frustrated, looking for suggestions.

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the_man_one said:
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)

I formatted my 1TB WD drive in FAT. I was using OSX 10.7 though. It works fine with the Manhattan.
 
i think that lnb is linear.... the others here can confirm tho.... standard is 10750


The 10750 number is familiar to me, I run into that number often when messing with things. But all the other numbers I am unsure of.
This LNB, does it have one of those tone switches built in? I have read that "universal" type LNB's are a pain to use. I just don't know how to tell one from another by just the numbers.

Thanks! :)
 
11700 - 12200 is standard. Sometimes they'll go a little above 12200, but the universal ones also go way below 11700. So far below that they have to have two local oscillators to cover the entire range (mine is 9750 and 10600, I think), and a built-in 22kHz tone switch to select them. If you don't want to scan the low part of the band, you can just set your receiver for the upper LO frequency and set the 22kHz output to "on". Otherwise, the receiver will hopefully have a universal setting that will switch automatically as it scans the entire band. The only thing that makes them a pain to use is if you have a 22kHz switch in your system for something else.
 
I watch my s9 through my computer via Windows Media Center. With a media center remote you just have to hit record to record to the computers hard drive. With the Coolsat I can go right to my tuner card and with a ir blaster change channels from within media center with my media center remote (you can pick up a remote for around $10-15 on ebay or less. You can use the component out on the s10 to your tuner card and have media center change the channels on the stb and record whatever you want. To be honest the setup has a learning curve but then again so does everything. I have 2 STB's coolsat and openbox going through my computer that I can basically control with my media center remote. Actually I still use the openbox remote to control it but hoping to change that soon.

Dee, I should also add that I do not think you will receive ac3 via via component cables from your s10 to your computer, but I may be wrong.
 
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bobvick how do u get by the 4 gb file limitation on fat32? or just been lucky to not excede the 4 gig?
 
I might not have exceeded it, I don't really know. I just read somewhere, it might not have been here, that for the Manhattan to recognize the HDD you could format it in FAT. Now, I think that the Manhattan may then format it again, so that might be what happened.
 
Oh shoot, I record stuff on the PBS HD channels all the time that exceed 8gigabytes for a one hour program! :eek:
 
definately ntfs dee_ann.... fat32 can not process files larger than 4 gig in windows or linux (the openbox & manhatten is linux based & mac os is just a pretty version of linux)... unless u go thru the process of hitting record then stopping then starting



by the way bobvick i used to live in cullman al... u near there?
 
Well my new tuner will be here tomorrow morning. YAY!

In the meantime, I have begun to build a dish from scratch. Well, sort of..

Previously my dad gave me a large collections of assorted tools. I am making use of them now.

I have taken my old "Lawn Chair Dish" and I am adapting it to my motor.
The dish is a 1 meter primestar that I found on the side of the garage. It was missing parts so I put it together using some tubing from a lawn chair and made it usable once again.

I put a fonky old LNB on it I found in a junk box though I still don't know yet if it works or not.

My dad had given me a large aluminum metal plate last year when I was trying to put a much smaller primestar dish on the motor. Neither one of us had any idea how to do it and that plan eventually was abandoned. Yesterday I dug out that plate and figured out how to use it to adapt a smaller dish mount to the large dish. I'll post pictures of what I'm trying to do later on.

I measured and drilled holes in the plate so that the dish mount is offset downwards from center to compensate for flipping the mount upside down. This probably doesn't make much sense but after you see what I've done I think you'll see what I'm attempting to do.

So this dish is pretty much made up of a little bit of any and everything I could find laying around. Fortunately for me hoarding is a family tradition and there's a lot of junk around here to dig through..

So I'll end up having a 1 meter dish on a motor, a 1.2 meter dish fixed on 123w and a minibud C-band on there too. That is, these three dishes on my new Openbox S10.

