Infobar Channel Icons package (eazy install) for Commando 14.4

[PaphosAL]

It's a bit disappointing to see that our new Commando 14.4 for DM500S FTA image uptake here on DWZ has not been so strong, but nevertheless... It's time to share a cool add-on package with DWZ users of this smashing image, to hopefully make it even more appealing, cosmetically!

We present a full(ish) set of Infobar Channel Icons for you, that's simplicity itself to install, thanks to LraiZer's added unzip support in busybox. C14.4 release only had a dozen icons in for the first few channels in the Entertainment bouquet. Plus 4 dozen symlinks for the regional BBC1, BBC2, and ITV1 channels. We decided to expand it...

Thanks to Humforce's earlier work on renaming all the old dBox2 Channel Icons to the (then) Satellite channel names, we have now gone through his package with a fine tooth comb. All the old cable-only channel icons have been stripped out, along with icons for now obsolete channels, like Bravo, Discovery Knowledge, Channel One etc etc.

Many icons were out of date, such as the 5* channel still carried its original Fiver named icon. And CBS Reality had the old Zone Reality icon, and so on... Many new channels had no icon at all. While most of the Sky Movies were the old style, and needed updating with their latest graphics. So over 45 brand new uptodate icons have been created over the past couple of weeks, to really make this package ROCK!

In total, 200+ 'solid' channel icons in neutrino raw 100x60px format are now included in this package, but in addition, there are 48 symlinks for all the BBC and ITV1 regional variations, plus 31 symlinks for +1 channels to use their parent channel's icon. So in reality, around 280 channel icons are now actually covered in this package.

Installation is a breeze- just FTP the attached update.zip installer to your /var/etc/ folder and then reboot the box. Voilá! Job done! :Clap:

Afterwards, if you view the /var/etc/icons folder via FTP, it will report the size of the contents as about 590kb. This is misleading; according to our before / after tests, the actual net payload of this package is a mere 70kb thanks to Neutrino zlib compression on the JFFS2 (var) partition. So you can see that .raw graphic files are highly squashable!

Once again- our thanks to Humforce and LraiZer here. Enjoy, folks!

Cheers- AL

 

[wiz569]

Cheers AL
I think the reason for the slow uptake is that unfortunately most people are turning to enigma2

 

[Fano]

Cheers AL
I think the reason for the slow uptake is that unfortunately most people are turning to enigma2

I only stumbled on the Commando 14.4 image yesterday but I'm really glad I did.
Its the best image bar none for the Dm500.
Serious kudos must go to the people who developed it,its very slick,stylish and the epg is brilliant.
I had been using Radio Times xml on Open Pli on the 500 but the Commando Radio Times epg blows it out of the water.
It only takes 2 minutes to populate the epg and it works in the background unlike the Pli which takes ~around 15 minutes and locks the box up.
Its good to see recent creative support for the Dm500,this image is the biz.

 

[wiz569]

I only stumbled on the Commando 14.4 image yesterday but I'm really glad I did.
Its the best image bar none for the Dm500.
Serious kudos must go to the people who developed it,its very slick,stylish and the epg is brilliant.
I had been using Radio Times xml on Open Pli on the 500 but the Commando Radio Times epg blows it out of the water.
It only takes 2 minutes to populate the epg and it works in the background unlike the Pli which takes ~around 15 minutes and locks the box up.
Its good to see recent creative support for the Dm500,this image is the biz.

I agree totally m8,but more and more people are turning to the more modern HD Enigma2 boxes,
hopefully somewhere in the not too distant future neutrino will become a viable alternative to Enigma2 as well

 

[Fano]

I agree totally m8,but more and more people are turning to the more modern HD Enigma2 boxes,
hopefully somewhere in the not too distant future neutrino will become a viable alternative to Enigma2 as well

True Enigma 2 is nice,I have it on a dm800 but it is slow to boot ,can be temperamental ,and not available on low end receivers.
The main reason for enigma 2 is probably the good epg but this is the next best for an enigma 1 receiver,its really good and customisable too.
It also has nice picons for channels ,something impractical on other 500 images due to the lack of space.
This image running on a £50 Dm500 is unbeatable .
Alot of functionality for very little money.

 

[PaphosAL]

It's heatwarming to read feedback such as yours, Fano, kinda makes it all seem worthwhile...

LraiZer has reported back with a few schoolboy errors I made in the latest picons update package. For example, the picons for Nick Jr. 2 and Sky Arts 1 weren't working due to being slightly misnamed, and I had somehow let the old picons for Sky Living+1 and Sky Livingit+1 slip back in.

All now corrected in the attached update- same eazy install instructions as in post #1

Cheers- AL

 

[m4rkyw]

thanks again Al i got my present icons from yourself, ill give the new 1's a go shortly an let you know wot i think,,,, just to let you an the rest of the commando lads know that i always appreciate your work as iv never liked any enigma image, commando is by far user friendlier so keep the hard work up,, i like the new epg setup,, im sure others are put of by the time the epg takes to load so thats prob the main thing for yous to target, it certainly doesnt bother me 20 mins is nothing,, no pain no gain

 

[Fano]

It's heatwarming to read feedback such as yours, Fano, kinda makes it all seem worthwhile...

Thanks PaphosAL ,credit where credits due,its a great image.
I especially like the way you can check whats on other channels by scrolling left/right similar to virtual zap on enigma 2.Its cool.

i like the new epg setup,, im sure others are put of by the time the epg takes to load so thats prob the main thing for yous to target, it certainly doesnt bother me 20 mins is nothing,, no pain no gain

You should use the Radio Times epg as opposed to the Rytec,its way faster.
Takes about 2 minutes and loads in the background so your viewing isnt affected,can be customised too,I have modified mine to include the Irish channels thanks to the detailed nfo supplied by the image makers.

