Buying a reciever for thr first time,Help me out

[a_mitian]

I am looking to buy a new receiver and i kinda narrowed them down to 3 choices,

Viewsat-seems like it has a better EPG and it is faster in channel surfing
Coolsat- comes with Blind FAST SCAN
Pansat-got the best support.

Please help me out in picking the best for me,i dont have any special needs but i would prefer a non hassle system.I am kinda new to this and needs some guidance.

 

[FTAsquirrel]

Welcome to the world of FTA.

First off the EPG is useless for FTA, I have not found any of the stations to have a EPG. So do not worry over the EPG part at all.

You might also look at the Fortec Mercury II its a good solid receiver and I would recommend it for starting out as its very user friendly and you can add a motor later on. You can start out by setting up on G10 for the RTN's. Get a good 36" dish or bigger.

You can get some great deals on the Mercury from the sponsors above. Great bunch of folks here that will help you out with tips setting up your legal FTA system.

 

[SatinKzo]

Viewsats are ok for stationary setups, motor control is better, but still flakey IMO

Coolsats are nice and usually have a nice blind scan (not all of them however have this feature). Good motor control and pretty solid design.

Pansats are still my favorite. I have a pansat 9200 and love it. IMO it's the best all around HD FTA receiver out right now.

If you don't want HD, then a fortec merc II or a visionsat would be perfect for a beginner. Read up reviews in the equipment review section and what others have said.

 

[rv1pop]

I have only used Fortecs and the Mercury II is excellent, although one of my two 5400na's has better sensitivity. I will be getting more Mercury II as they are very user friendly. My guests can use the remotes without extra training - they think they are standard cable boxes!!

 

[a_mitian]

Thanks a lot guys,i am not looking for HD so i guess viewsat or mercury are my best options.

 

[SatinKzo]

I would choose visionsat over viewsat EVERY time

 

[SatPhreak]

I had a viewsat ultra and had no problems with motor control, but I sold it and got a visionsat IV 200 for the pvr functions.
IMO both are good boxes and both do have some limitations, example ultra has a slow blind scan, visionsat does not have a working channel editor.

Price wise the visionsat is a lot cheaper than a viewsat ultra plus the visionsat has a pvr (with external hard drive or thumb drive added) and the ultra doesn't. Best bang for the buck is definitely the visionsat.

The Fortec mercury II is supposed to be a good box and is very inexpensive but I haven't used one, so I can't really comment on it.

 

[rainmaker]

I will throw a plug for the Mercury have 2 of them and they are a great receiver and has excellent picture quality.

 

[TiminMb]

I also have a Mercury II and after using a Lifetime Ultra for a couple of years, I am extremely pleased with the differences and consider it a real upgrade. Even the picture is better.

 

[brentb636]

I have a Merc II on one motorized dish, and a VisionSat iv200 driving the other. They are both outstanding boxes. I prefer the Mercury powerscan, it is configurable, and you can watch the new transponders being discovered in real time. I like the Visionsat picture better, it is configurable ( contrast , brightness, etc) . My pref is the Merc, because I blindscan so much.

 

[iafirebuff]

Yet another Mercury II vote

 

[Woofle]

I have a Merc II on one motorized dish, and a VisionSat iv200 driving the other. They are both outstanding boxes. I prefer the Mercury powerscan, it is configurable, and you can watch the new transponders being discovered in real time. I like the Visionsat picture better, it is configurable ( contrast , brightness, etc) . My pref is the Merc, because I blindscan so much.

I have both a Merc II and Visionsat IV-200, and agree 100% with that assessment. The Merc II has good blind scan (it could be faster, but in my experience it's thorough and consistent.) User interface is simple, and if you want to manually create memories with PIDs from Lyngsat, you can with the "Add Channel" menu. And it's one of the cheaper boxes out there.

Visionsat of course adds PVR functionality. It has an outstanding feature for motorized USALS systems where you can "fine trim" west or east to peak a transponder, and then save the new position. (I do this with the Merc II by using USALS, switching to 1.2, STOP, trim, save position, until I finally got my pointing just right.)

After upgrading the Visionsat to 1.45 firmware, I prefer the signal level meter to the Merc IIs. Perhaps Fortec will change their averaging interval / algorithm and improve their signal meter function in a future release so it too will be more suited for use in dish pointing.

I agree they're both great boxes and outstanding values. For me, I'm glad I started with the Merc II because it seems easier to use to me. But Visionsat's pretty good too, and if you really want PVR it's your choice.


Appearance: The Fortec looks kind of cheap plastic silvery to me, but the box is *very* reliable - more reliable than my Comcast PVR, that's for sure. Visionsat seems to very occasionally be a little glitchy, but I can't put my finger on specifics. In ever case, a power cycle cures all. To my eyes the Visionsat looks good in an A/V system. Now, if only these PVR manufacturers would put the USB connection in the BACK...

 

[truckracer]

pansat 9200 HD and love it!!! Also have a couple of fortec ultra lifetimes (No HD).