Vu+


The Vu+, is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial digital television receivers, 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.
Its firmware is officially user-upgradable, since it is a Linux-based computer, as opposed to third-party "patching" of alternate receivers. Firmware is based on Enigma 2, which was originally designed for Dreambox by Dream Multimedia. All units support Conax conditional access system, with software-emulated conditional-access modules 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 streams on networked filesystems 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" is a registered trademark name of Dream Multimedia GmbH.

Models

Vu+UltimoUltimo 4KUnoUno 4KUno 4K SESoloSolo2Solo SESolo SE V2Solo 4KDuoDuo2Duo 4KDuo 4K SEZeroZero 4K
Production
Life cycle2011 - 20132016 Dec.-2011 - 20142016 Dec.-2017-2010 - 20132012-2014-2015-2015-2010 - 20132012-2018-2020-2014-2018-
SoCBCM7413BCM7444SBCM7413BCM7252SBCM7252SBCM7325BCM7356BCM7429BCM7429BCM7376BCM7335BCM7424BCM7278BCM7444SBCM7362BCM72604
CPU typeMIPSARMMIPSARMARMMIPSMIPSMIPSMIPSARMMIPSMIPSARMARMMIPSARM
CPU 2x4004x15002x4002x17002×1700333*2x13002x13002x13002x15004002x13004x21004x15007422x1500
RAM 51230725122048204825610241024102420483842048204830725122048
Flash 102440961284096409612825625651240961281024409640962564096
Flash typeNANDeMMCNANDeMMCeMMCNANDNANDNANDNANDeMMCNANDNANDeMMCeMMCNANDeMMC
Default OSEnigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2Enigma2
DVB3 ×P&P2xP&P Dual FBC DVB-S2 or
DVB-C + 1xP&P Dual DVB-S2 or
Dual DVB-C/T2		1×P&P1xP&P Dual FBC DVB-S2 or DVB-C1 x Dual FBC DVB-S2X or FBC DVB-C or Dual T2 1×S22×S21xS2/C/T/T21xS2/C/T/T21×Fixed Dual S2 FBC + 1xP&P Dual DVB-S2 or Dual DVB-C/T/T22×S22×P&P2xP&P slot: Dual FBC DVB-S2X, Dual DVB-T2, Dual FBC DVB-C2xP&P slot: Dual FBC DVB-S2X, Dual DVB-T2, Dual FBC DVB-C1×S21xFixed S2X or DVB-C/T/T2 tuner
HDTV
UHDTV
3D TV
PiP
Common Interface
Smart card
USB
RS-232******
LAN
HDD
ATA
eSATA-
SCART
HDMI
Display
LNB pass-thru
Other connectors1 x YPrPbDigital Audio: S/PDIF1 x YPrPb1 x YPrPb1 x YPrPbDigital Audio: S/PDIFRemote IRRemote IR
Dimensions, WxHxD 380 x 60 x 290380 x 70 x 278340 x 60 x 272230 x 41 x 170280 x 50 x 222280 x 50 x 200280 x 50 x 200211 x 45 x 185211 x 45 x 185315 x 65 x 255380 x 60 x 280380 x 60 x 290310x60x241310 x 68 x 255160 x 30 x 145140 x 50 x 115

  • 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
  • Vu+ Ultimo 4K

Twin tuner

  • Vu+ Duo 4K
  • Vu+ Solo 4K
  • Vu+ Duo2
  • Vu+ Solo2
  • Vu+ Duo
  • Vu+ Uno Twin

Single Tuner

  • Vu+ Solo
  • Vu+ Solo SE
  • Vu+ Solo SE v2
  • Vu+ Uno
  • Vu+ Uno 4k
  • Vu+ Uno 4k SE
  • Vu+ Zero
  • Vu+ Zero SE
  • Vu+ Zero 4k

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 software for its main GUI, an OpenEmbedded-based development-project that they call "XBMC4STB", 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+ 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 Dreambox's Enigma2 PVR software scripts, forked from OpenPLi, 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+.

Official

Image