AWA nini STB from Big W this week

[LazyBones]

Hi guys,

This week's Big W sale catalog has an AWA mini set top box on sale ($59). Anyone seen or even bought one in the past? Are they any good, and more importantly do they work with a TIVO?

http://www.bigw.com.au/catalogue%2010-05-07/site/index01.html

Bones..

[Phred]

AWA mini set top box on sale ($59). Anyone seen or even bought one in the past? Are they any good, and more importantly do they work with a TIVO?
http://www.bigw.com.au/catalogue%2010-05-07/site/index01.html
Bones..

LB,

Bought one a few months ago. Very small, size of a pack of cigarettes, (very) cheap remote and no quick aspect change button on the remote (that I could find anyway).

I have several reception problems in my area (SE Tassie). The AWA box worked very well for troublesome channels with one big problem. In the Hobart area the TVT6 (digital Ch7) center frequency (184.5) is so close to the Ch6 analogue frequency that the in some cases set-top boxes need to slightly off tune, to 184.625, for proper reception. This is still within digital specs and many set-top boxes do this automatically or can be manually tunned. The AWA box didn't auto-tune correctly, can be manually tunned but only in .1 increments. So can tune 184.5, 184.6 and 184.7 but not 184.625. The AWA box couldn't successfully receive TVT6 in my area. You many not have this problem.

As for TiVo IR codes I had some difficulty trying to capture the AWA box IR codes, and given I wasn't keeping it because of the TVT6 problem, I gave up. The AWA box was my first attempt at capturing IR codes and I've learned lots since so perhaps now I would be more successful, however, the other thing I've learned about IR capture is it isn't a sure thing.

Given the BigW return policy why not buy it, try it and try IR capture. If it doesn't work in your area or you can't capture the IR codes simply return it.

Best,

Phred

[petestrash]

I'm pretty sure it's the same box as the Telefunken TDR-986 which AJ has captured codes for.

Here are some photo's of AJ's install inside the TiVo.

Peter.

[Phred]

I'm pretty sure it's the same box as the Telefunken TDR-986 which AJ has captured codes for.

Here are some photo's of AJ's install inside the TiVo.

Peter.

Sure looks like the AWA box as I remember it.

Phred

[petestrash]

I've just bought one myself (AWA), I'll let you know the outcome in a couple days once I have had a play.

Peter.

[petestrash]

Bad new is the IR codes are different to the telefunken ones loaded, even though the box is identical.

I'm having similar issues to Phred in capturing codes, at this stage I can only get 1 or 2 keys to work intermittantly.

I will spend more time over the weekend, but at this stage don't rush out and buy the AWA one.

Peter.

[lameboyadvance]

I've been looking for an STB, and have seen the Telefunken one around, but when I researched it I found out that it can have audio sync problems.

Has anyone had this problem with the AWA box at all?


....And also, I've been seeing some STBs with timer (time, channel) abilities. Does this box have any special abilities?

[lameboyadvance]

I just bought one of these to try it out. I've bought 3 STBs so far, and they've all been using the same firmware. All have had their various problems.

So far: this one took a few tries to detect Ten, seems to have a problem displaying 7/Prime Teletext (Austext) dynamic pages (thought it was just page 100 (index) until I tried it further), and ABC/ABC2 complete daily EPGs (will show the first few OK, but anything after that is just pot luck. Sometimes you'll get a mostly complete list, other times it'll be missing large chunks of the day).

The first box I had displayed Teletext/EPG fine, but kept corrupting the channel list. Possibly a later firmware revision?

[petestrash]

I've taken the AWA unit back to BigW.

It conflicts with an existing Kross STB, and I don't want to put an IR tent over it. Also I didn't feel like wasting any more time trying to capture accurate codes.

Peter.

[lameboyadvance]

I also returned mine.

While it would be perfect for camping (as long as you don't mind having bad EPG/TTX), its not what I want for a home unit.

[daggo]

Is this the "STB-232"? It appears that it is a larger animal then the telefunken. My Stong box died in the latest storms we had so I picked up the STB 232 from bigW, well 3 really I giving some away to friends.

Will this other AWA box work with my TiVO? Or should I redo guided setup and try different remote codes to test? Or am I wasting my time?

[petestrash]

If the AWA box looks like Telefunken above, then I could not capture accurate codes for use with TiVo.

Peter.

[daggo]

No it doesn't look that one at all. I'll take some snaps and put them here. And I'll have a go at IR capture when I get the time. I don't watch commercial FTA anyway and ABC & SBS come of the sat, but it would be nice to get it working.

Matt.