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FridgeFTA Satellite is extremely proud to announce that as of Wednesday morning we are the exclusive North American distributor of Karmacom’s Amiko Alien line of advanced STBs.

The Amiko Alien is the most advanced STB to land in North America and offers many great features such as ease of use, true Linux, duel boot Enigma 2, network recording/playback, real internet functionality and much more.

All North American distribution, support and development will be directly through us. This will allow for both us and Karmacom to focus maximum combined effort on North American development and customer support.

I want to thank Marton, Jozsef, Daniel and the rest of the Karmacom team for the extraordinary level of service, communication and interest they are putting in developing Alien for North America. On this side of the pond we know how difficult it can be to get STB manufacturers to pay attention to us. Karmacom is giving our market full support!

Here are some details about the NA operation:

Availability/Sales
When and where are the common questions we are receiving. In addition to the special orders, a limited number of Aliens have already landed in North America. These will be made available to the public over the weekend at http://store.fridgefta.info Final price has not been set, but we are hoping release Alien at a sub-$200 introductory price. Unfortunately with the limited numbers in our first stock shipment combined with a scheduled out of town trip I cannot get out of, further Aliens will not be available until around March 1. The “official” product rollout will be then.

Alien will be available in USA & territories, Canada, Mexico, and other North American areas.

Support
Right now Alien is running on a modified Spark image just for North America. This makes changes for our market, a few bug fixes and of course contains a 30W – 139W satellite/transponder list. The EU Spark image updates are available online right in your Alien. As new images come out they will be tested and modified for NA, and either full images or patches will be on our private FTP which is pre-configured in your Alien. All authorized Alien North America dealers will receive access to these materials and so will their customers.

A North American distribution, information and support site is under construction. This will be the point of contact and official support site for the Alien line here in NA. You’ll be able to connect with authorized dealers on this site as well, since it will not be a point of sale. When the site is complete information will be posted.

Until the support site is complete, updates will be here at FridgeFTA and on our Alien Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amiko-Alie…0941327895

Please note that we are unable to provide support for Aliens purchased outside of North America. Contact your dealer for support for those products.

Dealer Information
FridgeFTA Satellite/Amiko Alien North America will distribute the Alien line of STB’s to qualified Dealers throughout North America. Dealers will receive direct private support from us and their customers will receive the same units complete with FTP access, NA web portal and updates. Alien NA warranty will be handled directly thru us.

The most important qualification will be customer service. Potential dealers must get to know the product and be able to provide their customers with excellent support. We will provide dealers with support and assistance. You do not need to be a major store or satellite guru.

We are especially interested in working with dealers in Ontario, British Columbia and Mexico. Dealers for the USA and Puerto Rico are also invited.

The dealer network will start to be setup around March 1.

Dealer inquiries can be made on the FridgeFTA Satellite contact form here: http://store.fridgefta.info/?page_id=299

Other thanks
I want to thank FridgeFTA Forum Members, the VIPs and our store customers for your support. Many of you have been with FridgeFTA from the start!

Finally, I am not one to steal credit from others. I want to thank my friend Mitch (matrix74) for first spotting the Alien a year ago when it was launched, and constantly bugging me about it until I checked it out. Without you there would be no Alien in North America.

Preface
Although Amiko Alien is the most advanced STB to ever hit North America (think AZbox but half the price with more features), I actually recommend that you DO NOT buy this product right now….

Quote:We have also evaluated Karmacom’s Optibox line. While they are very nice units with hardware blindscan and other features, they lack most of the advanced features of Alien and are more expensive. Basically AZbox price range with similar capabilities, no 4:2:2. Not really suitable for North America, and no point with AZbox basically doing the same or more.

We have been in talks with the manufacturer Karmacom and have been testing an Alien sample unit since early December. The guy that discovered it, Matrix74, has been “bugging” me about it for much longer, since it was released in Europe a year ago. Alien is certainly the most complete STB out there but unfortunately lacks one key feature that is almost a must in the North American market: blindscan. After much research on both sides of the pond, Karmacom has determined that it cannot be added to the current Aliens. This is what delayed our initial 1/1/2012 North American Alien release.

However, I have been constantly bugged by a certain person to release Alien anyway, since other than no blindscan is truly a revolution for the North American True FTA community. After previewing it to FridgeVIPs and getting some demand, I contacted the manufacturer. They are express shipping us a limited number of Alien on Monday February 6, and they will be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

A very limited number will be available outside of the FridgeVIP group at very low pricing. If you are interested, you will need to contact the store at http://store.fridgefta.info/?page_id=299 for more information. These are mainly for Linux/Enigma 2 geeks that want to play with these and contribute to development.

Since I am the one that made the decision to delay Alien, my recommendation for most people is to wait until we have a blindscan option. I cannot go into details due to confidentiality, but if you purchase an Alien now, it will NOT be able to blindscan in the future.

