Skybox F5s

[dr.zin]

I bought an F5s for $70 but they are shipping via slow boat from china,due date is june 5th.
I did find the 12-04-2014 firmware and I will backup whatever is on it when received.

[dr.zin]

got the receiver today ( 16 days via china post) and starting to play with it.
It came with the 4-10-2014 firmware installed.
I was distressed that the rs232 port just spits out gibberish and the loader v2.0.0g doesn't work.
I backed up the image.abs via ethernet and found the old loader 2.0.0c works with the proper eromclient.abs file to back up.
It only had 4 euro sats in the sat list so I will start from scratch with that.
I used my own 12v supply instead of the wall wart that comes with it.
I had to laugh,for customs it says the value is $10

[dr.zin]

blindscan takes forever (like 10 minutes per sat,72w ku as an example)
and there is no way to set the time/date manually.

[dr.zin]

blindscan finds phantom tp's that don't exist.
When you go back and get into the tp manager you see tp's with no signal quality.
One example was a tp with SR of 93k which the tuner isn't even capable of.
Audio output on the rca jacks is higher than on the s10,I can crank the tv volume down and still hear it.
I went with a bigger power supply when the receiver kept rebooting while moving the dish(12v 3amps)

[dr.zin]

loaded libertview firmware and got the time/date function back like the old openbox.

[dr.zin]

the firmware for the receiver is 4meg size,yet the rs232 loader v2.0.0c saves an 8meg size file and will load the 8meg file back to receiver.That is the legit loader from the skybox site.

[dr.zin]

old skybox f3s firmware from july 4th 2013 still has the manual time/date function.I believe people in europe were complaining about the epg and they added the option of loading the epg from the sat or a file,and they got rid of the manual time/date menu at that time.For my use I don't see any difference between the firmwares that let you change the time /date.
I do miss the preview screen the channel edit page had like the old s10 firmwares from sept 2011 and previous.

[dr.zin]

the V5s is the openbox version of the receiver and the last firmware from them dated dec 2014 was true fta only-no hacker stuff supported.

[dr.zin]

memobox f5s is the same box with different boot and background logos.
I have the 10-24-2013 firmware on it now.

[cpr43]

Thanks for sharing Dr!!
Whats the benefits you get loading memobox into a Skybox???

[dr.zin]

for me it's like a game to see how many different firmwares I can load before I kill the receiver.
I already have the cover pried off just in case.
The receiver has an 8mg flash but the upgrades are only 4meg size.
There is a chunk of code near the end of the flash that is the same in all firmware versions,since it never gets overwritten during the upgrade process.It may have something to do with clone detection or keeping the rs232 port working when the flash is corrupt.It is encrypted/compressed so I haven't been able to look at it more closely.
The blindscan is painfully slow,reminds me of my old s10.

[dr.zin]

it would be nice if it were clone detection,one of my theories is the clones only have a 4meg flash just enough for the firmware updates.I have clone firmware from aug 2013 and it won't work on the genuine box,which doesn't make sense unless the clone detection was in the receiver itself before you even load the firmware(hardware mismatch error)
It would be nice to be able to load f1,f2,f3,f4, firmware as an example.The protection ic in the receiver (u9) has no numbers on it but is probably similar to the security eeprom in the previous models.

[dr.zin]

Skybox released a new firmware yesterday for the F3S/F5S with the release note that it is to fix the Epg XMLTV download bug. Nothing that would appeal to me.

[cpr43]

Xml epg is mostly used in europe

[dr.zin]

lan only connects at 10Mbs and nothing works.
youtube says obsolete and the others are dead