Gekko Test and Review

[Pixl]

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The unit comes with a Euro AC plug with no N.America adapter. My wife had one in her international travel pack and I was in business. They do include batteries for the remote, a nice HDMI cable, a bracket for mounting the receiver to the back of your tv, an IR extension with a long cord if you wish to keep the receiver out of sight as there is little need to access the front panel. The IR extension also has a red/green power indicator.
The rear panel has only one usb port, but they have included a two port usb hub for additional equipment. Other connectors are HDMI, RS-232, LAN, Mini AV output, optical SPDIF audio, lnb in, lnb out. There is no hard power switch, so to do a cold re-boot you have to yank the power connector or pull the ac adapter plug.

I powered up the unit, immediately got a display on my flat screen tv thru the HDMI input. Settings were already at 1080i. I was not able to get any output at all from the mini AV jack. I’ll have to investigate this for the users with older NTSC TVs.
The factory software was at v2.09.61 I set up the only sat in the Euro list I can get, 30w. Ran a blind scan that got stuck at 25%.

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Thursday, April 12

EB advised me to download and install the latest ver v2.10.29. Re-ran blind scan and brought in 50 fta channels.
The lack of N. American sats is slowing down my tests. The existing sats can be edited using the remote, but not the orbital position. So I put my orbital position in with the sat name and I end up with two positions in the sat list. At this point I really want a channel editor to clean up this list in on pass. EB pointed me to a few channel editors, one of which I downloaded from a site in the Netherlands. None were compatible with the export data from the Gekko. EB had me load in a newer software version that was supposed to have N.A. sats in it. This got me an upgrade to v2.10.31 but no sats West of 45.


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Ok, I’ll just start keying in some of my sats, but now I discover I can not specify a existing sat position in my G-box. The Gekko just assigns the next unused number and overwrites the one in the G-box. This will make testing this box and then returning to my equipment quite a job as I have 63 sat positions to re-locate.

Saturday, April 14


The updated software fixed the blind scan. It is now comparable to my OpenBox S-9. I am starting to find my around the menus now. I had been looking for a one button push to bring up the sat list. Found it today by pressing “favorites”. I also like the channel page that acts as “satellite Central”. It has a small picture of the present channel and while that stays up you can highlight other channels in the list and info about the channel is displayed in a box to the right. Nice for searching for a channel that has scanned in with a plain name. (ex. Ch. 1)


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Tuesday, April 17

I tried using some of the PVR functions today. The manual, written in Hungarian with English and Romanian sections is actually quite good and helpful. Reading it I was easily able to make a live recording, and a timed recording. The timed recording has a brief “start message” then drops off instead of leaving an annoying bug on the screen. Play back is smooth with no jumping or freezing the way the OpenBox and some other receivers do. Nice clear picture, no pixelazition. Almost as good as a TiVo.


Wednesday, April 18

I'm having a bit of trouble deleting old TPs, so I am working on that. Probably just the wrong menu.
Meanwhile I thought I'd mention one of the guys was having trouble getting CanalLuz HD (12076V, 4000SR, 3/4 8PSK) at 30.0


Saturday, April 28

I did some testing over the past few days with the Gekko connected to my main system of dishes, switches, and motors. It was able to handle a cascade of DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, and Zinwell switches. Also in my system are DiSEqC 1.2 G-box and V-box controlling actuators on my 8ft. C-band dish and 1.2m Ku. Another dish has a USALS motor. All this can be operated by the Gekko. Switching from one service to another is as easy as surfing cable channels.

I opened up the Gekko to take a look under the hood. There is not much in there. The main processor (under the heat sink) is the only component that gets quite warm, but not hot. The rest of the board runs cool.


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Not much marked on the tuner as to make or model. However it sure does work well pulling in signals my OpenBox skips over.


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Also comparing to my OpenBox and Manhattan that sometimes stutter or freeze, the Gekko plays channels like eScapes, NBC 103 Ku, and the Canadian services on 107 C without problems. Even though the Gekko specs list on board memory at 256meg, a closer look inside reveals a pair of Hynix H5PS1G63EFR chips for and incredible 2 gigabytes of SD RAM.


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I ran a test of radio services. 99w C has several channels that come in fine. I then tried service from 139w C, over 400 channels scanned in, many are AAC audio, the others are mpeg, but none would play. Not sure why, but I have no problem getting these services with my OpenBox.


CONCLUSION

The Gekko has a great steady picture in the HDMI mode, scans in even low bit rate channels. The scanned channels have extra information I haven't seen on other receivers such as actual channel name instead of obscure numbers. The information screen has details of who the up linker is, type of encoding, and pids.

AV output... just can't find a kind thing to say about this. I had a Sony camcorder cable that fit the mini jack output, but the video comes out of the white RCA connector instead of the traditional yellow. The audio has a bit of hum, wiggling the mini jack minimized this somewhat. The picture on a SD television is lousy, and so is the HDMI picture in the 480i mode. Something not right about these protocols. There is no video output from the av jack when the Gekko is set to higher picture rates like 1080i, unlike the OpenBox or Manhattan that can output duel video modes simultaneously. You can find yourself locked out, blind to re-set it.

DiSEqC 1.2 sat positions are automatically assigned by the Gekko. I would like to see the ability to key these in manualy, especially for connecting to a positioner box already calibrated to your actual sat positions. The Gekko is currently limited to 58 stored positions, I need 63 and would like to add more. Lack of ability to add or delete satellites should be fixed. You can only edit existing sats or use the generous 4 extra blank positions they give you.

The blind scan is slow, it spends a lot of time looking at blank spectrum or or TPs with scrambled channels. However I must say it is quite thorough, rarely skipping over something. May be worth the time for the accuracy.


I would also like to see a hard off power switch instead of yanking out the power jack.

If they can address some of the above I think we have a good, very small receiver.



.

[Jim S.]

It doesn't let you edit satellite positions? That seems very strange for a modern receiver. I see from the manual posted in the Anaconda section (they're all supposed to have the same user interface now, right?) that it has a "user defined" satellite option, but it doesn't say anything else about it, or even how many user-defined satellites you can enter. Now I'm glad I didn't buy an Optibox as soon as they became available. Everything else about them sounds great, but not being able to edit the satellite list is very off-putting, to say the least!

