When I was first looking at a satelite finder (or to be more precise portable satelite tv) I had a few requirements for it
1. It should support the latest standards (DVB-S/S2/S2X), it also should supoort latest codecs (H.265/HEVC, etc)
2. It should allow recording to USB stick
3. It should allow me to change built in satelites (and import them from USB)
4. It should support A/V Out (HDMI is a plus, but Composite is a must)
5. It should support controlling motor (eather through diseqc 1.1 or 1.2 or USALS)
6. It should have Teletext support (If you don't know what Teletext is:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext
7. It should tell me all the insight about a signal I am receving as the signal provides (it shuld also allow me to tune the signal as I please (if I want to tune by 1khz, or manualy input the frequency, the device should allow that (even if the frequency is like 950Mhz (yes I know LNB will downconvert it, but if I want to hook something else to satelite port I should be able to input downconverted frequency)
8. It should have updatable software (which means I can get updates somewhere (not that I need to message sellers on ebay for years, to then finaly find who makes the device and after 5years finaly get a software update, after writing to the manufacterer direcly)
9. It should have some sort of a comunity (eather a forum, or a place where people discuss about it, (how to use it, what flaws it has, etc)
10. It should have sensitive and selective tuner
11. BONUS: if its software is open souce
12. BONUS: if it supports external devices over USB (like wifi dongle, external Smart card reader, etc)
13. BONUS: Encrypted channels support + Internet acsess (for Card Sharing servers or browsing internet)
Well, this are wierd requirements I know
So I began the search, now if this would be a standalone device, I would get a Dream Multimedia Dreambox (or any other box that is linux powered like xxx) without thinking, but because I needed a portable device (since where I have my dish, I don't have any electricity and means to bring a big TV), I was very limited
There were finders, and there were receivers
And I needed both in one box
So I searched, I found many different finders, some cheap, some expensive, but no finder
not xxxxxxxxx (didn't support S2X, Teletext is not even mentioned) nor xxx(didn't even decode picture, I don't want to look at bunch of numbers)
Xxxxxx
(I couldn't even buy this one, the onlything I was able to find were knock-offs)
not even xxxxxx (yes it has teletext, but this morons charge for software updates, and there is no changelog so you would not actualy know what you are getting before you pay, also there is no comunity forum, it also doesn't support encrypted channels)
so finder satisfied all my requirements
At the end I always came back to GTMedia Finder V8 Pro because it satisfied almost! (point 10 still needs work) all of my requirements
So this is my story how I found this device after a loot of searching around (yes sometimes, what you wan't doesn't even exist.....)
Now let me tell you why open sourcing the software (maybe start with software for GTMedia Finder V8 Pro) would be extremly good idea and beneficial
1. People could help you develop software (every software has bugs, but more people are working on it, quicker this bugs are fixed)
2. There are a lot of features people would like (if software would be open source, people could add them on their own)
Here is my wishlist:
* Support for more WIFI dongles (I have like 4 wifi dongles based on Atheros AR9271 chipset, and Realtek RTL8188SU chipset I don't want to buy another one just for this device (and one of my Atheros adapters is realy good, it has support for external wifi antena)
I think this finder runs linux (it has youtube, it even has Ethernet MAC address even if no ethernet port, so it probably runs linux), so here are drivers for my Atheros AR9271 dongles: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/ ... /ath/ath9k
* Support for external PC/SC reader throught USB (so I could watch TV with my legal Smartcard)
* Support decoding Teletext Level 2.5 (also known as Hi-Text) (Currently finder only support Teletext Level 1.5 (I can provide mux samples if you need)
* Support HbbTV (What it is: https://www.hbbtv.org/overview/ and since finder has internet acsess, why not)
* Support games like Snake, Tetris, Sudoku, etc (hey finder has a left,right,up,down,keypad why not)
* Support PAL (SAT or regular) (Analog SAT (not sure if this would be possible in hardware, I would assume this software would process incomming signal with DSP, so maybe possible (it would we usefull if going on vacation to brasil, they still have analog satelites there, I could enjoy some analog SAT with this finder (I will carry a big tv and a box on a plane, this finder is perfect for that)
* Support for new encryption systems when they come
As you can see, features I would like to see are very specific to my use case, so why would a company spent their time and effort developing them, if software would be open sourced, the I could add all this myself
There is an open source firmware called OpenPli: https://www.openpli.org/
that runs on many SAT receivers, why couldn't it also run on GTMedia Finder V8 Pro (or any other GTMedia SAT product)
You see if this device would have open source software, many people would buy it just because of that, because open source means a lot of freadom, there are a lot of people working, helping and if you need a specific feature, you can write it yourself
If you are afraid this would mean, that people would buy a generic chinese finder and try to steal your software, this won't work, because if I read corecly this ALI devices have a specific hardware key which is mapped to a software key, so if you try to flash a different software on GTMedia finder or vice versa it won't boot, and I think you can brick your finder, so if people would want to use your software, they have to buy your hardware
I relaly hope engeneers at GTMedia, will read this post to the end, and maybe, just maybe think about open sourcing their software
Thanks for Anwsering and Best Regards