and Elite receivers for longer than I care to remember but never did do anything with the timed record functions until now and I've fond an issue I can't seem to resolve.

I've been spending some time using this Ultra lately and I FINALLY got the channel list and blind scan issues resolved and now that part is working like it's suppose to. So next on the list was to see how timed program recording worked with the PVR function? This issue turned out to be good news and bad news, ie, good news is it will record manually but the bad news is that in timed mode you have to sit and wait for the timer to "try" to start recording and select the "Yes" button on a popup to make it actually start?? And BTW, this is/was a WTF moment as IMHO the purpose of the "Timed" record function should be so I don't have to be watching it or do anything in order for it to happen??

Ennywho, After reading through the manual I didn't find a way around this so I decided to see if some of you AZBox Guru's that use these things more than I do have found a "work around" that timed record issue?

Any help?

 

[ebo]

I've had these AZ Ultra and and Elite receivers for longer than I care to remember but never did do anything with the timed record functions until now and I've fond an issue I can't seem to resolve.

I've been spending some time using this Ultra lately and I FINALLY got the channel list and blind scan issues resolved and now that part is working like it's suppose to. So next on the list was to see how timed program recording worked with the PVR function? This issue turned out to be good news and bad news, ie, good news is it will record manually but the bad news is that in timed mode you have to sit and wait for the timer to "try" to start recording and select the "Yes" button on a popup to make it actually start?? And BTW, this is/was a WTF moment as IMHO the purpose of the "Timed" record function should be so I don't have to be watching it or do anything in order for it to happen??

Ennywho, After reading through the manual I didn't find a way around this so I decided to see if some of you AZBox Guru's that use these things more than I do have found a "work around" that timed record issue?

Any help?

That's odd. What firmware are you running?
I have the Elite and am recording 8 different programs while away for the day.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Firmware is 5402.

 

[bigg t]

My Azme shows that message but always records anyway without pressing the o.k. button. Lone Gunman hope this helps. I don't have the models you do so can't help you there.

 

[ebo]

My Azme shows that message but always records anyway without pressing the o.k. button. Lone Gunman hope this helps. I don't have the models you do so can't help you there.

The elite does the same.

 

[Keith Brannen]

My AZBox Ultra also does the same, shows the message and then starts recording. I assume it is a way to abort the recording if you are watching something else and want to continue to watch it instead of doing the timed recording.

 

[waylew]

You don't have to click the YES,it will start recording after a few seconds.As Keith said it's likely an option to abort the recording if you're watching something else on another channel.My Ultra does the same thing.

 

[Lone Gunman]

OK, that may be it then because when I saw that popup with the "No" button selected by default I took for granted that I had to select the "Yes" button to make it work. I'll test it again now to now to see if it will record if I do nothing with the popup.

Thanks guys!!!

 

[Lone Gunman]

Yup, it works OK if you ignore that popup. Recorded a 2 hour Dateline from NBC last night.

Thanks again.

 

[bigg t]

Good deal. Love the old Azbox.

 

[Lone Gunman]

OK guys, I've got another problem with this AZ Ultra PVR function. I'm using a 320GB external USB drive with two partitions on it. One is 100GB ext2 and the other is 209GB FAT32. This drive was originally formatted on that Ultra and after that I used Ubuntu Linux and Gparted to make the second partition in FAT32. I can do whatever I want with the FAT32 part but that damn Linux ext2 partition won't let me do a damn thing with it but read it when it's connected to Ubuntu Linux?? Keeps asking for a freaking password AND NONE WAS USED TO SET IT UP??!!??! I'm trying to delete some programs I recorded with that Ultra and transferred over to the FAT32 partition and looks like the only way I'll be able to do that is to connect the drive back up to the Ultra unless I can find a password that will work??? WTF!!! I tried azbox and also 0000 and neither of those work?

Any help with this?

Thanks again.

 

[bigg t]

Have you tried " dreambox"?

 

[armadillo_115]

Sounds like the partition is flagged for root access only. Try entering your root password. That would be your user password if Ubuntu uses sudo instead of a true root account. (I believe it does)

You can also try to change the permissions for that partition or change your User and Groups setting. I'm not sure how to do that in Ubuntu.

I have had similar problems with SD cards in this Mint machine. Like to drove me crazy. I resorted to google to find a fix. I could have fixed it in 5 minutes if it had been Slackware. Grrrr.

Good luck.

 

[Lone Gunman]

dreambox doesn't work and neither does my root password for Ubuntu??

I can't even access the "Permissions" section in "Properties" tab so no chance of changing permissions with Ubuntu that I can see.

