Skybox F3

Just received my new Skybox F3 receiver today and it's not quite like the s12 at all. First it's black and not white like my s12. It's also much larger- 9" x 6" whereas the s12 is 6" x 4". On the front panel we have a power button, menu, ok, usb, card slot and cursor. On the rear we have rs232, component and composite cable slots, ethernet and hdmi. Included with the receiver was an hdmi cable and the power cord is suited for North America so I don't have to buy an adapter like I had to with the s12 and s9. I'm going to attach this receiver first to my ku setup and then c band, I'll post anything that comes up. Finally, I plan on doing this with the virgin file that is on the receiver- I haven't plugged it in yet but if I don't have a North American channel list then I will input all that info manually:


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the alieditor should work with it using the default script.ini file.I think the sat/channel list is bigger than normal file size.
As always,back up the original firmware first before loading anything.

Thanks dr.zin but I'm keeping this stb virgin for the moment. After initial scans of Telstar 12 at 15w and Hispasat 1c,d,e at 30w this receivers blind scan is even faster then the s12- blind scan of those 2 sats were under 2 minutes. The menu has been revamped and is quite user friendly. The only issue I've had thus far is the component slots do not work- using hdmi and what do you expect for the $48 price tag.

the rs232 loader is strange,the support files (eromclient.abs and sdram.ini) are actually for the 3606 processor and not the 3601.The loader 2.0.0f may or may not work for saving individual chunks to pc or for loading,since it has no discrete support files and is meant for the 3602 based receivers.There are a couple of spanish programs that will dissect the .abs files into the individual chunks.Theoretically you could remove a chunk and replace a chunk manually.The mst firmware tool was designed for the openbox s9/s10 and is useless for this firmware.The bootloader is 2x the normal size so the app area starts at a higher address.The loader 2.0.0f may work on a good working receiver,we need some pioneer to test that theory.

Sorry dr.zin but I'm not that pioneer. This receiver was purchased solely for true fta feeds because of its blind scan speed, it will eventually end up as my main c band feed hunter.
The receiver booted in Pal so I had to break out my old dinosaur tv I use outdoors for fine tuning. Just scanning my last Atlantic sat at 61w and heading to Amc6 at 72w.

I got my s10 and it had a euro sat list.
I tried loading an american sat list and promptly killed the receiver.
I spent the rest of the day trying to revive it with the so called recovery loaders at that time,which were either incomplete or just the wrong rev of loader.
The euro channel lists are posted as 4meg full firmware,so I don't know what the deal is.Either you can't save a channel list via usb or people don't know how.

the x3 has an american sat list.
The ibox(which is similar to the f3) has fresh firmware released 2 days ago but has no user sat list just the default euro one.

F3 came equipped with full European sat list. To this point I have changed 12 of those sats to NA list- deleting all tp along the way.

tedious
If any pioneers want the ibox firmware I can upload it

the f3,x3,ibox userdb files are all the same size,1179776
I extracted the file from the x3 firmware and pasted it into the ibox firmware.
I opened the ibox firmware in alieditor and the userdata showed the new sat list,I saved that as the default list in the .abs
Yumy in the past had new firmware about 1 week before the other sites,so maybe f3/x3 will have new firmware next week or so.

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Originally Posted by dr.zin [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

tedious
If any pioneers want the ibox firmware I can upload it

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I agree that it is quite tedious but all sats on MY arc will be there with the proper tp and not somebody elses list- works for me.

even with an american list I end up editing to add or remove sats,but it's a shorcut to start.
The big pain with my s10 is the diseqc motor control,I have to assign position numbers manually when old receivers did it automatically.

Only 2 more sats on my ku arc, 121 and 123w and this F3 receiver is quite remarkable. It's identical to my s12 but the menus have been fancied up a bit, got to love a blind scan that takes under 2 minutes. Let's see what it can do on c band.

the ibox f3 and openbox/skybox f3 firmware is the same except for the logo.
so if people find fresh ibox firmware first, they can use that.

does the lan manager work with the f3?
somebody said it didn't

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Originally Posted by Costactc [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Only 2 more sats on my ku arc, 121 and 123w and this F3 receiver is quite remarkable. It's identical to my s12 but the menus have been fancied up a bit, got to love a blind scan that takes under 2 minutes. Let's see what it can do on c band.

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I would love to see some screenshots if you get time. Also, do the timers work?

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Originally Posted by dr.zin [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

does the lan manager work with the f3?
somebody said it didn't

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Can you be a bit more specific?

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Originally Posted by SatelliteGuy [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I would love to see some screenshots if you get time. Also, do the timers work?

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I took this pic this morning on NSS 806 at 40.5w, not using the receiver for recording but the time setting works flawlessly:


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s10 and similar have the lan manager for transferring files to and from the receiver via ethernet instead of yanking the usb stick all the time or using the slower rs232 method.They say the lan manager doesn't work with the f3,I guess similar to trying before the s series had support for it.

I've never tried that before dr.zin, if you explain to me what is required I'll give it a shot.

I will have to dig up the program.
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stbhd.com was the source for the lan manager,loaders and channel editors,so I consider that the original source for openbox s9_s10 stuff.The other "factory" sites came later.

I decided to open the F3 and have a look, this is what I found:


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Hey Cos
Any more updates on this Skybox F3. I'm thinking pretty bad to get one of this for my daugther. Can you please PM a copy of the dump_file with the American sat list that you already created?? Thanks for all your inputs

Hold out a bit my friend. I'm waiting for the openbox s16 to arrive so I can compare them. I'll post my sat list, which includes 60 svaed sats with some being duplicated for seperate bands, at a later date.

wow!! I heard the S16 is another story.

Considering the F3 cost $48 and the s16 cost $71, give me a chance to compare before ordering the F3- up to you though bud.

the factory site has the f3/x3 lan manager program now.
It uses port 01003 instead of the old 01000 the s series used.
You should be able to do everything the old lan manager was capable of.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Costactc [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Considering the F3 cost $48 and the s16 cost $71, give me a chance to compare before ordering the F3- up to you though bud.

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Okeedokee, will wait for your inputs!!! Thks

they say the old lan manager doesn't work for the s16,nobody tried using the x3/f3 one yet.

One disadvantage I have noticed lately on the F3 is after a blind scan it freezes, thus leaving the remote useless unless a hard reboot is performed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Costactc [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

One disadvantage I have noticed lately on the F3 is after a blind scan it freezes, thus leaving the remote useless unless a hard reboot is performed.

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Heat related as the S10??

The F3 is being used with a laptop cooling fan Carlos so I'm not sure about the heat. Only something that has been happening in the last few days not when I initially received it.

Huh we need to keep an eye

Another thing to note on the F3 and probably all openbox receivers is that when it says a channel is H.264 we shouldn't assume that it's dvb-s2 as a test on Galaxy 3 at 95w proved. I just scanned in Punch tv Network on tp 12050 H 20000 and if you press the info button on the F3 it says H.264 but on my azbox ultra the same channel scanned in and the azbox info screen says dvb-s.

H.264 I though is was only a MPEG-4 flag nothing to do with Dvb-s or S2

I'm a bit confused as I thought that mpeg-4, dvb-s2 and h.264 were the same.