Digital Breakup on 101 C Band

[wvman]

No need to leave, There is a lot of crap on modern TV but there are some that strangely enjoy it, to each his own.
Please become a member and join in the fun! I will buy you a beer in the pit!

Fred, I appreciate the invitation and I'm still considering joining. It will most likely happen this weekend. I've collected a lot of good information from the folks who frequent the site, and after having my own satellite business for 30 years, I'm still learning the ins and outs of FTA. I love working with electronics of all kinds. I'll admit FTA has it quirks, but I can sit for hours trying to figure out what makes it tick. I might just take you up on that beer as long as the second round's on me. Well, it's off to work for me. Gotta keep the bill collector's happy. Have a good day.

 

[Radioguy41]

Work? What's work? (says the old retired coot).

 

[Corrado]

I started watching several of the different Star Trek series now airing on the new schedule on H&I OTA and I've noticed whatever equipment my local affiliate WNYT on 13.3 is using is also suffering from intermittent issues. Last night during Star Trek TNG, I noticed many freezes and digital artifacts occurring randomly that weren't on MeTV 13.2 or NBC on 13.1 with a strong signal level. I appears some of the commercial receivers are not completely immune to break up.

 

[wvman]

I started watching several of the different Star Trek series now airing on the new schedule on H&I OTA and I've noticed whatever equipment my local affiliate WNYT on 13.3 is using is also suffering from intermittent issues. Last night during Star Trek TNG, I noticed many freezes and digital artifacts occurring randomly that weren't on MeTV 13.2 or NBC on 13.1 with a strong signal level. I appears some of the commercial receivers are not completely immune to break up.

Corrado, I started having break up issues on the GDMX channels on Galaxy 16. Tried watching Big Bang Theory last evening and it broke up so bad it was unwatchable. I checked the signal quality and it was down to 23%. Bumped the dish back and forth and it only got worse. Went to ABC and some of the other channels, signal quality went back to 80 or higher. I've never had problems with the GDMX channels, and I lost MeTV Ozarks and Movies on the same satellite and haven't been able to get them back.

I haven't been watching the solar flare situation, but it could account for some of the chaos with the satellites. Something's going on for sure. These problems are migrating to satellites I never had problems with before. I've bought enough receivers to start a store and one will fix one thing and create problems somewhere else. The Freesat V7 took care of the problems with H&I and the others, but the audio stutters on Laff, Grit and Buzzr. The HDVR 3500's don't stutter on these, but it will not tune H&I etc. Analog had transponder limitations, but never had these kinds of issues. Life's interesting in the world of FTA.

 

[handymantoo57]

My Pansat 9200 HD picks up MeTV fine. I'm having problems with Movies, Heros & Icons, and Decades. I will see if I can re-tune the channels. I also use an Openbox S10 and an S9. Before I moved in April these signals were coming in fine, now they fluctuate.

 

[waylew]

My Pansat 9200 HD picks up MeTV fine. I'm having problems with Movies, Heros & Icons, and Decades. I will see if I can re-tune the channels. I also use an Openbox S10 and an S9. Before I moved in April these signals were coming in fine, now they fluctuate.

If you look back,this tread started back in April,that's when the trouble started,they were fine before that.Only a few receivers can get M,H&I and D reliably anymore,they changed something in the signal but nobody seems to know what.

 

[handymantoo57]

What receivers can pick up these channels?

 

[KennyR]

X2 M1 HD and FreeSat V7 are two that will.

 

[navagator]

X2 M1 HD and FreeSat V7 are two that will.

Does the X2 M1 HD receive Decades, Hero's and Icons, and Buzzer reliably? I thought about purchasing one of them a while back but I read somewhere that they had a problem with overheating.

 

[FTA4PA]

Does the X2 M1 HD receive Decades, Hero's and Icons, and Buzzer reliably? I thought about purchasing one of them a while back but I read somewhere that they had a problem with overheating.

Yes, the X2 M1HD receives those channels reliably. Kind of hit and miss with that overheating problem though. Some people haven't had the heat issue while others (like me) have. Opening the case or laying a small pc fan on it seems to work. I went all out and modified mine to add an internal fan - no more heat problems!
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/3923833/

 

[navagator]

Yes, the X2 M1HD receives those channels reliably. Kind of hit and miss with that overheating problem though. Some people haven't had the heat issue while others (like me) have. Opening the case or laying a small pc fan on it seems to work. I went all out and modified mine to add an internal fan - no more heat problems!
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/3923833/

Sounds great, I might have to give one of these a try.

How well does motor control work with DiSEqC 1.2? Is there any way to reorganize/move the satellites around within the satellite list, I noticed that is no pc editor yet?

 

[FTA4PA]

Sounds great, I might have to give one of these a try.

How well does motor control work with DiSEqC 1.2? Is there any way to reorganize/move the satellites around within the satellite list, I noticed that is no pc editor yet?

Sorry for the delay in answering. As you said, there is no pc editor, although I did email X2 and they say they are working on one. I have not found a way to move satellites around the list. Also, all of the sats are listed by name instead of orbital position so I had go through and delete what I didn't want and edit the names of everything else using the remote.

