[Hedda]

For those who do not know, Vu+ is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial digital television receivers (set-top boxes) which firmware is officially user-upgradable, and produced by Korean multimedia brand Ceru Company Ltd. (a subsidiary of Marusys Co. Ltd.),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vu%2B

I just read the news that there are now a true native source port of XBMC/Kodi available to use on the newer Vu+ (VuPlus) based set-top box models which are SoloSe, Solo2, and Duo2.

www.vuplus-community.net/board/threads/xbmc-soon-in-black-hole-image.20445/


Supported Vu+ set-top boxes are currently the ones based on Broadcom MIPS chipsets with VideoCore IV GPU:

Vu+ SoloSe (Vu Plus Solo Second Edition) features Broadcom BCM 7429 / BCM7429 chipset with 1.3 MHz Dual-Core MIPS CPU, 1 GB RAM, and VideoCore IV GPU
Vu+ Solo2 (Vu Plus Solo 2) features Broadcom BCM 7356 / BCM7356 chipset with 1.3 MHz Dual-Core MIPS CPU, 1 GB RAM, and VideoCore IV GPU
Vu+ Duo2 (Vu Plus Duo 2) eatures Broadcom BCM 7424 / BCM7424 chipset with 1.3 MHz Dual-Core MIPS CPU, 2 GB RAM, and VideoCore IV GPU

Support for older models will not be made due to lack of hardware resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vu%2B#Models


Apparently Ceru Company Ltd. which is a subsidiary of Marusys Co., Ltd. (who previously released the PrismCube set-top box with XBMC) have been working on this new official Enigma 2 reference firmware with OpenGL ES 2.0 support and a real native source port of XBMC on their own for quite a while now, so this is not only a port by just any third-party developer. That work was being done on a post is not really news, since in the middle of September 2011, at Vu+ Day in Amsterdam, it was announced that the next-generation Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 will be using XBMC Media Center software for its GUI, a development project that they call XBMC4STB (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), however the work on this port had not been made available to the public until now.

http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/th...rdam.3197/


There are already third-party BETA firmware image builds based on Enigma2 Linux available from both the Black Hole and VTi teams based on Linux Kernel 3.13 (3.13.5)

http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/th...-01.20461/

http://linuxsat-support.com/showthread.php?t=74040


BackHole team have a dedicated subforum for XBMC support on their firmware images for Vu+ here

http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/fo...-hole.115/


Hopefully this will be fully open source and compete with those crappy E2BMC based set-top boxes for which there are no source code released.

[Kapsville]

Finally!! This would be the most awesome solution! Perfect TV experience with good Quali and fast zapping speed into a nice Media Center

[Jönke]

This is "only" xbmc as a plugin on a vu box , not a "xbmc image" with live tv from within the vu box

[RockerC]

This is "only" xbmc as a plugin on a vu box , not a "xbmc image" with live tv from within the vu box

That is not true, it really is a full source port of XBMC for Linux running natively on these Vu+ boxes, not just a simple plugin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vu%2B#XBMC4...t_by_Vu.2B

XBMC4STB project by Vu+

In September 2011 Vu+ Day in Amsterdam it was first publicly announced that the next-generation Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 will 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.

It took however two more years before a native source port of XBMC was available to use on the newer Vu+ (VuPlus) based set-top box models which are SoloSe, Solo2, and Duo2, (and no XBMC will not be made available for older Vu+ set-top boxes due to hardware limitations with missing OpenGL graphics acceleration).


PrismCube by Marusys

Another set-top box hardware also using this XBMC4STB software fork of XBMC/Kodi is PrismCube, 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. Released in October 2013, this first hardware model is marketed as "PrismCube Ruby" in Europe, North Africa, and Middle East, and it is also sold under different brand names such as "Kasys Prismcube Ruby", "AB IPBox Prismcube Ruby", and "Openbox Prismcube Ruby".

PrismCube Ruby firmware image 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 too. Third-party firmware images for PrismCube Ruby is also being developed by the Black Hole Team, a team of independent developers of long popular community driven firmware images for Vu+-based set top-boxes.

Unfortunately, neither of these forks the PVR or Live TV functions inside XBMC at all, and instead they launch a separate closed source application (MaruApp) for the PVR and Live-TV parts, same as PrismCube does, and are probably the same software being developed by the same developers at Marusus for both Vu+ and PrismCube.

http://www.prismcube-community.net/board...uilds.763/


I too would very much like to see both Vu+ and PrismCube to instead use XBMC's own native PVR frontend GUI for PVR/DVR/EPG/Live-TV as the only interface on these boxes, and for that have a (headless) PVR-backend/server software which only works as a TV-tuner and recording server running as a background daemon service without a GUI.

http://kodi.wiki/index.php?title=PVR

I think that Vu+/PrismCube today is kind of ruining the XBMC experience by breaking the immersion of running the single application that is XBMC media center GUI, as it is right now Vu+/PrismCube is instead launching its own separate application for all PVR functions, and that separate application has its own GUI that only tries to emulate the look and feel of XBMC, but needs its own skin.

