frustrated, looking for suggestions.

[Dee_Ann]

Hi guys,

I've given up on getting FSTV on my STUPID pc tuner.

I tried every single app for satellite PC's I could find and none of them are worth a flip.

I verified beyond all shadow of a doubt that FSTV makes it all the way from outer space to the tip of the wire that plugs into the back of the PC.

I borrowed my folks' Openbox S9 a week or so ago and used it to tune in the channel, then I brought it inside and put it on the very end of the wire and it totally works great, I could see and hear the channel, crystal clear.

The PC, absolutely will NOT tune in FSTV at all, it totally ignores it as if there is no signal on that transponder. All the other transponders on 123w come in just fine, even a few "unlisted" ones. There is nothing at all wrong with the dish, switch or wires. It's the PC.

Another thorn in my backside is that the PC also does not acknowledge the existence of the LPBS channels. I found out via google that the reason the PC won't see LPBS is because of the FEC 3/5. I don't know it FSTV uses the 3/5 like LPBS does.

And finally, the PC is too wimpy to operate my ku motor.

These things really chap my bottom...

I have hated this whole PC thing ever since my ex came in and totally messed with EVERYTHING and changed everything in it. He put the new windows in it that I hate, he put that stupid my theater app in that I hate and he changed ALL the wires on everything so that I went from having TV in every room of the house to just having it in two rooms and even then it's a giant pain to change it when I go from one room to the other. :rant:

I really want an Azbox but I can't get a straight answer on them.
They say this model is being dropped and a new model is arriving soon. And one model blind scans and another doesn't. And one can get OTA and satellite but NOT IN THE USA. Come on........ I want the model that gets OTA ATSC ~AND~ S2, ~AND~ blindscan, ~AND~ internet goodies, ~AND~ RECORDS !!!.... In other words, I want one that does EVERYTHING IN ONE BOX. I want something to totally replace this stupid PC mess. I want to do away with the PC once and for all. I hate it.

But I don't see that happening because it appears that the Azbox people are trying to push these itty-bitty wimpy little boxes that are too small to have all those features in them.

Whatever. I've given up on the Azbox idea. It's a pipe dream and it'll never happen.

So, I've come to the conclusion that about all I can do now is get an Openbox S-something. 9 or 10, I don't know. I heard the 10 is itty-bitty. Less features. Less is not better. So I guess it will have to be a 9 like my folks.

I want it to be able to record. My folks' S9 can record to a USB disk. Fine.

The problem I see however is that the picture is green. I've seen you guys talk about that and when I had my folks' S9 here the picture was green.

I'll have to plug it into the video capture card of the PC to be able to see it and that means I'll have to use the yellow/red/white wires. The picture will be terrible but that's the only way I can do it with the way things are done here.

But at this point, I don't care. Even if it looks like a 1952 Dumont !!

I don't care because I want the flippin channels!! :rant:


I have a Coolsat 6000 but I guess it's pretty useless, I suppose I can try to sell it on ebay for $50.

One thing I would CONSIDER, is replacing the tuner cards in the PC. As much as I hate this whole PC thing, I would consider the option.

The main problem would be this. I have two tuner cards. Both are Hauppage brand. One is an OTA ATSC tuner and the other is a DVB-S2 tuner.

The app is called "My Theater". This was not my choice, my ex installed it on the pc. And what's more, he paid for it with my money. Idiot. And the stupid thing has his name on it on the help screen. I know he did that just to make me mad every time the app starts up. He didn't ask me or tell me anything, he just did it and said "Here ya go." and walked out the door.
Months on I asked him why he did that and he said it was the only app that would do satellite and OTA. And after having tried all the satellite apps I could find, I suppose he was right. But I'm still mad anyway.

So back to the tuners and the app. In the app I have local OTA channels and satellite channels all in a list of favorites. I press the channel up and down buttons on the remote control and it changes between local OTA and satellite channels seamlessly. I can name and number the channels to anything I want in any order I want. This much I like. So for instance I can have OETA as channel 19 and KFDM (local OTA ATSC) as channel 20. The app treats all channels equally no matter where they come from.

So if I replace the tuner cards I would have to replace both of them to be a matched pair, satellite and OTA tuners that both use a single remote control as mine do now. I will not put two mismatched tuners in where each one has a separate remote control. I'm already living in remote control h*ll as it is now.

Maybe someone makes a single tuner card that gets satellite and OTA on a single card?

I have no idea what brands of tuner cards are made or how to know which ones will work with this stupid my theater app. I doubt any new cards will, from what I have read, the app was abandoned a few years ago and is no longer updated to keep up with the times.