[Pixl]

It doesn't let you edit satellite positions? That seems very strange for a modern receiver. I see from the manual posted in the Anaconda section (they're all supposed to have the same user interface now, right?) that it has a "user defined" satellite option, but it doesn't say anything else about it, or even how many user-defined satellites you can enter. Now I'm glad I didn't buy an Optibox as soon as they became available. Everything else about them sounds great, but not being able to edit the satellite list is very off-putting, to say the least!

Well it could be the capability is there and I haven't figured out how to do it yet. There are 4 blank un-defined sat positions. I will have to work with it more.

[el bandido]

I am glad you did not buy an Optibox either Jim because I would not want you or anybody else to be dissatisfied.
Here is what the Raptor will allow you to do with the sat file.
Change satellite name
Change satellite degrees
Select either no motor, USALS, or diseq1.2 for each satellite.

The Raptor Will Not let you
Change the 1.2 diseqc position.
Add a new satellite
Delete an existing satellite
You can delete all the channels for a satellite, and you can delete all the transponders for a satellite but you cannot delete the satellite itself.
I count 99 satellite positions in the European sat file. Work is being done to convert these 99 positions to American satellites.

Pixl, what I did was take notes on my diseqc 1.2 positioner before installing the Optibox, and then I took positioner notes again after the installation. IMO, they need to give us a way to change the diseqc 1.2 positions and they need to give us a way to add or delete an entire satellite.
The on-board channel editor is very powerful. It took me a while to understand all of its features. IMO, There is not much need for a separate channel editor IF they would fix the receiver so the web keyboard would work for editing satellites and channels.
EB

[el bandido]

Highlight the satellite name in the Dish Setting menu, then use the red or green remote buttons to change the name or to change the degrees.

[Pixl]

EB,

Ok I didn't see the "green button" option to edit the degrees. Looks like the built in editing can get me going.
Lack of editing the number assigned to the sat position was a hindrance for me on my first receiver, a GeoSat Pro 1100c. The receiver had amazing flexibility in it's setup menus except this. And with only 32 sat positions automatically assigned I was screwed with the 63 sats I can receive.
The OpenBox was a welcome relief of this but has several other limitations.
This sat position reference will be on my "fix it" list for the Gekko.

[el bandido]

The Channel List Manager will help you edit and delete the channels that you have scanned. You can also input PIDS in the Channel List Manager. Again, look at the functions for the remote's colored buttons at the bottom of the screen in the Channel List Manager.

What I did with the Raptor's sat file is renamed a few of the satellites with custom names for the family, changed the degrees of the satellite, deleted all of the existing transponders and then did a blind scan. But I do not have as many satellites as you do.

[Jim S.]

I'm glad that there is indeed a way to edit satellite names and positions, even if it doesn't make any sense to not be able to delete a satellite. I only use DisEqC 1.2 for one satellite, which I can barely get through the trees anyway, USALS for the rest, so I would've been able to get by after all if I had bought an Optibox. Keying in a satellite list by hand doesn't really bother me, since it's the sort of thing you usually only have to do once. I did it with my Openbox even though it came with a western-hemisphere list, just because I thought it was ugly! (I like positions listed with my names, I can't stand all upper case, and I didn't need C-band taking up every other slot in the list.)

I'm looking forward to more of the Gekko review! I'd like to see a test of the blind scan speed on 97W Ku, because it's a good standardized place to test -- almost always the same number of live transponders, and no DBS satellite bleeding through above 12.2GHz (although that shouldn't be an issue since you can limit the scan range.)

[Guest]

The sat list menu is identical to that of the anaconda. I have all c band sats saved with proper degree and now almost all ku sats as well. I just used up the extra 4 that come with the list and all unused sats like the circular ones of bell, dish network and directv.

[el bandido]

Very good Costa!
How about posting your sat file somewhere so I can take a peek at it?

[Guest]

Definitely EB, just let me finish up on ku on the Atlantic birds and will do, all American ku sats are already on the file- I also used sats on the far west that aren't part of my arc(129w and up).

[Pixl]

Today I keyed in without much trouble 97w Ku to see what and how fast ch would scan in.
But now I'm stuck trying to delete the existing TPs on the sat I'm overwriting. I go to dish settings-frequency and see a list of TPs. At the bottom of the page is an option to delete TP (red button), but does nothing. How do I get rid of old TPs?

[el bandido]

Highlight the satellite name in the Dish Setting menu, then press the yellow remote button to erase all transponders for that satellite.
A pop-up window will appear after you press the yellow button so you will have to verify that you actually want to delete all transponders for the satellite.

[Pixl]

EB sent me some files today for the Gekko. I updated my review (first post this thread)

[el bandido]

So the Gekko can handle a cascaded mixed system of switches, motors, and lnbs.

Thanks. You just answered a question that I have been wondering about for a long time! EB

[Pixl]

Today I keyed in without much trouble 97w Ku to see what and how fast ch would scan in.
But now I'm stuck trying to delete the existing TPs on the sat I'm overwriting. I go to dish settings-frequency and see a list of TPs. At the bottom of the page is an option to delete TP (red button), but does nothing. How do I get rid of old TPs?


Highlight the satellite name in the Dish Setting menu, then press the yellow remote button to erase all transponders for that satellite.
A pop-up window will appear after you press the yellow button so you will have to verify that you actually want to delete all transponders for the satellite.

OK, The delete all TPs works, but how about individual TPs or individual channels?
I see buttons to do this but they don't seem to work?

[el bandido]

To delete 1 transponder,
Go to the Dish Setting menu, then arrow down and highlight the transponder frequency.
If this is the transponder you want to delete, press the red remote button and follow the instructions in the pop-up window.
If the highlighted transponder Is Not the transponder you want to delete, then use the arrow keys to change transponders or press the OK button on the remote and a transponder frequency pop-up window will appear. Select the transponder you want to delete from the list, then press the red remote button.

