It's yours

[lilyarbie]

Not working so far for FTA.......

Here's my settings on the manual tune selection of the hidden system configuration menu for trying to get either the HD promo channel or International promo channel that are both in the "clear" on Echostar 3: I set my polarity of my LNB to Left, I leave 22khz tone setting to off. Next step is symbol rate. According to lyngsat, the transponder on which the HD promo channel is on is 21500 which would be the 21.5 setting on symbol rate, correct? Lyngsat also shows the transponder on which the International promo is on is 20000 which would be the 20.0 setting on the symbol rate, correct? On coding mode, I'm setting both at DVB-Q3/4. On frequency input, I'm trying to input the transponder numbers. The HD promo shows that it's on 12239 which is labeled as transponder 2. The international promo shows that it's on 12326 which is labeled as transponder 8. Whenever I select tune on the screen, it does not act like it's trying to tune into those frequencies. Are my settings correct, or am I doing something wrong?

 

[mitch672]

Symbol rate is most likely 20Msps (mega symbols per second), not 22.5
(at least on my FTA receiver, all DN TP's are 20Msps)

Try both polaritys (left / right), also known as even/odd.

That should do it, if it's going to work...

Mitch

 

[lilyarbie]

Question concerning frequency.....

When I go into the manual tune menu, on the frequency section it shows 1235.440. I've looked through lyngsat and was not able to see a transponder that had a frequency of 1235.000. Does each transponder handle frequencies between each other? For Example say one transponder is 1220 and the next is say 1250, would 1220 go from 1220 to 1249.999? Also, is there sub frequencies within frequencies that you have to lock onto to get a channel? I noticed on the frequency already listed that there is a .440 after the transponder frequency number. Is this a sub-frequency that hosts a channel within that transponder? The last channel I had my receiver on was channel 100 which was HDNews. Was .440 the sub-frequency for which that channel was on? Sorry for all the questions but this deal with the frequency I have really pondered about. Is there anybody on these forums from FTA? I know Iceberg comes through the Voom forum every once in a while. Iceberg, if you're out there, do you have any information or any kind of opinion on this issue?

 

[mitch672]

I am an FTA guy, that's how I got you all those numbers DN is using

It's hard to try and guess what Motorola was thinking, and what they expect in that Frequency spot. I would keep experiementing, or ask on a Motorola forum.. That entire diagnotic screen was most likely for testing... it is now really the only way to get the receiver to do anything else other than OTA...

Mitch

 

[lilyarbie]

Thanks for your help Mitch......

Sorry about doubting you. I just thought I needed a second opinon on the issue. Thanks again for your help. I'll keep experimenting around with that screen. I'm thinking about forming my own website called the "Voom Receiver Project" which would deal with experimentation and feedback from others who have experimented with the receivers. It would deal with the OTA functions of the receiver as well as possible FTA implementations on the receiver. Nothing illegal such as stealing encrypted or scrambled programming from satellites will be tolerated. I know Ultratryon is one member of this forum who is trying to get into these receivers. I believe there are others who would like to join in as well. There might be even software programmers who designed the firmware for these receivers and know their inner workings who might be good sources for advice. I know there have been CSR's as well as others who were former employees of Voom. Maybe we obtain a copy of some kind of software development kit for the DSR-550. By the way, do you know of a location of a motorola forum? The reason for website idea was to get more people involved in uncovering the hidden potential for these receivers. Another reason for the website idea was because satellite guys will not let us post any kind of reverse engineering on the receivers due to them being copyrighted and possibly patented by Motorola.

 

[DarrellP]

Has anyone opened up a Voom stb? If so, is there a battery in it? If the battery was disconnected so it could not keep time then the stb would not know when May 30th arrives, just like a PC & there will not be a satellite to get it's time and date from. Anyone think this might work? I have a spare that I put out in the garage, I think I'll open it up and take a peek.

 

[lilyarbie]

Ultratryon has pics on his website......

Look on Ultratryon's website, he has a receiver that was opened up in different pictures. http://www.ultratryon.com/

 

[TC_Lauderdale]

The HD promo shows that it's on 12239 which is labeled as transponder 2. The international promo shows that it's on 12326 which is labeled as transponder 8. Whenever I select tune on the screen, it does not act like it's trying to tune into those frequencies. Are my settings correct, or am I doing something wrong?

I stayed up until 2:30AM EST last evening trying to get this to work with no success. The STB does seem to be trying to tune with certain combinations of settings, however after 5 or so minutes of tunning it dumps out of the menu and I still cannot access neither the HD or International channel.

 

[lilyarbie]

I think there's more to the manual tune screen.......

I think that there could be more to that screen than meets the eye. I was trying to figure out what each one of the coding selection meant. Could these numbers be individual versions of the digicypher encoding? The other thing that baffles me is the DVB selection. It says DVB-Q3/4. I've been wondering what the Q3/4th has to do with.

 

[lilyarbie]

Something I found on highdefforum.com.......

I was looking around on highdefforum.com in the Voom section when I came across a post with this link: http://www.installs.com/docs/Motorola%20Installation%20&%20Diagnostic%20Menu%20Guide.pdf
I've looked through the document and it tells in detail of all the hidden menus. It doesn't go into detail though about the coding mode, but it however does tell the frequency limits and other detailed information concerning the diagnostic menus. Maybe this will be helpful concerning the manual tuning menu.

 

[voomvoom]

I was looking around on highdefforum.com in the Voom section when I came across a post with this link: http://www.installs.com/docs/Motorola%20Installation%20&%20Diagnostic%20Menu%20Guide.pdf
I've looked through the document and it tells in detail of all the hidden menus. It doesn't go into detail though about the coding mode, but it however does tell the frequency limits and other detailed information concerning the diagnostic menus. Maybe this will be helpful concerning the manual tuning menu.

