Ku band 4DTV receivers ?

[brentb636]

Does anyone have experience using the 4DTV receivers which decrypt the digicipher 2 encryption. There's a lot of content on Galaxy 4R and I wonder if its as simple as attaching the receiver to your KU band setup and setting it up. I notice that some 4DTV C/ku receivers are on ebay at prices that are somewhat discounted and might be a nice Christmas present.

 

[Das Hammer]

Lyngsat seems to be messed up at the moment. It's not showing any of the DC2 sub channels that I get from there.

It will work, you will need a subscription to get the subscription channels. This will also unlock some other free channels like American Life TV.

Some providers offer the G4R Ku (X4) only package for around $14 per month (with annual sub). It includes TVLand, Golf Channel, Fox Movie, Outdoor Life, and some other goodies. The 920 and 922 models are capable of voltage controlled polarity switching, which means if you get a standard LNB with 10750 LOF then you're good to go.

Cheap way to go is fixed dish on X4 (Ku side of G4R) and a 920. One coax would do it all, no extra motor or polarotor controls needed.

Better way to go is a 922 because it can do the SCPC.

 

[techno935]

Mr. Hammer, where do I go for subscriptions for Digicipher and or PowerVu. Legit subscription options please. There must be something out there I can shell out a good $20 per month and get the DC2 channels and/or PowerVu. I'm not too familiar with PowerVu. Is that a consumer subscription service, or only for headends?? Thanks in advance

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Lyngsat seems to be messed up at the moment. It's not showing any of the DC2 sub channels that I get from there.

It will work, you will need a subscription to get the subscription channels. This will also unlock some other free channels like American Life TV.

Some providers offer the G4R Ku (X4) only package for around $14 per month (with annual sub). It includes TVLand, Golf Channel, Fox Movie, Outdoor Life, and some other goodies. The 920 and 922 models are capable of voltage controlled polarity switching, which means if you get a standard LNB with 10750 LOF then you're good to go.

Cheap way to go is fixed dish on X4 (Ku side of G4R) and a 920. One coax would do it all, no extra motor or polarotor controls needed.

Better way to go is a 922 because it can do the SCPC.

Very interesting! Some questions:

Are we talking a 30 inch dish here?

You would still need to get the channel maps somehow-correct?

Also, does anyone know of a list since Lyngsat is not updated.

Thanks.

 

[neil_kc1]

I have been warned about buying 4dtv receivers off of ebay, not all of them can be reauthorized. something about older id's being invalid. so be careful.

 

[neil_kc1]

check out www. global-cm.net and look under c-band they have a digital ( 4dtv) section that shows free c-band stuff, and an mpeg section as well.

 

[Das Hammer]

Very interesting! Some questions:

Are we talking a 30 inch dish here?

You would still need to get the channel maps somehow-correct?

Also, does anyone know of a list since Lyngsat is not updated.

Thanks.

An dish capable of Ku reception would work.

You bring up a good point though about getting the nightly updates. My dish spins over to G1R every morning around 2AM to update the guide and get whatever map updates there are. Of course, it is C band where the guide comes down, so I don't know now if my above theory would work. Would be worth a call to them and see how they expect you to do it. skyvision has the X4 ku only pack. Maybe they somehow persuaded Moto to transmit via ku on X4? Anyone know? Why would they offer a Ku only package if you still needed a C band setup to get the guide updates?

Yeah, ebay doesn't seem to ever be a good choice for this stuff anymore. I purchased my 922 from a guy in Indy for $225. Was a scratch/dent from NPS. No VideoCipher module, but you won't need it for this.

I'm glad someone is putting out a Ku sub package. Gives us an affordable alternative to the tiny dish providers. I don't subscribe to them, so please don't take this as an endorsement for them, but you can check out the contents of the X4 pack at skyvision.com/programming.

 

[Das Hammer]

Mr. Hammer, where do I go for subscriptions for Digicipher and or PowerVu. Legit subscription options please. There must be something out there I can shell out a good $20 per month and get the DC2 channels and/or PowerVu. I'm not too familiar with PowerVu. Is that a consumer subscription service, or only for headends?? Thanks in advance

Yes, but you won't get it with your 18" dish. Check the above post.

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

An dish capable of Ku reception would work.

You bring up a good point though about getting the nightly updates. My dish spins over to G1R every morning around 2AM to update the guide and get whatever map updates there are. Of course, it is C band where the guide comes down, so I don't know now if my above theory would work. Would be worth a call to them and see how they expect you to do it. skyvision has the X4 ku only pack. Maybe they somehow persuaded Moto to transmit via ku on X4? Anyone know? Why would they offer a Ku only package if you still needed a C band setup to get the guide updates?

Yeah, ebay doesn't seem to ever be a good choice for this stuff anymore. I purchased my 922 from a guy in Indy for $225. Was a scratch/dent from NPS. No VideoCipher module, but you won't need it for this.

I'm glad someone is putting out a Ku sub package. Gives us an affordable alternative to the tiny dish providers. I don't subscribe to them, so please don't take this as an endorsement for them, but you can check out the contents of the X4 pack at skyvision.com/programming.