Note: You cannot delete transponders if they do not exist(previously erased), and you cannot delete every transponder.
1 transponder frequency of some type will remain no matter what you do.



Deleting one or more channels was discussed today. Look in the link below for information about that. EB

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[Pixl]

The final review is up. See post #1.

[el bandido]

That is a very good review! We appreciate your time making it.
I agree, yanking out the power jack is a very crude way to do a hard reset. It would be much better to have a rocker switch on the back or a push button switch that could be used for a hard reset.

[el bandido]

Also, There is a another operating system called Enigma 2 or E2 for short that runs on the Gekko. You may want to explore that operating system and see what all is available in it.

[TunaDude]

id wait to buy this box if the blind scan is slow and gets stuck or hangs then moves on that means by the time the boxs finishes the scan its over most of what id find might be finished...since im NOT! into C Band and I like lots of live feeds on ku sats i have fixed dishes and if this box wont let me use 1.1 and 1.0 like i use now then 1.2 disec set wont cut it? i use an open box s9 i run 17 fixed sats on 3 dishes i dont think using the 1.2 on the geiko would work?

on my set up for open box i use one 8 disec swich 1.1 then on 3 of the ports i use 3 more single disecs disecs that have four setting on them using disec 1.0 the open box lets me do this.... this way i have 17 lnb's all together on my open box.

and no power off switch thats not good.. sure you can plug it to a cord that you shut off i guess.

my guess in time this box will come along i blind scan a lot i time on how long it takes on the sats that have a lot of live feeds and if you go over say 4 minutes in a blind scan you can miss most of what you scanned in...

i also care about accuracy and do test out many of these firmware for the open box and time them against each other i also DONT THINK! comparing a blind scan using 97 w as anything for speed since its not the type of sat that finds feeds like sat trucks sports games live shots breaking news. remote locations police chases helicpoter shots in the morning like on 99w ku and 103w ku many mornings


i always see on many folks comparing blind scanning to 97w why? its the same what 260 channels somthing in the clear same ole with a once in the while feed with a 6111 symbol rate or a new station launching thats not what one should compare blind scan speed and accuracy to.... for theses lines of fta boxs!




want accuracy speed try 72 w ku in the mornings see if you get in a blind scan all the ones like the 11704v 11711v 11717v etc like if there are 4 or five active does it pick it up in the blind scan rather than some get missed but if you check you tp there active...

also on 72w every morning till 10 am the three spanish telumundo and live feed of washington 12024 v 3197 12028v 3197 12033v 3197 these three are tough to blind scan in if your not pegged and only play to around 10am only mon- fri so not on sat or sunday i average around 3.24 mnutes on this 72w i know there are a few more tp on this sat i didnt write like the h's the religous which i find and the hd feeds also in the 11717 and above range in hd using a symbol rate of 4600 etc. h 264


Here is another good sat to compare blind scan speed and accuracy in ku band 91w ku which is also a sat one should compare blind scan speed and accuracy also live feeds and in most cases takes over 4 minutes to blind scan to five minutes.

and with most boxs say like the pansats of old 2500 2700 3500 etc forgot it over 10 minutes 15 minutes on 91w ku.


blind scan 91 w ku with this gekko or any of these new geko type brands any of them beat 8 minutes lol. of course most of you folks are c banders probaly not pegged on ku sats like me. blind scan mornings8am to 10 am est or 4pm to 10pm est for max tp on most of these sats like 91w or99w or 72w ku.



99w would be another great sat to compare blind scan speeds in ku this sat also has a shit load of feeds more than any one in the ku line most days try hitting a blind scan on 99 ku say from 5 pm est to around 9 pm see how many show up lots! i also average around 3. 2 to 3.5 minutes in a blind scan .

i guess im a rare breed after reading here and most of these places around fta sites you folks are all mainly mostly c band. so since i aim at pretty much every ku sat in the sky and tweek the shit out of them cause i dont like miss somthing i can just get enough quailty to just be above pixlation and picture is what i strive for and blind scanning is VERY IMPORTANT speed accuracy and not judging 97w anymore as a sat to compare blind scans in ku just cause it has so many channels there channels mainly beefed up high quaity nothing new if you blind scan it again in five minutes

On
87w ku does it find the 12009 h i guess telemundo any of the line do they blind scan it? across the board anconda etc...?

my open box does not blind scan it in using any thing i can put on it so i thouhgt except the modded bin from dr zinn for the modded s10 bin this one and only one does blind scan it in! using my open box s9.... but this bin is work in progress but not a regular download bin like we are use to..


since i dont do c band i guess there isnt a lot of live feeds that pop up in blind scans fast like the stuff on ku i dont know and maybe more than 6 minute or 8 or 10 is not important to c banders again not my world..

but most sats again i aim at in a blind scan will finish between 3and 4 minutes except somtimes 91w ku and for the record 97w takes just under 3 minutes to around 3.25 and yes every tp so i guess i just have my open box s9 with its cheap stuff inside from the orient just like every one elses box brand name from the orient but mine works! trick here is every ones box needs to be tweeked even with this brand the s9 has been around a while now its not pefect but does a very good job for what i need.... blind scans in one step not 2 anybody who ever had the pansat line knows how long a 2 step blind scan takes..

here send me one of theses geicos lol i wil test the shit out of it on all my ku sats 72w 83w 85w 87w 89w 91w 93w 95w 97w 99w 101w 103w 105w also 61.5 77 110 119 circular for the hidden pids.. except 77w i cant do turbo with the open box. then i will mail the box back to you folks


o yea dont send me one until they tackle the 1.2 stuff so this box has good hdmi good picture you can edit stuff inside like pids ok plus but if you cant work well with editing sats adding sats or in my case 17 fixed sats (unless i just dont know 1.2disec settings) might not even work...


thank you for the review of this box pixl this box needs work at least for me to ever buy it or set me straight with many points here in this long winded post a bout geko and this new line like the 1.2 stuff i dont understand for my set up like many of these boxs folks deisres might get tackled like improving blind scan and things down the road i waited for the open box for around a year till it was better to buy again for my wants. and im sure there has to be folks close to my wants in blind scanning and settings. etc who do both c band and ku band.