All the other apps also appear to be long abandoned as well. Which leads me back to wanting to have a REAL satellite tuner so I can ditch the PC. It's big, it's noisy, it's hot, it's ugly and it uses a lot of electricity. And it's always, always a huge pain. I really can't stand it.


So while digging around it appears the best price I can find an Openbox for is about $100.

I wouldn't mind another brand as long as it does S2, will work with my Discque 1.1 switch, allow for weird switch setups so that I can combine two motors AND 8 dishes on a 1.1 switch, can tune in LPBS, can tune in FSTV, can blindscan S2 AND can ~record~.......

I'm thinking that the closest I'm going to get to that for the least amount of money is the Openbox. If I keep waiting for an Azbox I'll be an old lady in a nursing home.

And I don't see that the theater app will ever be upgraded where it can tune in LPBS. And that may also be the same reason that it won't tune in FSTV as well though I have no way to know that.

I guess for now I just need to get a regular satellite tuner and use it along with the PC to watch whatever I can on them. I want to simplify everything and reduce the machinery and remotes and wires and clutter and confusion. I just want ONE box that gets and plays everything with ONE remote control.

There has to be a way to end the nightmare...

Should I just cave in and buy an Openbox now? Is $100 the best price I will find one for? Am I insane to try to sell my Coolsat 6000 for $50?

Thanks...


Edit: What about a Pansat 9200 HD ??
Will that cover most of the things ? ATSC and S2? I see it says it supports the 1.2 discque switches but it doesn't say anything about 1.1

It costs more than the Openbox but it may come closer to being a single box replacement for this stupid PC..

 

[the_man_one]

openbox is the cheepest... it controls complex switch setups... the green tint is fixed since at least 3 firmwares ago... it dosent do ota tho... the pansat is ok, it does ota but dosent do s-2 natively & overheats among other problems... pc is the best chance to do all in one... the prof brand of cards are ok... but u have to have a second tuner for ota... as for the remote issue get a decent learning remote for 1 remote for everything option

 

[Magic Static]

Well I can speak of a couple of things. MyTheater doesn't do FEC 3/5 in it's present version. So no LPBS. As to FSTV, I can tell you I have had problems with the Hauppauge drivers. The problem manifests itself as not being able to tune certain channels. My OTA card would not tune one of my local channels. Gave it the wrong PID and it would not show. I manually assigned the correct PID and it was good. Later driver corrected this. I once had RTV and Tuff fall out on me. I couldn't tune them at all. The installation of MyTheatre had corrupted and that was all I found wrong, I couldn't tune RTV and TUFF. But it took a complete reinstall to get them back.
The remote thing is not as bad as you might think. The remote doesn't have to be the one that came with the card, just has to be supported by MT. MyTheatre has not been abandoned, but has not had any serious updates in six months. Though it's behind the times, it still provides me most of what I want. The other apps I've tried are not to my liking. MyTheatre is the best at supporting complicated multi dish and switch setups.
You do not have to match the OTA and FTA tuners. I run different FTA tuners with the Hauppauge OTA tuner no problems. But MyTheatre does not support a lot of DVBS2 cards at this time ie the PROF or TBS tuners. As you have found, there is no fitsall FTA solution. But if there were it would take half the fun out of this hobby

 

[Pixl]

So, I've come to the conclusion that about all I can do now is get an Openbox S-something. 9 or 10, I don't know. I heard the 10 is itty-bitty. Less features. Less is not better. So I guess it will have to be a 9 like my folks.

Hi Dee,

Yes the S-10 is smaller, but about the only feature dropped was the component video output (red/green/blue) It still has composite video/audio (red/white/yellow) and the HDMI which outputs all formats of video and audio. Also they got the clock working on the S-10 model.

 

[bobvick]

Dee,

You might want to give the Manhattan RS1933 a look. It is a well made receiver and has much more fit and finish than the Openboxes. I tried an Openbox and I was very disappointed in the quality. I see that there is no standardized firmware for it. No North American support. The Manhattan, while a work in progress is American based. It has a power supply that was made for North America as well, plus it has Dolby licensing. I have been highly pleased with mine. I believe it is worth the extra money over the Openbox.

 

[gmd63]

The AZBOX premium+ is probably the best all around receiver on the market. As someone said the Openbox green tint issue is a thing of the past.
I hated doing TV off of the PC, I stopped that a long time ago, and just went with set tops.

 

[hwm]

Dee, I think you pretty well answered most of your own questions. Get another Openbox s9 or S10 for yourself, since you are already familiar with it, and keep the ex away from your computer.

