Blind scanning speed

[Robbert]

Hello Everyone,

I love the whole FTA hobby and scanning satellites for feeds and whatnot. Especially during Katrina last year, there was a lot up there. However, it seems that either the number of feeds has diminished or maybe they've been encrypted? Or there just isn't much news to report on..

In any case, what routinely frustrates me is the slow speed of doing a full blind scan on a satellite. I have a Pansat 3500S, which I purchased a year ago or so to avoid the problems I was having with the Fortec Lifetime Ultra in the form of crashes and data corruption due to the well known transponder "overload"... Now, it seems to me (and this could be incorrect) that the Pansat has a much slower blind scan than the Fortec had.. But what I'm most curious about is whether or not there is any receiver that will blind scan with the same or better accuracy as the Pansat and do it significantly faster... ?? If there is one, I may just want to upgrade!

Waiting 15 minutes for a blind scan on a satellite (one that's got a significant amount of transponders) is just a little too long..... (stuff comes and goes more frequent than that sometimes..)

Thanks!
Robbert

 

[mastermesh]

As mentioned in some other threads, pansat is really bad about hanging on to a data tp and stalling. If there's a lot of tps, sometimes you can blind scan to get the tps, and then just tp scan on the tps you know won't be data tps... sometimes that makes it faster, sometimes not.

 

[Robbert]

Yeah, that's true, although it's gotten better with the latest firmware that I installed on there a couple of weeks ago. But sometimes it will sit there for a few minutes on those TP's. Unfortunately you never know what something is unless you have a PC with Lyngsat open at the same time or you just wait and see.. Unfortunately you can't tell the Pansat to just skip that one TP and continue on...

 

[Mr Tony]

The data transponders are the ones that "hang". Usually they are at a symbol rate around 30000...but there are others

There is one on IA6 that screws up my Pansat 1500

 

[Robbert]

So do other brands of receivers not have this problem? (Thinking of Viewsat, Coolsat, etc?).. And do they scan faster in general on regular TP's, or is it about the same speed as the 3500S?

 

[Mr Tony]

The Coolsat 5000 does scan faster but will miss some transponders. It has fast/detail. Detail is much slower but seems to grab most everything. Detail gets me about the same speed as my Pansat & Fortec

It doesn't hang...it stutters but after 10 seconds or so it moves on

 

[Robbert]

Hmmm.. Anybody interested in swapping a Pansat 3500 for a Coolsat 5000? Haha!

Maybe we should put a blind scan benchmark chart on this forum somewhere. It would be interesting to see how all brands stack up against eachother!

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Coolsats are definately the fastest, they also change channels than either Pansat or Fortec at least on the 3500 and the Classic.

 

[Robbert]

So how does the 6000 compare to the 5000? Are there any significant differences? How about speed-wise?

 

[Mr Tony]

Havent worked with a 6000 but the way I understood it, its a Coolsat 5000 in a Coolsat 4000 box and supposedly a bigger EPG (which is useless here in the US because very few channels transmit EPG info)

 

[Robbert]

Ah, ok.. Then I won't worry about getting a 6000 then. It's a shame EPG is not being transmitted with a lot of channels here (or any for that matter..). I regularly watch the BVN-TV channel from Holland on IA-5 and would love to be able to use my Twinhan card with MyTheatre as a PVR. But without an EPG I have to look up their program guide online (which stinks anyway...) and put in the fixed times... Is transmitting EPG data with the signal so much more complicated? I understand in Europe this is pretty much done on every channel...

Anyway, thanks for the insights from everyone so far.. I'll definitely be looking at a Coolsat in the near future and put the Pansat on eBay.

 

[Mr Tony]

you don't like the Pansat?

