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There are only 2 advantages that I know of, with the hacker firmware.
1) Ability to turn off the annoying dish aiming sound.
2) Diseqc 1.1 support , which was implemented in the hacker stuff around March 09, apparently.

Important to some people, not to others.

i dont the need the first 2 steps either when i load my cs8.1k. just the loader and a null modem cable. i tried a few different versions lastnight. 63f, 62f, 2025a. no matter what i load i cant store more than 31 sat positions into my gbox3k or vbox2. kinda sucks now that i have ku on the 10 footer. there is no way to store enuff positions now for sure. i need about 66 locations. as mentioned earlier about the factory vs hacksoft differences.... the 2 mentioned are all i can see as well. too bad coolsat is now defunct cuz there were a few more things they coulda fixed.

-the option to kill the signal tone shoulda been in the factory file
-there is no way to add the numeric location to user sats for usals.
-turn the fan off in standby
-31 diseqc 1.2 position limit. (must be a code remnant from the 31 sat list)

otherwise its a decent unit.

crackt out,.

brentb636 said:

There are only 2 advantages that I know of, with the hacker firmware.
1) Ability to turn off the annoying dish aiming sound.
2) Diseqc 1.1 support , which was implemented in the hacker stuff around March 09, apparently.

Important to some people, not to others.

Click to expand...

crackt said:

as mentioned earlier about the factory vs hacksoft differences.... the 2 mentioned are all i can see as well. too bad coolsat is now defunct cuz there were a few more things they coulda fixed.

-the option to kill the signal tone shoulda been in the factory file
-there is no way to add the numeric location to user sats for usals.
-turn the fan off in standby
-31 diseqc 1.2 position limit. (must be a code remnant from the 31 sat list)

otherwise its a decent unit.

Click to expand...

Relative to pirate firmware vs "factory" {which was in reality pirate firmware with pirate options disabled}, as mentioned, NOW, there isn't much difference, however originally, the factory firmware that came on most receivers was extremely deficient, and the fixes came first via the pirate versions, and then made it into the factory versions. I can't remember the big issues, but I *think* that one was that the receiver wouldn't record more than the 4 gig FAT32 limit {sound familiar?}, but the pirate versions brought in the seemless multi-file recording/playback capability. Another issue was that the USB transfer of firmware didn't work right. There was something else big, but I can't remember. I do remember being VERY unhappy with the receiver at first, but that new firmware versions from the pirates slowly fixed things. But for me, the biggest thing was stability. The 8100 seemed to have issues with rebooting and freezing, and those problems seemed to be greatly improved with newer firmware versions.

crackt said:

i dont the need the first 2 steps either when i load my cs8.1k. just the loader and a null modem cable. i tried a few different versions lastnight. 63f, 62f, 2025a. no matter what i load i cant store more than 31 sat positions into my gbox3k or vbox2. kinda sucks now that i have ku on the 10 footer. there is no way to store enuff positions now for sure. i need about 66 locations. .

Click to expand...

That's interesting relative to the 31 sat positions. That was certainly true up to about the last 2 or maybe 3 firmware versions, since there was a 31 sat limit on the receiver (one of the issues that the pirates "fixed"), however the last couple firmware versions didn't have the 31 sat limit, so it's surprising that 2025A would have that problem. I don't think I ever ran into that issue with any firmware version, because while I used diseqC-1.2, I tended to use the Coolsat in slaved mode much of the time. This was related to what I think were the BIGGEST problems with respect to the Coolsat, and that was that it didn't really have a channel editor that would work with it, and the receiver itself didn't have any way of specifying the DiseqC-1.2 sat number either. Also, the receiver couldn't specify AC3 audio or MPEG4 video for manual PID channels, which is another thing that a good channel editor would have done.

Related to the lack of a channel editor, even restoring channel lists was an issue with the firmware versions that had the 31 sat limit. Basically you couldn't restore your sats, transponders, channels, favorites, etc, if you upgraded firmware or reset the receiver. People have posted that this was fixed with the new versions, but it didn't work for me. It was much better, but there were still parameters that it didn't restore. I can't remember off hand what was wrong, but I remember that it was a significant enough issue that I never really bothered to load the receiver up with satellites. I just used the thing slaved, and often had channels saved under the wrong sat names, etc.

