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 Co., Ltd.

History and description

All older Vu+ hardware set-top boxes are MIPS-powered, newer are all ARM-powered and uses Enigma2 image based software as

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...

. Its

is officially user-upgradable, since it is a Linux-based computer, as opposed to third-party "patching" of alternate receivers.

Firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...

is based on Enigma 2, which was originally designed for

Dreambox Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers (set-top boxes), produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia. History and description The Linux-based production software origin ...

by Dream Multimedia. All units support

Conax Conax develops television encryption, conditional access and content security for digital television. Conax provide CAS technology to pay TV operators in 85 countries. The company has offices in Norway (headquarters), Russia, Germany, Brazil, th ...

conditional access Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is that ‘just-in-time’ evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the c ...

(CA) system, with software-emulated

conditional-access module A conditional access module (CAM) is an electronic device, usually incorporating a slot for a smart card, which equips an integrated digital television or set-top box with the appropriate hardware facility to view conditional access content th ...

s (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 stream MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS, MTS) or simply transport stream (TS) is a standard digital container format for transmission and storage of audio, video, and Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data. It is used in broadcast systems ...

s on

networked filesystem A clustered file system is a file system which is shared by being simultaneously mounted on multiple servers. There are several approaches to clustering, most of which do not employ a clustered file system (only direct attached storage for e ...

s 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.

Models

Vu+Duo Front.JPG, Vu+ Duo front Vu+Duo Back.jpg, Vu+ Duo back VU+ Duo2 - front.jpg, VU+ Duo2 front VU+ Duo2 - back.jpg, VU+ Duo2 back * Note that Vu+ Uno and Vu+ Ultimo have a dual core processor BCM7413. * * in most cases Solo is underclocked to 220.67MHz * *** in Solo SE standard 9-pin D-sub connector is changed to 6-pin RJ11

Triple tuner

*Vu+ Ultimo (3 x pluggable DVB-S2 or DVB-T,T2/C tuners) *Vu+ Ultimo 4K (2 x pluggable FBC DVB-S/S2 tuner or dual FBC DVB-C tuner and 1 x p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners)

Twin tuner

*Vu+ Duo 4K (2 x p&p slot for dual FBC DVB-S/S2X tuner, dual DVB-T2 tuner, dual FBC DVB-C tuner) *Vu+ Solo 4K (2 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner and 1 x pluggable DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners) *Vu+ Duo2 (2 x p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuners) *Vu+ Solo2 (2 x fixed DVB-S/S2 tuners) *Vu+ Duo (2 x fixed DVB-S/S2 tuners) *Vu+ Uno Twin (1 p&p DVB-S2 Twin tuner)

Single Tuner

*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+ Uno 4k (1 p&p DVB-S2 or DVB-T/C tuner) *Vu+ Uno 4k SE (1 fixed DVB-S/S2X tuner or DVB-T/T2/C tuner) *Vu+ Zero (1 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner) *Vu+ Zero SE (1 fixed DVB-S/S2 tuner) *Vu+ Zero 4k (1 fixed DVB-S/S2X tuner or DVB-T/T2/C tuner)

XBMC4STB project by Vu+

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 The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

, an 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 released to the public. 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.

Open Black Hole

"''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

'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 25 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 are completely separate from the original Black Hole image for Vu+.http://www.prismcube-community.net PrismCube-Community.Net

References

External links

Official

Vu+ home page

Image

Open/Black Hole image

OpenPLi image

VTI image

VIX image

OpenATV image

Open Vision image
{{Home theater PC (application software) Satellite television Set-top box Television technology Digital video recorders Linux-based devices