Newbies Guide to VU-HD (Chinese) clone. (Help im drowning....)

[bigalk]

hi guys - have spent a few days reading now and i think im more confused than when i started. i have a chinese vu+ solo2 clone that tells me to update only from vu-hd.com. the reason for this post is i want help on how to avoid bricking my box and get it set up.

I have read that the most recent versions of black hole require v4 firmware and this is where my problems start

- How can i tell if i have v3 / v4 installed on my box?
- What flavours (blackhole, openvix etc) require v3 or v4?
- Should i aim to get v4 installed regardless of what flavour i intend to use?
- is the box bricking bomb still an issue, and if it is what procedure do i use to avoid it happening to me?

- is AJTs thread still relevant?
https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/vu-solo2-receivers-633/391241-upgrading-vu-solo2-clone.html
- in the opening of the thread he mentions "FIRST CHECK IF YOUR BOX NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED BY FLASHING ANY UPTO DATE GENUINE SOLO 2 IMAGE"
- what does he mean by "genuine solo2 image"
- is this thread still relevant now to newer boxes ( i bought my box in nov 14)

thanks guys

 

[Grimeire]

- How can i tell if i have v3 / v4 installed on my box?

if a new original image will not work then u dont have v4 as far as i know that is the only way but im not certain

- What flavours (blackhole, openvix etc) require v3 or v4?

all versions released recently require version v4 but u can install a modified image that will work with an older version box. there is plenty of them in the downloads section.
i use this https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/download-vu-clone-images-653/401430-download-vix-apollo-vu.html image as i have a v2 box.
there are images for every version in the downloads section just make sure u install the correct one for ur box

- Should i aim to get v4 installed regardless of what flavour i intend to use?

it depends if u want the latest image. i dont have v4 on mine i have v2 that it was shipped with as i dont have access to a console port and i have only ever had 2 images on my box and have it over a year and a 1/2. once u set up the image the way u like u will more than likely never want to or need to update.

- is the box bricking bomb still an issue, and if it is what procedure do i use to avoid it happening to me?

to be honest i dont know but i think it is. i wouldnt risk it.

- in the opening of the thread he mentions "FIRST CHECK IF YOUR BOX NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED BY FLASHING ANY UPTO DATE GENUINE SOLO 2 IMAGE"
- what does he mean by "genuine solo2 image"
- is this thread still relevant now to newer boxes ( i bought my box in nov 14)

he means an original unmodified image from vix. the images on the site u were given have been modified so they will work with clones where as the original untouch images from vix are made only to work with original vu solo 2 boxes and may brick a clone.

im pretty sure u have a Lonrison clone as i was given the same link to that site that means only use Lonrison clone safe images. but im no expert so wait for someone else to confirm.

hope this helps a bit

 

[bigalk]

Hi Al,

First of l thanks for the very helpful reply - everything g I needed answered, but I'll be back with more questions I'm sure!

Secondly love the name - I'm also an "alankellyeire" Saw your username on the site the other day and thought "was I here before - I don't remember choosing that username"

Nice to meet you my man and thanks again!!

Big Al

 

[bigalk]

ok - back already.

one burning question - what (if any) reason would i want a version other than those on the vu-hd site? if i only use those vu-hd (safe) images, will i be missing out on anything?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Forget trying to find out what version the box has, download v4 and blast it to the box just to be safe. In terms of images unless the image has been tested as being clone safe then you risk bricking the box.

 

[Grimeire]

Hi Al,

First of l thanks for the very helpful reply - everything g I needed answered, but I'll be back with more questions I'm sure!

Secondly love the name - I'm also an "alankellyeire" Saw your username on the site the other day and thought "was I here before - I don't remember choosing that username"

Nice to meet you my man and thanks again!!

