Skippa Pre-Order

Started by Leon K, May 25, 2015, 12:55:56 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Leon K

Hey Guys,

Here is the Link to the Skippa Pre-order Page:

http://skippa.tv/

And a link to the specs:

http://skippa.tv/technical-specifications/


Nodeity

#1
So am I reading the specs right when comparing the Skippa to the WizT3?  Half the Flash memory, but twice the RAM. 
Will this make it more responsive or less?  I'm considering getting one of these as a sister box to my WizT3, but I'd like to see more of a response on these specs.
Also, I know that 10/100 ethernet is adequate, but why not use the newer specced system, surely it's not that more expensive. Even my laptop is capable of faster speeds than this,
and the WiFi card is 5Ghz capable and the size of a postage stamp.. Just a thought.

nis200sx

Quote from: Nodeity on May 25, 2015, 04:10:24 PM
So am I reading the specs right when comparing the Skippa to the WizT3?  Half the Flash memory, but twice the RAM. 
Will this make it more responsive or less?  I'm considering getting one of these as a sister box to my WizT3, but I'd like to see more of a response on these specs.
Flash is used to store the bootloader, firmware and settings. RAM is used to do day to day stuff like decoding the video, audio and subtitles, responding to remote control or front panel button presses, processing auto skip, playing from and recording to the hard drive, and displaying menus etc. More RAM would make a more responsive PVR, when compared to a PVR with not enough RAM. But if 2 PVRs have different amounts or RAM but neither of them uses all of their RAM then they'd seem the same to the user.

The T3 Beyonwiz does pause a lot while doing day to day stuff (for me at least).

Quote from: Nodeity on May 25, 2015, 04:10:24 PM
Also, I know that 10/100 ethernet is adequate, but why not use the newer specced system, surely it's not that more expensive. Even my laptop is capable of faster speeds than this,
and the WiFi card is 5Ghz capable and the size of a postage stamp.. Just a thought.
It's all down to the Chipset. A chipset that has a faster 1Gb Ethernet could increase the cost dramatically... for no real benefit... and could delay the release if the new chipset is more complicated or untested. If the skippa could copy recordings via the network then maybe a 1Gb Ethernet port would be desirable. But for streaming network and Internet media and downloading from IceTV the 100Mb Ethernet is plenty fast enough.

cheers
Dave

IanL-S

The Ethernet port controller is on the Broadcom 7241 chip (together with the USB and SATA controllers); it is standard for Broadcom PVR chips to only have 10/100 Ethernet (the ones used by TMS Toppys for example). While it would be possible to include a separate Ethernet controller the advantages of doing so may be minimal.

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

prl

Quote from: Nodeity on May 25, 2015, 04:10:24 PM
So am I reading the specs right when comparing the Skippa to the WizT3?  Half the Flash memory, but twice the RAM. 
Will this make it more responsive or less?
The T3 seems to run without any swap/paging files, so it looks like there's unlikely to be a data paging hit because of lack of memory. There may be some paging activity loading read-only program executable pages from their images. As the main memory fills with program data, though, the amount of space for the HDD cache will reduce, and that may affect performance.

The T3 can run diskless, so it's quite possible for its flash to be the only paging space available. And you probably don't want to do that. The flash read speed is only about 1MB/sec anyway.

On a quiet T3, running no recordings except the timeshift buffer and displaying live TV, top(1) shows:
KiB Mem :   290576 total,    23976 free,   113624 used,   152976 buff/cache

Quote from: Nodeity on May 25, 2015, 04:10:24 PMAlso, I know that 10/100 ethernet is adequate, but why not use the newer specced system, surely it's not that more expensive.
I don't know about Skippa, but my understanding is that the T3 simply uses the Ethernet on the System-on-a-Chip, and that's 10/100.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

Nodeity

Thanks guys, still not sure if I'll get the Skippa yet, need to see some dedicated forum responses from users to be sure. But at least from these responses, it looks like the two boxes are going to be similar in ability.  The T3 atm is still quite choppy when it's doing more than one thing at a time and I was hoping the skippa would be a bit more powerful.  The actual ad-skipping ability, at least for me, seems like it will be more of a gimmick though and not why I buy it if indeed I do.