[Jim S.]

Whoa.... First, where did anybody ever say that the Optibox didn't support diseqc 1.0 and 1.1? In fact, I seem to remember someone saying that it did. 1.2 has NOTHING to do with 1.0 and 1.1, it's a STUPID numbering scheme. 1.2 has to do with hard-coding positions in a motor (versus the easier USALS, which computes positions on demand), nothing to do with switches at all.

Second, you and I are actually in the same boat, except you have fixed dishes and I have one motorized dish. I have Ku-band only, and I like news feeds. The reason I suggested testing on 97w Ku was nothing to do with sensitivity, it was all about timing. You can only make a valid comparison of speed if all the test subjects are scanning an identical batch of signals, which is a little hard to do in a forum post! I suppose you could do a comparision on a bird which has a lot of recurring feeds, like 72w or 99w, if you wanted to do speed AND sensitivity. But unless you arranged for everyone to scan at the same time, it still wouldn't be 100% valid.

I do share your frustration at not seeing other people do the sort of tests that you'd like to see done before spending your money, though. You may have seen me, here or on the other boards, asking people to test certain network functions, certain file formats, or other technical things, and for the most part it just hasn't happened. I don't know if I'm the only person who knows anything about Linux, or cares about using their box for anything other than watching live TV, or what.

[el bandido]

Be patient with us Jim and I think most of your questions will be answered. Or feel free to start a thread explaining in detail what you would like checked or tested. More people are getting these receivers but user information or feedback is still slow. These receivers have a lot of features and it takes us a while to understand everything. You do not need a degree in fta to operate the Optibox but it is a big step up from the Ali receivers in features.

Pixl did an excellent review on the Gekko, but some of it was lost when we changed servers. The Gekko is the economy model of Optibox and I wanted to see if it had any switch issues. Pixl has what I consider to be a very nice and elaborate dish system with 2 positioners and numerous switches installed in it. The Gekko was able to handle the transfer of signals and antenna movement from this complex dish system without any issues.

The Optibox Gekko has no known 1.0 or 1.1 diseqc switch issues.

The limit of diseqc 1.2 positions is set a 58. The diseqc 1.2 positions cannot be changed in the receiver but they may be changed using a channel editor program. The receiver automatically assigns diseqc 1.2 positions up to 58 which is more than most of us need.

The satellite information may be changed or edited, but you cannot add or delete an entire satellite.

[Guest]

Just thought I'd tune in here since the blind scan on the Gekko is identical to the Anaconda which I have had now for almost a month. Initially I had some blind scan issues with the box freezing on certain tp and not being able to complete a blind scan. I'm not quite sure why this doesn't effect my Anaconda any more. I have tested about 30 receivers over the years and of the 6 hd which I have at the moment, the tuner sensitivity on the Anaconda kicks the butt out of the rest- just have a look at my sig to know which ones.
Blind scan is another thing entirely. The Anaconda will scan in all tp with the exception of a couple of really low sr tp which scan in immediately on a manual scan. Its blind scan speed needs to be addressed but goes much quicker when you narrow down your search lets say to 11700-12200 for example. It is a bit pricier then the ali chip boxes but well worth it. The azbox is more expensive and will open 4:2:2 feeds but its blind scan is even slower then that of the Anaconda.
All in all, if the Team Amiko peeps can address blind scan speed and the opening of 4:2:2 feeds in future boxes or with the line up they have now, then they will overtake the North American fta world with such a complete receiver. Multi media center to boot as well.

[TunaDude]

guess things get fixed in time if there is enough want for these boxs.

[Guest]

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. When blind scanning if the sat is a reletively quiet sat with few tp, blind scans take longer. On a sat like at 55w, 58w, 97w and 99w with many tp, blind scan is lightning fast. A scan of Galaxy 19 will take approximately 5 minutes and last time I scanned it about 275 channels scanned in.

[Jim S.]

My Openbox S9 scans in Telemundo on 87 Ku sometimes, depending on what firmware version I'm using. The newer ones seem to do it pretty reliably, as long as the signal strength is high. I seem to remember other people here saying that the Anaconda/Gekko miss symbol rates that low, but the Raptor doesn't, but I don't remember if anybody specifically tried that channel.

CBS Newspath used to scan in, but I can't test it right now because I don't get it at all -- I need to tweak my dish after the windstorms we had last month, but I haven't had time. I'm going to try it today actually, but I don't have all day, I have other things that need to be done around the property this spring that I haven't got to yet.

The Openbox does take a long time to scan some satellites, but I don't think it's taking a long time on dead air -- if I point it at a space there's no satellite, it usually flies through it -- I think it takes a long time on satellites with interference from neighbors. 83w takes a long time usually, but the DBS satellite at 82 is easily within the beamwidth of a 36" dish, and I'm using an LNBF with high gain, so there's probably some bleed-through there.

[Guest]

Telemundo on Ses2 scanned in flawlessly this morning on my Anaconda. I do agree with you the my openboxes fly through quiet sats as well- especially Galaxy 28, scans in less then a minute.

[Pixl]

I just tried for this on the Gekko, blind scan brought in 165 channels, only 3 itc, no Telemundo. Inputed it manualy 12009 H 2170 nothing there using my 1.2m Ku dish. I've seen this in the past on my Openbox when Harold was on it. Don't know why it's not there today. I'll try my Manhattan later when I put my system back together.

[Jim S.]

87W Ku? Should've been more than 3 open channels even without Telemundo. Let's see, Patient Channel, the other education channel that I never see anything other than the slate on, the Bloomberg feed, the whole Arabic mux, and the Florida channel, off the top of my head (system is still torn down from dish tweaking, I'm just taking a break.) Out of those, the only especially narrow one is Florida, I think.

[Guest]

Your right Jim, just did a scan on Ses2 this morning:


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[Jim S.]