I also do not recommend purchasing an Alien on fleabay or anywhere else. Adapting Alien for North America was not as simple as flashing a new channel/sat list, and you need much more skill than the average idiot stealing or changing an OpenBox file with Ali editor since some critical settings for us are hard coded. There is no end user North America support from Spark, in the editors or from the manufacturer outside of what is provided to us for N.A. development. I’ve already spent dozens of hours properly modifying the images for North America and changing code, but this will only be available to the limited number of Alien available from us now and for the future product release.

99% of this information will apply to our future release.

As we had no intention of releasing this Alien as a regular store item at this time, a “formal” review and advertising materials have not been done. The following is compiled from testing photos, information released to FridgeVIPs, internal discussions and discussions with the manufacturer. It is more of a “first look”. Feel free to ask questions, I’m happy to answer them!

Enough said, let’s look at the thing…
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Alien is a STB unlike anything here. Other than the one problem (no blindscan) it is totally killer. Think AZbox at half the price, none of the problems, more features and 100x easier to use.

Here is what it does, in a nutshell. To go over everything it does would take forever:

True Linux, can tamper with everything ~ Duel boot, runs its own easy to use Linux, plus Enigma 2 on separate partition ~ Actual usable streaming/internet. Has tons of “apps” like YOUPORN ~ Opera Mini web browser/HTML5. Its actually fast and usable ~ Cinitrailer ~ music apps (one has a bunch of live concerts, cool) ~ SHOUTCAST RADIO ~ Picasa ~ Google Talk ~ GAMES ~Awesome Youtube, not cruddy like AZ ~ Kartina TV (I enabled the test channels) ~ WikiTV ~ youtube video rippper ~ many more

Flash file support ~ Plays just about every file format known ~ Pause live recordings, it cuts out commercials! ~ NETWORK RECORDING, play and record satellite directly to your computers ~ very easy to use ~ It actually puts up a scrolling ticker to tell you there is an update, click and it installs for you ~ Weather forecaster (not a pirate device, it does real weather) ~ Wired or wireless ~ USB hub support ~ 1080p ~ auto resolution & easy to change so no stuck in PAL ~ available wireless mini keyboard & integrated trackmouse (very nice) ~ HTML server (this not yet enabled but with what little I know of linux I found it and was able to pull it up. Will allow control of EVERYTHING via your web browser locally or across the world) ~ Super awesome motor & LNB controls (once I made them work for NA. Very speedy and can select 13/18 or 14/19 for example) ~ Just about endless LNB configurations, some not supported/configurable in any other STB ~ manual PID ~ polarity scanning ~ full FTP support of course. ~ advanced data, shows you just about everything with the stream, even bitrates!

Did I mention free YOUPORN???

There is a ton more, this is what is off the top of my head. The supporter of the spark O/S is constantly adding things, plus you can put different Enigma 2 on there, it is duel boot, so you can run both O/S. Linux guys can do a TON more, I did quite a bit barely knowing Linux. Nothing is really locked down from what I see.

I had to do a TON to make this work here. The current editor doesn’t allow certain changes needed to make the N.A. birds work, and there were no NA bird. Had to get into the code to make that happen, took forever. The complexity probably approaches the recoding vendig has to do for remapping/retiling the 4DTV stuff. But now that its done, works well. I also re-coded it to use our private browsing setup/server instead of the default EU one with a bunch of junk we don’t want/use. Reset a bunch of other stuff for our market.

Oh…picture…noticeably better than AZ or OpenBox.

Retail pricepoint was to be $190 – $200 shipped

Here is what stopped me: no blindscan. It is coming, but if you buy the current Alien STB you won’t be able to get it. I think the guys that use an OpenBox to blindscan and then an AZ to watch are hokey. I had to do this, sure it works but is a pain. Anyway, worked a ton with the manufactuer and I guess it just cant be done with current alien. I therefore had to hand enter all the active C-band and Ku band transponders. Once done it is a super fast scanner, way faster than any of our other STBs. Just not a feedhunter.

To correct one other misconception, it does NOT do 4:2:2. I’ve got AZ and Prof that do it and haven’t had anything decent 4:2:2 to get me to hook them up in many months.

I absolutely cannot understate how much different and awesome this box is compared to any other….except for the blindscan! Total night and day compared to OpenBox, much better with more features than AZ at half the price. Really makes OpenBox look Kmart and AZ look more difficult than it already is.

Main satellite screen with our N.A. database.

One of the available games/apps on the Portal.

Google Talk app. Live IM & more right on your TV. Super awesome with the wireless keyboard/trackpad.

Iconcerts app. Watched Black Eyed Peas, Korn & Johnny Cash for testing.

CineTrailer App. Watch full trailers for stuff on DVD, in theaters, and upcoming films. FYI all the “apps” are FREE.

