Testing the Hypercube

eastof111

eastof111

BinThere
Testing a Hypercube from a N.A. point of view.

The unit as shipped came with Euro a/c plug and will require an adapter which can be purchased at any Radio Shack store. It was shipped with a RCA to scart composite cable, HDMI cable and remote control unit. Luckily I had an a/c adapter from one of my old Openbox S9 available.

I connected the HDMI, component and RCA audio cables to the tv monitor. My tv monitor did not recognize the Hypercube using HDMI so I switched to component and it displayed the attached pictures. While in the a/v setup menu, I switched from component to HDMI 1080i/60 and rebooted.

I bypassed the setup wizard to see if it would automatically recognize the internet connection and it did without any problems.

Now have to setup the satellite list and tuners for U.S. because it came with Euro sats installed.

I know, bad pictures... LOL

Back to testing...
 
Got a little ahead of myself and tried to cut corners. Loaded my own sat list and it turns out in the plug ins section, there are options to down load sat lists from Atlantic, Euro, N&S America and Latin America via the internet.

Just to experiment, I erased all sat lists and loaded the E2 sat and IPTV lists I was using in the Raptor to see if it would work. Yes and no. The IPTV lists showed up fine in the favorites section but would not work. Same story with the sats favorite list.

Back to testing....
 
So far, no blind scan. Doesn't have a menu option so far for blind scan. Still loading the switch configs for the sats. Regular scanning seems to be fine so far on a few of the sats I've tried.
 
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After spending a few short hours with the receiver yesterday, I would like to comment on the operating system. Basically, for the main OS, it is very, very similar to PKT or HDMU Engima 2 OS, as used in the Optibox Raptor as the secondary OS.

With that said, the similarity ends. The Optobox Raptor uses Sti Linux for the main OS and it has blind scan capabilities. Whereas, the current Hypercube main Linux OS does not. It has a automatic, manual and fast scanning modes with the current firmware version. In the short time I've used the receiver, I have not been able to find a blind scan option in the menu nor it mentioned in the supplied operating manual. Now, to be fair, all the spec sheets posted on the internet indicate that the receiver does have blind scan capabilities. If this is the case, I would be the first to correct myself otherwise.

I would like to point out that there have been three firmware releases since January for this receiver. I am hoping that their next release will have the missing item.

As time permits, I will continue to post pictures and pros and cons of this new receiver with it's dual personality.
 
East I sent a message to GM asking about the Blind Scan.. I will update when I hear back.
 
Very nice looking receiver. I like the fact it has 2 USB outputs AND a SD slot on the back. Hopefully it will blindscan, if not now, in the future.
 
Good to hear. When you get your unit and start testing, don't try the RESET BACK TO FACTORY settings. I did and now it's in a continuous loop trying to boot in to E2. Tried reloading firmware via various name and size or different ports with usb stks - no go. Boots fine in to Android though. Tried going from Android to E2 and it goes back in to loop mode. Filezilla still recognizes the files and directories while in loop mode. Definite glitches that need to be ironed out. Maybe the boot loader got corrupted.

Waiting for tech support -
 
It's alive!!!! I guess persistence pays off. After many, many tries with different ports, different usb sticks by vendor and size or partition format, found an old Kingston 245 mb stick that the STB decided it liked. Some errors received were, no files found, bad partition or just not recognized period. All of the sticks I tried were formatted properly prior to copying the SU980 folder to the stick. Now, the STB won't recognize the other usb stick I used earlier for my settings backup, so I can't restore my last settings. Have to go through the process again.

Back to testing....
 
Yeah, I am glad to play with it. I was getting kind of bored after setting up the Hot Dish, motor and lnb I received. After I finish rescanning my fixed dishes, I will hook it up and see how the diseqc 1.2 works out. I'm kind of glad it pooped out on me; it created another learning experience.

One thing I haven't been able to duplicate is project Valerie. When I first initialized the ORIGINAL firmware, it asked me if I wanted to start project Valerie. Curious, I pressed the ok button. With that done, I had a nice, clear, not obnoxious skin. After connecting the network cable, it configured it self without my using the setup wizard, which I thought was rather strange. Later, after an hour or two, the skin changed by itself to a rather good looking skin. All this without my using the plugins downloads to accomplish this task.

I downloaded the same version firmware from their site to bring it to life and project Valerie is not there after initializing the stb. Checked the plugins section for the same skin and it doesn't seem to exist. Weird.

Back to testing...
 
"don't try the RESET BACK TO FACTORY settings"... Today I rebooted and reset to factory settings three times and it rebooted fine without any problems. On the second reset I copied some files via Filezilla and did the reset and it rebooted fine. On third try I added even more files, including doing a restore settings from a backup, then did the reset and it rebooted fine to an almost virgin state. So, now I am not worried if it gets screwed up again.

Valerie is still hiding somewhere LOL.. will have to check that out later.
 
Had some time today to scan the ku band with fixed dishes. Did an Automatic scan which scanned all sats and a manual scan for some sats. Attached is a typical manual scan of 97 ku. It had no problems locking in the elusive KTFL SFO on 72 ku.

Also, attached pix of a typical favorites list that can be created.

I have to say that the SD quality is very, very good with this STB on a big screen. The HD quality is quite good too. I did not have to adjust the brightness and contrast display settings provided in the menu.

Back to testing...
 
I had to move some boxes around today, so while things were unplugged I opened up the STB and took a gander inside. The unit is really put together very well. Didn't notice until I had to remove the screws that the case had shrink wrap type material on it. Everything inside is solid and tidy.
 
My Hypercube arrived Friday but i have not had much time to look at it. So far, it looks and acts like the same E2 system I have been using on several other receivers. Enigma2 is a more advanced operating system than what most of us are used to seeing in a fta receiver, and having the receiver connected to a network is almost mandatory.

I did notice that the Hypercube will play the AAC radio channels on 139 West. I also noticed that the Hypercube will record the radio stations in .TS format. I think this is the only receiver I have that will do this. Improvements need to be made in the Hypercube's E2, but this is to be expected in a new receiver.

The Android side of the Hypercube looks very promising. The internet connection is far more advanced than any of my other fta receivers, and I look forward to testing the Android capabilities of the Hypercube. I will start a review thread once I have enough information to support it.

I guess we need to build a satellite file for the Hypercube. I do not think we have a good North American sat file for E2 posted on this site yet. EB
 
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