Big Al

i have only recently figured out there seems to be a lot of us "alankellyeire"

everyone else should be worried that we will be taking over the world next

ok - back already.

one burning question - what (if any) reason would i want a version other than those on the vu-hd site? if i only use those vu-hd (safe) images, will i be missing out on anything?

ur not missing out on anything the only different that you will see between the newer images and the older images is that the older ones can not access the plugin feeds. but that does not matter as u can just find the plugins using google. and install them manually(like you probably did with ur cam) there will be other small differences like they font size. menu order but nothing really to speak of.

i would have never changed from the image i first had on my box as it very rarely crashed but i could not find a driver for a usb wifi dongle i had through google so had to get a image that could access the plugin feeds just for the driver. the newer image is grand but crashes a bit more than the first. oh and they changed the button layout which is driving me mad as it made a lot more sense the older way.

so basicly if ur happy with the image then dont boder changing.

since ur probably new to this, if i was you after you set up ur box the way you like it, i would do a full image backup. so incase you ever wanna try another image and u dont like it u can install the full image backup which means it will install the image u had with all the settings and plugins on it. so u dont have to set it all up again.
i cant give u the exact steps to do this as im not sure what image you have.
im using vix as it has by far the best epg but each to there own. try the vix image in the link in my previous post if u havent tried vix already. there is also an image posted by casuk in that thread that has load of plugins and other things preinstalled. the image in AJT post is just a clean image if u wanna mess around urself.
there is also instructions how to get the plugin feeds working in that thread.

im not certain if the images in that thread will work on ur box as urs is probably v3 or v4 but im pretty sure that they are backwards compatible with v2 so please ask in that thread before you install i dont want u blaming me for bricking ur box

heres a few plugins i would also recommend.
ts media
allows you to stream loads of films and tv shows
xbmc addon
basicly xbmc
on demand
gives you access to rte, bbc, itv and other channels on demand contain
samba
allows you to access ftp to the box from ur pc without third party apps
tv-oscram hd picons
a set of picons. one of the best in my opionion. make sure u save them to a flash usb stick. do not save them to the sat box internal flash or ur hardrive.
there are loads of different picon sets by oscram just make sure u choose either hd or shd cuz the picon will be a bit blurrly if u choose one of the sd sets.
blue-hd skin
it a skin that makes it look like sly uk.

just to let u know that the more plugins u have the slower ur box will be. so dont go mad and install every one.

its best to do a backup before you start installing the plugins and when u figured out which ones u want and dont want. reinstall the backup and the install the ones u liked earlier.

need any more help just ask.

 

[bigalk]

Al - your a legend / mind reader man, just about covered all my future questions too (xbmc was top of my list). i had tried BH first but wasnt happening so tried vix and its great, seems a lot easier to handle on the setup end of things.

i seem to have just about sorted the box working on a cam setuop now and im there.

i am however having 2 issues, and maybe you might have come across them
- the box seems to randomly hang. all through my setup attempts the box would get stuck and stop responding to remote. the remedy was to start a fresh install and start over. right now the box was stalled before i turned it off for the night

- my epg list is empty. is there a way to get it populated for the first time? ive follow the tutorials to the T but no dice. maybe im missing something obvious?

 

[bigalk]

update - no random stalling this am so please ignore my question unless theres something obvious to point out

 

[bigalk]

update 2 - random stalling is back. the display said "recording started" and the box has frozen even after multiple reboots. this is the 3rd time that "recording started" has frozen the box and im stumped as i dont even have a populated EPG yet, never mind having recordings set.

any ideas??

(P.S. how do you edit a previous post)

 

[bigalk]

update 3 - box is back up.
could the random stalling be related to network connectivity? i moved out of town recently and my internet is crap / intermittent.

 

[bigalk]

oh yes i spotted lonrisun on one of the chips too

 

[Grimeire]

Al - your a legend / mind reader man, just about covered all my future questions too (xbmc was top of my list). i had tried BH first but wasnt happening so tried vix and its great, seems a lot easier to handle on the setup end of things.

i seem to have just about sorted the box working on a cam setuop now and im there.

i am however having 2 issues, and maybe you might have come across them
- the box seems to randomly hang. all through my setup attempts the box would get stuck and stop responding to remote. the remedy was to start a fresh install and start over. right now the box was stalled before i turned it off for the night

- my epg list is empty. is there a way to get it populated for the first time? ive follow the tutorials to the T but no dice. maybe im missing something obvious?