The WSI 6' C-band dish is rusting away and not being used. I have a very nice 1.2 meter dish that is missing 100% of it's parts, all I have is the plastic dish. I'll have to make all the tubes and arms and what-nots for it. So what I plan to do is remove the WSI from it's mount, dissemble it and store it away. I'll adapt the 1.2m dish to fit the WSI motor mount (I hope) and then I'll have myself a high quality minibub. I guess I can plan on working on that when it starts to cool down and the mosquitoes go away...

:)
 
Oooooo! I'm really happy! I took that weird LNB and put it on the 1m dish, connected my little meter and I was able to find Galaxy 19 with little trouble just by propping the dish up against my leg. :D

I had tried to use that LNB about 2 years ago or so and I couldn't make it work back then so I thought it was junk and threw it back in the junk box where I found it.
At the time I had no clue on earth what I was doing..

So now know it works and it solves a problem I had of being short an LNB. :)

So I've got all the things I need now to set up a decent motorized ku dish. It's going to be a real ghetto job but I'm pretty sure it's going to work..

This isn't my first choice in how I would like things done but in the end I think it will work out pretty well and tide me over until I can save up for something much better.

:)
 
Oh shoot, I record stuff on the PBS HD channels all the time that exceed 8gigabytes for a one hour program! :eek:

No need to worry... The Openbox breaks the files down into parts as it records. Therefore, each "chunk" is less than the 4 gig limit for FAT32, and it can record indefinitely. The Visionsats (and probably most other receivers that use FAT32) work the same way. By the way, you can use a NTFS-formatted drive on the Openbox without any problems.

The recordings on the Openbox are in the .DVR format, which means you'll need to use software to convert them to transport stream (.TS) files for playback on a PC or further processing. There is a really nice program that does this very well called TS Doctor. TS Doctor will clean the recording and log any errors that occur due to loss of signal, letting you know where these errors are. The problem with TS Doctor is that it is not freeware; However, there is freeware available that will do the job without error checking.
 
Well my Openbox S10 came in but there's a problem.. :(

It came with that stupid European plug and an adapter. I do NOT like that. Plus, the power cord is very, very "dainty"... It doesn't seem proper or safe to me.

It came with that BAD remote control that is unreadable. White letters printed on white buttons! :mad:

When I go into the setup it's all EASTERN satellites, ONLY. When I try to input my location into the USALS page, it doesn't allow me to set western locations, only east. :(

Did I get "took" ???


Edit: I figured out how to set the location to west. Now I need to figure out how to load the right satellites in. I have files left over from my folks S9, maybe I can use them.
 

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dee_ann just load the new firmware from here.... its easy to load from a usb stick... i will have the north american sat list too
 
dee_ann just load the new firmware from here.... its easy to load from a usb stick... i will have the north american sat list too

I found what I needed. I had the files left over from my folks S9 and I was trying to load them by the wrong file name. It took me an hour to realize what I was doing wrong. DOH.... :eek:
 
:whoo: Happy, happy happy!!! :whoo:


I managed to put together a 1m dish out of left over and unclaimed parts (and one lawn chair!) and got my new Openbox S10 upgraded to the newest firmware and got it all working and scanning satellites!

I ran a wire from the S10 to the motor then a wire from the motor to a 1x4 switch. Then I put the LNB of the motorized 1m dish into port 1 and I put the LNB on the 1.2m fixed dish (aimed at 123w) onto port 2.

The S10 moves the motor and the dish goes to all the satellites as it is supposed to. I set it so that for 123w the motor is ignored and it just goes to port two of the switch.

I also put that USB disk on the S10 so I can record. I guess I'll have to record stuff then remove it and put it on my pc to copy things over. Pretty much a pain in the backside but I guess I have no choice for now.

So, so far so good!

Now the problem is how to get the live video of the S10 into the PC so I can watch it on my desk screen and on my flat screen in the other room.

