Vu+

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The Vu+ (pronounced VuPlus), is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial digital television receivers (set-top box), produced by Korean multimedia brand Ceru Company Ltd. (a subsidiary of Marusys Co., Ltd.).

History and description[edit]

All currently Vu+ hardware set-top boxes are MIPS-powered and uses Enigma2 image based software as firmware.

Its firmware is officially user-upgradable, since it is a Linux-based computer, as opposed to third-party "patching" of alternate receivers. Firmware is based on Enigma 2, which was originally designed for Dreambox by Dream Multimedia. All units support Conax conditional access (CA) system, with software-emulated conditional-access modules (CAMs) available for many alternate CA systems. The built-in Ethernet interface allows networked computers to access the recordings on the internal hard disks and stream live picture from the tuners. It also enables the receiver to store digital copies of DVB MPEG transport streams on networked filesystems or broadcast the streams as IPTV to VideoLAN and XBMC Media Center clients. Unlike many PC based PVR systems that use free-to-air type of DVB receiver cards, the built-in conditional access allows receiving and storing encrypted content.

In the beginning of September in 2011, Dream Multimedia obtained a temporary injunction against the Satco Europe GmbH company for using their "Enigma 2" name in an advertising flyer to promote the Linux operating system installed on the Vu+ set-top-boxes, as "Enigma"(2) is a registered trademark name of Dream Multimedia GmbH.[1]

Models[edit]

Vu+ Duo back
Vu+ Duo front
Vu+ Ultimo Uno Solo Solo2 Solo SE Solo SE V2 Solo 4K Duo Duo2 Zero
Production Discontinued Discontinued Discontinued Available Available Available Available Discontinued Available Available
Life cycle 2011 - 2013 2011 - 2014 2010 - 2013 2012- 2014- 2015- 2015- 2010 - 2013 2012- 2014-
SoC BCM7413 BCM7413 BCM7325 BCM7356 BCM7429 BCM7429 BCM7366 BCM7335 BCM7424 BCM7362
CPU type MIPS MIPS MIPS MIPS MIPS MIPS ARM MIPS MIPS MIPS
CPU (MHz) 2x400 2x400 333* 2x1300 2x1300 2x1300 2x1500 400 2x1300 742
RAM (MiB) 512 512 256 1024 1024 1024 2048 384 2048 512
Flash (MiB) 1024 128 128 256 256 512 4096 128 1024 256
Flash type NAND NAND NAND NAND NAND NAND eMMC NAND NAND NAND
Default OS Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2 Enigma2
DVB 3 ×P&P(S2/C/T) 1×P&P(S2/C/T) 1×S2 2×S2 1xS2/C/T/T2 1xS2/C/T/T2 2×S2 + 1×P&P(S2/C/T) 2×S2 2×P&P(S2/C/T) 1×S2
HDTV Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
UHDTV No No No No No No 4K No No No
3D TV Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PiP Yes Yes No Yes/HD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes/HD No
Common Interface 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 0
Smart card 2 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1
USB 3 x 2.0 3 x 2.0 2 x 2.0 3 x 2.0 2 x 2.0 2 x 2.0 2x3.0 - 1x2.0 3 x 2.0 3 x 2.0 2 x 2.0
RS 232 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes*** Yes*** Yes Yes Yes Yes
LAN (Mbit/s) 100 100 100 1000 100 100 1000 100 1000 + WIFI-N 100
HDD 2.5/3.5" 2.5/3.5" No 2.5" No No 2.5" Detachable 3.5" 2.5/3.5" No
ATA SATA II SATA II No SATA III No No No SATA II SATA III No
eSATA Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
SCART 1 1 1 1 No No No 2 1 No
HDMI 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 2.0 1.4 1.4 1.4
Display graphical VFD VFD No VFD Status LED Status LED LCD (3.5") VFD LCD/VFD Status LED
LNB pass-thru Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Other connectors 1 x YPrPb 1 x YPrPb 1 x YPrPb 1 x YPrPb Remote IR
Dimensions, WxHxD (mm) 380 x 60 x 290 340 x 60 x 272 280 x 50 x 200 280 x 50 x 200 211 x 45 x 185 211 x 45 x 185 315 x 65 x 255 380 x 60 x 280 380 x 60 x 290 160 x 30 x 145
  • Note that Vu+ Uno and Vu+ Ultimo have a dual core processor BCM7413.
  • * in most cases Solo is underclocked to 220.67MHz[2]
  • *** in Solo SE standard 9-pin D-sub connector is changed to 6-pin RJ11

Triple tuner[edit]

  • Vu+ Ultimo (1 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner and 2 x p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners)
  • Vu+ Solo 4K (2 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner and 1 x p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners)

Twin tuner[edit]

  • Vu+ Solo2 (2 x fixed DVB-S/S2 tuners)
  • Vu+ Duo (2 x fixed DVB-S/S2 tuners)
  • Vu+ Duo2 (2 x p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners)
  • Vu+ Uno Twin (1 p&p DVB-S2 Twin tuner)

