Edison Mini Vs. Edison Mio

[ArloG]

If I could. The mio4k+ does have 2 satellite capable tuners.
And my question that went largely unanswered was what was the difference in them.
As you can see from the specs:

- 1 x Tuner DVB-S2X
- 1 x Tuner DVB-S2/T2/C

In all its geekery a quick explanation I picked up from another site:

DVB-S2X advantages over DVB-S2:

51% higher satellite link spectral efficiency
Improved filtering, making it possible to use smaller carrier spacing, and
Smaller filter roll-off factors of 5%, 10%, and 15%. Roll-off-factor is a measure of the excess bandwidth of the filter used by the DVB system. The smaller the roll-off factor, the sharper the filtered signal and, the better the filter performance.
More data scrambling options available to mitigate co-channel interference, and
New constellation points for both linear and non-linear channels, resulting in higher data throughput capacity

So the 2nd tuner should be able to receive an additional signal from a separate dish.
What are the disadvantages over the DVB-S2X tuner?
Would that mean it's totally useless in the USA?

Also the 2nd tuner could "supposedly" be used to attach an OTA antenna if you decided to.
Would it tune USA ATSC stations? If so you could use the DVR capability to record programming on a schedule or on demand.
I never tried on my os mio 4k (not the +). I live way out in the boonies

As for the 2nd tuner being used for cable tv . 100% unusable as most if not all cable content is digital. Plus the tuning of USA cable "in the clear" analog frequencies differs from European standards.
A note. For awhile I had 70 some cable channels that could be scanned on my tv. It was kind of an undocumented perk with the broadband service I subbed to.
But my satellite receiver, a Zgemma H7-AC, DVB-C tuner was blind. Even entering a known channel frequency resulted in no reception at all.
So forget about trying to do that.

I was sent a blown-up os mio4k+ to play with. In it the previoous and generous owner sent a Happague USB tuner dongle. It will work for out OTA channels.
And drivers for it turn it up as a new tuner in the Edision tuner menu.


The os mini is available. The os mio4k seems to be done. The mio4k+ is backordered and perhaps may be obsoleted as well. Or not, just yet.

EB's DM One seemed to be a disaster.
It coincided with my search for a newer, more modern receiver.
I was shot down on any VU+. And a bit less on any Gigblue.
It was a quest to find a satellite receiver with 2 identical DVB-S2X tuners. That also had really good blindscan performance.

The Octagon SF8008 has identical DVB-S2X tuners. It looks tasty. Looking for USA reviews and opinions before making a commitment.

As for plugins. If you don't know about all of the ones you can install. Ask yourself. What plugins would you actually need on a satellite receiver?
Kodi? I'll tell ya'. If you want to install and use Kodi. Your experience will be tons better using your Fire device or smart tv.
It's a satellite receiver. You'll be pecking away on the remote navigating around instead of on a Fire, tv, being able to add a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

So. At least for me. And I ain't no-one. My plugins extend to a weather thingy. A few other terminal plugins. I'm perfectly happy not cluttering the os mio4k with a lot of crap.

As a side note. About the fried mio4k+ I was given. Which lost HDMI but still was accessible through the web interface.
It got a power surge on the HDMI port. I have that aced and diagnosed. The Broadcom receiver IC is cooked for video output.
I got a lead on a couple of chips being sent from Asia. They're 30 buck or so. Still not too bad with shipping. So I wait.
I would be interested in being able to get another 4k+ sent to me to play with.
In my shoes, I am the one getting notified that a repair needing a chip will "cost this much" and no guarantee that it will work. But we need to start someplace.

[el bandido]

The second internal tuner B in the MIO+ receiver does not perform as well as the first internal tuner A. The second tuner cannot handle symbol rates over 45000, does not work on DVB-S2X, Does not blindscan well....etc Also, the second tuner is terrestrial, DVB-T/T2, NOT ATSC.. Like I said earlier, a moot point discussing it because the receiver is not available new.