Oh, I just discovered that it's not exactly "on the arc" so I'm going to have to fiddle with it some more. I'll wait until tomorrow. I've had enough heat and mosquitoes for one day.. These new mosquitoes are like angry yellow jackets, they sting and it HURTS. Really mean little buggers....
 
Well I mostly have it working.

The clock is a joke. Every time I change channels the system time changes, radically. There is NOWHERE in the menus an option to allow you to manually set the clock.

In the menus it asks what region you live in. ALL of the options are for the other side of the planet. There are zero locations in there that relate to the western hemisphere. I told it I'm in the United Kingdom because that's the only region they have that is English speaking. :mad:

There is an option to set your UTC time zone. I poked around through it and found that if I set it to UTC -06:00 it shows "HOUSTON" as one of the cities covered. OK fine. Whatever..

Still, no matter what you set what to, every time you change channels, so does the time. And not just the hour, the minutes will change too. One minute it might say 11:08 and the next minute it might say 06:23 !! :mad:

This means that scheduled recordings are out of the question. I would like to be able to schedule recordings. This thing, doesn't facilitate that, at all. There is provision in there for timed recordings but with the wonky clock, it's utterly useless!

I poked around on google and misc. forums and I found a firmware to load it with. I was scared to death to try it, I see you guys talking about "bricking" your machines. I read that some jerk put out "clone killer" firmware that will fry your machine unless it was made by THAT company. Anyone else that tries to use it, loses... Not having any clue as to what I had, I was taking a huge risk with a brand spanking new machine. :eek:

But I had to try it because it was all set up for Europe/Asia and zero US anything in it. I was hoping that this new firmware would fix that.

It didn't. It installed ok but nothing changed. It shows that it's the newest version and it shows the date of 09/11/2011.

I don't see any provision for the type of file it records, IE .dvr or .ts

It does see the USB disk as 500gigabytes and it uses it. I can pause, rewind, record and playback channels. It doesn't tell me what file type they are in though. :(

Another extreme annoyance :rant: is that it's remote control messes with my PC tuner. I have no choice, I have to put them next to each other, they are in a cabinet and a pyramid controller sends the remote signals to them from outside. So when I mess with the S10, it messes with the PC too. The PC doesn't mess with it though. Like when I press the exit button on the S10, the PC changes channels. :mad: :rant: I don't see there's any way around this. My Coolsat did the same exact thing... :mad:

For some reason it isn't seeing 125w with the PBS but it sees everything east of that. I am assuming that my ghetto dish needs some fine tuning.

And FINALLY, the county sprayed those EVIL mosquitoes today! OMG..... And airplane and a truck both in the same day! I guess they decided to make a show of it this year before someone dies of Dengue fever!

Now I can go out in the yard and work on my dishes and get some gardening done. I had been using Skin So Soft to repel them but these new Asian Tiger mosquitoes are BAD and they don't care, they bite anyway and they hurt like a hornet sting!...

Well, I guess my next step is to take apart that WSI dish and turn it into a mini-bud. I need to get a G-box for it now.. Maybe late November...

In the meantime, I got new stuff to figure out!
:)
 

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The clock is a joke. Every time I change channels the system time changes, radically. There is NOWHERE in the menus an option to allow you to manually set the clock.

If it's like the S9, which I have no reason to think it isn't, the option is probably there, just labeled stupidly.

Under the "Local Time Setting" menu item, do you have an item that says "GMT Usage" with options of "By Region", "User Define", and "Off"? If so, set it to "Off", and the Date and Time options should be available to set. (And unlike the S9, they should stay set when you put the receiver in standby.)

By the way, the time changing with the channel isn't the receiver's fault. Each transponder is supposed to broadcast the time so that the receiver can set itself. But some broadcasters set it to their local time instead of GMT, or just don't broadcast the time at all.

(Not offering American time zones for the "By Region" option though? Yeah, that's the receiver's fault. It hasn't been in the S9 firmware for a long time.)

