VU+ Duo2

[ekko star]

Clearly, a lot of enthusiasts are excited about the launch of this machine.

The finalised 'Consumer' hardware release of the Duo2 is now in full production.

For those that understand logistics, you will appreciate that the route to market is quite complex and is not merely about a factory producing the unit.

In the meantime to clear some confusion there are of course some sample, pre-production development units that are floating around. These are not the finalised consumer spec nor fully functional as the remote control supplied are old ones and some on-board hardware features will not be working entirely correctly i.e. wifi etc etc

I stress that they are pre-production units only and not the finalised consumer spec units. Third party images are also not yet fully finalised.

Furthermore, if you are pre-ordering please only do so from Authorised dealers such as the forum sponsor. This will ensure your machine is officially sourced through the Official UK Distribution.

For those that simply cannot wait.......

VU+ listened to feedback on the Qwerty style Ultimo remote. That was not the most ergonomic remote and most comfortable to use.

Here is the new actual Duo2 remote and as you can see it is a departure from the old tried and trusted design. The new remote is superb, having very tactile soft touch buttons and feels absolutely premium in hand.



The consumer machine comes boxed in a premium style box. Once again a slight departure from before and a little bit more up market.



The casing has a matt finish as opposed to the glossy fingerprint magnet of the Ultimo. This is just as well because the Duo2 is very much a hands on machine



What hides behind the flap ? CI/Card slots and the Standby button



A quick look at the rear...rest assured, socketry is plentiful. Nothing too much missing here



Once the 'final' consumer spec machine (which will be fully functional) is 'permitted' as available by the powers that be, the full review will be published accordingly.



In the meantime this is the final spec :

Features:

2 x Plug & Play tuner slots suitable for DVB-S2 / DVB-C / T / DVB-S2 Dual tuners
Transcoding function
Airplay function
Opera browser
HbbTV
HDMI 1.4 connection
HD PIP
Gigabit Lan
Plug and Play support for 2.5 "SATA - Hard Drives
2 x display (VFD and LCD)
WOL

Technical highlights VU+ Duo2:

1300 MHz dual-core MIPS processor
1GB Flash
2GB DDR3 DRAM
Gigabit Lan
2 x DVB Common Interface slot
2 x Smartcard-Reader (Xcrypt)
3 x USB (1 x front, 2 x back)
SPDIF audio output optical (digital)
1 x HDMI 1.4 video / audio output (digital)
1 x Scart (TV)
1 x RCA video output
2 x audio output (L / R) RCA (analog)
Plug and Play support for 2.5 and 3.5 "SATA - Hard Drives
unlimited channel lists for TV / Radio
EPG (electronic program guide) support
Support of Bouquet lists
OSD in many languages and skin-support
automatic / manual channel search
DiSEqC 1.0/1.1/1.2, USALS
Power switch
Specifications VU+ Duo2 DVB-S2 and DVB-S2 Dual Tuner:
Input Frequency Range 950 .. 2150 MHz
QPSK Demodulation EN 302 307
Signal Level - 65 dBm ... - 25 dBm
Noise Level 12 dB max.
DBS-Tuner Input Connector F-Type female
Input impedance 75 ohms
AFC capture range + / - 3 MHz
Demodulation Shaped QPSK and 8PSK
Viterbi and Reed-Solomon FEC
Viterbi rates 1/4, 1/3, 2/5, 1/2, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9
Roll-off Factor 35%

DVB-C/T- hybrid tuner:
VHF channels: 2-12 (49 .. 230 MHz)
UHF channels: 21-69 (470 .. 861 MHz)
DVB-C HDTV compatible
Input frequency range: 51 .. 858 MHz
Symbol rate: 1 ... 7 Mbaud / s
Input Impedance: 75 ohms
Tuner In / Out connector: IEC
DVB-C / DVB-T can be selected via software

Common Interface: 2x Common Interface Power Consumption max. 0.35 A/5V

Video decoder:
Video Compression MPEG-2 / H.264 and MPEG-1 compatible
Video Standard PAL G / 25 Hz, NTSC
Video Formats 4:3 / 16:9
Letterbox for 4:3 TV-Device

Output digital:
Output Level 0,5 Vss on 75 Ohm
Sampling frequencies 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz
S / PDIF-Output optical, coaxial (AC3)
Audio decoder
Audio compression MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 Layer I and II, MP3
Audio Mode Dual (main / sub), Stereo
Sampling frequencies 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 16 kHz, 22:05 kHz, 24 kHz

Output analog:
Output Level L / R 0,5 Vss on 600 Ohm
THD> 60 dB (1 kHz)
Crosstalk <-65 dB
Video parameter:

Input Level FBAS 1 Vss + / - 0.25 dB on 75 Ohm

TV-Scart: Output: FBAS, RGB, over OSD selectable

Ethernet: 1000/100/10 MBit compatible interface

USB: USB 2.0 connector (3x)

LNB power and DVB-S2 tuner:
LNB Current 400mA max. , Short-circuit proof
LNB Voltage horizontal "no load 19.5V" 17,6 V at 400mA
LNB Voltage vertical "no load 14.5V" 11,8 V at 400mA
LNB is switched off in standby mode

Control of the satellite position:
DiSEqC 1.0/1.1/1.2 and USALS - Rotor Control

Power consumption:
<15W (in operation, with LNB)
<13W (in operation, without LNB)
<0.5 W (Deep-Standby-Mode)

Input voltage:
230V / 50 Hz alternating current + / - 15%
110V / 60 Hz alternating current + / - 15%

General:
Ambient Temperature +15 ° C. .. +35 ° C
Humidity <80%
Dimensions (W x D x H): 380 mm x 290 mm x 60 mm
Weight: 3,0 kg without HDD


PDF as attached

[ekko star]

I have now uploaded the Duo2 pdf.

