Aura in Australia OP Reply

N

Nodeity

New Member
Well... As discussed in my original post, I took a chance on the Aura in Oz, and apparently lost! :cry_:
There are some very weird proprietary settings on the Aura, I knew I was going to have issues with the channel search because of the Brit 8Mhz/Aus 7 Mhz issue, so obviously auto search wasn't going to happen. I'm guessing the signal test only looks for 8 Mhz because it shows nothing. The manual search does allow you to set the frequency, and it finds the Channel on that frequency, (we have five channels, divided into up to a half dozen individual sub-stations) it even picks up the 7 Mhz signal strength (100%), however, when it asks to search that (found) channel it says there are no (sub) channels available? Any brainstorming solutions to this issue would be greatly appreciated. In my OP I was told to change the Country to Germany, but there are no options for this in the time zone, and the location is either WiFi located or disengaged I'm hooked up via Ethernet, and the WiFi location would peg me as local to Oz, which is problematic. I would have thought the time zone would be the best setting to change, but have no idea why Germany is not on the list when there are many other countries in the EU area on the list? Are there any other countries using the Aura with 7 Mhz? Looks like I may have purchased a very expensive Kodi box. :rolleyes: BTW the Google version of Kodi is out of date, so I decided to side load the latest version for Android from their site, the Aura would only accept the 32bit Arm 7 version, I was under the (mis)impression the Aura was an Arm 8 box?
Well, I'm pretty sure I wasted my money, and that's the chance I took, but if anyone can offer a solution, there's a pseudo beer in it for ya! Thanks ;)
 
Nodeity said:
we have five channels, divided into up to a half dozen individual sub-stations
Click to expand...
I suppose you mean multiplexes, and services within those multiplexes. A multiplex is a carrier frequency modulated by the combined digital stream, and the digital stream has multiple services multiplexed within it.

Nodeity said:
when it asks to search that (found) channel it says there are no (sub) channels available?
Click to expand...
Without a shred of evidence, my guess is that the encoding or maybe even the modulation is different. Within the stream for a single service there is a video stream, audio stream, subtitles, audio description, etc. These are combined into a container which uses a specific scheme to allocate blocks of data to the different streams in such a way that each stream has its necessary bandwidth and can be identified and extracted by the receiver. The different containers for each service then have to be multiplexed together into a super-container along with other stuff such as the EPG data.

If any of the details for the encoding of audio and video data to digital (in the UK: MPEG2 for StDef or H.264/AVC for HiDef), or the container format, or the super-container format, or the modulation, require tweaking for the Australian broadcast system, then the box will see the carrier wave but not be able to interpret the data within it, or maybe even extract the data stream at all.

That said, it would be a surprise if the details were significantly different, because it would mean Australia had "gone it alone" (with all the costs of reinventing the wheel). It might be something as simple as changing the stream ID codes.

Nodeity said:
if anyone can offer a solution
Click to expand...
Short of going through every setting in hope, and using a VPN to spoof your location (won't it work at all without an Internet connection?), you're reliant on a future firmware update to accommodate Australia, or a hack. It might help if you were to research the local broadcast system and tell us what you find out. These things should be on Wikipedia or something. Modulation scheme (eg 256-QAM), super-container (DVB-T/T2), container (TS), encoders (H.264+AAC).

On the practical level, you could buy a cheap DTT receiver card for your PC and see what settings work for Oz. That might provide a clue.
 
Black Hole said:
On the practical level, you could buy a cheap DTT receiver card for your PC and see what settings work for Oz. That might provide a clue.
Click to expand...
I wonder if @Nodeity. can check/retrieve the relevant info from their current dvb receiver and implement them on the new Aura.

It's a shame OP couldn't get the Aura to work out of the box, I was hoping it would. If all else fails, ask Humax Australia support (eg I've got an import unit brought over during move - how can I use it in Aus?).
 
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Apologies if it wasn't clear, but I as unable to post a link, so just remove the space between AU and the /r

Failing that a google search for " Operational Practices - Free TV Australia " will take you there. Considerable amount of information on the site that addresses your suggested "It might help if you were to research the local broadcast system".
 
Black Hole said:
I suppose you mean multiplexes, and services within those multiplexes. A multiplex is a carrier frequency modulated by the combined digital stream, and the digital stream has multiple services multiplexed within it.


Without a shred of evidence, my guess is that the encoding or maybe even the modulation is different. Within the stream for a single service there is a video stream, audio stream, subtitles, audio description, etc. These are combined into a container which uses a specific scheme to allocate blocks of data to the different streams in such a way that each stream has its necessary bandwidth and can be identified and extracted by the receiver. The different containers for each service then have to be multiplexed together into a super-container along with other stuff such as the EPG data.