FTA satellite receivers can be broken into 2 distinct groups. One group would be DX'er or FTA satellite receiver. The other group would be subscription services. Most VuPlus and most GigaBlue satellite receivers could be considered subscription boxes because they are either poor at searching for signals or cannot search for signals. Most VuPlus and most GigaBlue receivers will not perform well on weak signals either, but they may have multiple card slots and other subscription features for Europe. Some VuPlus and GigaBlue receivers are copies of each other...

Receivers such as the Edision MIO 4K, Mini 4K, and Octagon SF8008 could be considered DX'er or FTA satellite receiver. These receivers work well or are at least acceptable on a satellite blindscan, can handle relatively small symbol rates, and perform decent on weak signals. These receivers do not have multiple card slots, which are useless anyway in North America.

Satellite FTA receivers for the most part are throw-away, disposable pieces of electronics because they are built dirt cheap to begin with. Yes, you may take your time and tediously repair some part that has failed on the board, but the odds of the receiver that you repaired working correctly again are not in your favor!!! FTA receivers are like Bic cigarette lighters: Throw them away when they quit working unless you have a warranty.

IF and When there will be new FTA receivers on the market is unknown. Up to about 2018, new FTA receivers were introduced at least 2 times a year. Broadcom has left the FTA satellite market and I doubt they return. On a world-wide level, FTA satellite has shrunk, and no one seems interested in putting money in new FTA satellite receivers right now. New satellite receivers that OpenPLi will build images for are listed in red at openpli.org. Currently, there are three new receivers being shown at openpli.org. But two of them are Identical, and are based on old technology. So nothing new.

You might be waiting a while if you are waiting for a new (2023-2024) FTA satellite receiver to be released. The wait may be even longer if you want a FTA receiver that will perform well in North America.


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[cyberham]

All good points raised. To help understand why FTA has a struggle in Canada, I recently took a walk down the pay TV path. Shaw Direct satellite provided me with a brand new Shaw receiver w/PVR recording capability, and a brand new 60e satellite dish with dual LNB. For free! They even gave a $50 credit if I installed the dish myself. All I paid was the monthly subscription fee (without a contracted term) which was discounted for a full year. This is what FTA has to fight against. And guess what? I replaced Shaw Direct with Eastlink cable recently since Eastlink offered even a better (less $$$) deal for 2 years with no contract and I didn't need a satellite dish for Eastlink. I think there are VERY FEW average people who would choose to explore FTA when the pay TV offerings are as generous as they currently are. So FTA is a hobby exclusively here and that small a market is tough to justify development costs.

[ArloG]

In keeping with the OP's subject. I'm guessing that the os mio4k series is/was the rare unicorn of USA FTA receivers. I wonder though is that a fact found from a culmination of purchased or given as samples receivers?
The VU+ and Gigablue are perhaps justly getting a pretty good thumbs down.
It is strange that an owner of a VU+ receiver. Not sure of the model. Who I wrote back and forth in a forum pm. Asking of my opinion of the os mio4k receiver before he purchased one.
Strange Yes because after he got his new mio setup. He swore up and down that the VU+ picture and sound was better than the mio. And in a blindscan comparison, displayed signal strength, and a few other things.
The VU+ blew the mio in the ditch. Things like missed transponders, less channels scanned in, and overall lower signal threshold. Yet as told to me can't be so. So what's the deal?
Who do you believe? And if in fact a Gigablue model is very similar in hardware or a complete copy of a VU+ of the same type.
Has it been blacklisted as unusable for one reason or another w/o actually being tested?
The dude swears of the good of his VU+ over the bummer factor of the supposedly superior os mio4k.

As for disposability. A good piece of electronics that is deemed obsolete. But could be repaired economically. Especially if comparing a couple of identical units shows a common failure point.
That would be a good thing. Case in point for the os mio4k. The wall wart power supply is known for a bad chinesium output filter capacitor that smokes at will. A lesser person would accept it as junk.
A ~ $150.00 piece of junk. For the want of a simple repair or $2 thrift shop power supply. I fix things. The same ole same ole gets boring.
Getting something new to pee with and actually acing it to a failed component. That's fun.
I mean. No way, no how would I crack open a Koquit box that cost 30 samolians. You know. Who knows.

