Pansat 6000

[Mr Tony]

the last thing I want to do is blow the unit up....let me read the book on it and see

 

[Katrinasucks]

Live a little Iceberg.... The worst you could do is blow a 60Gb Hard Drive! ;-)

Naw- That was my point... (assuming it is detatched from the receiver) Plugging both it would be safe. -- I wouldn't plug them if the 5V from the unit was still attached (assuming you can) until I check the manual though...

I'll check the Pansat site and see if I can find the manual.

 

[Mr Tony]

here is what the manual says (word for word including mistakes)

1. Connect USB cable between the receiver HDD & PC
note: use both USB connections in case the computer doesn’t have enough current to operate HDD properly
2. Change HDD mode from PVR to PC by typing password XXXX
3. PC will be dispalyed on the front LED and Local Disk X will be appeared on the PC screen
note: if the local disk X does not appear, recommend to update the computer window
4. All the files (Firmware, MP3, Record files, etc) in the HDD will be appeared on the PC screen. Any files in the HDD and PC can be copied and paste each other

so what I am confused on is you have to go into the menu on the receiver to make it work...so I'd have to move the receiver to where the computer is

here is a picture of the cord and the hard drive when its removed

 

[Katrinasucks]

Yikes!

so what I am confused on is you have to go into the menu on the receiver to make it work...so I'd have to move the receiver to where the computer is

That's not just ugly... It's real ugly.

Why you would leave the drive in the receiver is beyond me.... Why put it in a removable tray if you don't remove it to attach it to the PC?

(Call me cautious but...) I'd be reluctant to plug it into the PC and the receiver at the same time even though that what the instructions (sorta) say.

I'm not one to wantonly disregard the instructions (I normally ignore them, so there!) but if that were my unit, I'd hook up the drive solo before I'd hook it up to both at the same time. (The cable does hook up to the drive tray right?) If you hook it up solo you really risk nothing.... but if something did go wrong only the HD is attached not the $500 receiver. (Again- The cable does hook up to the drive tray right?)

There is a fundamental problem with the instructions. They say:

>use both USB connections in case the computer doesn’t have enough current to operate HDD properly

AND they say to leave the drive in the receiver. Certainly if it is in the receiver, it would have enough current. How else would it record?

OY! I've heard tales of poor documentation in the FTA world but this is a real winner.

That's the sum total of the documentation huh?

 

[Katrinasucks]

At least it looks like I was right about the 2 USB plugs being for power.

EDIT: Didn't I see a picture of someone removing it from the receiver and hooking it up to the computer? Was that in one of the links on another 6000 thread?

EDIT 2: HA! Ice, check out the bottom right picture.
http://www.ftadirect.com/pansat_6000_16964_prd1.html
It answers the question... or not. (notice something missing?)

 

[Mr Tony]

That's not just ugly... It's real ugly.
Why you would leave the drive in the receiver is beyond me.... Why put it in a removable tray if you don't remove it to attach it to the PC?

only way I can see that is the fact you can upgrade the hard drive to 120GB

(Call me cautious but...) I'd be reluctant to plug it into the PC and the receiver at the same time even though that what the instructions (sorta) say.

oh exactly. The instructions confused the heck out of me too

I'm not one to wantonly disregard the instructions (I normally ignore them, so there!) but if that were my unit, I'd hook up the drive solo before I'd hook it up to both at the same time. (The cable does hook up to the drive tray right?)

yes the cable hooks up to the drive. Right on front there is a plug like what digital cameras have

If you hook it up solo you really risk nothing.... but if something did go wrong only the HD is attached not the $500 receiver. (Again- The cable does hook up to the drive tray right?)

true. very true. But there is no software to load on the computer so thats what confuses it more. How can I get my stuff from the drive to the computer with no software for the computer?

I think the translation is whacked on this one

There is a fundamental problem with the instructions. They say:
>use both USB connections in case the computer doesn’t have enough current to operate HDD properly
AND they say to leave the drive in the receiver. Certainly if it is in the receiver, it would have enough current. How else would it record?
OY! I've heard tales of poor documentation in the FTA world but this is a real winner.
That's the sum total of the documentation huh?

thats word for word of how to transfer from HDD to PC. The next section was how to cut out the commercials and stuff of a program.

