new owner of a GI 4dtv 922

[madmadworld]

hi
i am now a owner of a 4dtv 922. went to pick up a free 8 footer and was told this came with it.
i said thank you.
always wanted one of these.
from what i could find out here it is a 2000 model.
the back cover seems missing and i can see the module it says 1990 and is blue. i was also given another one says 1996 it is pink.

system status
line b. rec number:xxx matches the back sticker.
c. authorizaton status: zk

what do i have here ?

also i have something like these in my Drakes are they any good for this unit ?

would like to buy some programing if it works.

thanks alot

 

[JAS]

Congrats. Looks like you have a good DSR922. As far as the modules go their not even good for door stops. Don't weigh enough. If you remove the module make sure the 922 is unplugged from the power source.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

hi
i am now a owner of a 4dtv 922. went to pick up a free 8 footer and was told this came with it.
i said thank you.
always wanted one of these.
from what i could find out here it is a 2000 model.
the back cover seems missing and i can see the module it says 1990 and is blue. i was also given another one says 1996 it is pink.

system status
line b. rec number:xxx matches the back sticker.
c. authorizaton status: zk

what do i have here ?

also i have something like these in my Drakes are they any good for this unit ?

would like to buy some programing if it works.

thanks alot

Both the blue and pink modules are for the old VC2 decryption. You'll probably never use them again since the available programming is DC2 now.

 

[1inabillion]

Congrads enjoy :up

they do rock

keeping mine till the end

 

[madmadworld]

thanks for the ifo.
had no idea what i had.
shame it is going the way it is with these, looks like one heck of a box.

 

[GreatFTA]

I got a 920 reciever on my 8 foot solid fiberglass and have great results!

 

[GreatFTA]

I wish I have a 922. When I get caught up on the medical bills I am planning to get one!

 

[madmadworld]

the picture is the best for SD i have seen.
even my Drakes are not as good not by alot but still.

 

[tvropro]

the picture is the best for SD i have seen.
even my Drakes are not as good not by alot but still.

The SD digital masters look really nice (actually fantastic) on a HDTV using S-video output. It will give ALL HD lite a run for its money and it's only SD.

 

[madmadworld]

The SD digital masters look really nice (actually fantastic) on a HDTV using S-video output. It will give ALL HD lite a run for its money and it's only SD.

i found all SD looks bad on HDTV's.
when we moved to the new house 3 years ago and got the HDTV i waited 20 years for. shopped for a few weeks and when it got in the house i had no HD service but OTA. the OTA was great but the rest of it looked pretty sad. my dvds s-vhs, DTV sub SD.

at first i thought somehow i bought the wrong TV. so i grabed a dvd and drove around town watching that dvd on all sorts of HD tv's. much to my relief all of them looked bad.
before i got the HD set i had a 35in Toshiba CRT for years.

so i thanked God that i had a nice big living room at the new house,and went looking for a CRT and found a 40in Mitsubishi for under $250. i remember when they were new i wanted one but would not spend the $3500-4000 for one.

i am so old i remember B&W. when color tv came around to me 1962,that B&W programs did not look as good on a color set as they did on a B&W one.
something are just made for each other.
that said HD does look better on a CRT than SD.

ps. i did test the 922 with the s-video just for fun. looked better on the 40 CRT hands down.

 

[tvropro]

SD can look quite good on a HDTV if it does a decent job of scaling. You have to remember that your inputing a 480i or 480p (if you feed it progressive scan from a DVD player via component.) It takes that and up converts to your native display, be it 720p, 1080i or 1080p. So if you feed it an excellent source (such as a c band master) to start with it will work wonders as long as your tv does good scaling / up converting. I feed my 922 with S video out and my DVD player at 480p component and it does a great job on my Sharp AQUOS 1080p. (see attached)

 

[cpenni]

i see that everybody likes the 922 & 920 and are still high priced. what other old receiver is worth looking for?

 

[tvropro]

i see that everybody likes the 922 & 920 and are still high priced. what other old receiver is worth looking for?

The only other old receiver that does all the DC2 (4DTV) stuff is a DSR 905 sidecar. A DSR 410 will only be able to be used on W5 with a Skyvision subscription.

