Digicipher II - Unscrambled channels

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If I was some multimillionaire rich guy I would demand HD or 4K video 24/7. Unfortunately for me I'm just a regular Joe and can live with SD. I'm OK with SD and will have this put on my Coffin.
 
iBoston,

Any chance you or any other Commercial Receiver gurus could help me out with a few settings? I received my used General Instrument DSR-4810 Commercial Receiver today for $39 shipped with a 30-day warranty off eBay. Even if the receiver does not work the shipping would cost as much as the refund so If it does not work it looks good on my work bench anyways. After I saw you post I thought for $39.00 I thought I’d give it a shot. After doing some research this DSR-4810 receiver will also do in addition to regular DCII- DVB, 4:2:2, and DCII combo/split, and also HD, if I get the HD decoder. The only thing it won't do is S2 which my other receivers will do. Also after looking at this type of rack mounted Commercial Receiver it appears both Digitrans, Motorola, General Instrument all made the same but rebranded models. The Motorola and General Instruments used the same model sequence for example DSR-44xx where the Digitrans model numbers are in the 71xx model range.

I got luck and found this DSR-4810 receiver as I have read on a few internet forum post that the Motorola DSR-48xx models are permanently activated. The Owner’s manual states ‘The General Instrument DSR-4810 includes all features of the DSR-4800 with the addition of video synchronization capability across multiple DSR-4810 units.” Hopefully the Motorola and General Instrument DSR-48xx models are the same and the one I purchased is permanently activated. I think I have the menu navigation figured out by pressing each of the 12 Individual buttons and by moving the edit knob which you press then turn for the setting you want and then pressing the edit button to save your selection.

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I have several FTA receivers that can move my 8ft C-band dish with my ASC1 dish mover and can hit most of the arc. For testing purposes I also have a few small KU dishes that I can also plug into this DSR-4810 receiver. I have a loop out on all my receivers but also use an A/B switch to switch the main RG6 cable connected to my C-band dish by pressing a button instead of having to unscrew the RG6 cable each time I want to change revivers.

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I don’t know if this DSR-4810 Commercial Receiver supply’s powers the LNB but there is a setting DSR-4810 that is Low – High – Off . Does anyone know If this means 13v (Low), 18v (High), or Off (No Power)?


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Does anyone know which Mode I need to put the DSR-4810 Receiver in or will I need to toggle to different modes for different channels? The options are: DVB-MPEG Mode, DCII-Manual Mode, and DCII-VCT Mode.


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For testing purposes I use my main FTA receiver to move my dish to 107.3w satellite as there was a post on the “Whats up there” forum listing two working Digicipher channels below. I then use my A/B switch to switch the RG6 cable from my C-band dish to my DSR-4810 receiver so It’s now aimed at 107.3w. After spending a few hours on this I have so far been unsuccessful in receiving them.

CTV 2 Alberta Ku on 107.3w
12050 V 19510
DCII
ZK mode

Knowledge Network Ku on 107.3w
11728 H 19510
DCII
ZK mode

The RG6 cable connected to my C-Band dish goes through a Diseqc switch and uses the 22khz tone to switch between C and KU. I looked through the DSR-4810 manual but could not find if this unit supports Diseqc switches and 22khz tones. Does anyone know if I can set the Diseqc and 22khz settings in the DSR-4810 receiver menu or should I just connect this to one of my FTA receivers and use the loop out port with the in-line power blocker?

As far as the physical connection settings I used a standard 3 prong power cord to power the DSR-4810 receiver. I had a bag of BNC to RGA adapters left over from a CCTV camera install so I put them on all of the 5 BNC video out connections and the BNC connections are labeled: REF-PRI, REF-SEC, B-BURST, MPEG-2 ASI, 4:2:2 SDI, and SDTV VIDEO. Does anyone know which Video out port I should be using or will I need to move the RCA Video cable from my TV to different ports depending on the video out signal?

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I purchased this Speaker Wire Cable to RCA Connector Adapter off ebay to connect to the audio RCA port to the RCA audio port on my TV.

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On the back of the DSR-4810 receiver there are 2 sets of two black and red wires that are off and are they are labeled #1/ L AUD and #2/ R AUD. Anyone know if I should Use #1 or both #1 and #2 sets of black and red wires if I want stereo sound?

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For testing purposes after I have my dish aimed at 107.3w and plugged into the DSR-4810 receiver and have it power up. I plugged my RCA vides cable from my TV to the receiver and tested it with each of the BNC ports and could not get any video on my TV. Maybe I have a bad unit? My unit also has an Ethernet port. Anyone know if I can connect to the DSR-4810 receiver through my home network from my windows computer to configure it? For example, like when you connect to your home router or printer that has a built in web server you can configure the settings. I have been unable to find the IP address of the DSR-4810 receiver or if its locked down with a username and password.

