Review Vu+ Solo2 By Black Hole

[abid hussain]

It's all nice.
But if I do the same receiver scan
with ultimo and uno on the weak satellite
within twenty minutes I have a difference of more than 100 channels.
If you really want to test.
Take a very weak signal and compare in the same time

I've heard that some have/had problems at 12032MHz
frequency, but this was not the case with my solo2 ??

solo2 is great receiver overall if we keep tuner issue aside we cant say tuner is bad it is okay and do the job but we were expecting something more from vu+ team may be new images and fpga for solo2 improve tuner performance


i must say quality and speed of the box is amazing and new blackhole 1.7.9 is amazing very stable and very fast

one thing i forgot to mention solo2 is also slow in scanning channels despite of huge processor inside may be the processor is not fully used

 

[Matrix10]

Agn,

Scanning speed almost not depends on the speed of the processor
but the speed of the tuner channel lock.
If the scanning is too fast receiver will probably not found half channels.

 

[Godanapo]

I've just received my Solo2 yesterday and only now I've tested the weakest sats here.
Well... ALL IS WORKING GREAT!

Also I think I have more signal now on those weak sats. I've tried North Beam freqs. from 28E (Sly 3D for example) and some transponders from 1W too. All great!

I think all can trust this tuners

 

[Gerard Doll]

Also very happy with the solo2 and also with the standard blackhole image. Very, very stable. Everything i wanted to do with it works except for getting a logitech K400 keyboard working. Anybody any suggestions?
Kind regards,
G.

 

[entonyme]

I've a problem with hdmi: no audio is available, only from stereo or optical output. How can I configure BH to have audio from HDMI?

 

[ckone]

I had this problem with my UNO. Unfortunately no AC3 pass through HDMI. What a pitty. I traded my UNO with a ET9500 and i have full AC3 & DTS through HDMI. I am conviced it is a driver issue. Hope they fix it because i really liked my UNO and i wass planning on buying a DUO2 when it was going to be on market.

 

[angelofsky1980]

I had this problem with my UNO. Unfortunately no AC3 pass through HDMI. What a pitty. I traded my UNO with a ET9500 and i have full AC3 & DTS through HDMI. I am conviced it is a driver issue. Hope they fix it because i really liked my UNO and i wass planning on buying a DUO2 when it was going to be on market.

What?
My Vu+ boxes make passthrought correctly of DTS, DD and AC3 tracks to my Onkyo and all works properly ....
You are OT ... this is Solo2 review....

 

[ckone]

Why you are so suprised??? I have seen and tested Solo2 and it does not pass through AC3 & DTS. Vu+ UNO was just an example.
Booth boxes pass through AC3 & DTS only if HDMI CEC is enabled & only towards a AV Amplifier. Not towards a TV Set. I have a Samsung TV that can handle AC3 and there is NO audio pass through HDMI. My ET9500 pass through AC3 correctly with even not HDMI CEC enabled. You can make as much tests as you like but what i am talking about is true. And for information only, i am a Sound Enginner so i know something more.

Every issue anyone make is for making a great product to be even better.

 

[Godanapo]

Thats not true. My Solo2 is doing that all OK with my Sony Home Cinema by HDMI cable connected to my Sony TV.

All seems great from here.

 

[entonyme]

Should be an hardware issue?

 

[angelofsky1980]

Why you are so suprised??? I have seen and tested Solo2 and it does not pass through AC3 & DTS. Vu+ UNO was just an example.
Booth boxes pass through AC3 & DTS only if HDMI CEC is enabled & only towards a AV Amplifier. Not towards a TV Set. I have a Samsung TV that can handle AC3 and there is NO audio pass through HDMI. My ET9500 pass through AC3 correctly with even not HDMI CEC enabled. You can make as much tests as you like but what i am talking about is true. And for information only, i am a Sound Enginner so i know something more.

Every issue anyone make is for making a great product to be even better.

Are you crazy?
IT'S NORMAL that your TV Set doesen't decode (DECODE) digital audio tracks like DTS and AC3. These kind of audio tracks are DIGITAL and NEEDS a digital amplifier, like the one in my signature, to be heared, otherwise you can hear in your TV set enabling the "Digital Downmix" feature.

About HDMI-CEC: another error! This protocol can perform the CONTROL of your TV set / box / AV (shutdown, poweron, volume control, etc) BUT not audio tracks decode.

I've some MKVs with ONLY DTS audio track and every time Vu+ release drivers (or boxes ) I test costantly if all works correctly as expected...

Review your setup & connections.
My tests reports that all works properly with media files and DVB services too.

 

[ckone]

Of course and my TV can decode AC3. What are you talking about. Samsung LE40B650 has built in media player and supports AC3 coding 5.1 channels. It does not have 5.1 speaker system so it downix AC3 to stereo. In addition i have connected my TV Set to my Denon 7.1 AV Amp through optical cable. In conclousion when playing 1080p mkv files (or other format) with TVs media player i can have uncompressed 5.1 channel through optical to my Denon. It is the same with the STB.
I know i can not post video but if let me i will prove what i am saying. I have my ET9500 connected via HDMI to my TV Set (example: channel from Sky Italy AC3 5.1) and with optical from TV set to my DENON. My Denon does all my 5.1 decompress and fires up my Dali speakers.
M8 I COULD NOT DO THIS WITH VU+. CHECK IT ANYTIME.