The thing about FTA is it's interesting and fun. And most of us know the user experience can be enhanced. For a time anyway.
My recordings are mine. Not so on sub boxes. You cant take a recorded movie over to your girlfriends and watch it.
Personally. I've been cord free for 10 years. My dad passed on and I moved into our old family farmhouse. He had a dish sub. Once I saw what he had been paying for the football and movie package.
Nah. I let it run out sent the receiver back. That's a lot of money. And I didn't get, after the "blind me with a good deal" introductory deal runs out, what the monthly shocker actually will be after sneaky Pete sends that first bill.

I have a bigassed dish that swings from 131W to 40-something East. C & ku band capable. Cemented in the dirt since '84ish. Broadband a mundo. A VPN.
As long as FTA has something worth watching. Its the best 200 buck I ever spent.
Yeah?

[WilburSmith]

If it isn't too much trouble, I still would like to hear about the tuner as the EDISION OS MIO+ 4K UHD can be had new for about $190.00. This makes it 2o bucks more than the OS Mini 4K. Which do you think is better choice.? From what I'm starting to understand and read is that the Edison stb is better because it has more firmware designed for it. IT also look like people are installing a firmware called TNAP. The NA in TNAP would'nt be for North America would it?

UPDATE- I would not have asked the question above if I had realized there was a page two...Sorry!

You have been great at providing info to me. I certainly appreciate it!

Now to learn more about TNAP and the plugins I can use.

[Megatron817]

If it isn't too much trouble, I still would like to hear about the tuner as the EDISION OS MIO+ 4K UHD can be had new for about $190.00. This makes it 2o bucks more than the OS Mini 4K. Which do you think is better choice.? From what I'm starting to understand and read is that the Edison stb is better because it has more firmware designed for it. IT also look like people are installing a firmware called TNAP. The NA in TNAP would'nt be for North America would it?

UPDATE- I would not have asked the question above if I had realized there was a page two...Sorry!

You have been great at providing info to me. I certainly appreciate it!

Now to learn more about TNAP and the plugins I can use.

Just let us know what kind of plugin you would like to use or see and we can let you know if it is possible. If you are looking for what is on android tv box then you probably wouldn't be completely satisfied but what I do is have both. An android google tv Chrome cast and an enigma2 satellite box. Enigma2 is cool software but not modern like android tv is. I like the Edision s2x 4k the best for the Blind scan option out of a few other brands I have tried out.

[WilburSmith]

@ MegaTron817 Thanks! I'm really only interested in using the satellite receiver for the sole purpose of watching satellite television. I'm also interested in learning/understanding how such receivers can be used to blind scan for more channels. Especially stuff that may not be presented on charts like you may find over at tversat.com I also want to learn if these receivers can really be used to watch bliss and power vu encrypted channels. Also, are there plugins that tell you what encryption a channel may be scrambled with? Before asking these questions I wanted to double check they aren't prohibited to ask about but I did not see reverence to the rules section. Surely it must be somewhere. Where is it exactly?

I guess I will have more interests once I decide upon a stb and realize everything they can do.

[Megatron817]

@ MegaTron817 Thanks! I'm really only interested in using the satellite receiver for the sole purpose of watching satellite television. I'm also interested in learning/understanding how such receivers can be used to blind scan for more channels. Especially stuff that may not be presented on charts like you may find over at tversat.com I also want to learn if these receivers can really be used to watch bliss and power vu encrypted channels. Also, are there plugins that tell you what encryption a channel may be scrambled with? Before asking these questions I wanted to double check they aren't prohibited to ask about but I did not see reverence to the rules section. Surely it must be somewhere. Where is it exactly?

I guess I will have more interests once I decide upon a stb and realize everything they can do.

Well as far as scanning in an encrypted channel and seeing what the encryption it is scrambled with, that is built in to enigma2 but the knowledge of how to open the channels is not shared on this forum but I will say most any open source FTA box can be done. Just don't talk about or share any of it here.

