New IceTV branded PVR

Started by Mantorok, July 17, 2013, 01:13:43 PM

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Paul55

Quote from: Dave at IceTV on April 16, 2015, 03:28:28 PMIceTV subscription for the life of the skippa box (with no time limit).

That is a good move - removes a potential dis-satisfier. Hopefully the Skippa will last more than 5 years - all my other PVRs have.
Am I reading correctly that it will cost $399 for those who order early and $499 later?

Dave at IceTV

cheers

Dave
Customer Service

Rat

Will those that pre-order get their Slippa earlier or will they have to wait for mid-late June for delivery also? the website still says available for delivery in May. I predicted last week it was looking like it was slipping again, I know this is not supports fault, but they don't even seem to have recognized this fact.

Don't get me wrong I really am looking forward to this product, but it has been a long and disappointing road so far, if Skippa is not a good media streamer with current file support then I don't even want one and my wait has been for naught. If these questions can't be answered in the next couple of weeks before the "pre-order" starts then I will be in a quandary as to buy a mystery box that has had no public beta testing, or wait even longer and pay $100 extra once the bugs are fixed and the features and specs known.

What are others thinking? will you buy one early for the discount just on the chance that it might be what you want? I suppose if it doesn't have the features I want I could flog it off easily for $300 while they are charging $500 and only lose $100.


csutak40

Quote from: Rat on April 20, 2015, 05:29:33 PM
will you buy one early for the discount just on the chance that it might be what you want?

Well, I suppose that would depend if you enjoy being a beta tester, albeit at your own cost (I suppose one could argue, that there are advantages, you may  be able to influence what gets fixed first) or are you the kind of person that would rather pay an extra $100 to avoid the possible hassles and the stress that may result from buying a pig in a poke  :P
Cheers,
Judy
Last Update Dec 9 2020; Beyonwiz V2, T2,

bodogbodog

#229
I'm in - where do I sign?
I consider it a "community service" and I have other devices to record shows making sure the WAF doesn't suffer
Beyonwiz V2: 4 HDTV Tuners, 16gb SD + unRaid 10TB NAS + IceTV Skippa (for old times sake - make me an offer and it's yours!)
Beyonwiz V2: 2 HDTV Tuners - spare

IanL-S

I too am seriously tempted. I may need to hide it from the spouse, as I already have too many Toppy PVRs (5 IceTV capable; but one refuses to talk to IceTV - I know the Toppy firmware quirk that only allows 4 to connect; but that is not it, it refuses to replace one of the others when it is being rested).

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

markb

Great, the more beta-testers the better. Go for it Guys!

Dave at IceTV

Those who pre-order will be ensured that they won't miss out on getting a skippa in June, in case demand exceeds the initial supply.

After a couple of quick tests last week I can confirm that skippa is both a DLNA media server and a DLNA media player. Media support via a USB drive should also be very good.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

Rat

Thanks for that Dave, looks like I will be jumping in for the discount :)

I'm hoping the firmware is stable and the interface is user friendly.

IanL-S

#234
On the DLNA front, hopefully it can deal with poorly behaved DLNA devices on a Network. Known culptits include:


  • A Windows PC with PowerDVD can cause the Toppy to go into a rebooting loop. Disabling all PowerDVD related services will stop this from happening.
  • Some version of the Twonky cause spontaneous rebooting.
  • MiniDLNA/ReadyMedia ((v1.1.1) running on on FreeBSD server eventually leads to the continual restarts and disabling it stops the problem.

And hopefully it will not have the same impact on other PVRs on the same network.

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

snuke

Quote from: Dave at IceTV on April 21, 2015, 06:00:11 PMAfter a couple of quick tests last week I can confirm that skippa is both a DLNA media server and a DLNA media player. Media support via a USB drive should also be very good.

I hope that DLNA isn't the only Networking option to act as a media player. It is slow at best, along with all of its other restrictions. Hopefully good old classic SMB will be in there too.

Rat

I must admit to being far from a networking expert, what I would like to do is to continue to do what we do with our ancient Beyonwiz and be able to browse shared folders on our PC via Cat-5 and select a file and it plays. (Mostly, unless it's not supported, SD is usually ok)

Will I be able to do that with DNLA or does that require software running on the PC? I remember using another media player awhile back that was a pain to set up and required me to run XBMC on my PC to play files on the media player. I found that clunky and didn't really like having to run a prog on my PC each time I wanted to watch TV.

I just looked up the Beyonwiz and yes they use SMB, the T3 supports many networking protocols, as Skippa is around the same price point I hope it is competitive with it's networking capability and file support.

IanL-S

I would say that you are accessing the fiels on the PVR (Beyonwiz) via ftp. To me having ftp server on a PVR is essential, as it is the best way to move content to and from the PVR, and also alows you to play files on the PVR without the problems that can arise using DLNA.

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

Rat

Yeah IanL-S I think you are right it's ftp.........Dave does Skippa support ftp over WiFi and Cat-5 networks with PCs ??? for me using the Skippa as a networked media player is just as important as the PVR functions, and more important than auto ad skipping. If you can answer that for us I promise not to ask any more questions for a whole week :)

snuke

Quote from: Rat on April 22, 2015, 07:17:00 AMWill I be able to do that with DNLA or does that require software running on the PC?

You do need dlna software on the client side to effectively index the media for the dlna player to talk to.
It is an easy a relatively easy way to get a low of consumer products to have cleanly indexed media. My issue is that it re-indexers (maybe wrong terminology) every single time you start up, there is no real library base it can bring up instantly. It loads as you browse, and that can take ages with a lot of content. If you have used a PS3 as a media player, this is how they work. There is plenty of good and free dlna software available.
Universal Media Server is one http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ as is Plex of course.
Convenient, but slow and restrictive, doesn't support MKV or DTS pass through for example.