AMIKO Amiko MINI HD se observations.

[KE4EST]

Any idea how long an HD SE can record on a 32 G flash drive?

If I am thinking right I would guess about 5-6 hours in HD, that is assuming it works. Some flash drives I have tried in the past worked, some would choke.

 

[radio]

The recording of Me-TV feeds, Lesea, and others seem to have "audio" issues on playback with this box. Not like a digital "skip" but the general result is it sounds
like for just a brief second the audio is "under water." I'm using the supplied firmware. Has anyone addressed firmware upgrading procedures here, and bugs that are
fixed by upgrading, or do we have "what you get is what you use" FW situation with the arrival of the box? I'm hoping that an upgrade will fix this, and that updates come as needed. I am hooked to the 'net, but don't want to risk losing my programmed positions, etc...and I know the MicroHD had some upgrading issues if you went from original to a later version. Has anyone DONE an upgrade if available?

 

[Titanium]

No issues with performing online upgrades. Save a copy of the user data to USB (just in case of accidental loss). Do an upgrade via Internet. If the upgrade resets any user data, reinstall via USB. Process takes less than 5 minutes.

 

[KE4EST]

What version of Firmware do you have right now, Jim?

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

If I am thinking right I would guess about 5-6 hours in HD, that is assuming it works. Some flash drives I have tried in the past worked, some would choke.

Thanks for the reply. Maybe flash drives are formatted differently and that's why some don't work.
I just bought a 32G PNY flash drive that came formatted for FAT32. Most hard drives use NTFS. Does anyone know the requirement for the Mini HD SE? FAT32, NTFS, or are both file systems supported?

 

[Titanium]

Both are supported, but NTFS will have less indexing issues.

Limited buffer and throughput are the main reason thumb drives often don't work. Thumb dives are designed for file transfer, not for continuous data streams.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

Both are supported, but NTFS will have less indexing issues.

Limited buffer and throughput are the main reason thumb drives often don't work. Thumb dives are designed for file transfer, not for continuous data streams.

Thanks for the info. I'll reformat the flash drive for NTFS to improve the odds. Will not have my system up and running until later this month.

 

[Titanium]

I wouldn't bother reformatting that small of flash. Would use NTFS on a HDD for library management and archive.

 

[radio]

I just witnessed how an Amiko Mini HD can completely lose it's time/timer memory without being unplugged. Before I tell you, promise not to laugh.
I do watch "some" of today's TV, but when I want the TV equivalent of "comfort food", my menu of TV includes MASH, Twice in a Lifetime, CBS Sunday Morning,
PBS's "History Detectives" Get Smart, Lost in Space, and, even an occasionally banked-up on hard drive, "Little House on the Prairie" (which I grew up watching in elementary school age years) with Lesea carries this last show on it's 99W feeds.

Tonight, I was setting another satellite into memory when the timer would have kicked-in for this feed. I was moving the dish via the V-box to the Birdview, searching for a signal on another bird. The timer went to kick in, and the Vizio TV went to displaying "no signal." The Amiko actually rebooted itself, and having forgotten the timer was there, I had to LOOK to see what timer it was. And, after seeing what timer it was, (Little house, this time) checked the clock time. With the reboot, the time and date were lost. This may explain why I've had trouble of late with time and timers. I've been spending much time in aligning, moving the dish, etc. I wouldn't have expected that a timer attempting to override manual use would make the box reboot, but it did!

Heads up! It may happen to you!
What happens in other boxes' firmware when manual use and timers clash? Seems odd that the unit would completely reset itself!

 

[egnard]

I've had the Amiko HD SE for less than a week. Two past two days in a row it has lost it's clock time resetting to 2005. And also and has not recorded the program it was supposed in the overnight.

Would this occur because the box could not find the signal for the program it was supposed to record?

 

[radio]

If my memory serves, YES, when it misses a signal, it says, "no" to recording.
If it completely reboots due to any issue, it will reset the clock.....find a Belkin 12 volt UPS to run it, and no worries ever come from power interruptions too!

