New idea for a satellite tuning meter

[TheForce]

I've been mulling around getting a satellite meter to do some experimenting this spring with my Dish Farm. I will be starting out with a new 1000.4 dish and decided it would be a good idea to buy a meter.

Then it occurred to me that I could just use my sling player on my PDA cell phone and tune in to my 722 receiver's tuning meter while on the roof making the adjustments.


I wonder what you all might think of this idea?

 

[MikeD-C05]

I just used a $20.00 cheap meter to do my install of my 1000.4 sat dish. But I guess you could do it that way.

 

[iwc5893]

I've been mulling around getting a satellite meter to do some experimenting this spring with my Dish Farm. I will be starting out with a new 1000.4 dish and decided it would be a good idea to buy a meter.

Then it occurred to me that I could just use my sling player on my PDA cell phone and tune in to my 722 receiver's tuning meter while on the roof making the adjustments.


I wonder what you all might think of this idea?

I would be concerned that the time delay/lag introduced by this method will mean that you will have to make micro adjustments and then wait until the receiver catches up.

 

[StevenD]

I tried to do that this weekend when I moves 61.5 to 129 and it didnt work. My slingbox was 2-3 MINUTES behind, so it was impossible to use.

 

[TheForce]

Yikes! 2-3 minutes behind??? I was thinking it would be 2-3 seconds. Last time I measured the delay here is was about 1-2 seconds but that was the time delay between a live program and my cell phone with sling looking at the screen and listening to the sound in the same room. sling was accessing over Verizon, too.

Mike- I have one of those cheapie meters too and while it works well for single LNB, I had trouble using it for 3 LNB lineup ( DirecTV dish) I ended up dragging a TV monitor and the receiver up on the roof. I was just trying to avoid dragging a 722 up on the roof with a monitor.

 

[StevenD]

I thought it was kind of strange too that it was so far behind. I was on my Tilt2 over 3G. For some reason, I couldnt get it to connect over WiFi. next time, Ill try taking my netbook up the ladder with me.

 

[TheForce]

Is your regular programming that far behind?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I've been mulling around getting a satellite meter to do some experimenting this spring with my Dish Farm. I will be starting out with a new 1000.4 dish and decided it would be a good idea to buy a meter.

Then it occurred to me that I could just use my sling player on my PDA cell phone and tune in to my 722 receiver's tuning meter while on the roof making the adjustments.


I wonder what you all might think of this idea?

I do this from time to time (and I have a Super Satellite Buddy!) its ok, but the delay in the Sling encoding is kind of a pain when your making fine adjustments which normally causes me to go get my satbuddy.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yikes! 2-3 minutes behind??? I was thinking it would be 2-3 seconds. Last time I measured the delay here is was about 1-2 seconds but that was the time delay between a live program and my cell phone with sling looking at the screen and listening to the sound in the same room. sling was accessing over Verizon, too.

You put the Slingplayer in Control Mode and its only a few seconds behind.

 

[StevenD]

You put the Slingplayer in Control Mode and its only a few seconds behind.

I forgot about that!

 

[TheForce]

I thought control mode dedicates the IP channel to IR control first, AV stream second. Thus just speeds up control function of the Sling Player IR ) In normal mode, that is reversed. Correct me if I am mistaken as I haven't tried this yet, but once I access the screen with the tuning meter on the DVR with sling player, I would think I should be out of control mode for priority on AV streaming to see the signal strength bar move.

Whenever my 1000.4 dish arrives, I will be testing this whole theory out.

 

[TheForce]

OK- thought I'd post my opinion on using the sling player for a satellite tuning meter-

It works!

First the negatives- It's a bit difficult reading the meter in brite sun so I have to put the screen in a shade spot to see it. There is a bit of lag but you just have to take it slow. Typically, I'd make a slight adjustment and then wait for about 5-7 seconds. I was using verizon wireless 3G connection rather than wifi. It may have been quicker had I used the wifi connection. But taking it slow it was possible to tune the dish and select the TP and sat while on the roof using the sling app and my cell phone. In fact, on the 1k.4 I finally gave up trying to tune with the analog meter and just used the sling player on my cell phone PDA as it got me honed in much faster.