This is question from me and answer from Vu+ Facebook.
I think there are 2 things to be checked and added in upcoming releases of images. One is thar there must be a option to have original Dolby Digital through HDMI and second pass through capability from tuner's LNB out.

Like · · March 14, 2012 at 1:42am

• 
  Vu+Thank you for the suggestion. We will take into consideration about your idea.
  March 16, 2012 at 10:18am · Like

 

[redribo]

i have been informed that there was a tuning problem with specific freq. (12032MHz).
who wants can test the latest official image that should include a fix.
http://code.vuplus.com/download/images/vusolo2/test/20130103/

goodmorning,
i put the tgz file on /tmp but there is nothing happend,
how i can install this new drivers on my solo2?

thank you

 

[angelofsky1980]

Of course and my TV can decode AC3. What are you talking about. Samsung LE40B650 has built in media player and supports AC3 coding 5.1 channels. It does not have 5.1 speaker system so it downix AC3 to stereo. In addition i have connected my TV Set to my Denon 7.1 AV Amp through optical cable. In conclousion when playing 1080p mkv files (or other format) with TVs media player i can have uncompressed 5.1 channel through optical to my Denon. It is the same with the STB.
I know i can not post video but if let me i will prove what i am saying. I have my ET9500 connected via HDMI to my TV Set (example: channel from Sky Italy AC3 5.1) and with optical from TV set to my DENON. My Denon does all my 5.1 decompress and fires up my Dali speakers.
M8 I COULD NOT DO THIS WITH VU+. CHECK IT ANYTIME.

This is question from me and answer from Vu+ Facebook.
I think there are 2 things to be checked and added in upcoming releases of images. One is thar there must be a option to have original Dolby Digital through HDMI and second pass through capability from tuner's LNB out.

Like · · March 14, 2012 at 1:42am

• 
  Vu+Thank you for the suggestion. We will take into consideration about your idea.
  March 16, 2012 at 10:18am · Like

I don't understand what kind of tests are you doing and why you use optical connections instead of full HDMI chain?
The (correct) chain using HDMI cables should be:

Vu+ box --> Digital Amplifier --> TV Set

With this kind of chain the digital tracks (AC3/DTS/DD+) are worked by my amplifier and the video comes to TV without problem and the audio is processed in the correct way.

FYI yesterday I've verified some MKVs with only DTS audio tracks and are played correctly without issues.

 

[Nice Monkey]

May I suggest not to jump to conclusions too quick. HDMI capabilities exchanges (Audio & Video) and a lot more for HDMI-CEC are complex of nature. Incompatibilities between equipment of different vendors is not uncommon. I have seen even problems with products of a single brand. Upgrading to the latest firmware is often a must but not always the solution. Also difficult to judge which component is to blaim.

So one person may have problems with his setup and another one does not with a very similar setup.
Also don't insist that your setup is the way to do it right. Some may use an AMP inbetween and others don't see the need for it (or don't have the money for it). Some TV's decode/strip/downmix all DD and DTS formats including HQ variants others can't.

My current setup VU+ UNO ==> Onkyo NR609 ==> Philips TV works brillantly. But when connected directly to the same TV my VU+ locks the HDMI-Port on my TV when HDMI-CEC is enabled.

 

[ckone]

There is one big issue if I connect my STB this way. I always need to have my AV Amp turned on in order to have picture on my TV. And this is unconvinient for every day use. Nevertheless my observation about the strange issue about HDMI was not in direction to point the finger to anyone. And again I am pointing strange because on my current STB with very similar hardware it works just fine. I will try find a different brand TV set to make some more tests.

 

[Nice Monkey]

There is one big issue if I connect my STB this way. I always need to have my AV Amp turned on in order to have picture on my TV. And this is unconvinient for every day use. Nevertheless my observation about the strange issue about HDMI was not in direction to point the finger to anyone. And again I am pointing strange because on my current STB with very similar hardware it works just fine. I will try find a different brand TV set to make some more tests.

There are many variables including regarding HDMI-passthru. An Onkyo NR609 (or later) will support passthru as a configuration setting. It means that is allows you to keep the HDMI source selectionpossibility also with the AMP in Power-Off mode. It will then only consume minimal power (in fact i measured the power consumption in many modes of operation).
I traded in my old Onkyo SR605 for the newer NR609 just because of the better HDMI support (6 ports and passthru). It is not even connected to the Network.

 

[ckone]

My Denon AVR-1909 has the option to passthrough HDMI signals in standby but that requires 30watt power consuption.

 

[angelofsky1980]

There is one big issue if I connect my STB this way. I always need to have my AV Amp turned on in order to have picture on my TV. And this is unconvinient for every day use. Nevertheless my observation about the strange issue about HDMI was not in direction to point the finger to anyone. And again I am pointing strange because on my current STB with very similar hardware it works just fine. I will try find a different brand TV set to make some more tests.

I understand that your current setup is....

Vu+ --> TV --> Amplifier (all via HDMI)

It's correct?

I can make some tests in this way .... but ET9500 and Solo2 doesen't have the same hardware and cannot be compared.
I've read on the web the ET9x00 series shares the same CPU (BCM7413) and Solo2 has BCM7356. The second one it's new generation CPU....

 

[ckone]

I ment Vu+ UNO. I posted that strange isuue here to see if it consists on Solo2. My connection is VU+ via HDMI --> TV via Optical --> AV AMP. My VU+ does not work, my ET9500 works.

Samsung LE40B650 -- Denon AVR 1909 -- Monster Cables