Having owned a TM-TWIN for nearly 6 months, its finally time for me to do a little write up on it
This is based upon the latest software release 29/03/2012
As per my usual writeups, the box (carton), nice, slick and dark, untill you look at the back, then it looks like someone has just finished watching TRON after smoking something they shouldnt have been, and thought 'I KNOW WHATLL LOOK GOOD ON A BOX.....' millions of little squares as the background. Its no biggie, as the box normally goes in the bin (unless youre me, then it goes in the attic with the rest of the fire hazard im saving up there).
open the box, as per technomates other equipment, its packed to not move in transit, and comes with a power lead, HDMI lead (with gold plated connectors), remote control, batteries, warranty card, and an instruction 'sheet' which explains the basic connections on the receiver, the remote buttons and the specs of the receiver
take the receiver out of the box, and like i usually do, get the screwdriver out.
the receiver has a look thats angular, yet smooth, sharp squared power button on the front, but a row of round buttons on the top, a squared overall profile, but a display window with rounded corners, like a modern retro look which is hard to explain, anyway, back to the fun with the screwdriver. rip the lid off, the cooling fan is attached to the lid, and the connection hints that its adjustable, possibly by software (later confirmed). as per usual for technomate, theres a MEATY power supply built in, where nearly all of the electrolytic capacitors are the more expensive, and more reliable 105'C type, BUT, there are 2 caps on the secondary side of the power supply that are lower rated at 85'C
now the receiver i have is one of the very first ones, and is already over 6 months old, so its possible these may have been changed on newer models, its also possible that they may be lower rated as part of a failsafe system in case of possible overload, but, its just something that i noticed
the connector for a full size SATA HDD is already in place, so i plug in a 500Gb HDD, and manage to screw it into the caddy without having to remove the caddy from the receiver, saved 30 seconds of life there, enough time for a celebratory swig of lager
put the lid back on, and plug it in
my setup (where this receiver is connected) consists of a fixed dish, receiving multiple satellites via DiSEqC switching, and a motorised dish, so i connect my dishes to the 2 feeds, input1 also has an LNB loopthru, a handy feature in some circumstances that not many twin tuner receivers offer, i know that my Duo doesnt have this. I connect up my ethernet connection, HDMI lead, and the power lead, and, just because i can, which is VERY rare now on receivers, i also connect an analogue UHF feed to a secondary TV, as this has a fully functioning RF output as well, its a shame that IR return doesnt work for magic eyes to control rfom a 2nd location, but the additional hardware for this CAN be added externally and costs about £20
So everything is connected, i now download the latest image, unzip it to a USB stick, plug it into the front of the receiver, and power ON
i get a quick linux penguin STARTING screen, then a message on the screen, along the lines of 'USB update found, press OK to update, or wait to boot'
COOL!!!!!!!!
no more accidentally flashing your receiver if you have an update on a memory stick plugged in (which i have done many times, and lost all my settings)
so i press OK, and the screen informs me that its UPDATING, PLEASE WAIT! after a while, it tells me to remove usb and power off. i remove the usb, turn the power off, and leave the receiver off for a few mins, power back up, see the penguin and STARTING, and after about 90 seconds, the enigma2 (sorry, the open embedded software) wizard has started. i go through the usual motions with this wizard, its the same on every E2 based image, set up dish(es) choose NO to parental control, activate network, and less than 20 seconds later, its ready for a channel list
but first
i format the HDD, and mount it via the receivers menu system, eberything goes smoothly, i restart the receiver, and i then FTP in to my new mounted HDD
i FTP over the few usual ipk files that i use (rats channel updater being the main one) as well as a few different media files, i then telnet into the receiver, install the ipk files, and restart enigma, download rats latest channel list from the newly available plugin, and start to watch telly (theres nothing on, lol)
Next i check the media files i FTPd over, a mix of jpeg, bmp, mp3, mp4, avi, divx, ALL of them worked
now, normally id also mount a USB flash device to deal with picons and EPG data, but, as the TM-TWIN boasts so much available memory, i didnt bother, so i downloaded picons, restarted enigma, and they were instantly available, next i setup the EPG to download the rytec xml files (for uk only) and about 70 seconds later it had downloaded, parsed, and loaded the entire EPG database, and was all available vie the epg button using the multigraphicalepg, i entered the EPG menu, changed a few settings to the ones i prefer (show PiG) and after an EPG restart, the receiver was setup how i liked it, all thats left to do, is edit in the lines to access my viewing cards
there ARE one or 2 'bugs' in the software, but, unless theres is an EXACT feature you want, that needs to use a specific feature of this receiver, you will probably never find these bugs, so i wont list them, as for most people, its working 100%. I dont like to watch telly, i like to find things that dont work, but, if i wanted this receiver for watching telly, watching media, RECORDING telly, which i will return to, as i have previously RECORDED 5 CHANNELS AT ONCE with no problems, but have yet to try this on this latest image, then theres nothing this receiver cannot do for you
it will also download media directly from youtube, for you to keep for ever, stream online radio stations, stream to networked devices, and most importantly, it WORKS!!