 

[Mr Tony]

At least it looks like I was right about the 2 USB plugs being for power.
EDIT: Didn't I see a picture of someone removing it from the receiver and hooking it up to the computer? Was that in one of the links on another 6000 thread?
EDIT 2: HA! Ice, check out the bottom right picture.
http://www.ftadirect.com/pansat_6000_16964_prd1.html
It answers the question... or not. (notice something missing?)

um, yeah. The unit and the 2nd USB plug is missing from the picture

 

[Mr Tony]

KS

I might have figured it out. I found buried in the back (after the glossary and index) a better way of doing the transfer. They mention using the "loader" which I have the loader for the 6000 (for software upgrades and stuff). I'll work with it a little bit today and see if I can figure it out.

Havent tried it yet but in the menu on the unit there are options for
-upgrade software via HDD
-upgrade channel list via HDD

so it sounds like you can take out the hard drive and download software or a channel list to the hard drive, put it back in the unit and then copy the software to the receiver

 

[Katrinasucks]

only way I can see that is the fact you can upgrade the hard drive to 120GB

Naw- Just open the case to upgrade like you do every other device with a hard drive in it. The only reason to put it in a tray and build it a door is it they mean for you to take it out often. (like to hook it to a PC)

But there is no software to load on the computer so thats what confuses it more. How can I get my stuff from the drive to the computer with no software for the computer?

Ice, I think you are missing part of the equation. If you are running any modern Windows or Macintosh OS, you just plug the drive in and the OS will mount it like a CD or a jump drive. No software is required. Just copy the files like you would any other file. Copying the files is easy, doing something with them however is another issue.

The software to edit the MPEG2 files is another story. MPEG2 streams are a pain in the tookous at the PC level. (using free/cheap tools) If all you want to do is play them, you can find a player out there. Editing them then burning (compatable) DVD's is at least a chapter in a book if not a whole book by itself. Suffice it to say there are many reasons to want MPEG4.

I think the translation is whacked on this one
thats word for word of how to transfer from HDD to PC. The next section was how to cut out the commercials and stuff of a program.

I'm (personally) convinced I know how this happened. It was originally engineered to slip it out and plug it into the PC with a single USB cord. (and the marketing department even took the pictures)

Then they found it was drawing too much current so added the second USB plug and added a "NOTE" to the documentation to explain it.

Somewhere in there, they tinkered with the idea of getting more power from the receiver. (Can you even find the part of the Menu they mention?)

(Easy to say since it is not my unit ;-) I'm 100% convinced the proper way to do it is to remove it from the receiver and plug both USB plugs in. Then you can copy the files all day long. Again, archiving and playing are easy, beyond that it gets hairy.

 

[Mr Tony]

On the unit there are 3 things you can do between the HD and the receiver
-upload software
-upload channel list
-download channel list (makes a backup)

(I'm not the most computer literate person so I get confused)

I did unplug the HD from the unit, hooked up the cord (one USB port) and the computer recognized it as "Drive F" and it did look like I could do some stuff with it. I didnt have anything stored to the HD so I have to do some more work

 

[Mr Tony]

T
On my DirecTivo, if I walk into the room and I see a breaking news story (or game etc) I can rewind 30 minutes by default. (or hack it to be 45min) If I hit record, it will dump the 30min buffer to disk for me.

This is important to me because I'll see something I want to clip and email to a client so I'll often record something that already passed.

(If you've had enough time to play with it...) How do the buffers work on the 6000?

KS
last night I tried the buffer on the football game. As long as I didnt change channels, I was able to go back over an hour. I got to a point where I wanted to record and it started to record. Only drawback is it won't "dump" the program.

if I went back 30 minutes, it won't dump the whole 30 minutes in. It just started recording.

 

[Mr Tony]

found another neat feature (but you need ChannelMaster too)

you can sort channels by transponder...so what it does is sort by the first satellite on the list you have stored, then the second. By default, the first two satellites are T5 and G10. When I had G10 and Nimiq1 stored, it stored G10 first then Nimiq1

Here is where Channelmaster comes into play. You can sort satellites by position. So I would sort the satellites out by position (72, 74, 79, etc) and put that into the unit so when I scan channels, I can sort them and they'll be in motor order (less wear on the motor)

 

[Katrinasucks]

You got me excited for a minute with that 1 hour buffer... But if you can't save that hour it is not nearly as useful. Ya gotta wonder what the enginerers were thinking on that one.