Rat

From memory the Skippa pre-order was going to be save $100 at $399 with the standard price $499 after the pre-order, now all of a sudden the standard price has been raised to $599 wow that is confident considering the price of some of the comparative competition IMO. I hope it does prove to be worth that much as that would make it a top tier PVR.

So how long does the pre-order window stay open for??? can I still buy one at the pre-order price up until the end of June if the 1000 units don't sell out before then??

I have only seen evidence of 3 units being sold so far, I'm sure there would be more orders but they don't seem to be flying off the shelf so I would like to risk waiting for more details, pictures and answers to questions before hitting the buy button.


EdQld

Quote from: Rat on May 25, 2015, 08:20:48 PM

so I would like to risk waiting for more details, pictures and answers to questions before hitting the buy button.

I don't think we can expect much more information anytime soon. They stated the User Manual would be made available closer to the delivery date

csutak40

Quote from: EdQld on May 25, 2015, 10:16:47 PM
. They stated the User Manual would be made available closer to the delivery date

Which I don't think is very fair, considering how long we've waited patiently
Cheers,
Judy
Last Update Dec 9 2020; Beyonwiz V2, T2,

Rat

Quote from: csutak40 on May 25, 2015, 10:55:01 PM
Quote from: EdQld on May 25, 2015, 10:16:47 PM
. They stated the User Manual would be made available closer to the delivery date

Which I don't think is very fair, considering how long we've waited patiently

I wonder why this is? are they still frantically typing it up in a last minute rush? why not make it available for download now and update it as needed?

They stated ages ago that they had a Skippa there to test, why wouldn't they want to release more pictures of it? I really don't understand this style of marketing  :o

IanL-S

Speculation: It is possible that the firmware feature set will only be finalised just before the pre-order shipment is shipped to Australia, so release may be premature. That may not be for week or so. The manual may not yet have been written, or is only partly written. All sort of reasons why this could happen.

There have been cases where PVR manuals were released 6 months before the PVR made it to market - for example the TRF-7260 manual appeared on the Topfield Korea www site in early 2013 but it was not released until about August of 2013.

Ian

PS I am a eager as others to get my hands on the manual.
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

prl

Quote from: IanL-S on May 26, 2015, 01:04:36 PM
Speculation: It is possible that the firmware feature set will only be finalised just before the pre-order shipment is shipped to Australia ...
That sounds like a bad idea to me, if it's true.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

csutak40

Quote from: prl on May 26, 2015, 05:54:47 PM
Quote from: IanL-S on May 26, 2015, 01:04:36 PM
Speculation: It is possible that the firmware feature set will only be finalised just before the pre-order shipment is shipped to Australia ...
That sounds like a bad idea to me, if it's true.

Well, possibly because I am not very technically minded and most of the specs is all Greek to me, I am much more interested in the software side of things.  I want to know what it can do and how.

What I could understand from the specs, I wasn't that excited about.  Even if the "autoskip" works as advertised, I am not that excited by it.  I doubt I'd go to the trouble of using it that often (except if I planned to keep the recording long-term)  Sounds to me like a gimmick, one I could live without

At one stage, I am sure, we were told that we can watch everything on our network through the (now named) Skippa.  So, I want to know if this is still true and if so, how simple or complicated that is (and how fast/slow)

And what does "everything" mean?  Can we watch various extensions (.mkv, .avi or, for that matter, even .wtv or by some miracle .rec)?

And how precisely does the EPG work (padding, etc)   I know that the "smart" padding has sort of been explained in very superficial terms and some people guess that it will work like the newer Topfield does, (that one can set different padding on different networks)  but that is just a guess on their part.  None of us know for sure.

In my case, I want to know if it will be a good replacement for TED
Cheers,
Judy
Last Update Dec 9 2020; Beyonwiz V2, T2,

Klink1313

I would like to order but I need to read the manual first. How else will I know what the machine can do for me?

IanL-S

Quote from: prl on May 26, 2015, 05:54:47 PM
Quote from: IanL-S on May 26, 2015, 01:04:36 PM
Speculation: It is possible that the firmware feature set will only be finalised just before the pre-order shipment is shipped to Australia ...
That sounds like a bad idea to me, if it's true.

I have seen it happen - usually something is almost working but not quite and they hoped to get the final bugs out but did not.

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