Reviews: SatHawk PVR800 WorldDVB DVB-S2 HD FTA Receiver

[Mr Tony]

while you are recording a program you can go back and start at the beginning of the recording and start watching while its still recording

You cant timeshift live TV....havent found a way to do that

 

[i4tas]

while you are recording a program you can go back and start at the beginning of the recording and start watching while its still recording

You cant timeshift live TV....havent found a way to do that

yep. i have not found that either. Also the only way to play recorded tv is through entering the menu first.

Also you can bookmark places in the recording with the red button and the green advances to them.

 

[hd fan]

Exactly Iceberg , not to sound pesimistic or negative (the heck, al pan pan y al vino vino) but that is exactly what I wanted to point out. Unfortunaelly manufacturers calls it Timeshifting but it hardly ever Rewind Live TV (like a Pay TV provider indeed does)
on an FTA Receiver (CS 7000 probably the exeption, called the Time Machine feature).

Also I wanted to make clear that there are other FTA receivers like SV 8000 (I like the CS 8000 better BTW) that let you record a channel from 1 TP while watching a channel from another TP provided both are on the same polarity. This is even a single SAT tuner receiver. Any other solution like only being able to record and watch from the same TP is a reduced functionality or a con not a pro like it seemed to me to be pointed out by the poster.

PS: Spanish frase translated: Call a spade a spade

 

[i4tas]

I just tried recording some video and viewing it on my computer.

The SatHawk has two recording options, TS (which it defaults to) and PS. I had assumed that these stood for Transport Stream and Program Stream, and that the former would record everything on the transponder and the latter would record only the audio and video streams corresponding to the channel you're recording.

However, the file sizes produced by these two options are almost identical. The PS option produced a well-behaved MPEG file that could be played in anything (disclaimer: I only tried MPEG2 SD so far), but the TS option, instead of producing a .ts file as I expected, produced a .dvr file. Windows wants to play this with Media Center, but I haven't found a way to make it work.

Does anyone know what the TS option is doing? We need to figure it out, since it's the default.

I like how PS outputs a nice .mpg file, very easy to move onto pc and watch on ccomputer or MP3 player.

 

[Mr Tony]

I understand

I had a Pansat 6000 which was dual tuner PVR. It had true timeshifting that would dump when you changed channels.

Depending on how you had it setup you could record 2 shows at the same time. When I had the reciever, I had 2 lines from the motor so I could do 2 channels on same satellite. If you used the loop out then it had to be same polarity

But there was a bad st-st-stutter on some channels so I got rid of it

 

[Mr Tony]

I like how PS outputs a nice .mpg file, very easy to move onto pc and watch on ccomputer or MP3 player.

That is very nice. No additonal programs needed

 

[Jim S.]

it works here. The channels have to be on the same transponder

I went to 12177 V on 97W and recorded TBN. I could scroll through all the channels on that TP with no issues. If I went off that TP I get "do you want to stop recording" option

Scroll through the channels with which buttons? I can't get it to work with anything I've tried.

On the other hand, I'm lost when you and others say that there's no live timeshift. It works for me. Do you have timeshift on in the DVR settings menu?

 

[Mr Tony]

Scroll through the channels with which buttons? I can't get it to work with anything I've tried.

[
channel up and down

On the other hand, I'm lost when you and others say that there's no live timeshift. It works for me. Do you have timeshift on in the DVR settings menu?

yes. How much does it buffer before you can play back?

 

[Jim S.]

yes. How much does it buffer before you can play back?

I'm not sure what you mean. It seems to let me go back as long as I've been on the channel, but I haven't tried it for hours yet or anything like that.

All I do is hit the forward and reverse buttons above the colored buttons, and it works. You don't have to hit pause first or anything, although if you do hit pause you can also use the arrow keys to move back and forth in the buffer to pick a spot to resume playing. You have to use play to resume though, the pause button acts as a single-step button while you're paused. Also, even when you catch up (you can hit stop to catch up), the timeshift bar stays on the screen for some reason. Hitting Exit gets rid of it.

This business of recording one channel while watching another is driving me nuts! I can't imagine why it's working for you and not for me.

 

[Mr Tony]

This business of recording one channel while watching another is driving me nuts! I can't imagine why it's working for you and not for me.

you have to have more than one channel on the transponder. I used 97W as an example since most TP's have numerous channels on them

 

[classicsat]

OK, here's what happens if I pull the power cable: the receiver stays apparently operational, meaning the menus work and everything, but there's no signal, presumably due to no LNB power. The reason I didn't know this before is because the reason that I threw the power switch was because it had locked up (they really need to figure out why it locks up so much!), and thus I didn't know that there was no signal.

Judging by the internal pictures, the rear switch is a full power off.
The receiver is likely getting power from the drive or elsewhere.

None of my drives (that I know of anyways), back feed power on USB.

 

[Jim S.]

you have to have more than one channel on the transponder. I used 97W as an example since most TP's have numerous channels on them

I tried several channels on 97W. In each case, hitting channel up or channel down gives me a box asking if I want to stop the recording even if the next channel is on the same transponder. I've tried it with recording set to TS, set to PS, with timeshift on and off, and I think all possible combinations of those. It just doesn't work.

Did you get timeshift to work yet?

Are you using the 125 version of the firmware?

 

[i4tas]

ok got mine to timeshift (real time shifting). After you have been watching a channel for lets say 30 seconds, you can hit "RR / rewind" and you can go back to the instance you started watching that channel. Also hit "DVR info" then move left to naviagate back to a time you want, click ok to watch from that point. Once you are in timeshift mode it asks you if you really want to change channels if you decide to change. If you never "timeshift" while watching a channel it will not ask you, and the timeshift buffer is lost.


Also this receiver can not record one thing while you watch another program that is recorded on your USB/HDD. I liked how my diamond could do that.


I have 125 version... I can timeshift and record / watch another channel at same time (using PS mode). Using a 4 GB usb pen drive.

 

[Jim S.]

Well, I'm glad that somebody is backing me up on the timeshift

But I'm still clueless on the watching one channel while recording another thing

 

[Jim S.]

I made a few more test recordings of different formats.

The good news is, 4:2:2 is recorded just fine as an MPEG file, and VLC will play it. (I only tested SD so far though.)

The bad news is, anything, as far as I can tell, that's MPEG4 will only record as a .dvr file, even if you have PS mode selected, which severely limits your options for playing it on a computer.

 

[knowmiddlename]

That is an affirmative. I had someone check already.

RE:AAC
That's great news! Have they tried anything on 139W?

 

[Mr Tony]

well I found that it st-st-stutters on a high bitrate feed when playing (no HDD hooked up). Found a high def feed and it stutters constantly

 

[Mr Tony]

easy way to delete a bunch of feed channels...delete the TP's and the channels associated with it go bye bye

 

[i4tas]

well I found that it st-st-stutters on a high bitrate feed when playing (no HDD hooked up). Found a high def feed and it stutters constantly

Thanks for the confirmation. We need to get this fixed via firmware. I am not sure how we tell dvbworld as it only happens on some high bit rate ones.

 

[i4tas]

The good news is, 4:2:2 is recorded just fine as an MPEG file, and VLC will play it. (I only tested SD so far though.)

Yep. I just tried that and it works great on SD. I am happy how i can see the stuff I had not been able to see until now (taped delayed )