There are a couple problems with the newer firmware versions, that didn't seem to be a problem with earlier firmware. but my memory is foggy, and I can't remember what the issues were. One issue that may have been just MY receiver was that for some unknown reason, with the newest firmware, I couldn't get stable video on those PBS scpc 4444 SR transponders. Before switching to the new firmware, these were very stable, but they were unwatchable with the newest firmware.

Overall, the 8100 was a great receiver in terms of having a good sensitive tuner, and giving great picture quality, and being capable of recording at high bitrates, and it also had a VERY nice favorites option. But the firmware was really aimed at the pirates, and there were many issues important to FTA'ers that they never bothered to correct, such as the lack of a channel editor.

I've had my 8100 packed away ever since I got my Azbox, but I may just get it out again since neither the Azbox nor my Diamond 9000 will record high bitrates.

B.J. said:

That's interesting relative to the 31 sat positions. That was certainly true up to about the last 2 or maybe 3 firmware versions, since there was a 31 sat limit on the receiver (one of the issues that the pirates "fixed"), however the last couple firmware versions didn't have the 31 sat limit, so it's surprising that 2025A would have that problem.

... I couldn't get stable video on those PBS scpc 4444 SR transponders. Before switching to the new firmware, these were very stable, but they were unwatchable with the newest firmware.

Click to expand...

i must clarify that i have a complete sat list in the reciever with the later firmware. its only when storing the positions in a positioner that i have problems. using the adjust motor menu on the coolsat, i can store a 31st position. then the 32nd does nothing. like the command isnt sent. but ive come to the conclusion that ill store the 31 most used sats and use the gbox to manually move the dish for the other few cband sats. then ill have to give it a usals ku dish. or i may give up on this box all together and setup my htpc proper again.

i also have issues with those pbs feeds. the video kinda blinks or stutters. it sucks that the illegitimate use of these recievers drove the market. it gave true fta a bad name and a lack of support.

crackt out,.

crackt said:

...
i also have issues with those pbs feeds. the video kinda blinks or stutters.

Click to expand...

That's good to know. When I first noticed it (about the time of the switch from AMC3 to AMC21), I posted about it in some other forums, but no-one else ever mentioned seeing the same thing. Nice to know it's not just my receiver.
I seem to remember that it was mainly the 12163 (Hartford APT) channel that gave me problems. The other two weren't quite as bad. It was wierd, because other channels with similar parameters didn't give me any problems.

crackt said:

it sucks that the illegitimate use of these recievers drove the market. it gave true fta a bad name and a lack of support.

crackt out,.

Click to expand...

On the other hand, if it weren't for the pirate users, we probably wouldn't have the availability of receivers that we have now. The FTA market isn't big enough to make it profitable for manufacturers to make us receivers, so we'd probably only be able to get European receivers, ie nothing with ATSC for OTA like the 8100, or Diamond, etc.
Also, even if there were some receivers made for north America, they would be very expensive. Back before digital and DTV/DN, hobbiest receivers were very expensive. I spent over $1100 for two of my receivers, and about $750 for the third. The prices came down a bit when the 4DTV came along (I never got one of those), but they were still up in the $600 range if I remember right.
These new FTA receivers are dirt cheap compared to the old days. Sure, part of it is because there isn't much to them, ie they don't have to control a BUD, etc, but I think most of it is volume. Volume created by the pirate market.

Anyway, I'm grateful for the pirate community, because they're responsible for making these receivers available at an affordable price.

B.J. said:

... I'm grateful for the pirate community, because they're responsible for making these receivers available at an affordable price.

Click to expand...

especially true now that they arent so useful for the pirates. i bought a used cs8.1k abit ago for 140 and a NIB cs 6k the other day for 40 bucks. sucks that there is no real legitimate support though. most any probs ive had with stbs have been dealt with by the hackers who were in no way affiliated with the boxmakers. . be nice if the source was available like the early cs boxes. heres hoping for a leak.

crackt out,.