The Gekko does share files over the network. It has both a uPnP (DLNA) server, which I haven't tested, and an SMB (Windows folder sharing) server. And I'm assuming FTP also, since a port scan shows the FTP port open, but I haven't tested that. The puzzling thing is that someone in another thread said that their Anaconda (I think it was) only shared via FTP, and all these receivers seem to have the same firmware -- even down to having files for supporting things the Gekko doesn't have, like a front-panel display and extra USB ports. The manual is wrong though -- you can't get to the files via a web browser (unless you tell it to use FTP, as they found in the other thread), you have to enter the address of the box in a file explorer address bar or the Windows run command box.

The thing which interests me is that it DOES allow you to play a file which is still recording. This means that you could have near-live TV on another device from a remote Gekko! There's no reason you couldn't play 4:2:2 this way, I don't think, as long as your client supports 4:2:2. The problem is, I haven't found such a client yet. So far, the only player I've found that plays the Gekko's .ts files is KMPlayer, and it doesn't support 4:2:2 -- at least with the codecs I have installed so far. (Does KMPlayer support other codecs, or is it self-contained like VLC? I have no idea right now.) VLC won't play the .ts files, which is disappointing because VLC normally plays everything, including 4:2:2. It plays my Openbox .ts files just fine, so I don't know what the Optibox is doing to the files that makes them non-compatible. I'm going to try my media player box, which I know plays 4:2:2, soon, then I think I'm going to move on to testing E2, at least til we get this bug with the blind scan not scanning without a reboot, or hanging, figured out.

[Jim S.]

Unfortunately, I have to report a triple fail on playing from the Gekko with my media player STB.

First, it won't recognize the Gekko's SMB share. I think this is because my media player insists on making you select a workgroup first before you can select a server, and the Gekko doesn't have any way to set a workgroup name (and apparently doesn't come with one set.) Maybe it would work with a more flexible media player, who knows.

Second, it does recognize the Gekko's uPnP share, but the problem is, unlike the SMB share, the Gekko doesn't appear to want to share a file that's open for recording.

Third, and this is the real killer, although I was expecting it, it doesn't recognize the Gekko's file format. You'd think if they were calling it a .ts file, it would be a .ts file, but obviously not.

OK, enough of that, I have work to do (I wish these boxes had come out in the winter, when I had nothing to do!), the next time I play, it's going to be with E2. But I have another observation, and a question.

The Gekko doesn't seem to want to recognize my USB HD at boot time. I have to unplug it and reconnect it, and then it recognizes it automatically. I have a gut feeling that this could be because it's connected to a hub instead of directly, but I haven't tested that. (And furthermore, they PROVIDE the hub, so they ought to support it.)

The question I have is, has anyone figured out how to mount a network share TO the Gekko, so you can play files from it? I'd like to test the media player capabilities with certain formats I have, but I don't want to have to copy a bunch of big files to the Gekko's drive first. (I never store files on my media player, I always serve them from my PC.) The storage manager menu does have a Network Drive option, but it says Not Available and nothing I've entered into the configuration box will change that. I've even logged into the box by telnet and tried "mount -t smbfs //server/share /STORAGE/NET" and it doesn't work -- it says "no such device". (But it doesn't complain about smbfs, so it must support that.)

[Pixl]

Third, and this is the real killer, although I was expecting it, it doesn't recognize the Gekko's file format. You'd think if they were calling it a .ts file, it would be a .ts file, but obviously not.

I noticed when I was testing the Gekko, the ff and fr "trick play" was very smooth and easy to get around in the file. Reminds me of the TiVo which also operates on Linux. The TiVo was out for quite some time before someone cracked the files it recorded. If I remember right it was a mpeg recording with extra coding tucked into it for handling the ff and fr playback and is why no one could get the files to play outside of the TiVo.

[Jim S.]

I got the mounting of a network drive in the storage manager menu to work. I had been over-thinking it -- the server has to be specified as an IP address rather than a name; also, you don't need the two slashes in front of the server name -- in fact, I don't think it even works if you use them. So if I want to mount my video storage drive, for example, I'd specify the folder name as 192.168.0.2/video (the problem with using addresses rather than names is that if you use DHCP, your server may not have the same address all the time if it's not on constantly, so either give your server a static address or deal with looking up its address when you want to connect to it.)

From the brief amount of time I've had to test it, the supported file formats seem to be as advertised. Unsupported file formats won't even show up in the file list, which is nicer than the way my standalone media player box does it.

One nice little feature that I've never seen elsewhere is that when you're viewing a picture, it gives you the option of setting it as the background image for satellite radio channels.

One thing that I don't like is that although it shows .ts files in the filelist, it won't play .ts files recorded on my Openbox, even though they're the REAL .ts format and the Optibox format is something else. It does offer to "repair" them, but I haven't tested that yet because I don't want my files altered. I'll have to duplicate one and then try it.

[el bandido]

Upload a small video clip made on the Openbox that the Optibox will not play. Do this so the video clip may be sent to Fortis. EB

[Jim S.]

I'll try to get a sample file sometime when I have time to hook the Openbox back up. I tried to upload the smallest one I could find on the drive, but it was 86MB even after zipping and the forum complained that it was larger than 60MB (after I uploaded all 86MB at 300kb/s...)

[Jim S.]

I found a very useful plugin on a European board. I think it's for all the Optibox receivers in the Raptor / Anaconda / Gekko family. What it does is scan all the storage devices attached to your system -- hard drives, USB drives, and even supposedly network shares -- for .ts files, and modifies all the files that it finds so that they play on a computer with any program that plays .ts files, not just the one or two that play the Optibox format. The modified files will also still play on the Optibox. If I understand the machine-translated post that accompanied the file correctly, it will also modify .ts files from other systems to play on the Optibox, although I haven't tested that part yet.

3417

[Jim S.]

Finally scanned 87W Ku. Contrary to others' experience, Telemundo with the low symbol rate did scan in. In fact, it scanned in as KTEL rather than "Ch-1" or something like it did on other receivers. I wonder if they changed something about the signal since the last time anyone tried?