I don't see any provision for the type of file it records, IE .dvr or .ts

The new firmware doesn't have the .dvr option anymore, as far as I know. On mine, when you hit the record button, a box comes up asking you whether you want PS or TS. If you select PS, you get a .mpg file. (If you're on an MPEG4 channel, that option isn't available.) You may have to go into the "PVR Setting" menu and set "PS Record" to ON though, I've honestly never bothered to see what happens if you don't, but I assume that it just does everything as .ts without asking, I've never heard anybody say that it does .dvr anymore.
 
If it's like the S9, which I have no reason to think it isn't, the option is probably there, just labeled stupidly.

Under the "Local Time Setting" menu item, do you have an item that says "GMT Usage" with options of "By Region", "User Define", and "Off"? If so, set it to "Off", and the Date and Time options should be available to set. (And unlike the S9, they should stay set when you put the receiver in standby.)

By the way, the time changing with the channel isn't the receiver's fault. Each transponder is supposed to broadcast the time so that the receiver can set itself. But some broadcasters set it to their local time instead of GMT, or just don't broadcast the time at all.

(Not offering American time zones for the "By Region" option though? Yeah, that's the receiver's fault. It hasn't been in the S9 firmware for a long time.)



The new firmware doesn't have the .dvr option anymore, as far as I know. On mine, when you hit the record button, a box comes up asking you whether you want PS or TS. If you select PS, you get a .mpg file. (If you're on an MPEG4 channel, that option isn't available.) You may have to go into the "PVR Setting" menu and set "PS Record" to ON though, I've honestly never bothered to see what happens if you don't, but I assume that it just does everything as .ts without asking, I've never heard anybody say that it does .dvr anymore.


Well this thing is a HUGE disappointment after all the hype.. The clock does not work. When you turn it off via the power button on the remote control then turn it back on again, it "boots" and resets the clock to Jan 1, 2010. EVERY TIME.

Doesn't matter what you set the clock settings to. Manual, UTC or region. They all give the wrong time constantly and turning it off/on resets it to a useless time.

This means this machine can not be used to do timed recordings. :mad:

Somehow I must separate this machine from the PC. I have them both in the same cabinet and use a pyramid for the remote control to operate them. The S10 remote totally screws up the PC. Just trying to operate the MENU of the S10 or use the up/down buttons or the escape button causes the PC tuner to abort recordings, change channels and lose the buffer!

Sometime I will pause a show on the PC and go wash dishes and cook for an hour then come back and unpause it. At this point I can fast forward through commercials. BUT, if I change channels, that buffered show is GONE. The S10 remote caused me to lose an hour and a half worth of paused shows in the buffer! :mad:

There is no way, NO WAY, these two machines can be near one another. I have to be very careful to put it where it's impossible for me to accidentally point the S10 remote towards the PC pyramids. This makes me very unhappy that these two machines can't share the same hidey-hole. :(

I'm really very p***ed off about the clock on this thing. This is so useless. Are those people STUPID to make such a SHABBY product? And not just once, but two times! The S9 is like this, so I read, and now this one does the same exact thing? IDIOTS!!!!!!!! :rant:

This machine was not bought to be my primary source of TV. It was intended to be a secondary machine that would sit in the back of the class recording shows for me on a SCHEDULE. Well, that's a great big FAIL......... :mad:

Oh, and I made a few test recordings on the USB disk. When I powered it off and back on the disk made a nasty clunking noise a few times and now it shows up that it's blank... The recordings that WERE there, are now gone. It erased them itself.

Now I have an almost useless Coolsat and an almost as useless Openbox.
I swear, I so want to take a hammer to this thing right now........ :mad:
What a POS.....

Maybe if they put less effort into building pirate features into it and focus on the LEGIT uses of it.

Well, I have to go back to trying to figure out the Azbox situation. I could never get a straight answer about them.

I wish I could afford pizza TV. This is such a pain in the ***...... :mad:

I just can't win at this...... :(
 
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