For OTA, save up for a a new digital TV, or get a Zenith DTT901 converter box for cheap from ebay. We have several of the Zenith boxes, and they work great. Get the 901, not the earlier 900 which has a minor issue with weak audio volume output.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, I went ahead and bought an Openbox S10. I'll be living on Ramen Noodles for two weeks for that slip of financial responsibility... :

My folks have the S9, I messed with it for a week or so when it first came in and it had the green tint to everything and the power cord was stupid. It has a big clunky Euro adapter on it that falls off if you stare at it. I would have preferred to have the other funky video adapters because my flat screen TV has both of the hdmi inputs already used. This means that the only way possible to connect it to my big screen is by the crummy little yellow cords. Those are sooooo 30 years ago....

The only way I'll be able to use this thing is plug it into my PC, the TV card has yellow video inputs on it.

Someone mentioned the Manhattan. I looked at that but it can't deal with my switches and crazy dish setup so that was a no-go.

What I've decided to do is put the motorized dish and the 1.2m dish on the Openbox. And maybe even the smaller WSI C-band dish that I really don't use. I'll worry about the small C-band dish another time.

I can put the motorized ku dish on the OBS10, then put a simple 1x4 discque switch after the motor. Into it I can put that dish on one port and the 1.2m dish on another port. The 1.2m is a fixed dish aimed at 123 and already fine tuned for FSTV.

What I'm wondering now though is, can I plug the USB of the Openbox into the USB of the PC and record into the PC disks? How would I do that? I don't have a USB disk like my dad does. He bought one a few years ago to use on his laptop and I put it on his tuner so they can use it like a PVR.

I will definitely want to record from the Openbox for 100% certain. Recording to a USB pen drive is not an option. Heck, just recording one hour of Hawaii 5.0 from MeTV takes up 1.8gigabytes ! Each 30 minute episode of Highway Patrol from ThisTV is like 830megabytes !! So those little pen drives are a real joke and I'm not even going to consider them.

I just don't have any idea how to hook two things together by USB.

One thing I read is that the OBS10 has a network connector on it. Can I use that?

I also noticed that there was several mentions of pirate features pre-installed in the tuner. I do NOT want that stuff in anything in my home. I need to find a way to wipe that out. I bought a used Coolsat 6000 a year or two ago and it had pirate stuff in it for sure, it was obvious when I turned it on that the previous owner had been pirating pizza tv with it. I wiped it out and made it legit.

Where can I find directions to clean up this Openbox ?? The seller claims it's brand new from the factory in an unopened box but it has pirate stuff pre-installed. It has to go. Under no circumstances will I have such things in my home.

So, this is still a long way off from what I really want to have but it will have to do for now. It solves two of my problems, the ku motor and FSTV. It's not the best solution but it will suffice for the time being.

Thank you guys for your input and advice, I appreciate you all.

 

[Tron]

The USB connector on the Openbox cannot be connected to a PC. It can be connected to an externally-powered (desktop form factor) hard drive, though, and that is the best option if you're using it to record lots of programming. The network connector, unfortunately, can't be used for anything earth-shattering, such as streaming over a network to a PC.

As for hard drive recommendations, I have had no problems whatsoever using Western Digital Elements desktop external drives. Be sure to get the desktop model, which uses an external AC adapter.

 

[the_man_one]

the firmware of the sso has built in card sharing or key sharing (i think its one of those) thats legal in some european countries.... it dosent work over here... do as tron suggested get a hdd with an external power source 1 tb or lower.... i have a seagate 1tb myself... if ur out of hdmi inputs radio shack sells something like a 2 to 1 & a 4 to 1 hdmi expander

 

[Pixl]

What I'm wondering now though is, can I plug the USB of the Openbox into the USB of the PC and record into the PC disks? How would I do that?

I just don't have any idea how to hook two things together by USB.

I've wondered about this too. You could eliminate the middle step and go direct in.
I think I remember seeing a program that emulates a hard drive. Anybody have an Idea on this?

 

[bobvick]

I would have preferred to have the other funky video adapters because my flat screen TV has both of the hdmi inputs already used. This means that the only way possible to connect it to my big screen is by the crummy little yellow cords. Those are sooooo 30 years ago....

Dee, you dont have to be stuck with just the two HDMI inputs, and having to watch this new receiver at your PC monitor, what you need is this 3X1 Mini HDMI Switch w/ Remote, from Monoprice. You can probably get it for about $25 with shipping and everything. It even has a little remote control. That way you can use your new Openbox S10 at your main TV set. Good luck with the new S10.

 

[Dee_Ann]

When I was looking over the description of the tuner I bought I found this, "Card sharing support channel in North America!"..
It wasn't hard at all to google the answer that this thing is being sold for illicit uses. I want that option completely removed from the machine.

