Fortec Passion HD - Can get in EU, but not in US.

[guapoharry]

There are Fortec Passion and Passion + HD receivers available for sale on eBay from the UK. I sent the seller a message. They will not ship outside of the European Union.

What's the hold up for sale to the US?

 

[pro96]

3 little words I'd say

F.C.C

also I think they don't have NTSC models and the ones you saw on ebay.uk are PAL so useless here.

 

[guapoharry]

That doesn't prevent us from getting Axboxes, does it?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... PAL/NTSC/ATSC would only be a problem for people trying to use RF outputs. It also comes with HDMI and component (YPbPr) outputs

 

[pro96]

That doesn't prevent us from getting Axboxes, does it?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... PAL/NTSC/ATSC would only be a problem for people trying to use RF outputs. It also comes with HDMI and component (YPbPr) outputs

makes u wonder why we don't see users from here with the Passion like we do with AZbox.

There was one post in 2008 that had a user that got one and posted here that it would not do NTSC no matter which video output he used. That pretty much made the Passion a turn off for most FTA'ers here.

search PASSION here and you will find that post from 2008.

 

[guapoharry]

Ok.
Well, there you go...

 

[Mr Tony]

azboxes can do both PAL & NTSC

 

[SatelliteAV]

Fortec Star has closed their North American office and warehouse located in Ontario, Canada.

The Passion was firmware defaulted to PAL and unable to be changed to NTSC.

 

[sanjap]

Does the Passion do all the stuff that is in the specifications? i.e DVB S2, DVB-S2 blind scan, 4:2:2 etc?

 

[pro96]

Does the Passion do all the stuff that is in the specifications? i.e DVB S2, DVB-S2 blind scan, 4:2:2 etc?

No Blind Scan and no 4:2:2

 

[Mr Tony]

The Passion was to do 4:2:2 that is why we all got giddy about it

This is long before the azbox

 

[guapoharry]

What about MPEG4/H.264 ? (on the azbox)

The Passion is supposed to do that...

Fortec Star has closed their North American office and warehouse located in Ontario, Canada.

Wonder if they could be avoiding potential for litigation...?

 

[SatelliteAV]

Wonder if they could be avoiding potential for litigation...?

Nothing to do with litigation. Fortec Star fully cooperated with Canadian authorities three years ago and participated in several hearings defending the right for true FTA in Canada. The GM of Fortec North America, David McGrath left several years ago and without a visionary at the helm, they just drifted out of the NA market. Quit importing receivers about a year ago then had a clearance sale on dishes and LNBFs at the beginning of the year.

I believe that the Passion was the beginning of the end for the company in North America. All of the Fortec Star eggs were in one basket and when the chipset didn't perform as the specs and manufacturers continued to insist, they did not have backup hardware in development. David left short after the failed NA Passion project and the company did not re-enter the market with a new receiver.

Sad to such a leader and supporter of true FTA hobbyists close their North American doors.

 

[tv1952]

This guy says he ships to the US but if it doesn't if it isnt ntsc and only pal it wouldn't do us any good
FORTEC PASSION PLUS HD SATELLITE PVR READY BY USB - eBay (item 350347726042 end time May-29-10 05:58:28 PDT)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Trust SatelliteAV he knows his Fortec.

The passion wouldn't do you any good here.

Save your money.

 

[Anole]

I wouldn't take on on a bet:

This guy says he ships to the US . . .

We've been all over the Passion since it was just a gleam in its Daddy's eye.
There were many spirited discussions (search).

But, it never lived up to the original intentions and goals.
Maybe Fortec was happy with it as a Euro-only solution.
Perhaps the world economic climate made it too risky to develop a whole new receiver for us.
Their pull-out of North America certainly was a big disappointment, and an abandonment of a market.

SatAV was a beta tester, so whatever he says is certainly on the ball.
If it'd been of any use in North America, we'd have 'em and be talking about 'em! - :up

 

[mikelib]

Went to the Fortec Star website and looked at the manual for the Fortec Star Passion+. The manual states that it is FCC approved and it list the AC voltage for the NA market.

hXXp://64.78.51.244/download/Passion+_Manual_in_English_Version-080421.pdf

Check it out

 

[guapoharry]

What other FTA STB has MPEG4/H.264? Or, is that not desirable?

Nothing to do with litigation. ....

I was speculating about the possibility of "third party firmware support" litigation. Was third party FW available for Fortec receivers?

Was Fortec Star NA just another importer of east asia stuff? Or were they an entity of the manufacturer?

....
If it'd been of any use in North America, we'd have 'em and be talking about 'em! - :up

Bah... Also depends on if importers here in the US think they could do better ...(insert reason here... make a better profit , politics, connections, arbitrary reason) with another product... That alone could kill introduction of a product... Whether or not it was good or not.

This guy says he ships to the US but if it doesn't if it isnt ntsc and only pal it wouldn't do us any good
FORTEC PASSION PLUS HD SATELLITE PVR READY BY USB - eBay (item 350347726042 end time May-29-10 05:58:28 PDT)

That's funny. That's the seller I contacted:
Often ebay listings have conflicting stuff in them because boilerplate stuff doesn't get edited out. For an international purchase, I know better. ASK FIRST...

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Dear USER_NAME,

Sorry we do not send receivers outside of the European Union

-southern_satellite

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From:USER_NAME
To:southern_satellite
Subject:USER_NAME has sent a question about :shipping for item #350349966627, ending on 03-Jun-10 15:57:03 BST - FORTEC PASSION STAR PLUS HD SATELLITE RECEIVER
Sent Date:24-May-10 02:55:36 BST


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at Offers to Buy or Sell Outside eBay

Dear southern_satellite,

Hello,
Will you ship this item to Arizona, United States?
My zip (postal)
code is 8****


-USER_NAME

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Item name: FORTEC PASSION STAR PLUS HD SATELLITE RECEIVER
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[guapoharry]

Looks like I killed another thread... LOL Either that or it was ready to die awaway... whatever

MPEG4 / H.264 is no big deal for HD receivers. I was mistaken, apparently. Sometimes, finding free H.264 codecs for DVB cards is a pain.

 

[Lak7]

The AZBox does handle MPEG4/H264

 

[ES5NHC]

Hello...

I could think of why they aren't shipping outside of EU. First, maybe customs and shipping fees. Another reason however could that we in Europe use different electricity system than you in the U.S. We have different voltage and different frequency (50 Hz in Europe, 60 Hz in U.S). Perhaps models sold in Europe are compatible with 50 Hz network only?