where did you get the image from?
if its from vu-hd its more than likely the image cuz i had a similar problem with an image from there on a box i was setting up that when i put on the channel bouquets on, the box would freeze and no matter how many i reflashed i would get the same problem. even though i had use this image to set up maybe 5-10 boxes previous without a problem.
so try another image..

if its not from vu-hd are u installing many plugins on it after you set up the fresh install?
i had hanging problems with matrix skins before they could be causing it also.
picons can also cuz lag depending where they are saved. but they never caused my box to freeze they may be an issue.

epg wise first of all i hope ur using a usb stick for the epg make sure its initialized(formated) for the box
you can do this in setup>system>storage devices>initialization then initialize the usb stick. BTW this will erase every thing on the usb stick
HINT!! if ur usb stick is not showing up in setup>system>storage devices>initialization then reboot the box and it should show up.

after initialization go to setup>system>epg>settings change epg location to /media/usb or what ever ur usb is mounted as.
then go to setup>system>epg>cross epg>configure change scheduled download to once a day and choose a time that suits you. make sure its a time that you dont watch the telly as you wont be able to watch tv while its downloading the epg
then go to setup>system>epg>cross epg>opentv providers and choose slyuk make sure theres a tick next to it.
then go to setup>system>epg>cross epg>download now. sometimes when u reboot ur box u may need the epg to be downloaded you can do this to populate it.

now you should be sorted. if not you may have a problem with you channel list.

update 3 - box is back up.
could the random stalling be related to network connectivity? i moved out of town recently and my internet is crap / intermittent.

im fairly an expert on network connectivity problem with this box as my internet setup currently includes a old phone and 2 wifi repeater and i only have 0.8mb download speed. i can tell you that i never had the box lag due to reasons related to network connectivity and i had many different network setups. except the odd time when im searching for network mounts.

update 2 - random stalling is back. the display said "recording started" and the box has frozen even after multiple reboots. this is the 3rd time that "recording started" has frozen the box and im stumped as i dont even have a populated EPG yet, never mind having recordings set.

any ideas??

(P.S. how do you edit a previous post)

you just click edit down the bottom right of ur post but i dont think you can edit after someone has posted after your post. but im not certain on that. maybe cuz ur new to the site u cant edit.

where are u located?

let me know if this sorts ur problems.

 

[bigalk]

hey Al - all sorted now. off work sick today so i hads the day at it. installed the sly like version you pointed me towards and its great - it sorted the random hangups.

the epg seemed to sort itself out after i did a manual scan, dont know why. also (sort of) learned the difference between the opentv system and xmltv system for epg - the xml system was causing me some hassle as i had no or limited network connectivity. have all set up as per your last post and all working now

-can you tell me if you use any xepgdb or xmltv providers. do i need them?
- what cam do you use
- are we allowed to talk about sharing here?

 

[Grimeire]

Sorry double posted.

 

[Grimeire]

hey Al - all sorted now. off work sick today so i hads the day at it. installed the sly like version you pointed me towards and its great - it sorted the random hangups.

the epg seemed to sort itself out after i did a manual scan, dont know why. also (sort of) learned the difference between the opentv system and xmltv system for epg - the xml system was causing me some hassle as i had no or limited network connectivity. have all set up as per your last post and all working now

-can you tell me if you use any xepgdb or xmltv providers. do i need them?
- what cam do you use
- are we allowed to talk about sharing here?

To be honest I don't even know what xepgdb or xmltv providers are. I just do what I said in the previous post to populate my EPG and it always works perfect except I get the odd incorrect show displaying on the EPG. But that's rare. It only happens when they change what's on after I download the EPG. So I can't help you with this one.

I use cccam as I never had any problems with it which I can't say about mgcamd. Cccam also gives me more data like how long I been connected to the server and things like that which is helpful when u have a crap internet connection.
But fibre coming next week if Vodafone will get a move on.
Mgcamd will only open the odd channel for me even though it shows I'm connected to the server.
I'm too lazy to Google the matter to resolve it.
If I was you I would ask the guy who's server you use what cam to use.

I don't know if we are allowed to talk about sharing on this site as Im on about 10 sat forums and I mainly use a different one. Very few forums let you talk about sharing.

Hope u feel better