I wish they would at least OFFER to sell a "clean" machine to those of us that want them for legit use..


Oh, and I was digging around in my son's old room (now a junk room) and I found a USB disk but it's enormous and heavy, it must weigh 10lbs and it's bigger than the satellite tuner! My son was using this on an Apple laptop. It says Lacie on the side and the back has a USB connector on it.
Can I use this clunker on the Openbox?

Also, can I plug in a USB 4 way hub in the middle so that my PC and WD Live machines can see the files on this disk?

The more I think about it the better I like the idea of having two totally separate satellite systems but getting recordings from the new Openbox into the PC so I can play them back on it or the WD, I have no idea how to do that. That's one of the reasons I liked the Azbox idea, it's a network friendly tuner and sharing files would be really easy.

I guess there's no real, simple solution to all this without spending a lot of money.. I still want an Azbox but I don't see that happening this year.

 

[bobvick]

You can try that Lacie external drive, it might work. You will probably want to format it in FAT 32. How big is it?

Did you take a look at that HDMI switcher from Monoprice?

 

[Dee_Ann]

You can try that Lacie external drive, it might work. You will probably want to format it in FAT 32. How big is it?

Did you take a look at that HDMI switcher from Monoprice?

There is a sticker on the back that says 500gb. That seems rather small by today's standards, especially looking at it's physical size and weight. My dad has a 300gb USB disk that's about 1/3 the size and probably 1/8th the weight of this beast.

I just now looked at the hdmi 3 way switch and that looks like a good solution to my problem, thank you!

Sometime late next year I want to get a much larger TV and when I do I'm going to make sure it has lots and lots of connectors on it. If and when that happens I'll move this TV into the living room to replace the 27" tube clunker that's in there now. It only has the yellow/red/white connections on it, we got it in 1991. It's no longer connected to anything and isn't being used. So it needs to go. The Vizio flat screen I have in my bedroom can replace the clunker in the living room. The Vizio is over 2 years old so it doesn't have any internet stuff in it like the newer ones do. How I'll connect all this stuff up, I don't know. I guess I'll worry about that when I get to that point.

Now that I have this new tuner on the way I'm rethinking the dishes outside. My little brain is overheating from trying to figure out other ways to use the dishes. I'm short on LNB's so I guess I'm going to have to dig through the junk box.. Again...

 

[Jim S.]

I've never seen a USB drive that let you access it from more than one machine at a time. I have no idea why they don't make such a thing, and I've never seen anyone even attempt to give a rational answer. Everybody just says "it would be too complex to handle". Uh, what about a networked drive being accessed by multiple machines simultaneously? There's no problem with that! The only thing I can think of is that maybe the USB specification is fundamentally stupid, but even so, I have NO clue why it couldn't be worked around! Can't have more than one machine active on a connection? Then why not just put multiple connections on it? Yet nobody has done it.

 

[the_man_one]

i would not format that as fat 32... there will be complications with that file system when recording hd programs that are over 4 gigs... use ntfs or just let the openbox format the drive (im almost positive that it formats in ntfs)

 

[Dee_Ann]

I've never seen a USB drive that let you access it from more than one machine at a time. I have no idea why they don't make such a thing, and I've never seen anyone even attempt to give a rational answer. Everybody just says "it would be too complex to handle". Uh, what about a networked drive being accessed by multiple machines simultaneously? There's no problem with that! The only thing I can think of is that maybe the USB specification is fundamentally stupid, but even so, I have NO clue why it couldn't be worked around! Can't have more than one machine active on a connection? Then why not just put multiple connections on it? Yet nobody has done it.

Darn.... So this won't be easy...

i would not format that as fat 32... there will be complications with that file system when recording hd programs that are over 4 gigs... use ntfs or just let the openbox format the drive (im almost positive that it formats in ntfs)

Good advice. I will do exactly that.

Now the big question is, I've read that the Openbox records in a weird file name, everything is a .dvr file. How would I convert that to a standard file that my WD Live can play??


Oh, and another really dumb question.

I found an LNB in the junk box. How do I tell if it's a "universal" or a regular LNB?

It is marked as follows:

RF: 11.70/12.20GHz
IF: 950/1450MHz
LO: 10.750GHz
Gain: 55dB
Noise Figure: 0.5dB

Can I use this LNB or is it dinosaur poop?

Thanks!

 

[the_man_one]

the newest firmware records in standard format.... ts (directly viewable in vlc) or ps... otherwise u have to strip the .dvr tag from the mpeg-2 file... the program is available here i think

 

[the_man_one]

i think that lnb is linear.... the others here can confirm tho.... standard is 10750