So it should instead in the future Vu+/PrismCube should port its own PVR backend TV server into a headless background running daemon service that work similar to like how Tvheadend PVR backend with XBMC works on a computer today, (and same if you use MediaPortal Server, VDR, or MythTV backend/server, etc. with XBMC). Which then all share the same XBMC's own native PVR frontend GUI for a common unified interface for everything, and the end-user should not even really need to know what PVR backend server that is running underneath it all.

Note again that I am not saying that Vu+/PrismCube should simply use example Tvheadend or VDR. No I am instead saying that Vu+/PrismCube should convert the code for their existing TV tuning application into a PVR backend TV server that works similar to Tvheadend or VDR, without its own GUI. And to begin to instead fully utilize XBMC's native PVR frontend GUI, and soley use that GUI as the only end-user interface for Vu+/PrismCube that the users see on their TV display screen, following the XBMC' concept of how PVR should all the way completely, which happen to be standard client (frontend) to server (backend) model based

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client–server_model

By switching to using XBMC's own native PVR frontend GUI and the PVR backend concept you will again all the benefits on a common development community that all work towards the same goal to improve XBMC's own native PVR frontend GUI and API interlace, no matter what PVR backend is used.


If MaruApp was at least open source then that would sure be a little better, but if MaruApp TV server was instead only acting as a real PVR backend for XBMC then it would not matter as much if it was closed source, as then much could still be done in XBMC's open source code to improve the actual user experience.

The best scenario to get as many community developers involved as would of course be an open source MaruApp TV server, and open source Vu+/PrismCube PVR backend client for XBMC (that uses XBMC's PVR API), as then third-party community developers can assist in the whole chain, both working on bugs and developing new features or functions. This is the scenario that PVR backend client for XBMC is for Tvheadend, VDR, MediaPortal, and MythTV today and those all work great with very active community developers.

Second best would be closed source MaruApp TV server, and open source Vu+/PrismCube PVR backend client for XBMC (that uses XBMC's PVR API), as then third-party community developers could at least assist in developing both the Vu+/PrismCube PVR backend client for XBMC as well as XBMC. That is the scenario that ServerWMC is in today, which is a third-party open source WMC PVR backend client for XBMC that can still fully control closed source Microsoft Windows Media Center.

Third best would be closed source MaruApp TV server, and closed source Vu+/PrismCube PVR backend client for XBMC (that uses XBMC's PVR API), which would mean that Marusus would have to develop all the backend features themselves without assistance from the community, but at least the community could develop XBMC's PVR GUI, PVR API, and skins, which would improve the end-user experience to give used a completely unified interface and the ability to switch skin in XBMC (without having to skin MaruApp separately).

However today we are almost looking at at almost the worse possible XBMC experience possible on Vu+/PrismCube, with the separate MaruApp having it's own GUI. The only worse XBMC experience I can think of is if the MaruApp did not have the same look and feel as XBMC, but I think it is still bad enough as it is today.

[Jönke]

And not using Kodi dvdplayer as default videoplayer right ?

[RockerC]

And not using Kodi dvdplayer as default videoplayer right ?

It does use Kodi's DVDPlayer as its default video player for all recorded videos, just not for Live TV viewing.

[Predi-ger-many]

XBMC on VU+ currently is based on Gotham. It's a native full port. The only thing that's implemented as Enigma2-Plugin is the Startup.

And not using Kodi dvdplayer as default videoplayer right ?

It does use Kodi's DVDPlayer as its default video player for all recorded videos, just not for Live TV viewing.

That's wrong. Currently the Enigma2-Player is the default video player. The reason is that currently no HW-acceleration works an no audio with
the Kodi's internal player. It's a beta.

[mr.Gru]

I'm really looking these days to buy a decent STB and I have some experience with the solo (I'm not amazed)

but after seeing how this company operates.


http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/01/17/l...-xbmckodi/

January 19th, 2015 at 02:57 | #10
kusta :
Harley, I understand You as probably you are commercial or marketing representative of that company. VU+ is known GPL violator, company who steal Enigma 2 and just make hardware. Only devices which was and still are genuine with Enigma 2 are Dreambox devices from DreamMultimedia.
Vu+ not only is GPL violator from Korea, but also ugly expensive device running on MIPS cpu. I see on forums people complain that only few addons working. They cant watch movies as no hardware decoding of video.