On the down side, I can find nothing good to say about the extended signal meter. It looked like the one on my Coolsat -- nice big bars that you can see from a long distance, and a beep tone that increases in speed with increased quality. But it didn't behave like it. The Coolsat's extended meter was super sensitive and super responsive. This one, quite a contrast. I can move the dish quite a range before the meter responds, so I can never find the peak. It's as if it tops out too early, even though it tops out far below 100%! (Just like the meter on the Openbox. On the Coolsat, the slightest pressure on the dish would move the meter.) And if I move the dish too fast, the meter overshoots, either going to 100% or 0% before bouncing back and settling -- obviously something wrong with the locking algorithm. This is all when moving the dish manually. Moving it with the DiSEqC 1.2 controls, it does exactly the same as the Openbox -- it cuts out while moving. (This is with a universal LNB, which is supposedly the problem with the Openbox -- something funky with the 22k signal. I haven't tried it with a standard.)

[el bandido]

I think you will have much better results with the signal meters moving the dish by hand.

[Jim S.]

I was moving it by hand most of the time, it still wasn't as responsive as I was expecting it to be.

[Pixl]

[QUOTE=Jim S.;32162 In fact, it scanned in as KTEL rather than "Ch-1" or something like it did on other receivers. I wonder if they changed something about the signal since the last time anyone tried? [/QUOTE]

I don't think it is a change, seems that the Gekko picks up more detail for channel labeling such as KTEL, that comes in as Ch1 on my Openbox.

[Jim S.]

KTEL is the only one like that that I found so far though.

[SatelliteGuy]

KTEL also scans in that way on my Anaconda.

[Jim S.]

Not surprising since they seem to be pretty much the same firmware.

I found something useful today: how to do a hard reboot without pulling the plug! (In case of the scan process getting screwed up, which it seems to do far too often.)

Under the "A/V Output Setting" menu (why there? I have no idea) there's an option that says "Power Saving in Standby Mode". If you turn that to On, shutting the receiver off with the power button totally resets it (so you have to endure the red/green flashing repeatedly on bootup, unfortunately), instead of just putting it into a state where it comes on instantly like normal.

[Jim S.]

Not sure if I posted this already anywhere or not... the Optibox does the opposite of the Openbox when running a motor. The Openbox, with recent firmware, would leave the "moving motor" message up a long time after the motor has stopped moving. The Optibox seems to only leave it up a limited amount of time, so that on long moves it disappears before the final location is reached. This is kind of annoying if you're expecting a picture and get 0 signal instead!

[Jim S.]

KTEL is the only one like that that I found so far though.

Two of the PBS feeds on 125W Ku scan as "PBS" instead of their service number. The rest of them just scan as numbers like on every other box though.

[SatelliteGuy]

Not sure if I posted this already anywhere or not... the Optibox does the opposite of the Openbox when running a motor. The Openbox, with recent firmware, would leave the "moving motor" message up a long time after the motor has stopped moving. The Optibox seems to only leave it up a limited amount of time, so that on long moves it disappears before the final location is reached. This is kind of annoying if you're expecting a picture and get 0 signal instead!

True, but I prefer the message going away faster. This allows changing menu options faster rather than waiting for the motor message to go away.

[el bandido]

Not sure if I posted this already anywhere or not... the Optibox does the opposite of the Openbox when running a motor. The Openbox, with recent firmware, would leave the "moving motor" message up a long time after the motor has stopped moving. The Optibox seems to only leave it up a limited amount of time, so that on long moves it disappears before the final location is reached. This is kind of annoying if you're expecting a picture and get 0 signal instead!

Is there anything at all on the Optibox that you like or does every feature have some sort of problem?

[Jim S.]

I like the picture-in-graphics menu, the multi-channel picture menu, I like that it doesn't overwrite edited channel names when I scan, the tuner sensitivity seems fine, network access is a nice feature. If it seems like I'm being overly critical sometimes, it's because I don't understand why some things made it to release time without being caught. Hopefully some of it will be fixed with future software releases. The box certainly has lots of potential.

[el bandido]

We need to be critical so we will know all of the receiver's weaknesses, but things like how long the motor moving message stays on, and how sensitive the signal bars are supposed to be are personal preferences. You have to make a distinction between preferences and things that do not work correctly.
The signal bars on the Raptor could use some work. Sometimes they take forever to come on, but they do show up eventually, and I have adjusted my dish more than once by listening to the beeps and not looking at any signal bar.

I had a list of things that did not work correctly with the Raptor. Several things that I thought were broken or did not work correctly were written down to be posted. Most of the items on the list were never posted because the things actually worked correctly after I understood them, or I was making mistakes and the things worked when my mistakes were corrected.

These receivers are not designed to need an almost continuous rebooting as you have mentioned. Rebooting or having to reboot to restore normal operations are the signs of an error.
True, these receivers will have an occasional freeze up that requires a reboot but it should not be often under normal conditions.

Eisha's TS fixit addon seems to solve some of the problems that were mentioned earlier about the recorded TS files not being able to be transferred from from the Optibox to another receiver. my Pansat 9500 has been able to play TS files that were made on the Optibox aftern the fixit addon has been ran, but no such luck getting them to play on the Openbox S12. Have you had any luck getting files to play after using the TS fixit? If you had luck with the Openbox, what firmware file is installed on it?

[Jim S.]

I haven't tried playing .ts files on the Openbox yet. I might try it out tonight.

Now as to the rebooting all the time: I don't see any way to avoid it, if you want to do blind scans. I'm not the only one with the problem either, I've seen it mentioned as happening on the Anaconda. And it's not user error, I know I'm not mis-keying the frequency limits. I don't know why there aren't more reports of it. Maybe if you don't even try limiting the scans, it doesn't ever happen? I think I'll try that idea out tonight too. I've switched my universal LNB to a standard temporarily for testing, in hopes that it won't start so far below 11700 if it sees that the LOF is 10750 instead of 10600.

[el bandido]

What satellite file are you using?

[Jim S.]

FDU_1B, downloaded from here. I saw there was another one uploaded to one of the other areas recently, I'll try that one.

