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malakudi

Member Since 23 Feb 2010
Offline Last Active 04 Oct 2020 06:45
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#261313 Bad Picture Quality of Enigma2 vs Katherin/Humax/Techisat/Azbox/etc...

Posted by malakudi on 6 March 2012 - 13:23

As far as STI boxes are concerned, the difference of original software vs enigma2 software lies in the drivers used. Drivers of original software use STAPI, an API for communicating with hardware from STi. enigma2 is not STAPI compatible, so other drivers are used that conform to DVBAPI. DVBAPI drivers for STi boxes are based to an unsupported project called "Havana" from STi. The source code of this project was leaked and most DVBAPI drivers for STi boxes are based on these sources. However, the quality of these drivers is much worse than the STAPi drivers, and thus the lower image quality in E2.
The problem from Azbox is similar, different drivers for E2 releases, not from Sigma but from other developers.

Broadcom chipset picture quality is indeed lower than STi or Sigma solutions with original drivers.


#261280 V4L2 TS output devices support, is there any interest?

Posted by malakudi on 6 March 2012 - 11:50

Hauppauge HD PVR and Hauppauge PVR USB2 are USB external video capture cards with hardware video/audio encoder, delivering TS (transport stream) via /dev/videoX V4L2 interface. Drivers exist for Linux for both of them. There is a sysfs interface for both of them for tuning capture details (bitrate etc), I will program an E2 plugin for that. Both have IR transmitters, also supported by Linux. So, you could connect an external STB box (from a content provider with secure sillicon protection for example) and control it via E2 box, creating channel list that when selected will send the IR commands for the STB box to change channel and playback source TS content from /dev/videoN. It could also be used as recording service etc.

I am already using such setup with HTPC and MythTV, I will try to implement it in E2.


#255818 Vu+ Ultimo mgcamd problem

Posted by malakudi on 18 February 2012 - 18:25

mgcamd detects API used from kernel version. 2.6.18 => new DVB API used in mips boxes. But latest VU+ and Xtrend boxes have 3.x kernel version, thus auto detection of mgcamd fails. B: { 06 } forces use of new DVB API mode.


#255666 Vu+ Ultimo mgcamd problem

Posted by malakudi on 17 February 2012 - 21:03

B: { 06 } in your mg_cfg and you will be OK.


#255375 Licence/clone discussion

Posted by malakudi on 16 February 2012 - 17:21

My opinion about clones (identically manufactured hardware with none or little external differences) is that you can't do much about them. It happens in all industries. People will buy clones if the quality is acceptable and the price is low, or if the original product price is too high. They will do it for shoes and clothing, why do you expect it will not happen for STBs?

And that was the case for DMM. VU+ and Xtrend showed how you can mass produce a single tuner E2 box that costs 200 euro. DMM wanted to sell them at 450 euros. VU+ and Xtrend showed how you can mass produce a twin tuner E2 box with PiP/PaP that costs 400 euro. DMM wanted to sell them at 950 euros. That's why there are DMM clones.
If DMM 800se would cost 250 euro, a clone would not have much room for business, especially considering the lower quality of the clone boxes . That's my point of view. Clone problems? Blame DMM's pricing policy.


#249246 af9015 plugin no longer working

Posted by malakudi on 24 January 2012 - 11:17

The problem is that the meta packages for easy driver installation for boxes with 2.6.18 kernels (Dreambox) have incorrect dependencies. It could either be fixed automatically like in ETxx00 series, or manually.

For af9015, install the following:

firmware-dvb-fe-af9013
firmware-dvb-usb-af9015
v4l-dvb-module-af9013
v4l-dvb-module-dvb-pll
v4l-dvb-module-dvb-usb
v4l-dvb-module-dvb-usb-af9015
v4l-dvb-module-mc44s803
v4l-dvb-module-mt2060
v4l-dvb-module-mxl5005s
v4l-dvb-module-mxl5007t
v4l-dvb-module-qt1010
v4l-dvb-module-tda18218
v4l-dvb-module-tda18271

for Siano based install the following:

firmware-dvb-siano
v4l-dvb-module-smsdvb
v4l-dvb-module-smsmdtv
v4l-dvb-module-smsusb


#246819 Speed up boot process from deep stand by

Posted by malakudi on 15 January 2012 - 15:21

Those environmentalists get it wrong some times.

Check power consumption in standby with lnb_power_off_in_standby=1 in your dvb modules.

I never do deep standby. Just standby, power off HDD after 5 minutes of inactivity, lnb_power_off_in_standby=1

My ET9000 box takes 1:45 minute to start from deep stanbly (motor settings with thousands of favorites, USB DVB-T modules, USB DVD, big epg.dat with EPG from various packages, complex skin, et9000 web browser, many plugins like multiquickbutton etc).

I guess the box starting after 5 seconds doesn't have 7 days EPG for about 10 providers and 15000 favorites.

enigma2 was slow, but new boxes with faster processors and better kernel (ubifs etc) are fast enough for me.
You should have tried DM800. THAT was slow.


#229252 Today's update makes box non-working

Posted by malakudi on 6 November 2011 - 10:19

I actually think the console msg are great :) so i guess it's down to personal taste.

Have a nice day :)


It's an STB, not a computer. And a configuration option to enable it for people who like it would be better to have it enabled for all.