Hisense



US Digital (USDTV http://usdtv.com/) sells an HDTV Receiver called the DB-2010 made by HiSense. The box runs Linux internally.


 * http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2598451
 * http://www.hisense.com/english/ - manufacturer
 * http://usdtv.com/ - reseller
 * http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2003/4628.html - related press release?
 * http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/PD4781682328.html - Xilleon 220?
 * http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware-hisense
 * http://linux-hacker.net/usdtv - serial port pinout dmesg and boot
 * http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t302016.html - reset sequence (guide, aspect, exit, prog, info, 0)
 * http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=479882 - active forum

The box has a card slot on the front, but no electronics are connected to the slot. It has a usb port on the back that can be used to upgrade the firmware. This does appear to be a mips cpu, we suspect that is uses the Xilleon 220.

You can get a firmware upgrade by contacting USDTV directly. They will send you a USB stick which you use and then return.

Tim Riker wrote USDTV requesting the source code on 2006.03.22 and got this reply on 2006.03.31:

Dear Mr. Riker,

Your request for access to the GPL and LGPL source code used in the USDTV DB-2010 receiver was recently forwarded to me. First of all, let me assure you that we at USDTV are fully aware of the terms of these software licenses. Many members of our development team are long-time users and supporters of free and open-source software.

As you have requested, we will make available for Internet file transfer copies of the software used in the USDTV receiver that is covered by these licenses. Unfortunately, your request has caught us at a bad time. The USDTV development offices are currently in the process of moving to a new location, so we do not at this time have a server to host copies of the software to download. Once our move is completed and our full Internet service is restored, we will set up a site with the requested software available. In the meantime, I have attached below a list of software that we use; all of these packages should be available for download elsewhere on the Internet.

Linux kernel version 2.4.18 glibc version 2.2.4 libpthread version 0.9 busybox version 0.60.0 GNU tar 1.13.19 gzip version 1.3

Thanks, Jim Burmeister Technical Lead, Set-Top Box Software Development U.S. Digital Television

Some other emails have gone back and forth, but no sources have yet been made available to Tim Riker.

We hear now that USDTV is having severe financial issues. Last word is that they have folded up.

For those of you that never got a firmware update, Here is the update. It contains GPL code yet I have no method of extracting only that code. As the GPL portions are freely copyable, and not extractable, the package itself must also be copyable. Were it not so, the GPL would be violated, and I'm sure they would never do that. With no further ado, here are the packages. REMEMBER TO NOT INCLUDE THE DELETEME.txt ON THE USB STICK or the upgrade WILL FAIL.


 * [[Image:USDTV-2.7.11.tgz]] - last known update for non-subscription (ie: FTA or WalMart) boxes
 * [[Image:USDTV-2.7.15-FTA.tgz]] - last known update for subscription (ie: USDTV) boxes to use over the air

The two different installed firmware images appear to use different digital signatures. This is why one firmware update will not run on the other machine. It is expected that they can be swapped, but we are not publishing this information yet. We expect to publish extracted filesystem images here soon.

If you have other GPL-containing firmware updates you would like posted here, please contact Tim Riker.