new to blackhole and VU+ zero, have some questions

[benmaca]

hi everyone.

i've been a long time E1/E2 user, have had many dreamboxes. the quality of the DM tuners being what it is, i decided to try a Vuplus zero receiver to replace my dying DM800HD

as BH seems to be made for VU+ receivers, i decided to flash it (did not even boot on the original image).

i'm quite happy with 2.1.7, however i need to improve some points, and i hope you will be able to test.

i've an USB stick (Kingston DTII 32gb) for timeshift, epg.dat and eventually picons. (mounted as /media/hdd)
formatted in ext2 due to permanent timeshift failing to write on ntfs or fat32.
permanent timeshift (final 1.0.0.0) starts after 10 sec on the USB stick.

-when i go to channels list, and press OK on a channel, there is often a 3sec delay before the VU+ zap to the selected channel. how can i diagnose this? (picons/epg events are instant loaded so i don't think this is the reason);

-at the moment, picons have been downloaded in media/usb (which seems to be mapped in the flash and not on the USB). i don't find any way to choose the path myself, and i don't find a way to remap them.
flash being big enough, i see no real problem, unless you tell me it's wrong.

-when i press pause, then later play, half of the time i get nothing or get sound.
i have to press stop, wait the 20 sec it takes to come back to live, and start rewind.
this makes me think the USB stick speed is not the cause as i can watch it after.
i find the timeshift globally unstable
sometimes, when i press stop, instead of go direct to live, it parses the timeshift at 8x speed. i have to zap on another channel and come back to get the live. i

-i often seen the blue/white circle top left saying the STB is working on something, but no idea why.

-i'm unable to update crossepg in background. when it is downloading or parsing, i cannot zap or change volume.

positive point is that DLNA server to broadcast to my dying dreambox works like a charm, which is something i never achieved with openpli, so a big thanks for making it easy for noobs like me.

i'm tempted to go back to my comfort zone by flashing openpli, but i really like BH mentality and would like to have it stable enough for daily use. can you please advise on points here above?


thanks

 

[nunigaia]

hi everyone.

i've been a long time E1/E2 user, have had many dreamboxes. the quality of the DM tuners being what it is, i decided to try a Vuplus zero receiver to replace my dying DM800HD

as BH seems to be made for VU+ receivers, i decided to flash it (did not even boot on the original image).

i'm quite happy with 2.1.7, however i need to improve some points, and i hope you will be able to test.

i've an USB stick (Kingston DTII 32gb) for timeshift, epg.dat and eventually picons. (mounted as /media/hdd)
formatted in ext2 due to permanent timeshift failing to write on ntfs or fat32.
permanent timeshift (final 1.0.0.0) starts after 10 sec on the USB stick.

-when i go to channels list, and press OK on a channel, there is often a 3sec delay before the VU+ zap to the selected channel. how can i diagnose this? (picons/epg events are instant loaded so i don't think this is the reason);

-at the moment, picons have been downloaded in media/usb (which seems to be mapped in the flash and not on the USB). i don't find any way to choose the path myself, and i don't find a way to remap them.
flash being big enough, i see no real problem, unless you tell me it's wrong.

-when i press pause, then later play, half of the time i get nothing or get sound.
i have to press stop, wait the 20 sec it takes to come back to live, and start rewind.
this makes me think the USB stick speed is not the cause as i can watch it after.
i find the timeshift globally unstable
sometimes, when i press stop, instead of go direct to live, it parses the timeshift at 8x speed. i have to zap on another channel and come back to get the live. i

-i often seen the blue/white circle top left saying the STB is working on something, but no idea why.

-i'm unable to update crossepg in background. when it is downloading or parsing, i cannot zap or change volume.

positive point is that DLNA server to broadcast to my dying dreambox works like a charm, which is something i never achieved with openpli, so a big thanks for making it easy for noobs like me.

i'm tempted to go back to my comfort zone by flashing openpli, but i really like BH mentality and would like to have it stable enough for daily use. can you please advise on points here above?


thanks

Format the USB stick as EXT3 or EXT4.

Create 2 partitions on it as:

Initialize both partitions using ext3 or ext4 filesystem, better is to use EXT4 if you intend to use later OpenMultiboot.

map both partitions as mentioned

1) /media/hdd
2) /media/usb

1) - Give more space avaiable on partition to /media/hdd ... here you´ll go to record timeshift and media ( lots of space avaiable will be needed for that ).

2) - Assign EPG to be used on to /media/usb
Your picon files will be used on this partition.

best regards
nunigaia

 

[benmaca]

Format the USB stick as EXT3 or EXT4.

Create 2 partitions on it as:

Initialize both partitions using ext3 or ext4 filesystem, better is to use EXT4 if you intend to use later OpenMultiboot.

map both partitions as mentioned

1) /media/hdd
2) /media/usb

1) - Give more space avaiable on partition to /media/hdd ... here you´ll go to record timeshift and media ( lots of space avaiable will be needed for that ).

2) - Assign EPG to be used on to /media/usb
Your picon files will be used on this partition.

best regards
nunigaia

Hi nunigaia,

sounds like a good logic plan. i will try when i've 5min.

i disabled the permanent timeshift and zapping is now instant. i formatted in ext2 because it was advised by the BH image, but i have no experience with ext2.
it could be the cause of my unstable timeshift. i'll partition and format as you advised and give you a feedback.

brgds,
Ben

 

[benmaca]

Hi,

i've formatted usb stick as advised, tried both EXT3/4.
i also tried to use a stick for timeshift and another stick for picons/epg, and the timeshift is still not stable.
i've removed the permanent timeshift plugins, the built-in timeshift "on-demand" freezes each 15-30seconds for 1sec (with macroblocks).
when image is working correctly (without freezes), i have no sound.
with PTS, i could press stop and rewind to get sound (which means it is correctly recorded). with normal TS, when i press stop, the TS file is deleted (or unloaded).

the exact same sticks worked for years in my DM500HD, which makes me think the cause is not a bottleneck in writing speed.
tests have been done on FTA FHD channels, but same symptoms on other SD channels

I will try to TS on NFS share (but don't expect good results).
next plan is to install a fresh image and re-do the config, see if it helps (it was my channel list from old DM500HD and i have seen some differences (separators, weird names)).
if you have any idea on what could cause the problem, or even if you can just confirm PTS can work on USB stick connected to Zero, it would help.

thanks
Ben