Btw PaphosAL,if I may be so bold as to say that I think the picon for Sky Sports News may be wrong, it doesnt show up for me.

I have one small query in relation to the bouquets.
Its strongly recommend that for 'Bouquet mode' one sticks to the default 'update' setting.
Does this mean if a channel changes frequency it will be updated in the bouquet with the new frequency after an 'update' scan ?

 

[PaphosAL]

thanks again Al i got my present icons from yourself, ill give the new 1's a go shortly an let you know wot i think,,,, just to let you an the rest of the commando lads know that i always appreciate your work as iv never liked any enigma image, commando is by far user friendlier so keep the hard work up,, i like the new epg setup,, im sure others are put of by the time the epg takes to load so thats prob the main thing for yous to target, it certainly doesnt bother me 20 mins is nothing,, no pain no gain

Thanks, m4rkyw! If EPG is taking 20 minutes to load, then you must be using the Rytec 2 Day option? Try the new Radio Times online EPG instead. This does up to 14 Day EPG and only takes about 70 seconds to load, during which time the box still functions normally, in terms of zapping and R/C response! Unlike Rytec, whish basically locks the box and even switches the cam off for a few minutes.

It's all explained in the two readmes that come with the image, and which are also in /var/tuxbox/config

Cheers- AL

 

[PaphosAL]

... Btw PaphosAL,if I may be so bold as to say that I think the picon for Sky Sports News may be wrong, it doesnt show up for me.

I have one small query in relation to the bouquets.
Its strongly recommend that for 'Bouquet mode' one sticks to the default 'update' setting.
Does this mean if a channel changes frequency it will be updated in the bouquet with the new frequency after an 'update' scan ?

Well spotted! In the package, it's named Sky Sports News but in services and buckets it's named Sky Spts News which is why the icon ain't working. I've amended this error ready for the next update, probably next weekend.

As regards Bouquet Mode = update in the Scan Menu, yes- that is exactly what happens!

Cheers- AL

 

[m4rkyw]

Thanks, m4rkyw! If EPG is taking 20 minutes to load, then you must be using the Rytec 2 Day option? Try the new Radio Times online EPG instead. This does up to 14 Day EPG and only takes about 70 seconds to load, during which time the box still functions normally, in terms of zapping and R/C response! Unlike Rytec, whish basically locks the box and even switches the cam off for a few minutes.

It's all explained in the two readmes that come with the image, and which are also in /var/tuxbox/config

Cheers- AL

i tried RT epg 1st an was impressed at how quick it loaded then i tried rytec an i preffered that even though it takes longer, i will have another tinker again with the other settings when i can an give my feedback

edit: forgot to say, i know im pushing it a bit with 171 mapped channels

 

[PaphosAL]

Another new updated package to download folks. Here's what has changed since our last 18 November release:

Sports: Latest styles for Sky Sport 4 (relacing old Sky Spts Xtra), and Eurosport UK / Eurosport2 UK. New picons for Chelsea TV, Premier Sports, Prem Spts Xtra, Primetime, and BoxNation

Entertainment: New picons for men&movies and S4C

Kids: New icon for Cartoonito

News: Latest style for Sky News, plus new picons for the 9 foreign news channels- NHK, Russia Today, FRANCE24, Al Jazeera, FOX, CCTV, NDTV, Press TV, and CNC World. This involved searching for source graphics on a Country basis, visiting USA, Russia, France, India, Qatar, China, Japan and Iran. (Felt like I’d been around the world in 2 hours, LOL!)

Muzak: New set of latest style picons for all 9 MTV channels. Plus 18 new ones for the muzak channels that lacked picons- VIVA, 4Music, KISS, Q. Chart Show TV, Bliss, Flava, The Vault, Vintage TV (I’ll have to check THAT out!), Channel AKA, Starz TV, Scuzz, DanceNationTV, Greatest Hits TV, NME TV, Clubland TV, and Massive R&B.

SUMMARY

The picons package now comprises 236 solid raw picons and 82 symlinks, making 318 channels covered. Physical memory payload is only 148kb (and NOT the 687kb that FTP will report).

CLARIFICATION

Someone on WoD has asked us to make clear that to install this package, you simply FTP the latest update.zip file ‘AS IS’ to /var/etc/ and then reboot.

It will throw up errors if you try and unzip it into a Windoze environment. It’s a special zip file compiled on the Ubuntu Linux platform, especially for linux neutrino C14.4

Cheers- AL

 

[PaphosAL]

I have one small query in relation to the bouquets.
Its strongly recommend that for 'Bouquet mode' one sticks to the default 'update' setting.
Does this mean if a channel changes frequency it will be updated in the bouquet with the new frequency after an 'update' scan ?

I need to qualify my previous reply to your query, Fano, after carrying out a new Scan yesterday. (5* and 5 USA along with their +1 variants had all changed TSid from 07F5 to 0809)

This is how bouquet mode > update actually works in practise:

If a channel NAME change is detected, ie Movies 24 becoming Christmas 24 but the Sid and TSid remain the same, then the Channel Name gets updated in bouquets.xml

But if a Sid and/or a TSid change is detected, then the whole line gets deleted from bouquets. In this situation, you just go into Bouquet Editor and add any missing channels back into the appropriate bouquet.

Cheers- AL