The 922's and 920's are not expensive as far as c band subscription receivers go. Back in the day the Videocipher modules that plugged into an IRD was $399.00. Then you had to buy an IRD that cost $500.00 to $1500.00. The 4DTV's when they first came out were $1295.00. So if you spent $250.00 for a used 4DTV today your getting a smoking deal.

 

[Dannymcenrow]

Finally some good comments here.
Yes I think the 4dtv receivers are the best receivers ever made but since the small dish companys started to sell really cheap receivers everybody went for it and now nobody wants a big dish anymore.
That's why a lot of channels are going away because it's not worth it to spend $300k a month to lease a transponder that only 25k people are gonna watch.
But 4dtv is really the best I mean you have absolutely no rain fade issue's or anything like that but the thing is they're marketing all kinds of garbage these days for the young people to buy but they are all worthless and bad quality products.
I had a dp311 dish network receiver that died after just 4 years but look at the 4dtv still going strong after 10 years!!!!!!!

 

[cpenni]

thanks Tvropro i had just looked on *bay and they had a lot of different kinds but the 920 & 922 just stood out as the best. should i be able to subscribe with a used 922 or do i need to look for something special about the receiver?I'm just getting started with C band. ihave a unimesh 10' dish, DMX741 LNBF and a viewsat pvr 7000. dish is set to 99w right now i'm still collecting just need to find out what to go after. Thanks

 

[Kb Cool]

That's why a lot of channels are going away because it's not worth it to spend $300k a month to lease a transponder that only 25k people are gonna watch.

Actually the channels that we used to get haven't left Cband. In fact they are all still there, just in a different format that 4DTV can't receive. How else is HBO,ESPN,ect... gonna get their broadcast signal to all their Affiliates. (cable,directv, Dish ect....)? Some do fiber. But i'm sure most use Cband. KU is probally not preferred do to the rain fade problem mentioned.

 

[tvropro]

thanks Tvropro i had just looked on *bay and they had a lot of different kinds but the 920 & 922 just stood out as the best. should i be able to subscribe with a used 922 or do i need to look for something special about the receiver?I'm just getting started with C band. ihave a unimesh 10' dish, DMX741 LNBF and a viewsat pvr 7000. dish is set to 99w right now i'm still collecting just need to find out what to go after. Thanks

As long as the unit ID is good you can subscribe with a used 920 or 922. I would suggest a 922 since they are newer, have a better board, full S video and SPDIF audio out, and do more symbol rates.

 

[cpenni]

how can i know if the unit is good or not?

 

[dashaund]

how can i know if the unit is good or not?

The unit ID from the "inside" of the unit, meaning pulling it from the menu (options -> 6 -> 5) and not just the sticker on the back. With these 4DTV units, if the internal battery dies and the unit loses power, it will lose it's unit ID and you won't be able to use it to subscribe to services anymore (or watch any DCII programming for that matter. Only clear analog signals and moving a dish). Fortunately to can replace the battery. You can either pay ATS electronics about $100 including shipping to do it, or there's plenty of guides out there on how to do it yourself...involves some basic soldering.

i found all SD looks bad on HDTV's.

TVROpro gave a great explanation on why this is the case. You're talking about a 720x480 resolution picture being stretched to a 1920x1080 screen...it will look pretty smeared, especially if your source isn't great to start with (VHS, analog cable, DirecTV/DISH SD). I actually have an upconvert DVD player that takes the 480p and converts the output to 1080i before it gets to the TV, and it actually looks pretty darn good. Unfortunately, even the 922 doesn't have this feature so you'll have to rely on your HD to do the scaling....which, of course, as you've seen, may or may not do a good job. One option if you wanted to get really creative, is to purchase one of those DVD recorders like I have that do the upconversion like mine does, and run the 4DTV into it via S-Video and it may possibly make a difference. I can see the difference as well on SD on FTA. I can watch an SD feed on my Coolsat 5000 and it looks pretty bad. But when I watch the same feed on my AZBox outputting 1080i and it looks considerably better.

 

[truckracer]

most 4dtv sd feeds look good. even w5 re-uplinks HITS look pretty good. sometimes lifetime movie channel looks a little grainy but it may be the movie. a lot of those movies are old.

HBO looks good off G1.
My boss has directv in his apt. He has HD. I think its an HR-21 receiver. HD on directv like my SD on most c band. Master HD feeds on fta blow away directv hands down even though the HR-21 will show "1080"..Ha Ha.