START HERE: Linux/Enigma Based (4K) C Band Satellite Receiver Guide

READ ONLY: Our comprehensive guide on operating a modern Linux / Enigma2 based TVRO satellite receiver. Learn how to safely flash firmware, edit channel listings and install useful plugins.
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START HERE: Linux/Enigma Based (4K) C Band Satellite Receiver Guide

Post by The Professor » Tue Jul 25, 2017 4:07 am

NOTE: If you are just getting into C Band Satellite TV, we suggest you purchase a modern Linux / Enigma 2 receiver. There are various brands of these receivers: ZGemma, Vu+, Dream, Octagon, Mutant and many more. If you can afford it, we suggest buying a 4K receiver. For the purposes of these tutorials, we tested everything with a ZGemma H7 (4K - ATSC) receiver. You can also follow these tutorials with the ZGemma H5 (HD - ATSC) receiver if you can't afford or don't want 4K.

Notice: Beware of unsophisticated satellite enthusiasts and paid propagandists who cling to old technology and go around the forums telling people you don't need a Linux satellite box. These people fall under 2 categories:

1. They are truly ignorant or simply lack the mental aptitude needed to run a modern Linux satellite receiver. Most of them are in their 70s and 80s and clinging to the technology that was available to them in the 1980s and 1990s for sentimental reasons. This is completely understandable, but if you are new to TVRO and have basic computer skills and want to watch more than a few analog channels leftover from a bygone era, or be limited to only DVB-S (MPEG2) signals, then you definitely need to look into purchasing a Linux machine. The faster the Linux machine, the better!

2. There is another more sinister group hard at work attempting to discourage TVRO newbies from purchasing a Linux satellite receiver. This group is backed by content providers and pay-tv providers. They are doing their best to put out misinformation about these receivers because they want you to keep subscribing to their overpriced service rather than cutting the cord. These people are busy putting out all kinds of propaganda, like: "Linux is for Europe" or "Americans aren't smart enough for this..." or "All these boxes are crap, when will someone sell a receiver that has all the features that the average satellite enthusiasts wants". Another favorite trick of theirs is to promote the most dis-functional FTA receiver they can find on the internet in the hopes that you will buy it and become frustrated with it and give up on TVRO altogether. Just ignore these idiots - at the rate cord cutting is going, they will be bankrupt and unemployed in a few short years. :bigsmile

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The purpose of these tutorials is to help c-band satellite enthusiasts develop a working knowledge of a modern Linux-based satellite receiver. These are extremely powerful and feature rich receivers that most satellite enthusiasts would agree are superior to anything produced by subscription cable, subscription satellite or the ubiquitous cookie-cutter FTA receivers found in the market. Their superiority comes from the simple fact that the software and hardware development is completely open source and modifiable and due to the efforts of hundreds of talented developers and engineers, rather than from a small group of developers who get paid to work on closed source set-and-forget solutions. Therefore, it follows from the 'law of large numbers', that anything derived from the intellectual labor of a greater number of people will always be superior to that of a fewer number, all other things being equal. Superior in innovation, superior in performance, superior in application and superior in reliability!


For someone just getting started with a Linux-based satellite receiver, the experience can be overwhelming and often very frustrating. This is mainly due to the fact that most enthusiasts don't have a working grasp of Linux or an advanced background in electronics. However, with a little help and guidance, the learning process becomes that much easier. That is the purpose of these tutorials. These tutorials are written with the novice in mind and are designed to give him a practical grounding on the subject. They should be read and digested piecemeal (i.e. one meal at time). The easiest tutorials should be studied first so you can get your Linux-based satellite receiver up and running. The more difficult topics like communicating with the receiver using Unix commands, creating and executing scripts and compiling images should be left for last.


These tutorials are only useful if you have a Linux-based satellite receiver to work on. The tutorials were written by a number of people with various levels of expertise, mostly using the ZGemma H7 (4K North American Satellite Receiver) which can be purchased from a site sponsor. The receiver was flashed with the latest version of OpenATV 6.0 available around August 2017. Some topics were also addressed by flashing the receiver with the latest version of OpenPLi available around September 2017.


Good luck with these tutorials!

https://www.tvrosat.com/forum/phpBB3/v ... .php?f=245









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Last edited by The Professor on Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Linux/Enigma Based (4K) C Band Satellite Receiver Guide

Post by The Professor » Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:00 pm

...
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Re: Linux/Enigma Based (4K) C Band Satellite Receiver Guide

Post by The Professor » Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:23 pm

...
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