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TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 03-04/2013
—
go a long way for both the AZ-
Box ME and MiniMe receivers,
making these boxes genuinely
fit for the future.
If you want to catch a sneak
peek of what the future might
hold just have a look at the
currently offered OAM firm-
ware. While it is true that its
reliance on the latest kernel
version restricts the range of
alternative firmware versions
that can be used in parallel,
this disadvantage will shortly
become a thing of the past.
Once AZtrino and OpenRSI
become compatible with the
new kernel as well, all three
versions will be on equal foot-
ing.
As always, we spared nei-
ther effort nor expense during
our test as we tried out count-
less firmware versions and
even accidentally rendered the
receivers inoperable due to
wrong kernel/firmware combi-
nations. But that’s not to wor-
ry: Simply install a compatible
firmware version and you’re
ready to rock again. While
most of the time the problem
was an unfortunate selection
of firmware and kernel ver-
sions, at one time we almost
totally wrecked the AZBox,
something insiders refer to as
‘bricking’. Yet again, we didn’t
worry too much since both
the AZBox ME and the MiniMe
feature a miraculous recovery
switch on the back panel: No
matter what has gone wrong,
use this switch and a fresh in-
stallation of the boot loader in
the flash memory will get you
out of trouble.
The AZBox ME and the Min-
iMe have become very dear to
our hearts and with constantly
pushing the limits the fun just
doesn’t stop.
Firmware versions
discussed in the report can
be downloaded from the
following websites:
•
•
•
•
•
Firmware
Kernel
Special Features
AZtrino v1.6 (MiniMe)/v1.7 (Me)
2.6.22 Official image.
AZtrino v2.0 RC2
3.3.1
Beta version with numerous bug fixes and new functions such as
a boot manager for flashing via USB .
OpenRSI v2.1 (2012-10-13)
3.3.1
Reliable and tried-and-tested Linux firmware with all imaginable
features and functions.
Open AZBox Mod Prerelease 5
3.3.1
Older beta version that uses the same kernel as OpenRSI v.2.1
and AZtrino v2.0 RC and therefore can be used in parallel.
Open AZBox Mod Prerelease 7
3.5.5
Current beta version with many new functions, requiring the latest
kernel version and supporting a range of DVB-T/C and Internet
receivers via USB.
Persian Empire RC2
3.3.1
Modified OpenRSI firmware with numerous pre-installed plug-ins
and settings as well with its own skin.
Chart: Overview of currently available firmware versions for the AZBox ME and MiniMe
Persian
Empire
28. The plug-in browser. The
Persian Empire firmware
comes with the most Plugins
pre-installed and even then
you can install further plug-ins
using the green button. From
here you can download further
skins, too
29. The media player has its
own look and feel – this is skin
art at its best.
30. Congratulations to
the Persian Team: they
incorporated a full featured
list of streaming many TV
channels.
31. And yes – we tried it and it
really works.
USB memory this will in turn
mean that the OEM firmware
will become useless. If you
want to use the OAM firmware
in parallel with OpenRSI v2.1
and AZtrino 2.0 RC we rec-
ommend searching for and
installing OAM pre-release 5,
since this also requires the
v3.3.1 kernel.
The Persian Empire Release
Candidate 2 firmware is basi-
cally a modified OpenRSI firm-
ware and comes with a num-
ber of pre-configured plug-ins
and skins. The developers
have gone to great lengths to
come up with a user-friendly
firmware and it shows: Even
first-time users should quickly
get the knack of it. Once set
up you only have to run the
installation assistant and then
have a fully-fledged receiver at
your disposal that will provide
endless viewing pleasure. Ob-
viously, you can arrive at the
same result with the original
OpenRSI firmware as well, but
Persian Empire saves huge
amounts of time and research
effort, particularly if you’re
happy with the ready-made
configuration this firmware
provides.
These are busy times for AZ-
Box developers, and thanks to
the fact that this receiver type
is fully OpenPLI-compatible we
can expect that software vari-
ations and improvements will