If any of the details for the encoding of audio and video data to digital (in the UK: MPEG2 for StDef or H.264/AVC for HiDef), or the container format, or the super-container format, or the modulation, require tweaking for the Australian broadcast system, then the box will see the carrier wave but not be able to interpret the data within it, or maybe even extract the data stream at all.

That said, it would be a surprise if the details were significantly different, because it would mean Australia had "gone it alone" (with all the costs of reinventing the wheel). It might be something as simple as changing the stream ID codes.


Short of going through every setting in hope, and using a VPN to spoof your location (won't it work at all without an Internet connection?), you're reliant on a future firmware update to accommodate Australia, or a hack. It might help if you were to research the local broadcast system and tell us what you find out. These things should be on Wikipedia or something. Modulation scheme (eg 256-QAM), super-container (DVB-T/T2), container (TS), encoders (H.264+AAC).

On the practical level, you could buy a cheap DTT receiver card for your PC and see what settings work for Oz. That might provide a clue.
Click to expand...
Sorry to be late replying, long day yesterday.
"Short of going through every setting in hope" Having looked at the settings, I can't see anywhere you could even change them, short of being a technical expert on programming these Android boxes, there's no logical place I can see to even access them?
"On the practical level, you could buy a cheap DTT receiver card" Where would you input any found information on the Aura?
Thanks for getting back though.
 
bottletop said:
I wonder if @Nodeity. can check/retrieve the relevant info from their current dvb receiver and implement them on the new Aura.

It's a shame OP couldn't get the Aura to work out of the box, I was hoping it would. If all else fails, ask Humax Australia support (eg I've got an import unit brought over during move - how can I use it in Aus?).
Click to expand...
I can see the broadcast info for each multiplexed channel on my Beyonwiz, but the sub channels on each multiplexed channel all have the same info. I'm not an expert on the programming of these boxes, so I wouldn't know where to look in the android sub menus for the relevant info.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, it's been an expensive lesson learnt. If nothing else, it is one of the better Kodi boxes I've owned to date, still wondering if it's Arm 7 or 8 though. :)
 
Black Hole said:
Not a lot of point until a way can be found to hack the configuration files.
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Yeah, they do seem to have a stranglehold on modifying this thing. If there's a positive to the Beyonwiz, it is very easy to access all the settings and adjust them to your liking. Mine's starting to play up and it doesn't like HDR, which is why I'm on the lookout for a better box. The Aura looks pretty good... on British paper :) Thanks Mate
 
As an alternative to the Aura you could look at the SiliconDust HDHomeRun box. I recently saw a post indicating stock availabiliy for Aus/NZ.

Several people have had success using the DvrOnTime program running on a PC rather than using SiliconDust's subscription recording software, however before investing check with the developer @lc200 to ensure it will be able to tune in Australia and read the OTA EPG.
 
MymsMan said:
As an alternative to the Aura you could look at the SiliconDust HDHomeRun box. I recently saw a post indicating stock availabiliy for Aus/NZ.

Several people have had success using the DvrOnTime program running on a PC rather than using SiliconDust's subscription recording software, however before investing check with the developer @lc200 to ensure it will be able to tune in Australia and read the OTA EPG.
Click to expand...
I actually have the HDHomeRun Quad box, I use it to watch TV on my PC. It works quite well on the Aura, except the 4K looks like 1080 and the 1080 looks like 720, but otherwise Ok, so thanks for that idea.
Something I'd like to ask though, does anyone know what the password is for the FTP Address, or at least how to access the HDD on my network? I can see the FTP address, actually there's two, under "android-dhcp-9"?
Also, is there an Aura specific app that will let me access the HDD from the box itself, as it seem the only way to do it I can see, is via the Freeview app, which obviously refuses to run without TV channels set up? Maybe someone could suggest the best folder browsing app? Thanks :)
 
I believe access to FTP and the HDD is deliberately restricted on the Aura to allow it to meet Freeview rules, it was one of the reasons I chose to go for the HDHomeRun rather than Aura.
I still use the HDR FOX T2 for all day to day recording and viewing because of the integrated interface using the remote control, and the HDHomeRun for on PC live TV viewing but it is nice to have the HDHomeRun as a backup when there are recording conflicts and to have a standby capable of ad-detection etc should the T2 die.

Since you already have the HDHomeRun you have nothing to lose by installing DVRonTime and seeing if it can work,
 
MymsMan said:
I believe access to FTP and the HDD is deliberately restricted on the Aura to allow it to meet Freeview rules.
Click to expand...
FTP access isn't restricted on the Aura. Use the following parameters:
Port: 2323
Encryption: Plain (ie no encryption)
Login type: Normal
User name: aura
Password: use the box pin (default 0000)
 
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