Browsing thru the App Store on the Portal.

Initiating an online firmware update.

Background/booting one of the Enigma 2 images I tested on the duel boot.

Testing my ancient USB HDD. Alien will give you a good idea of the speeds you should be able to record & playback at.

Retail/giftbox for the wireless keyboard/trackpad. This makes browsing the web using the Opera Browser and much of the portal operation much easier, about like browsing on a computer….with a 47” screen!

Very easy to use and stable Youtube browser. You can also “rip” youtube videos to your HDD or network drive with a couple pushes on the remote. I also enabled HTML5 for Youtube in our image, so you can use Opera Browser on much of the main Youtube site.

FridgeFTA Forums on the Opera Browser. This was from earlier firmware, the “FreeDBS counter” java runs properly on the current version. I also did some re-coding and fixed a few minor bugs on my own and built a North American Opera Portal. The EU/Amiko was of little use to us here.

YOUPORN! You know you want it LOL. Clips and movies in every category imaginable. Has parental controls (pre-set in our image) and you can hide it on the portal list entirely if you want.

Easy access to many online features including Shoutcast radio. This is from the original test firmware, current has the “portal” on this list as well.

Wired and wireless N is very easy and quick to setup. Other than my security key I didn’t need to know anything, Alien set everything for me.

Main Menu. Quick access to everything from here. Newest firmware also lists the portal.

Audio/video setup, very easy. Alien also features “auto” mode that finds the best NTSC or PAL mode for your TV. There is a VFORMAT button that actually works and shows you resolution settings on the Alien LCD should you ever get stuck.

Notification and download settings. When set like this the engineers sent out a “merry xmas and new firmware available notice that showed up like a scrolling news ticker when I was watching TV.

The Alien internals are extremely high quality, unlike OpenBox or most others on the N.A. market. Most internals are designed/manufactured my Funai, and the Alien is built in Hungary. Sharp tuner, STi processor @ 450MHz I believe, 2×128Mb SDRAM.

Manual switches and cardslot are hidden behind the very nice front panel which is hinged at the bottom, magnetically secured at the top. When closed, Alien has a very minimalistic yet slick appearance.

Back panel options are HDMI at up to 1080p, SCART (EU), composite/analog/CVBS up to 576i, RCA audio and coaxial/digital audio out. 1-USB (hub compatable), 1-serial and 1-ethernet port. Wireless N is a thumb size module for approximately +$10USD.

Automatic scrolling firmware update available notification. This can be turned off in the options.

Other tidbits from discussions

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In addition to modding the linux and adding stuff, the “plugs” are simple linux based. The guide is like only a page long! If you can compile simple linux, you just made a plugin.
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Build quality is as good as AZ. Actually, it is the same case as S10 but the guts are quality rather than cheap. I think S10 uses the cheapest case version of this.

It runs cool, no problems at all with motor. It moves it super fast just using the 13/18 instead of 14/19 setting. Quality/warranty would be the last thing I would worry about with Alien.

The manufacturer proposed kinda what you are saying as a blindscan alternative. They offered to give me access to the spark download thing so I could post lists. 2 problems: our wildfeeds here come and go faster than I could input them, burn a file and update it, plus I of course wouldn’t release the Americanized code since none of the other idiots know how to re-code the USALS to work in NA.

If we went with this I would probably do what we do with SatHero, make a regular update file available on our Alien FTP.

For feeds, I can send our wildfeeds VIA the RSS feature, in the private browser or just get them here at fridge or ricks. Still have to manual input the TP and scan it though.
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It is a sharp tuner. Unscientifically speaking my observations put it in the same sensitivity range as OpenBox.
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Quote:Couple questions – any idea if it will stream from places like Amazon video on demand, netflix, and the network sites (nbc.com, etc)?

Any parental controls? I appreciate the broad range of apps, but would want to hide some of them from my kid.

Not Amazon or netflix at this time, but I see it either coming, or the flash implementation improving to where the linux guys might be able to “hack” it in there. For now, answer is no for netflix.

Youporn has parental controls pre-set in our image and can be hidden from the list entirely.
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Boot time is about 1 minute, vs forever on AZ. Box runs fast. Not duel core AMD HTPC, but fast for a STB doing all it does.

Real time software based 4:2:2 transcode and display? Agree, while it might work in software it would be beyond the processing power of any STB.
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Quote: I’m (ass)uming you can play a recording while recording a different program.

yes it has that feature, not sure how many at once. Different Enigma2’s can record like a billion and watch another I guess LOL. Update: Spark O/S can record 1 while watching any other on the TP, tested and works great!
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Here is one of the advanced info screens. Highlights include realtime info on bitrate, resolution, service ID, provider and CAS. It detects CAS systems that none of our NA or the other EU/Asia boxes I’ve seen can do such as PowerVu.