Not touching the limits didn't work. I scanned 93W Ku, it found the usual feeds. Then I went to 91, and it flew through it instantly finding nothing.

[el bandido]

Have you done a factory default?
Do a factory default and use the satellites that are in it. You should have 61 satellites after you do a factory default.

[SatelliteGuy]

I haven't tried playing .ts files on the Openbox yet. I might try it out tonight.

Now as to the rebooting all the time: I don't see any way to avoid it, if you want to do blind scans. I'm not the only one with the problem either, I've seen it mentioned as happening on the Anaconda. And it's not user error, I know I'm not mis-keying the frequency limits. I don't know why there aren't more reports of it. Maybe if you don't even try limiting the scans, it doesn't ever happen? I think I'll try that idea out tonight too. I've switched my universal LNB to a standard temporarily for testing, in hopes that it won't start so far below 11700 if it sees that the LOF is 10750 instead of 10600.


I agree with you on this as I too am experiencing exactly the same problem. With almost every blind scan I must reboot the receiver.

[SatelliteGuy]

I like the picture-in-graphics menu, the multi-channel picture menu, I like that it doesn't overwrite edited channel names when I scan, the tuner sensitivity seems fine, network access is a nice feature. If it seems like I'm being overly critical sometimes, it's because I don't understand why some things made it to release time without being caught. Hopefully some of it will be fixed with future software releases. The box certainly has lots of potential.

Again, I feel exactly the same way about the Anaconda. A great receiver, but has some problems such as the blind scan.

[el bandido]

I agree with you on this as I too am experiencing exactly the same problem. With almost every blind scan I must reboot the receiver.

What does the receiver do at the end of the blindscan that causes the need for a reboot?

[SatelliteGuy]

It flys through horizontal and then hangs at 81.2% vertical. I'll try to get screenshots of when exactly this happens over the weekend when I have more time.

[el bandido]

Ok. Then it takes a reboot to get out of that. Thanks for the info.

[Jim S.]

I rarely have the Gekko hang on a scan. (Though when I do, it's always at 81.1% or 81.2%) The majority of the scan failures consist of it flying through it without finding anything, then afterward I have full control of the receiver except for the fact that all subsequent attempts at scanning will fail in exactly the same way until a reboot. (It doesn't take a reboot to get out of the hanging either, just persistent pressing of the exit button. But it still takes a reboot to get normal scanning back after a hang.)

I didn't take pictures, but it happens the same way every time: it'll start out the scan as normal, saying "Single LNB with Vertical Polarity", then all of a sudden the progress bar will rush to the end, the mode will change to "L-Band of Universal LNB with Horizontal Polarity", it'll rush to the end of that, then exits saying 0 transponders and 0 channels found. That's not a typo, it starts the scan thinking I have a standard LNB and then suddenly decides I have a universal one. (When I had the universal LNB on, it would start out with universal, but still jump over bands and polarities.)

And yes, I tried a factory reset tonight. I scanned 4 satellites with no issues, in fact, it seemed a little faster than before (but still slow). Then on the 5th one, it blew through it. But I don't know if the factory reset had anything to do with getting 4 good scans in a row. I've seen it go 4 or 5 scans in a row with no trouble before, but then other times it'll only do 1 or 2 before the problem comes up.

[easily confused]

Had the same issue here, Jim, and when it does it the first time, now, I automatically do a reboot because unless you do, it will not blind scan. Hopefully that is something that will be resolved in the future

[Guest]

Exactly the same on my anaconda. It's usually good for about 4-5 blind scans before I need to reboot it.

[Jim S.]

Here's a question for EB or whoever: does the Raptor have any problem like this, or is it only the Anaconda and Gekko?

[SatelliteGuy]

I didn't take pictures, but it happens the same way every time: it'll start out the scan as normal, saying "Single LNB with Vertical Polarity", then all of a sudden the progress bar will rush to the end, the mode will change to "L-Band of Universal LNB with Horizontal Polarity", it'll rush to the end of that, then exits saying 0 transponders and 0 channels found. That's not a typo, it starts the scan thinking I have a standard LNB and then suddenly decides I have a universal one. (When I had the universal LNB on, it would start out with universal, but still jump over bands and polarities.)

.

Exact same problem with my Anaconda.

[eastof111]

Regarding the Raptor...

The only problem I have encountered with blind scanning was when I had to manually enter the info for KFTL at 72W KU and the fact that it takes a few minutes or sometimes seconds to lock in (assume it's because of low SR 1666). But then again, I scanned EquaVisa from Quito on Cband with a SR 1599 on 45W with absolutely no problems. Could be a C or Ku discrepancy?

When I first received the Raptor, I had problems with a couple of lockups and freezes. I changed my 8x1 switch from Centauri to Digiwave and deleted all info from my sat file and started from scratch and my problems went away, other than the above mentioned. If anyone wants to look at my sat file I can post it.

[el bandido]

The Raptor does not have the type of blind scan issues described here. If it did, I would not be asking you guys a bunch of questions.

The .fdu satellite files that I have posted here were originally made on my Raptor. Some things that Jim S. has posted makes me think that the Gekko is getting information form another tuner that does not exist. Universal is the standard satellite setting for Europe.

I have sent an email today asking when we might see some sort of solution for these blind scan issues. EB

[Jim S.]

The .fdu satellite files that I have posted here were originally made on my Raptor. Some things that Jim S. has posted makes me think that the Gekko is getting information form another tuner that does not exist. Universal is the standard satellite setting for Europe.

I was thinking about a corrupted satellite file after reading about your problem with the one in the Raptor after you set up the second tuner, but I'm still having the problems after doing a factory default. Or was the default satellite list in this Gekko overwritten at some point? I thought someone said that it didn't come with a North American list, but after I did the factory default, it had only North American satellites. Maybe we need to wipe the satellite list entirely and start fresh?

Also, I have the problem even when I use a universal LNB. It still jumps to the end of the scan at random.

The part about the bug being related to a second tuner does make some sense though, because the firmware seems to be the same in all these receivers. In some of my channel lists, and on the channel info banner, there's a "T1" icon, obviously for tuner #1.