I use to have one and it was a nice unit. Still have my fossil Pansat 1500 (3 years old which is a fossil in FTA)

 

[Robbert]

Iceberg,

The Pansat works ok, but I'm frustrated with the slow scanning speed. If I'm looking for feeds, by the time it's done scanning the feeds are already gone.. From what I hear from you guys, the Coolsat does this a bit faster, so it might be worth upgrading... I don't use the card slots on the Pansat anyway, so that functionality doesn't really matter to me. As an aside, for some reason the Pansat remote also seems to work on the airconditioning (GE brand) in the same room, so it's always a bit tricky in the summer. Changing a few channels and the AC shuts down again.. Haha! Tried taping the IR eye on the AC (black electrical tape), but that didn't seem to help much...

 

[Mr Tony]

Iceberg,

The Pansat works ok, but I'm frustrated with the slow scanning speed. If I'm looking for feeds, by the time it's done scanning the feeds are already gone.. From what I hear from you guys, the Coolsat does this a bit faster, so it might be worth upgrading... I don't use the card slots on the Pansat anyway, so that functionality doesn't really matter to me.

true. The Coolsat does scan for feeds faster than the Pansat 3500.

As an aside, for some reason the Pansat remote also seems to work on the airconditioning (GE brand) in the same room, so it's always a bit tricky in the summer. Changing a few channels and the AC shuts down again.. Haha! Tried taping the IR eye on the AC (black electrical tape), but that didn't seem to help much...

ok thats just funny. Hit menu and the AC turns off

 

[Das Hammer]

As an aside, for some reason the Pansat remote also seems to work on the airconditioning (GE brand) in the same room, so it's always a bit tricky in the summer. Changing a few channels and the AC shuts down again.. Haha! Tried taping the IR eye on the AC (black electrical tape), but that didn't seem to help much...

I've had problems with that remote making my A/V receiver totall freak out and go into a test mode where it switches to CD input and cranks ALL the way up. It's not pleasant. I believe Iceberg has had some issues with that remote as well.


Anyway, this thread was about blind scan speed. Anyone with a Traxis 3500 care to fill me in on its speed as compared to another STB???? Thinking about getting one.

 

[PSB]

Not done a comparison for some time! But the Traxis DBS 3500 is lightening fast and seems to find channels the others miss!

I Auto scan for just Free and TV channels and this also seems to help with the speed of scan!

Just scanned IA-6 Ku took 3 and a half minutes!

 

[Das Hammer]

Not done a comparison for some time! But the Traxis DBS 3500 is lightening fast and seems to find channels the others miss!

I Auto scan for just Free and TV channels and this also seems to help with the speed of scan!

I've been thinking of getting a 3500. I really need to get back into a blind scan receiver. As long as it's faster than the pansats then I'm all for it.

By the way, did you try the bsc421 on the primestar? Can't wait for mine to get here on Wednesday!

 

[PSB]

Was 107º here today........... Mad dogs and Englishmen. NOT Scotsmen!

 

[Das Hammer]

Was 107º here today........... Mad dogs and Englishmen. NOT Scotsmen!

Shoot. That means we'll have that weather in a day or so. Just in time for the 421 to arrive. I've done some more thread searching/reading on the 3500 speed. Seems to be pretty good balance of speed/accuracy. Can't beat the price either.

 

[i4tas]

I would think Pansat could make a new firmware that improves blind scanning speed and prevent hanging up. I would think there is enough power in these boxes to scan faster (push it to the limits), or maybe software isn't the problem.

As an aside, for some reason the Pansat remote also seems to work on the airconditioning (GE brand) in the same room, so it's always a bit tricky in the summer. Changing a few channels and the AC shuts down again.. Haha! Tried taping the IR eye on the AC (black electrical tape), but that didn't seem to help much...

Here is a weird remote problem:

Lets say I change to channel "ABC Puerto Rico" then hit the signal button on pansat. Now I pick up the c-band remote and fine tune the dish by clicking east/west. Every time I press a button on the c-band remote the pansat will do what ever botton i pressed last on the pansat remote. So what happens my signal meter go to the loud one with the beeping (wakes you up at 11 PM). I find it weird that the pansat box knows the last botton pressed by the remote and then executes this button when receiving a certain signal.