Alien automatically identifies HD channels. This was a quick “show me the HD channels” Otherwise if you pull up all, a single satellite pr favorite list, “HD” appears next to the HD ones.

This is what I have in there at the moment for SES-2 Ku transponders. For each transponder there is a S2 setting. It will only lock S2 when set to S2 and puts the little S2 icon next to the appropriate transponders, Positive way to ID S2. No cumbersome Qpsk/8psk or pilot settings, that is all automatic. FEC can be auto (the way I set all in the file) or you can manual do the FEC rate.

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1. USB port does everything. USB HDD, upgrade, wireless module, wireless keyboard and whatever else. I got a cheap $10 unpowered 4-port hub hooked to the test unit here.

2. It has 2×128Mb internal memory. I’ve dumped files on and off the internal using FTP/telnet. Might be a way for the linux guys to tell it there is a phoney HDD there, but that is not what the internal memory is for.

3. Red/white is RCA analog audio out, yellow is composite analog, just like any other STB except this should support 576i and 480i on there. Also coaxial digitial audio out on one of those RCA’s. Never tried it dont have anything to hook it to.

Yes, you can take the analog crap and hook to VCR or DVD recorder. But that defeats the whole purpose of this thing. Record on network drive (to your computer) and burn off your DVD burner in digital quality.

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Thanks for the reminder, testing out same USB DVD player as I used with AZ for testing….

In spark it wouldnt recognize it as a drive that I could see. I did remember that E2/Dreambox supports DVD players. Booted it in E2, went to the DVD explorer or whatever it is. Detected drive, showed 2 drives (I assume player + disc). Couldnt get to play. Could be me, could be drive. Also was too dumb to figure out how to back out of the DVD explorer, I am really E2 dumb. Did find that E2 would play from internal memory though like you asked about. Presented me the entire linux structure to look thru and find files to play.

For the Spark O/S assuming it just dont like this player I would think that they will have DVD player support in there soon since it is a big in demand feature for EU.
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Quote:I’m a crackhead when it comes to blind scan. Gotta have my blind scan. Hope that gets worked out because I like what I see … just gotta have my blindscan. Don’t EU birds have wildfeeds?

You wont get any argument out of me there. That’s why this wasn’t released on 1/1/2012.

Either they don’t have as many ITC or not as many people interested or both. Remember, every FTA receiver there is also a subscription receiver, plus they have hundreds of full time True FTA channels. Not crap Globecast ones either! That is their big market. All those transponders, satellites and services were pre-programmed into Alien or any other non-blindscan receiver, plus Spark Online has constantly updated downloadable lists for EU.

E2’s that I have tried even have the service channels in the image. Basically insert your CAM or card, tune the channel with one of these. Many of their STB’s like dreambox and AZbox take cable tuners and DVB-T (their OTA) as well.

Remember the hobby market here is very tiny. Same with EU, probably way less.

Many of the exchanges with the manufacturer involved explaining how our pay satellite market is so different than theirs and how our customers/users are all hobbyists aiming for feeds that come, go and change all the time.
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weather forecaster, set for my area:

Can bring up weather and other things 1-touch while watching tv. Notice the city name is cut off? Nope. EVERYTHING that is longer than a display area (channel name, file name, option ect) actively scrolls!

On the fly recording….except it is record-paused. Used to cut out commercials or anything else. Push record key again, instantly starts recording to the same file! Also played a bit with recording on RT, changing to Al Jazeera (same TP), messing around in menus, IP features. Many options work including Shoutcast Radio and Kartina IPTV while it is recording satellite.

Push the recall button. It don’t go back to the last channel, it shows you the last 10 you tuned to. I love it

Live streaming of Kartina TV (IPTV) on my 47″ screen. This is MTV Russia. They actually play Music Vids unlike MTV USA. It’s English videos right now. Alien is still recording RT off the satellite while playing with this.

Kartina TV test setup.

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Quote:Does the clock work right on this thing?

If you mean like the clocks in other FTA boxes….HELL NO!

I left Alien plugged in for over 2 weeks straight running on internal/manual set time. Total drift was maybe 2 minutes over the whole 2 weeks. Now which one drifted, my cheap alarm clock for reference or the Alien? LOL

OpenBox S10 drifts 2 minutes a day on a good day. I’ve seen Fortecs and Pansats lose 10 minutes a day, so with Alien losing 2 minutes in 2 weeks I’d say it has an awesome internal clock.
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As I said this certainly wasn’t a formal review. It’s a summary and clips from various questions and discussions. I’ve got more material I will add, and we will be doing Forum sections for Alien, E2, Linux development and more. I’ll put up some stuff there too, as well as our private Alien FTP for the guys getting the early Aliens.

Other than getting one, probably the best way to learn more is to ask questions in this thread. Ask away…..