[el bandido]

You are running a NTSC boot firmware that has a North American sat file installed in it. Fortis installed these two items for us. Let's see if I get an answer to my email before we make any other changes. EB

[SatelliteGuy]

Eastof111 gave me an idea! I have an Ecoda 22KHz switch within my current system that I'm using the Anaconda receiver on. I'm going to try removing the Ecoda 22KHz switch from the system tonight and perform a few blind scans using only my 4' motorized dish to see if the problems still occur. I'll then report the results.

[SatelliteGuy]

Come to think of it the Ecoda 22KHz switch would possibly explain the "L-Band of Universal LNB with Horizontal Polarity" message, because it sees the 22KHz switch and thinks you are using an universal LNB when in fact you are using a standard LNB.

[Jim S.]

Nope. I switched to a standard LNB, no switches, for testing, and it still does exactly the same thing.

[ViP3R]

Guy's lets please try and keep the thread topic on track and in the correct area.

Gekko discussions in the Gekko area.. Anaconda discussion in the Anaconda area and so forth..

[Jim S.]

Sounds like the Gekko and Anaconda have the same issue though. Funny that the Raptor doesn't. I wonder if it has something to do with the Raptor being faster? Since it's a multitasking OS, I wonder if two processes are trying to access the tuner at the same time or something?

[Jim S.]

I found out something cool that the Gekko does that my Openbox doesn't, assuming that it's working the way it appears. From a location near 77 degrees West, my Openbox won't let me go to 15W with USALS. It'll only go as far as 17.5W before saying it's out of range, even though the motor goes farther and I don't have any limits set. The Gekko doesn't complain when I tell it to go to 15W, although I can't verify it because I can't see that satellite when leaves are on the trees.

[el bandido]

USALS is designed to work only 60 degrees in either direction of 0 (Due South).
The Openbox was nice enough to let you know when you had gone over the 60 degree limit by giving you a message. the Optibox does not give you an "Out of Range" message but the 60 degree USALS limit is still in place in the Optibox because USALS does not have the capability to calculate beyond 60 degrees. You can verify this by moving your motor to 17.5W, marking the shaft at this location, then try to move on down to 15W. I think you will find the motor does not move any farther East than 17 degrees West using USALS. Diseq 1.2 Does not have a 60 degree limit so you may use the diseq1.2 feature to get the satellite at 15 West.

One thing I have found that the Optibox will do that your Openbox will not is wait for a signal when a recording session starts. You can have your motor parked at 17.5 West and if you have a recording scheduled at 125 west, the Optibox will wait for the motor to move the dish that distance. the Openbox will not. EB

[el bandido]

Attached is a sat file to be used in the Gekko. Please try it and see if it solves some of the bogus universal lnb scanning problems.
I do not expect this file to speed the blind scan up, but it may eliminate some other scan problems.

Back-up what you have in the receiver before you load this sat file. You can Restore what you had in seconds if you do this.
EB

[Jim S.]

Sorry, but something seems to be severely wrong with that file.

It won't retain my positioner setting. It's set to None, I set it to USALS, go to do the scan, and it doesn't move the dish, just scans where I was sitting, and when I check again, it's still set to None. Also, if I hit the go-to-position button in the positioner menu, nothing happens. Finally, it won't even retain my LNB settings if I change them from the default.

[el bandido]

LOL Hardcoded it eh?

OK

Upload and post the fdu file from your receiver and I will see what I can do about fixing it.

[Jim S.]

USALS is designed to work only 60 degrees in either direction of 0 (Due South).
The Openbox was nice enough to let you know when you had gone over the 60 degree limit by giving you a message. the Optibox does not give you an "Out of Range" message but the 60 degree USALS limit is still in place in the Optibox because USALS does not have the capability to calculate beyond 60 degrees. You can verify this by moving your motor to 17.5W, marking the shaft at this location, then try to move on down to 15W. I think you will find the motor does not move any farther East than 17 degrees West using USALS

I don't know how it's doing the calculations, or if it's accurate because I can't see that low when the leaves are on the trees, but it does really go down to 15W. It'll even go to 12.5W. I haven't tried any farther than that.

[el bandido]

Good to know it works!

I think 60 Degrees for USALS has been the standard for years. The only explanation I would have is the table for USALS has been expanded

[Jim S.]

I tried the new 2.10.57 software today. Blind scan seems to be a tiny bit faster on certain satellites, but I didn't actually time it, so it may be my imagination after reading the Raptor 2.10.57 thread LOL.

The thing that really jumped out at me, though, is the quality meter. The dynamic range seems to have improved a lot. Strong signals read higher than before, BUT weak signals read lower than before. I like it! I have not, however, tested the expanded meter view on the aiming screen, to see if anything changed with the response speed and smoothness that I complained about earlier in this thread.

[Kosme]

Hi, I tried the new 2.10.57 software today too. But have a question - how to activate RSS reader to open live web news. When i typed rss-url, the reciever display me:
"This url has unsupported protocol"! How the correct this error?
Thank you!
Best regards!

[ViP3R]

Hi, I tried the new 2.10.57 software today too. But have a question - how to activate RSS reader to open live web news. When i typed rss-url, the reciever display me:
"This url has unsupported protocol"! How the correct this error?
Thank you!
Best regards!

Hello, I have not tried the rss feeds on the Anaconda yet, they should be just the same as the Gekko..

Just a c\p I found that may help?

RSS has a standard syntax of [Only registered and activated users can see links] ... site ....also the site must support RSS feed .

It may be easier to load an url list of RSS feeds through USB , I will look into this and see what I can find.

[Kosme]

Hi, the error was [Only registered and activated users can see links] wrong write URL!
All RSS work fine :)!
Thanks for attention!

[hagencampos]

Good morning
Has anyone figured out how to BACK-UP what I have in the receiver ? Just in case....I mean firmware + plugins
Thanks in advance for yr help.

[hagencampos]

Another question.
Can I use a null modem cable to transfer all contents in a Optibox Gekko to another Gekko receiver?. And How do it, please?