at the moment, there is limited image support, the image is an iQ image based upon OpenViX source code, but, if a few of the 'known' teams get behind this hardware, this could seriously shake the market, its a big but though
This is based upon the latest software release 29/03/2012
As per my usual writeups, the box (carton), nice, slick and dark, untill you look at the back, then it looks like someone has just finished watching TRON after smoking something they shouldnt have been, and thought 'I KNOW WHATLL LOOK GOOD ON A BOX.....' millions of little squares as the background. Its no biggie, as the box normally goes in the bin (unless youre me, then it goes in the attic with the rest of the fire hazard im saving up there).
open the box, as per technomates other equipment, its packed to not move in transit, and comes with a power lead, HDMI lead (with gold plated connectors), remote control, batteries, warranty card, and an instruction 'sheet' which explains the basic connections on the receiver, the remote buttons and the specs of the receiver
take the receiver out of the box, and like i usually do, get the screwdriver out.
the receiver has a look thats angular, yet smooth, sharp squared power button on the front, but a row of round buttons on the top, a squared overall profile, but a display window with rounded corners, like a modern retro look which is hard to explain, anyway, back to the fun with the screwdriver. rip the lid off, the cooling fan is attached to the lid, and the connection hints that its adjustable, possibly by software (later confirmed). as per usual for technomate, theres a MEATY power supply built in, where nearly all of the electrolytic capacitors are the more expensive, and more reliable 105'C type, BUT, there are 2 caps on the secondary side of the power supply that are lower rated at 85'C
now the receiver i have is one of the very first ones, and is already over 6 months old, so its possible these may have been changed on newer models, its also possible that they may be lower rated as part of a failsafe system in case of possible overload, but, its just something that i noticed
the connector for a full size SATA HDD is already in place, so i plug in a 500Gb HDD, and manage to screw it into the caddy without having to remove the caddy from the receiver, saved 30 seconds of life there, enough time for a celebratory swig of lager
put the lid back on, and plug it in
my setup (where this receiver is connected) consists of a fixed dish, receiving multiple satellites via DiSEqC switching, and a motorised dish, so i connect my dishes to the 2 feeds, input1 also has an LNB loopthru, a handy feature in some circumstances that not many twin tuner receivers offer, i know that my Duo doesnt have this. I connect up my ethernet connection, HDMI lead, and the power lead, and, just because i can, which is VERY rare now on receivers, i also connect an analogue UHF feed to a secondary TV, as this has a fully functioning RF output as well, its a shame that IR return doesnt work for magic eyes to control rfom a 2nd location, but the additional hardware for this CAN be added externally and costs about £20
So everything is connected, i now download the latest image, unzip it to a USB stick, plug it into the front of the receiver, and power ON
i get a quick linux penguin STARTING screen, then a message on the screen, along the lines of 'USB update found, press OK to update, or wait to boot'
COOL!!!!!!!!
no more accidentally flashing your receiver if you have an update on a memory stick plugged in (which i have done many times, and lost all my settings)
so i press OK, and the screen informs me that its UPDATING, PLEASE WAIT! after a while, it tells me to remove usb and power off. i remove the usb, turn the power off, and leave the receiver off for a few mins, power back up, see the penguin and STARTING, and after about 90 seconds, the enigma2 (sorry, the open embedded software) wizard has started. i go through the usual motions with this wizard, its the same on every E2 based image, set up dish(es) choose NO to parental control, activate network, and less than 20 seconds later, its ready for a channel list
but first
i format the HDD, and mount it via the receivers menu system, eberything goes smoothly, i restart the receiver, and i then FTP in to my new mounted HDD
i FTP over the few usual ipk files that i use (rats channel updater being the main one) as well as a few different media files, i then telnet into the receiver, install the ipk files, and restart enigma, download rats latest channel list from the newly available plugin, and start to watch telly (theres nothing on, lol)
Next i check the media files i FTPd over, a mix of jpeg, bmp, mp3, mp4, avi, divx, ALL of them worked
now, normally id also mount a USB flash device to deal with picons and EPG data, but, as the TM-TWIN boasts so much available memory, i didnt bother, so i downloaded picons, restarted enigma, and they were instantly available, next i setup the EPG to download the rytec xml files (for uk only) and about 70 seconds later it had downloaded, parsed, and loaded the entire EPG database, and was all available vie the epg button using the multigraphicalepg, i entered the EPG menu, changed a few settings to the ones i prefer (show PiG) and after an EPG restart, the receiver was setup how i liked it, all thats left to do, is edit in the lines to access my viewing cards
there ARE one or 2 'bugs' in the software, but, unless theres is an EXACT feature you want, that needs to use a specific feature of this receiver, you will probably never find these bugs, so i wont list them, as for most people, its working 100%. I dont like to watch telly, i like to find things that dont work, but, if i wanted this receiver for watching telly, watching media, RECORDING telly, which i will return to, as i have previously RECORDED 5 CHANNELS AT ONCE with no problems, but have yet to try this on this latest image, then theres nothing this receiver cannot do for you
it will also download media directly from youtube, for you to keep for ever, stream online radio stations, stream to networked devices, and most importantly, it WORKS!!
at the moment, there is limited image support, the image is an iQ image based upon OpenViX source code, but, if a few of the 'known' teams get behind this hardware, this could seriously shake the market, its a big but though