I have only been using this with Diseqc 1.0 and a stationary dish but I did connect it to my motorized dish today to answer your questions. From the limited testing I've done the motor control for c band Diseqc 1.2 is accurate (ie: no lost counts, landed correctly on sat each time) but I do not like the way Diseqc motor setup is implemented in the menus. I have all of my c band sats programmed into my Vbox7 positioner and have each sat's position number (P01, P02, P03, etc) written down along with the actual count (000, 028, etc). Generally, if I hook another receiver to the dish for testing all I have to do is go into the receiver's menu and assign the diseqc position number for each sat and I'm good to go. This box has no way to assign the position numbers manually. Instead it assigns them in sequence automatically as you add motor positions. You need to make sure that all the sats that are stored in your Vbox7 memory are in order (no position numbers skipped) and that all of them are in the M1HD sat list or you will have problems. If that's ok then you must use the Vbox7 remote to move to the sat, then select that sat in the M1HD menu, wait until the dish moves and press save. If you miss one then the sat positions will be off and there is no way to manually change it other than a factory reset. VERY ANNOYING! Once everything was set up it did work ok but I REALLY hope a firmware upgrade comes out that changes this.

 

[wvman]

Work? What's work? (says the old retired coot).

Jeepguy, I have less than a year and I can say, "work, what's work?" too. Looking forward to it. I've been working since I was 13 years old. I have a lot of hunting and fishing to catch up on.

 

[Babadem]

Sounds great, I might have to give one of these a try.

How well does motor control work with DiSEqC 1.2? Is there any way to reorganize/move the satellites around within the satellite list, I noticed that is no pc editor yet?

The motor for DiseqC works. It is spot on on cband. I haven't tried KU band DiseqC or USUALS.

 

[wvman]

Does the X2 M1 HD receive Decades, Hero's and Icons, and Buzzer reliably? I thought about purchasing one of them a while back but I read somewhere that they had a problem with overheating.

I can get all the rest of the channels on this satellite except Buzzr. I can get the video, but not the audio. I've used every audio setting in the editor and can't get it to work. My wife likes game shows and she's been after me to get it working. I manually programmed all the others, but this one is giving me fits. Not sure what's going on with it.

 

[Babadem]

I can get all the rest of the channels on this satellite except Buzzr. I can get the video, but not the audio. I've used every audio setting in the editor and can't get it to work. My wife likes game shows and she's been after me to get it working. I manually programmed all the others, but this one is giving me fits. Not sure what's going on with it.

What firmware version are you using?

 

[wvman]

If you look back,this tread started back in April,that's when the trouble started,they were fine before that.Only a few receivers can get M,H&I and D reliably anymore,they changed something in the signal but nobody seems to know what.

Waylew, I can get H&I and Movies using an HDVR 1200 and a HDVR 3500, but not Decades. I can also get MeTV Ozarks and Movies on Galaxy 16 on the HDVR 1200, but not the HDVR 3500 GeoSat receivers. I found a glitch in the HDVR 3500 that the 1200 doesn't have. As it turns out, the 3500 does not have the 4.3PS setting in the aspect settings, and my older TV would not fill out the screen on certain channels. I was told it was the TV, so I went out and purchased a Sony 60 inch. It did not fix the problem. Ya gotta love it.

 

[wvman]

What firmware version are you using?

I didn't look on the HDVR 3500, but there are no newer updates for the HDVR 1200's. I'll check, I've only had them for about a week or two. They were supposed to have the latest version loaded on them. Software Version Halo_V1.0.7.0_0X0_1291.

 

[wvman]

Just thought I'd pass this on. After switching to the HDVR3500, I noticed that the GDMX channels were breaking up. Never thought much of it at first, and then it got to the point they were unwatchable. Then Grit, Laff and the other channels signal quality dropped to 5%. Strangely enough, the rest of the channels on that satellite ranged from 79-99%. Even at 5% the channels remained locked with only an occasional glitch. The GDMX channels had a good signal quality that was steady at 66%, but breaking up something fierce.

I unhooked the 3500 and reinstalled the HDVR1200. The signal quality of Laff jumped to 89% and steady as a rock, and the GDMX channels retained the 66% signal quality and haven't broken up since. MeTV and the Movie network worked on Galaxy 16, and I was able to program in Movies & H&I on SES-1. Never did get Decades to work, but in order to get Movies & H&I to come in, I have to go to another channel and then switch back in order to get them to kick in. I have to do the same thing on Laff, Grit and the others. Cannot switch directly between them.

When I do that, it stays on the same channel, but the banner shows it on the other channel, but it isn't. It seems like it's a trade off. Buy one receiver to get this working, and have problem with something else that never had a problem. I bought a Freesat V7 to fix the problem with SES-1, and ended up with the stuttering problems on Galaxy 19. Now I have the HDVR3500's and they won't utilize the whole screen, even on a new 60 inch Sony television. You'd think someone could build a processor that could handle all the problems. Ya just gotta love it.

 

[FTA4PA]

In our main viewing area I use an Amiko Mini HD SE most of the time but occasionally bring out the FreeSat V7 or the X2 M1HD to lock a problem signal. Really stinks to have to swap out boxes like that. Agree, you would think someone could put together a receiver that just works for North American FTA (ACM, 4.2.2, low bit rate signals, etc). I can't believe it wouldn't sell here...