Good info find, but I already have it. Someone put it on here in June 2004. I saved it in my documents. Thanks just the same. If you find anything else, please post. It may become useful someday.

 

[TC_Lauderdale]

OK, I've gotten alittle closer. See if you can reproduce the same behavior lilyarbie?
Polarity = Left_Hor / 22 kHz = off / Symbol Rate = 21.5 / Coding Mode = 1.92 / Freq = 989.000 and hit Tune
My box tunes right away, then if I hit back twice and go into System Status for the Channel, I get 99 on the Satellite Sig and 79/15.84 on the Sig to Noise Ratio.
The above setting is for the HD Demo channel on Dish, but I can't find out how to program in the SID or VPID to watch the actual channel.

 

[lilyarbie]

Hey TC great job!!!!

You've really been hard at work on this issue and you've done a great job with this find. The one problem I see is with EMM provider. It still shows 4224 and whenever I go to satellite quality meter on my menu, I get 99% signal quality, but the EMM Provider ID in the corner blinks red with 4224 in the box. Does anybody know the EMM Provider ID? On one of the satellite meters, you can input a number in the EMM Provider ID box. I don't know if this will do anything, but it's worth a shot. According to the manual, the original EMM Provider ID from Cablevision is 4224. So, it must be made to recognize the EMM Provider ID on that satellite in order to go any further in the process of obtaining this clear channel.
A big thanks to TC_Lauderdale for this big find.

 

[mitch672]

In Post #114 on this thread, I said the DN Provider ID is 00 01, which I am getting from my FTA Receiver, that is in the EMU section (emulator), give that a try... Just as an FYI, the only channel you will get on 61.5 should be the HD Demo channel, everything else is encrypted via Nagravision 2.

Mitch

 

[lilyarbie]

Sorry about that mitch.........

For some reason you can only enter one zero in the EMM Provider ID box on the satellite signal meter. I tried all different kinds of buttons to see if I could add another zero digit in but it is to no avail. I tried punching in just one and the box flashes red. I did figure out though through pressing random buttons that the asterick key produces the letter "b" in the box. I don't know how b would be useful as the only letter obtainable in an ID, but oh well. Oh, by the way, Mitch, is the International Promo channel listed on lyngsat no longer available "in the clear"? Thanks again for the help Mitch.

 

[DarrellP]

I've had 1 Voom stb unplugged and in the garage since Voom went dark because my roommate doesn't watch OTA. I hooked it up to my PC today and there is no date or time, so if anyone is worried about a May 30th drop dead date, just unplug it for a few days and it won't know what the heck the time or date is.

 

[scorpion251970]

maybe someone can help me out here. since the last day Voom, my ota hasn't worked properly. i typically got about 15-20 locals, now i get only about 7. i tried re-aiming off air antenna. i noticed a message at the bottom of that page, "last 4 of 10 Parsed PSIP Data Found", this mean anything? I read somewhere earlier that the lost of the locals could also be due to need for sat feed for programming corrections on the receiver. any helpful info would be great.

 

[spahoose]

Lost locals

maybe someone can help me out here. since the last day Voom, my ota hasn't worked properly. i typically got about 15-20 locals, now i get only about 7. i tried re-aiming off air antenna. i noticed a message at the bottom of that page, "last 4 of 10 Parsed PSIP Data Found", this mean anything? I read somewhere earlier that the lost of the locals could also be due to need for sat feed for programming corrections on the receiver. any helpful info would be great.

Did you check to see if the system hid them on you? (Voom button, green button once, local channels. Make sure that there are no black hidden box's on the stations that you are not getting. Also, try rescanning several times a day, local stations have a habit of lowering there signal strength at certain times of the day, they could also be working on their eq when you do a scan. The only thing you got from the sat was your program guide, this would not affect your reception for locals. Go to Antennaweb.org and get the RF numbers for the stations you are missing and then go into the installation wizard, choose #3, Aim Off-Air antenna and enter these RF #'s there, this will give you reception strength of those channels, has to be at least 80, and 85 to allow for rain fade. Hope this helps.

 

[lilyarbie]

Parsed PSIP data means nothing.......

That option was on there to display PSIP data that was found from an RF number. Since this part of the software as well as the program guide was not enabled, then it isn't displayed on-screen for the viewer. Due to having all these things dealing with PSIP data, it makes me wonder if Voom was planning on stopping the satellite tranfer of data for OTA stations and completely revert to PSIP data to display all messages concerning the locals you receive sometime in the future. I guess it's not worth speculating over. There are three things I know that are displayed from the PSIP data, but that's it. The three I can think of is the actual channel you are watching (PSIP data is required before tuning digital channels in, the station callsign (this is displayed through scanning in the channel, and the station's channel number(The channel number that the station goes by and is usually the analog RF of that station and not to be confused with the digital RF number).
However, with our ongoing research and uncovering the inner workings of these receivers (Thanks in part to Ultratryon and TC_Lauderdale), we may be able to have software updates to enable the receivers to display all PSIP data on-screen.

 

[lilyarbie]

Here's a link to one of the pages in development for my site....

Here's my project page from the Voom Receiver Project Website that is currently under development:
http://www.geocities.com/lilyarbie/voomreceiverproject.htm
Here's the home page to the site:
http://www.geocities.com/lilyarbie/home.htm
Here's the Voom Faq page I made:
http://www.geocities.com/lilyarbie/voomfaq.htm

The site is best viewed at 1024x768 resolution. Also, make sure you remove the side-bar pop-up of Geocities because it squishes up my graphics for some reason. Another note: this website provider has low bandwidth, so after a few looks at each page, the bandwidth is exceeded and the site is not viewable for 60 minutes. I will hopefully find a better provider with more bandwidth available for free.