[ArloG]

If it isn't too much trouble, I still would like to hear about the tuner as the EDISION OS MIO+ 4K UHD can be had new for about $190.00. This makes it 2o bucks more than the OS Mini 4K. Which do you think is better choice.? From what I'm starting to understand and read is that the Edison stb is better because it has more firmware designed for it. IT also look like people are installing a firmware called TNAP. The NA in TNAP would'nt be for North America would it?

I sort of get what you're asking. Because your feet aren't quite wet. Let's get down to brass tacks.
I just tore apart two images for the mio4k+ and mini.

The DVB-S2X tuners for both are identical.
The mio4k+ give you 2 tuners. And 1 of them you may or may not wish to use. As indicated from EB

The 4k+ gives you wifi, the mini has Ethernet only.
The mio4k+ gives you an animated oled front display. The mini gives a 7 segment display.

Firmware. It's all the same but different. TNAP was tuned to work for the USA because satellite reception of European sats. differs a bit from here.
But don't think that if you experiment with another image that you'll not be able to receive, scan, or have a better or worse experience.

You may even find that you like a different image better than another.

Being Linux based you are able to take your scan and channels data files from one image to another. Example would be TNAP caught transponders that OpenViX missed.
Open a "channel editor" with stored channels from one image. And transfer them to another. It's that easy.

Now. For plugins. Try too not relate plugins for an Enigma 2 image as you would from iTunes, The Playstore, or The App Store.
The same but different in ways. I have attached a file from an image containing all of the available plugins for it.
Browse through it. Some are "in your face" as would be an app on another device. Others are in-the-background.

There are other "sources" available you can select in the menu settings that may or may not be compatible with your image.
Hell, there are even plugins that aren't even remotely compatible, buggy, or just plain can crash the system for the image they are listed to work with.
And as you see. Many versions of the same plugin.
There are even plugins that are user written for specific or cool things not in the system menu. Those can be found in different forums.

You are able to make a snapshot backup of an image to restore it as it was if you happen to screw-up.

So. Browse the list. If something catches your eye, copy and paste it into a browser search for more info.
It could be a 3 or 4 pager. I see you're a lot like me. Getting your guns cleaned and loaded before the turkey shoot.




UPDATE- I would not have asked the question above if I had realized there was a page two...Sorry!

You have been great at providing info to me. I certainly appreciate it!

Now to learn more about TNAP and the plugins I can use.

.

[el bandido]

A FTA satellite receiver can work no better than the antenna system it is connected to. I think most would agree that c band has the best programming, but there is some interesting stuff on ku band. Smaller dishes will work, but the minimum c band dish size today would be 3 meters and the minimum for ku, 1 meter.

I always get a chuckle out of this:

The VU+ blew the mio in the ditch.

VU+ made a total of 2 satellite receivers that could satellite blindscan decent enough to be useful. The Duo2 was released around 2012, and was capable of satellite blindscan on 2 of the 4 internal tuners. The VU+ Zero 4K followed a few years later and had a pretty decent satellite blindscan. I enjoy using both the Duo2 and the Zero 4K, but VU+ did not support the items we need for FTA satellite even though they advertised them,

VU+ did not give a damn about satellite blindscan. If it satellite blindscan returned a transponder, it worked, and if it didn't work, VU+ advertised it as working anyway on models with FBC tuners. 22KHz Tone switching was left out of the Zero 4K blindscan which means only the low side of Universal lnb could be blindscanned. VU+ could not be bothered to fix this, so anyone relying on a Zero 4K to blindscan using universal type lnb was screwed!

The VU+ Ultimo had pluggable tuners and could satellite blindscan as well as the Duo2 if Duo2 tuners were installed in the Ultimo. Later models after the Ultimo used different tuner slots and were not capable enough to have a usable satellite blindscan.

It is common to see where someone claims a fairy tale equivalent when describing FTA receiver performance A VU+ blowing the MIO in the ditch blindscanning FTA satellites is a fairy tale. But don't take my word for it: Buy one and see for yourself. There were not many models of VU+ made with any satellite blindscan capability,