But I'm glad the USB cord worked out ok... Now you just have to figure out what to do with the data now that you can save it. That TP sorting seems neat too.

Thanks for the great review... If they fix some of the "issues" I might part with the cash. But I'd hate to buy it with the expectation that they'll fix it and have them never do it.

Since I (finally) ordered my Fortec NA, I'll stick with that for now.

 

[Mr Tony]

You got me excited for a minute with that 1 hour buffer... But if you can't save that hour it is not nearly as useful. Ya gotta wonder what the enginerers were thinking on that one.

that is a drawback. I teried to record and it just recorded. I couldnt forward ahead. I had to wait until I wanted to stop the recording.

 

[Shawn95GT]

that is a drawback. I teried to record and it just recorded. I couldnt forward ahead. I had to wait until I wanted to stop the recording.

Since it doesn't have any guide data, it doesn't know when the program began. I can understand why they did it like that. I think the guide data is why the Tivo CAN do that.

As a work-around i bet you could rewind into the buffer to where ever you want to record from and fire off the record for x amount of time or however it works. If you have to manually stop it maybe you could FFW to live or the end of the program (whichever comes first).

<edit>
nevermind the FFW part - I see it wouldn't let you after more carefull reading .
</edit>

Shawn

 

[Mr Tony]

Since it doesn't have any guide data, it doesn't know when the program began. I can understand why they did it like that. I think the guide data is why the Tivo CAN do that.

Shawn
What KS was asking is DVR’s you can back it up 30 minutes (lets say), hit record then “live” (at least that’s what I could do with my Dish DVR) and it would dump the 30 minutes into the HD and record current. So if I went back 30 minutes, hit record, hit live and then stopped it, I have 30 minutes in the HD stored. This unit starts to record and you can’t go forward or hit live. So if I go back 30 minutes and record only 1 minute, I have one minute of recording, not 31 : )

As a work-around i bet you could rewind into the buffer to where ever you want to record from and fire off the record for x amount of time or however it works. If you have to manually stop it maybe you could FFW to live or the end of the program (whichever comes first).

Doesn’t work that way. If I back up 30 minutes and hit record, basically I went back in time 30 minutes and have to watch it as is. I can’t hit forward to move ahead. Only way to get “live” is to hit stop and then the recording stops. You can view “live” via the PIP option. Just hit the PIP and you have live in the corner and what you’re recording on the screen.

 

[Katrinasucks]

Admittedly without the PVR guide data (which is what we pay 5 bucks a month for) it can't go back to the beginning of the program exactly but (in my mind) the best way (from a design point of view) to do this is to make it so you can rewind to the front of the buffer then hit save. (Or even just dump the full 1 hour buffer, I can clip it later with the onboard tools.)

The annoying thing is that the buffer is on the disk already!!! All they need to do is drop a filename and a pointer! It would be 10 lines of code.

 

[Mr Tony]

KS
why couldnt they just add a code for a button that says "live" and it would dump it. Like you said, the program is already there in the buffer

 

[newcentaur]

How good is the channel list and how far in advance will it load channel information?

As to the matter of the need to plug the USB cable into two ports, this really isn't necessary except when plugging into some laptops that don't have very big batteries or when the batteries are low. Most PCs and even the laptop when plugged into AC give sufficient power to the unit with just one USB connection. I have a 40gb and 60gb 2.5" HDD drive that I use like jump drives. I've never had problems watching DVDs I've recorded to the HDD with just one USB connection.

If I want to set up the 60gb laptop HDD that I already have so I can swap it out with the one that comes with the 6000HXC, do you know if I need to load any kind of disk image to the HDD or format it in some special way? Have two HDD would allow mw to remove one to work on at my computer and install the second one so I wouldn't miss any recordings.

Thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

How good is the channel list and how far in advance will it load channel information?

what do you mean? 99% of the channels do not have any EPG info so that option is useless. I just scanned the satellites and the channels came in. I started at SBS6 and worked my way west to IA7

If I want to set up the 60gb laptop HDD that I already have so I can swap it out with the one that comes with the 6000HXC, do you know if I need to load any kind of disk image to the HDD or format it in some special way? Have two HDD would allow mw to remove one to work on at my computer and install the second one so I wouldn't miss any recordings.
Thanks

that I honestly do not know. I am not a computer guru (I turn on my computer and it works)