 

[egnard]

If my memory serves, YES, when it misses a signal, it says, "no" to recording.
If it completely reboots due to any issue, it will reset the clock.....find a Belkin 12 volt UPS to run it, and no worries ever come from power interruptions too!

I'll keep that in mind. I doubt it was due to a power surge. If I'm going to loose the clock every time it cannot find a signal and decides it can't record, I might as well return it. Good grief. Who designs these things anyway?

 

[radio]

It's really not a problem once signals are strong and consistent. I've not had the issue since I can't remember when....but was glad to know it CAME from the "no signal" situation. Can come from having the dish have to move a distance before starting, too...in which case, you can work around that. You won't find a box that keeps time without some help.......(the help being a $10 garage sale/craigslist 12 volt UPS for power blips) and NOT recording when signal is missing is a good thing. Saves space on a drive.The Amiko is a nice box, feature rich and hopefully it will grow on you.

 

[Titanium]

You must have the time set to manual and not taking time setting from the satellite? This is the best way for North America as the uplinkers rarely have the time set correctly. Your frustration will be echoed with most STBs and not just this unit. Unless the STB is capable and configured to taking time setting from the Internet, the time will be wrong when rebooting.

Many of us who do a ton of recording use a UPS or inline 12Vdc battery to eliminate this issue.

If a STB timer is resetting to 2005, it many be grabbing the time setting from the satellite. What time mode do you have selected in the menu?

 

[egnard]

I do have time set on manual. When it's on "auto" it seems to do weird things. It was programmed to record on one of the more reliable channels, but we've had heavy cloud cover so tbat could be it.

I bought the Amiko HD SE when my GEOsat Micro HD died. This one seems a lot better but I'm still getting to know it. I think both units share some hardware. The capability to pull in signals and picture quality seem identical with both units. And both units loose time in the manual mode, maybe a minute per day or two (which I also think is ridiculous). I'm disappointed the HD SE doesn't do closed caption as I like to warch BBC shows and need it to understand the accents.

I hadn't heard about using internet time. I guess I'd need a dongle for that if I use use wifi? I'll look into it, as well as the power supply. I still think it's design flaw.

 

[egnard]

It's really not a problem once signals are strong and consistent. I've not had the issue since I can't remember when....but was glad to know it CAME from the "no signal" situation. Can come from having the dish have to move a distance before starting, too...in which case, you can work around that. You won't find a box that keeps time without some help.......(the help being a $10 garage sale/craigslist 12 volt UPS for power blips) and NOT recording when signal is missing is a good thing. Saves space on a drive.The Amiko is a nice box, feature rich and hopefully it will grow on you.

If it does not find the signal does it delete the program to record? It was a daily event recordinIg. I noticed it is gone.

 

[radio]

Again, been awhile, but yes, somehow it messes with that. Same thing happens in most all FTA boxes. Fix the signal, problem goes away.

 

[primestar31]

My MicroHD still works nearly flawlessly, every single day automatically moving my dish to a satellite and recording. With the exception of the time slowly drifting, so I re-sync it once every two weeks.

Hypermegasat still has MicroHD's in stock

 

[egnard]

I figured it out.

I programmed it to record on G19, parked it on 125w, then turned it off. It started up but couldn't get to G19 on time to record, and gave an error message. It didn't reboot but the date changed, this time a day in advance. I don't know about deleting the timer since it was a single event.

Ya, I guess I can work around this (as silly as it seems). I mean, how can you design and build and sell something without testing it?

Thanks.

 

[egnard]

My MicroHD still works nearly flawlessly, every single day automatically moving my dish to a satellite and recording. With the exception of the time slowly drifting, so I re-sync it once every two weeks.

Hypermegasat still has MicroHD's in stock

No, thanks. I had plenty of issues with the MicroHD, including crapping out on me after 18 months. (Although, it could be the HD SE won't be any better.) The most insane thing, I think, about the MicroHD was taking it apart to download the satellite data. That's like pulling a car engine to chabge a spark plug. I think I did it 5 times.