Thanks

ES

[oldfart]

I guess 'NO' - but I'll ask anyway
does anyone know if the tuners (DVBS2) from the DM8000 will fit in the duo2??

[CokeAddict]

I guess 'NO' - but I'll ask anyway
does anyone know if the tuners (DVBS2) from the DM8000 will fit in the duo2??

afraid not.

[afterlife]

will the v box run in automatic mode. I understand that it has a problem with vu boxes. Can anybody confirm if they are compatable. My echostar has pack up and need to consider next setup.

[CokeAddict]

What do you mean in automatic mode ?

[gbmitie]

the big question is can you fit a DTT T2 tuner ie pick up freeview HD?

[CokeAddict]

the big question is can you fit a DTT T2 tuner ie pick up freeview HD?

You can use a usb T2 tuner, but there is no internal T2 tuner avaliable yet.

[afterlife]

The v box is set to automatic mode, therefor not needing to manually select a new sat when changing sats. It just goes to the preselected channel on whatever sat. But i was told the v box and the vu boxes cannot work in auto mode and that you need to manually ask the v box to go to your new selected sat.

[cosworth4x4]

The v box is set to automatic mode, therefor not needing to manually select a new sat when changing sats. It just goes to the preselected channel on whatever sat. But i was told the v box and the vu boxes cannot work in auto mode and that you need to manually ask the v box to go to your new selected sat.

they work perfectly with the v box , in fact it also works with 2 in a daisy-chain with 2 actuators.

https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthrea...-inclined-sats

[ekko star]

A UK launch date is now known but there will be a further communicae tomorrow.

[crabber]

Could you guys lucky enough to have a Duo2 already please keep me informed about the trans-coding feature, in particular if and when the variable bit and frame rate controls are added. My only gripe with the solo2 is that the trans-coding is fixed at 500 kbps and cannot be changed, (or so they say) this would be a brilliant feature for me.

[sonic1]

No problem m8, I will keep in touch.

[pheonix]

Could you guys lucky enough to have a Duo2 already please keep me informed about the trans-coding feature, in particular if and when the variable bit and frame rate controls are added. My only gripe with the solo2 is that the trans-coding is fixed at 500 kbps and cannot be changed, (or so they say) this would be a brilliant feature for me.

just look at the changelog for the latest drivers for the answer to that.

20130703(duo2)
- Support transcoding bit/frame rate change(100K< bitrate< 5M, framerate=23976 24000 29970 30000 59940 60000 )
- Enable SD video when transcoding

[ekko star]

Have been informed the official UK launch date is confirmed and expected as no later than the 17th July.

The machine itself is ready to be distributed however the delays are being caused by the supply of the new remote control.

Everything is being done by VU+ to expedite the supply of the remote controls at the moment. All countries are in the same position and if there is any movement to that date all efforts will of course be to bring it forward.

You can also now find the Original image for download on the official site and third party images such as BH should also become publicly available from today.

[cosworth4x4]

17th has arrived so im assuming they will be with the dealer tomorrow????, a mate in germany received his a week or so back from main distributor with a voucher to claim the new style remote once its available , why can this not be done in the uk .

only putting this question to you as you seem to have inside info on release dates , even if so far not been too accurate.

p.s i pre ordered with goldwafers and im happy to wait on their date.

[pheonix]

17th has arrived so im assuming they will be with the dealer tomorrow????,

sadly no, and i firmly believe it has nothing at all to do with the supply of lack of the new remote but more to do with the fact that they released the box without proper QC as they were basically badgered into releasing by the german retailers. because of this subsequent issues have been found, hence why there is a new bootloader out already. ( This is just my own personal opinion ).

all the information available at the moment says that stock to the uk will be delayed until the end of july.

p.s dont believe this guy has some kind of inside knowledge, he originally told every one the box was going to be launched back in march, your supplier will know more about whats going on than this bloke.

[cosworth4x4]

thanks i sort of worked that out already , i have no doubt at all with goldwafers , reason for my reply.:respect-054:

[pheonix]

It will get there just needs a few niggles ironing out and sadly that's all too common a thing now if you ask me.

Vu used to once upon a time use a small closed beta team ( no not me or any Image team for that matter, but professional beta testers ) who would iron most if not all the niggles out before public launch, in fact it was thanks to those 6 guys that the Ultimo was redesigned before launch as issues were found by them, now however Vu seem to be going the same way as others in that they release before getting those niggles out of the way and leave it to the end users to find / report. ( again just my own personal opinion ).

[cosworth4x4]

:respect-055: