When I first unpacked the box I had high hopes. It was advertised as DVB-S2 and 8PSK compliant with an easy to use interface and PVR capabilities. It didn’t take long, though, until frustration set in.
I’ve been using a Coolsat 5000 for about the last year and a half, and figured that the Viewsat might be a nice upgrade. To make a quick start I ran the loop out of the Coolsat to the Viewsat so I could control the positioning with the old box and verify that I was getting signal. The first thing I did was to restore the factory firmware. Then I decided to start with AMC-9/RTV. I was getting a 75Q on the Coolsat and since it was my true south sat I would go from there.
After 10 minutes of trying to figure out the interface I realized that AMC-9 wasn’t in the sat list. It took another 30 minutes to figure out how to add the sat and TPs. Then …. NO SIGNAL. So I decided to blind scan. No signal. After a few more minutes I gave up and tried AMC-1. I always got good signal on the Pentagon channel so I thought it would be a good next step. After adding the TP, no signal. I blind scanned again. No signal.
At this time I realized that there was a small box in the package that had what I thought was the 8PSK module. It turned out to be the original tuner module, and the 8PSK module was in the machine. I replaced the 8PSK with the original tuner module and tried RTV again. This time it locked the signal and added the channels. Apparently you can only receive Dish Network channels with the module. Then just when I thought the headache was over … Below is a summary of the rest of my experience:
No DVB-S2 reception. Could not receive HD channels such as NBC, LPB, OETA… Reception of DVB channels was marginal (RTV kept dropping signal). Blind scan was almost useless. The only way to view signal strength was to go to the TP scan section of the menu. USALS setup is a pain. Channel change seems to take a long time (compared to the Coolsat). The PVR functions OK, but is not that user friendly.
My recommendation is not to get one unless you can find one really really cheap.
I’ve been using a Coolsat 5000 for about the last year and a half, and figured that the Viewsat might be a nice upgrade. To make a quick start I ran the loop out of the Coolsat to the Viewsat so I could control the positioning with the old box and verify that I was getting signal. The first thing I did was to restore the factory firmware. Then I decided to start with AMC-9/RTV. I was getting a 75Q on the Coolsat and since it was my true south sat I would go from there.
After 10 minutes of trying to figure out the interface I realized that AMC-9 wasn’t in the sat list. It took another 30 minutes to figure out how to add the sat and TPs. Then …. NO SIGNAL. So I decided to blind scan. No signal. After a few more minutes I gave up and tried AMC-1. I always got good signal on the Pentagon channel so I thought it would be a good next step. After adding the TP, no signal. I blind scanned again. No signal.
At this time I realized that there was a small box in the package that had what I thought was the 8PSK module. It turned out to be the original tuner module, and the 8PSK module was in the machine. I replaced the 8PSK with the original tuner module and tried RTV again. This time it locked the signal and added the channels. Apparently you can only receive Dish Network channels with the module. Then just when I thought the headache was over … Below is a summary of the rest of my experience:
No DVB-S2 reception. Could not receive HD channels such as NBC, LPB, OETA… Reception of DVB channels was marginal (RTV kept dropping signal). Blind scan was almost useless. The only way to view signal strength was to go to the TP scan section of the menu. USALS setup is a pain. Channel change seems to take a long time (compared to the Coolsat). The PVR functions OK, but is not that user friendly.
My recommendation is not to get one unless you can find one really really cheap.