Harley:
Nope, I’m not associated with Vu+ or its parent company or resellers, or any other hardware for that matter.
I’m only a huge fan of XBMC/Kodi and also an avid GPL/LGPL and open source supporter, and in fact many of the XBMC/Kodi related stories here on cnx-software.com comes in as tips from myself, no matter which hardware or platform.


NO VU+ for me...!

[Latinbull]

Well... i had a VU+ and Dreambox before....
Sold to have an Wetek, with OPENELEC and KODI

Much better working and not a GPL violator.
And is not even comparable, all work natively on OPENELEC, plugins and so on, at VU+ only few working.

[RockerC]

I'm really looking these days to buy a decent STB and I have some experience with the solo (I'm not amazed)

but after seeing how this company operates.


http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/01/17/l...-xbmckodi/

January 19th, 2015 at 02:57 | #10
kusta :
Harley, I understand You as probably you are commercial or marketing representative of that company. VU+ is known GPL violator, company who steal Enigma 2 and just make hardware. Only devices which was and still are genuine with Enigma 2 are Dreambox devices from DreamMultimedia.
Vu+ not only is GPL violator from Korea, but also ugly expensive device running on MIPS cpu. I see on forums people complain that only few addons working. They cant watch movies as no hardware decoding of video.

Harley:
Nope, I’m not associated with Vu+ or its parent company or resellers, or any other hardware for that matter.
I’m only a huge fan of XBMC/Kodi and also an avid GPL/LGPL and open source supporter, and in fact many of the XBMC/Kodi related stories here on cnx-software.com comes in as tips from myself, no matter which hardware or platform.


NO VU+ for me...!

Well I'm that Harley you quoted, and I'm truly and honestly not affiliated with Vu+ or any other companies selling any media players or similar products in any way.

Just look at my all my post in this forum over the years and you can clearly see that I don't endorse any specific hardware manufacturers, you can see I recommend Kodi/XBMC on most hardware platforms, and you can also see from my posts that I'm a strong advocate of the free and open source software movement, including being a fierce supporter of the GPL/LGPL licenses. I'm only a Kodi/XBMC enthusiasts and amateur technology-evangelist trying to spread the gospel of Kodi/XBMC in the spirit of open source. And I would not even suggest anyone buying a Vu+ for using Kodi/XBMC today, I just think it is great to hear that they are working on a port for these boxes and it was only that I submitted as a news-tip to Jean-Luc's blog. So don't blame that on Vu+ for me tipping of Jean-Luc about this port to post his on blog, as then it is you who are being tin foil hat paranoid, so don't go around spreading false rumors because of it.

PS: Google "Vu+ AND XBMC" if you still do not believe me, as you will then see that you can't hardly find any other mentioning of port on any news site online.

---

And is not even comparable, all work natively on OPENELEC, plugins and so on, at VU+ only few working.

It's only a Beta, what do you expect?

[oesterproester]

Well... i had a VU+ and Dreambox before....
Sold to have an Wetek, with OPENELEC and KODI

Much better working and not a GPL violator.
And is not even comparable, all work natively on OPENELEC, plugins and so on, at VU+ only few working.

lol
concerned about GPL violations but happy to watch stuff for free on Kodi
what a conscientious decision
no comparison mate
what softcams can the Wetek use?

[Skank]

Im still waiting for a stb. That runs kodi and can do live tv here in belgium with telenet.
Really hate it , icant do live tv in kodi

[satdz]

Hello all, I own a vu+ SOLO2 with xbmc Version 13 and I wonder when kodi version 15. isengrad will be available on the products seen + thank you.

[gerryp]

Hi all, recently bought a VU+Duo2 (Enigma2) with Black Hole image 2.1.5 running XBMC Gotham

For the life of me I cannot get XBMC to playback movies from a networked folder which is Upnp / DNLA / SMB / NFS, compatible and can also ftp , telnet onto it & browse it from the web

In XBMC I go to videos \ files & I can see my network path to smb://GP/Xtreamer/SDA1/Videos & all video formats can be seen.
When I try playing any of the formats, including mkv's, avi's etc , the BH media player appears with the selected video but it doesn't play the video at all, it displays a black screen with a ">" on the top right of the screen

I have put this query up on vuplus-community.net xbmc forum to see if there is a setting in the BH image, but they are none the wiser -

Is there a setting within XMBC that has to be changed or is XMBC just not fully compatible with VU+Duo2 STB's ??

[oesterproester]

Is there a setting within XMBC that has to be changed or is XMBC just not fully compatible with VU+Duo2 STB's ??

I'd say the latter gerry
still best to have a dedicated media box I reckon
maybe in due course