Inexpensive HD FTA receivers from Far East on e-bay

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Purchased one of these $30 receivers last night. So, now in addition to the Openbox Z5 that I ordered earlier in the week, I will have two new receivers to play with. Two FTA receivers for $100 shipped is not bad.
 
Purchased one of these $30 receivers last night. So, now in addition to the Openbox Z5 that I ordered earlier in the week, I will have two new receivers to play with. Two FTA receivers for $100 shipped is not bad.
Thats a good deal (assuming they both work OK). Even if they don't sometimes they are fun to play with.

Speaking of that, I have a Vigica C90S for sale in the classifieds. It works but the USAL's motor control is buggy. Would be good for using with a stationary dish.
 
Does the composite video out work on the receiver?
The composite on one that I tried a while back was locked to PAL format so video from it was useless. The only output that worked properly was HDMI and that was iffy when audio was Dolby as the receiver only passed Dolby instead of decoding it. :(
 
PopcornNMore,

Does the Openbox Z5 do AC-3 Audio, you can try on SES at 103.0 W Fr 3740 V 29270.
There are 2 channels ANT 1 and DW both broadcast there Audio on AC-3
 
Just like the previous "S" models, these are generic names for units that are manufactured by many different Chinese factories. The hardware configurations and capabilities vary between products sharing the same model designation and often change between production runs.

Hate to say it, but you have to almost buy one to know. Maybe best to contact the seller before buying so you have recourse if the specifications are different in the delivered product.
 
For 35 dollars I couldn't pass. Titanium you want to give it a torture test and see what it can/can't do? ;)
 
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I opened box today. Its tiny! ~2.75 x 4.25" and the about thickness of deck of playing cards. Guess they didn't waste any money on components. Inputs on the back are RG6, HDMI, USB, AV (headphone jack?), power.
 
I opened box today. Its tiny! ~2.75 x 4.25" and the about thickness of deck of playing cards. Guess they didn't waste any money on components. Inputs on the back are RG6, HDMI, USB, AV (headphone jack?), power.
It's probably a composite video+audio jack. Usually they give you a cable with red, yellow, and white plugs for older TVs.
 
Beware... There is no tip, ring, shank standard for these AV breakout cables. The plug length, spacing and order often make these incompatible. :(

Luckily they are cheap, but you might need to buy from a few different sources to get the right one. Sometimes simply swapping an audio with the video RCA makes them work and other times not.
 
Beware... There is no tip, ring, shank standard for these AV breakout cables. The plug length, spacing and order often make these incompatible. :(

Luckily they are cheap, but you might need to buy from a few different sources to get the right one. Sometimes simply swapping an audio with the video RCA makes them work and other times not.
I have certainly ran into this myself. :(
 
I spent a little bit of time today and for 35 dollars it seems to be working pretty well. I'm more critical of picture quality than sound and don't even have a receiver hooked up to test AC3 etc. As expected, all satellites programmed in are outside North America but the blind scan appears to be pretty fast and finds most channels including 16apsk. I have a few screen shots I was going to post but can't figure out how to upload them so feel free to ask any questions.
 
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I have a few screen shots I was going to post but can't figure out how to upload them
When making a post look over to the right of the Post Reply button and you will see upload a file. Click it then hit browse and go to where the pictures are on your PC and select them.
Once you have them all uploaded. Hit insert all photos as thumbnails.
 
Thanks KE4EST, I was looking on toolbar ;) Menus are pretty typical and simple to navigate. I haven't looked into if there is software to customize channel/satellite list. Blindscan ~2min.
 

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Is there a way to test out whether the it supports AC3 without having a separate AV receiver connected?
 
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