Any help or pointers to get this going would be appreciated. If I can get this going I would be able to write up a quick start guide to help others.
 
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First off , i would see if you can find the manual for it. Do google searches and see what you can find. I would first start off with the following mode : DCII-VCT Mode. I also suspect that you should probably use the SDTV VIDEO BNC output for the video. There are multiple lights on my DCII DSR. One that tells me there's a signal lock, one that tells me if its authorized. So, that lets me know that i should be getting video. The ZeroKey channels that i posted list the VCT and settings. You can also use LyngSat if you have to manually enter the symbol rate. I don't know what frequency you have to enter in, on my DSR unit, i have to enter the Lband freqency, so what you subtract the frequency from the lnbf frequency to get your Lband frequency. But, maybe on your DSR, you enter the regular frequency because i saw your picture showing the LNBF as 5150?? I have no such options on my DSR, nor do i have any Diseqc or 22khz switching, nor do i have any LNB power, hence why a manual would be awesome.. (smile)
 
Important note, i was reading your Manual, and it says you have to start out in DCII-Manual mode, otherwise it will not download the VCT tables. (Page 23 of manual) Page 24 basically tells you exactly how to get in a channel.
 
iBoston,

I read the manual and put the receiver in DCII-Manual mode. I also went through and tested all the menu settings and still could not figure out to load a satellite or get any video. After a few hours I was able to figure out how to put the receiver into System Module Test mode where I at least got the test color bar pattern plugged into the SDTV BNC port via RCA cable to my TV. Even though I had my Dish aimed to 107.3W and plugged into this DSR-4810 receiver I could not get any signal or load any satellites. Maybe this DSR-4810 receiver must be slaved to the loop out from my working FTA receiver and does not like my A/B switch? Any chance you could send me a few digicipher channels you can pick up with their sat info along with the corresponding satellite channel you can pick up with your FTA receiver. I will then hook this DSR-4810 receiver to the loop out port with the inline power block and then point my FTA receiver to a satellite channel you can receive with the same specs and then hopefully I can get a signal.

Thanks Again..
 
Are you setting the channel frequency, Symbol Rate and FEC? It appears you have to manually input all this stuff. On the DSR i use, i only need enter the RF frequency. The rest is discovered. But, from what i gather from your manual, you need to manually enter everything.

From Manual :

Press the RF IN button a second time until ANT RF-FREQ SYM-RT FEC
appears on the top line of the LCD screen. Use the EDIT knob to set the
RF center frequency in L-band or RF frequency (if the default LNBC
L.O. has been set). Now set the desired symbol rate and FEC.
 
I Boston,

I appreciate all your help and I'm admitting defeat. I'm unable to even get a signal and have tried both slaving through the loop connection and by the DSR-4810 directly connected to the LNB. I have tried your suggestions with the RF button and using the Edit knob to change the settings. I also read the manual and read through hundreds of posts on the DSR-4800/4810 but no luck. I also read on a few posts that you can connect and control the the DSR-4800/4810 receiver through the serial port using a piece of software called TSreader. Anyone out there have the TSReader config file they could share? If anyone wants this General Instruments DSR-4810 send me $20 and I will ship it to you...
 
I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. :oops:

On my front, i made a big leap today. Today for the first time, i got a Fixed Key channel. I ended up having to reset the unit because it was getting confused. I think it was mixed up VCT mappings. I can see now there are quite the handful of Fixed Key channels, although it appears the ones that are 100% Fixed Key are all Religious and Governmental channels.
 
What size dish would I need to get L Band frequencies? Right now, I'm only getting by with my 3ft motorized dish I use mainly for Ku. I would love to pull in some radio feeds off of the 105W satellite, which most of them are in L-Band. I have always been interested in buying a commercial receiver from a TV Station, but never did as I figured my dish would be too small to get anything. Would be nice to pull in some of those extra FK or ZK Mode whatever channels on Ku, just to see what else I could get. I've always wanted to pull in everything off of every satellite I could find. I no longer have my 4ft C-Band dish, my wife made me give it away to my folks a couple weeks ago. Anyway, any help would be appreciated.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
From what i seem to remember from reading previous posts, is that if the battery in the units ever went bad, then it would be incapable of picking up the DCII channels. Wouldn't i need to be careful about getting as it might power up and work as advertised, but the people selling these things don't know the ins/outs. Or did i mis-understand those older messages..??

If the battery is dead, the Unit ID# will read all zeros.
 
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