Single Tuner[edit]

  • Vu+ Solo (1 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner)
  • Vu+ Solo SE (1 p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuner)
  • Vu+ Solo SE v2 (1 p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuner)
  • Vu+ Uno (1 p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuner)
  • Vu+ Zero (1 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner)

XBMC4STB project by Vu+[edit]

In September 2011, at "Vu+ Day", in Amsterdam, it was publicly announced that the generation of Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 would be ARM-powered and use XBMC Media Center (now renamed to Kodi Entertainment System) software for its main GUI, a OpenEmbedded-based development-project that they call "XBMC4STB" (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), with beta releases of both the software and new hardware said to be made available to XBMC developers before they will be release to the public.[3]

However it took two more years before a native source port of XBMC was available on the newer Vu+ (VuPlus) based set-top box models SoloSe, Solo2, and Duo2, all of which are MIPS instead ARM based. XBMC will not be made available for older Vu+ set-top boxes due to hardware limitations with missing OpenGL graphics acceleration.[4][5]

Open Black Hole[edit]

"Open Black Hole" is an open source project for making unofficial third-party OpenPLi based images for newer Vu+ set-top boxes. Using the XBMC4STB software fork of Kodi/XBMC from Vu+, the images are designed as a hybrid integration between Kodi/XBMC media center software and Dreambox's Enigma2 PVR software scripts, forked from OpenPLi (based on OpenEmbedded Linux operating system for embedded systems), it is as such also fully compatible with PLi plugins and coding infrastructure. The project was first announced on the 25th of May 2015 and is maintained by the Black Hole Team, a team of independent developers of long popular community driven firmware images for Vu+-based set top-boxes, however these Open Black Hole project images is completely separate from the original Black Hole image for Vu+.[6][7][8]

PrismCube by Marusys[edit]

Another set-top box hardware, also using the XBMC4STB software fork of Kodi/XBMC, is the PrismCube set-top box, which is also produced by Vu+'s parent company, Marusys. Unlike Vu+, PrismCube is an ARM-architecture based DVB-S2 Twin-Tuner high-definition DVR/PVR that is only running native XBMC as its main media center GUI interface on-top of Linux for embedded systems.[9][10] Released in October 2013, the first hardware model is marketed as PrismCube Ruby in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, under different brand names such as Kasys, AB IPBox, and Openbox.[11]

The firmware image of PrismCube Ruby is based on OpenEmbedded-Linux, and uses Marusys's own PVR backend software that integrated itself into XBMC's GUI, so currently the PVR front-end GUI functions and features on PrismCube are not part of native XBMC core code, though they use the same skin texture elements to achieve some what similar look and feel interface, a ported fork which Marusys calls "XBMC4STB" (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), which is the same name that Vu+ have given to their XBMC port.[12][13][14] Third-party firmware images for PrismCube Ruby are also being developed by the Black Hole Team, a team of independent developers of long popular community driven firmware images for Vu+-based satellite receivers.[15][16]

See also[edit]

Portal icon Python programming portal
Portal icon Television portal

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/en/temporary-injunction Temporary injunction against Satco Europe
  2. ^ http://www.vuplus-support.org/wbb3/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=7429
  3. ^ "Vu+ Day in Amsterdam – VUplus XBMC". Vuplus-community.net. Retrieved 17 October 2011. 
  4. ^ http://www.satnigmo.com/2787/xbmc-kodi-vu-coming-soon/ XBMC (Kodi) for Vu+ coming soon!
  5. ^ http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/01/17/linux-based-vu-dvb-set-top-boxes-now-support-xbmckodi/ Linux based Vu+ DVB Set-top Boxes Now Support XBMC/Kodi
  6. ^ http://git.vuplus-community.net/ Open Black Hole git source code repository
  7. ^ https://www.facebook.com/BlackHoleTeam Black Hole Team
  8. ^ http://www.prismcube-community.net PrismCube-Community.Net
  9. ^ http://www.prismcube.com/ PrismCube
  10. ^ http://prismcube.org PrismCube.org Community
  11. ^ http://linux-tv.com/receiver/ab-ipbox-prismcube-ruby/ Prismcube Ruby Review - XBMC Satellite Receiver - Linux-TV.com
  12. ^ http://www.astrasat.nl/digitale-ontvangers/prismcube-xbmc-mediaplayer.html PrismCube XBMC mediaplayer
  13. ^ http://digitalt.tv/prismcube-set-top-box-baseret-pa-xbmc/ Prismcube – Set Top PVR Box baseret på XBMC
  14. ^ http://volpefirm.com/tech-review-i-hbbtv-linux-a-cool-box/ Tech Review | HbbTV, Linux & a Cool Box
  15. ^ https://www.facebook.com/BlackHoleTeam Black Hole Team
  16. ^ http://www.prismcube-community.net PrismCube-Community.Net

External links[edit]

Official[edit]

Image[edit]

Home theater PC software, devices, and related articles
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