Thanks for the information-much appreciated! :

I probably won't do anything right now since I just spent about $250 on a stationary C band setup. I plan to "cut the cable" and get Dish Network for the wife while I use my new dish and FTA dish only. I will check out the KU pak for future reference though. :

 

[Tron]

I'm not too familiar with PowerVu. Is that a consumer subscription service, or only for headends?? Thanks in advance

PowerVu is for commercial use only, no programming packages are available in that format. Its used by cable headends and broadcasters, and the receivers are rather expensive (around $1000 and up for the latest models)...

 

[Jumbo Dumbo]

. Maybe they somehow persuaded Moto to transmit via ku on X4? Anyone know? Why would they offer a Ku only package if you still needed a C band setup to get the guide updates?

As analog C Band signals are being turned off, C Band programmers have been looking for alternative means to offer these channels to customers. They have been making some deals with HITS - the cable head end distribution service on the ku side of G4 (X4 on 4DTV receivers).

Be aware that HITS signals are compressed as bad, if not worse, than DTV/Dishnetwork signals. Do not expect a similiar PQ as the departed C Band analog signal had.

 

[brentb636]

Thanks for your insights. Looking at the programming, it may be a viable option.

 

[Das Hammer]

As analog C Band signals are being turned off, C Band programmers have been looking for alternative means to offer these channels to customers. They have been making some deals with HITS - the cable head end distribution service on the ku side of G4 (X4 on 4DTV receivers).

Be aware that HITS signals are compressed as bad, if not worse, than DTV/Dishnetwork signals. Do not expect a similiar PQ as the departed C Band analog signal had.

I was not referring to analog anything, although the picture quality is superb as you stated. I believe we are trying to determine if a fellow sub'd to the X4 package if they would still need to have a large dish pointed at G1 for the nightly guide updates, or if they have worked out a deal where the guide comes down on X4 too. To my knowledge, no guide info is transmitted anywhere other than G1. It is not carried in the streams with the channels.

For that matter, I don't think we're even in the right forum for this topic.

 

[dfergie]

Moved to C-Band...(proper forum and more visability)

 

[Das Hammer]

Moved to C-Band...(proper forum and more visability)

Thanks. Maybe someone around these parts will know.

 

[iammike]

Some providers offer the G4R Ku (X4) only package for around $14 per month (with annual sub). It includes TVLand, Golf Channel, Fox Movie, Outdoor Life, and some other goodies.

I don't think he's going to get all the channels you're thinking he will with the KU sub. While there's a lot of channels on the KU side of G4, a lot of them are not available to 4dtv. I believe they are intended for cable companies. Of the ones mentioned, I think the Golf Channel is only available via the analog feed on G5 and TVLand is reuplinked by NPS on G9. Both of which are C-band.

On the question of getting hits, I think you can get the KU programming without getting the nightly guide hits and map updates from G1 but to get authorized in the first place I think access to a C-band sat will be required. C-band will also be required to get the initial guide update.

On the question of picture quality, I just dumped Dish for 4dtv in February and the picture quality on X4 is easily the equal if not better than Dish. The digital and analog c-band signals on 4dtv are all much better than the crap signal Dish puts out.

Mike

 

[stardust1]

channel maps are supposed to be sent on all DCII channels and you can get an autorisation hit on x4 channels.

 

[determined]

I subscribe to the digital package and others from Sykvision which includes channels on X4 and can definitely answer some of your questions.

On X4 you will be able to get the fox movie channel, turner classic movies and the lifetime movie channel. The other movie channels can be tuned and a signal reading registered but you need a subscription to watch them and it will be for G1 and not X4. Other channels you can get on X4 are the history channel, national geographic, american life the outdoor challel, outdoor life network and several others including a big list of music channels. The movie channels are free by the way. To download the guide and to get your receiver authorized to receive subscribed channels, you must to be able to tune transponder 3 on satellite G1, which is C Band. There is no other place to get this done.

Since I am with skyvision, I do not know if another provider can authorize other channels on X4 but I am guessing they would not be able to do it.

Hope that helps. I love my big dish and its picture quality. No pizza pan for me.

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Thanks to all for the replies!

So I could (in theory) point my six-footer at G1 to get authorized on the 4DTV and after that use the 30 inch to get programming or would I need a fixed dish at G1. BTW, what sat is G1 anyway?

 

[iammike]

channel maps are supposed to be sent on all DCII channels and you can get an autorisation hit on x4 channels.

At one time I think that was true, but I not sure that it still is. I'm still pretty new to this myself, but I've never heard of anyone getting hits or channel maps from X4. I've also read posts on other forums specifically stating this but can't confirm from first-hand knowledge. For authorization hits, according to the NPS instructions for on-line rehits, you need to be on one of the following channels:

G1-03, G1-13, G1-150, GO-05, C3-101

I guess the on-line system may work differently than authorization hits from CSR's, but I kind of doubt it. All of the channels listed are c-band.