Ennywho, thanks for the suggestions guys. Lets see if anyone else has a fix.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Ok so here's another problem I've found with this Ultra. I record stuff on the NBC feeds on both 103 and 105 each week and I've found that the Ultra "chokes" on those feeds? I know those files are HUGE but all my other receivers have recorded them with zero problems to date?? This AZ Ultra pixelates so bad that the stuff isn't viewable.

I've tried this using a USB External SATA drive, and I've even mounted an 80GB SATA drive inside the enclosure and it does the exact same thing on both of them formatted with ext2, ie, what it records isn't viewable due to pixelation, etc.

Anyone found a workaround for this or is this just how it is with these old receivers?

Thanks

 

[Keith Brannen]

Ok so here's another problem I've found with this Ultra. I record stuff on the NBC feeds on both 103 and 105 each week and I've found that the Ultra "chokes" on those feeds? I know those files are HUGE but all my other receivers have recorded them with zero problems to date?? This AZ Ultra pixelates so bad that the stuff isn't viewable.

I've tried this using a USB External SATA drive, and I've even mounted an 80GB SATA drive inside the enclosure and it does the exact same thing on both of them formatted with ext2, ie, what it records isn't viewable due to pixelation, etc.

Anyone found a workaround for this or is this just how it is with these old receivers?

Thanks

Not having any problems with recording NBC (on 103 Ku) here, just did a few test recordings (about 4 minutes in length) and didn't have any pixelation at all (signal quality on 11880 at 86%).

I am also running firmware 5402, so don't know what the difference between our two boxes might be, but here are a few thoughts.

For starters, I don't have "hardware acceleration" turned on (nor would I ever!), so it won't be that.

It could be the Priority Manager plugin settings. You can view yours settings after going to Plugins, Priority Manager, and then "View Settings" There are two settings to check. Use the down arrow under the OK button and go down seven pages until you see "Toggle Dom Speed Increasing Function" DOM_SPEED=1 increases the speed and should help with recording. If yours is set to zero then exit of that screen and go back into Priority Manager and go to "Toggle DOM Speed" and press OK to toggle it to one from zero (check that it has changed by going back into the "View Settings"). That by itself might help.

Since you now have a HDD in the Azbox you can set up a swap file, which again may help with recording. Go back into Priority Manager and "View Settings" and page down ten pages till you see "Toggle Swap Function And Change Related Parameters". SWAPPER=1 means the swap file is activate (the defaults are listed below it SWAPSIZE=204800 and SWAPDEVICE=/DATA/hdb1). To turn it on (if it is zero) the exit out of the screen, go back into Priority Manager and go to "Toggle Swap File" and press OK.

(NOTE: on page two of the view settings, for it to work PRIORITY MANAGEMENT=1, if it is zero, go to "ACTIVATE/DEACTIVATE" to change from zero to one).

Rather long winded reply, but hope it helps, if any of the Priority Manager settings I have are different from yours!

 

[Lone Gunman]

Hey Keith, thanks for the reply. I'm busy as a one armed wall paper hanger right now so it's going to be a day or two before I get time to do anything else with that receiver. I'll let you know how it works out when I get a chance to work on it.

Thanks again

 

[Lone Gunman]

Keith, I had so much trouble with channel list corruption with the 5402 firmware that I removed that and went back to the 5020 version I had run before so there are NO plugins in this Ultra. The Elite I have has the 5402 firmware and it does have those plugins but I really don't use that one any more because it doesn't do blind scan and the channel lists aren't compatible between those two receivers even with the same firmware installed on them.

Just for the hell of it I did run a Smart Drive test on that NEW SATA drive I used with the Ultra to make sure there were no read/write errors on it and it passed OK so there's nothing wrong with the drive.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Did you have the NBC recording problem with 5402 as well as now with 5020? There were several improvements in recording between the two firmware releases, so it may be that, as well.

I haven't had any channel corruption with 5402, and consider it the best of the firmware releases. However, I do recall our conversations on previous threads where you have had problems with your Ultra (with and without 5402 firmware) that I couldn't duplicate, so certainly understand that your problem may be unique to your receiver!

Anyhow, the Priority Manager v1.8 plugin does work with 5020, unfortunately, I could not find a standalone download of the plugin to help you out (it is included in 5400/5402 firmware, and is not a standalone).

 

[Lone Gunman]

Well, Yeah, I've been going round and round with this Ultra for a long time and even with the 5020 firmware back in it it doesn't like me to rename and move channels from where they scan in, ie, I like to move the channels I use the most to the top of the list and even the 5020 firmware doesn't like that either. I don't ever remember that being a problem until this Ultra started acting up a while back but what it's doing now with the 5402 is just a pure PITA so I took that off and went back to the 5020.

I guess it's time to drag that Elite out and connect it to this system to see how it does recording those NBC feeds? I can do that without much trouble so I'll try that in the next day or so.

Thanks Keith