Sonicview 8000HD any good??

[giovanni1]

Hi guys.....

Someone has offered me a great price on this receiver. Wondering if it will improve my set up.
I am currently running a Coolsat 5000 with a 39" Digiwave dish on a motor and Invacom.
Will the Sonicview 8000 give me anything more than what I have?
Any more visible channels that are HD that I currently can't get with my Coolsat?
Any info appreciated!
Thanks

 

[chapelrun]

I really like mine

Although not perfect, I got mine for $100 and really like it.

I have come across several bugs - - - one of which I talk about here.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/194603-question-about-sv-hd8000.html

I like the fact that it has MPEG4 and Blind Scan is a big plus. I have mine driving a motor and after some initial learning curve on my part it works very well to drive the dish using USALS.

All in all I would recommend it.

 

[zamar23]

As chapelrun said, given current price for a used SW8000 box, its one of the best HD deals around, if not the best. Doesn't do DVB-S2 or 4.2.2 though, if you're into it.

 

[yuccabrevifolia]

I have had one of these for about six months now hooked up to a 36” motorized setup. As Chapelrun notes, there is a learning curve to figuring out how to drive a motor and for that matter how to set up some of the other features under the menus. The recording feature is easy to use.

I decided on it after having used a Sonicview Elite for quite a while. I bought the 8000 primarily because I had a good overall experience with the Elite. Can’t really comment on any other receiver, but from a comparative view of these two, the Elite (sd only) seemed much more finished in terms of build quality and software quality/stability than the 8000HD. I do have the latest firmware, which solved one problem I was having with blind scan occasionally locking up and requiring a cold boot. The new firmware however added some other issues mostly having to do with screen corruption on the menu screens and occasional loss of signal strength that corrects itself when I turn the unit off and then on again. Not a huge problem, but it is there.

Blind scan on the Elite beats that of the 8000 in finding channels and identifying them. USALS works better on the 8000 however. Build quality generally is pretty poor for something this expensive, and in my case the fan randomly makes a great deal of noise. I have never been clear on whether or not a non-turbo 8PSK card is available for this thing, which is something that I understand is becoming more and more important.

I’m not unhappy with the unit, it works as advertised. It has a number of bugs and needs to be turned off and then on every couple of weeks or so when it locks up. At $100 or so I would consider it a great deal and would probably pick up another for the bedroom TV. Once I have decided on a new HD box this one will go into the kids room and be dedicated to PBS. The $300 I paid was however way too much for the quality.

With the Invacom QPH-031 it really does give you a lot of options on both H/V and circular. There were almost too many choices for watching the world series this Fall.

 

[giovanni1]

It sounds like this receiver may have a few quirks!!

Can anyone tell me if this HD receiver (when coupled with the Invacom) will draw in more channels than my Coolsat 5000?

If so, where can I look for them?
Thanks

 

[chapelrun]

I would say some more because of 720 and 1080

I like to scan for stuff - - like sports and many many things are now in 720 or 1080.

Like someone said it does not do 4:2:2 or DVB-S2 but yes you should find more than the Coolsat - - - it also is very good for the PBS stuff on 125W.

I think you are right it does have some quirks but most have work-arounds.

If they are asking a reasonable price - I would go for it.

I really have enjoyed playing with this box.

 

[Mr Tony]

If you can get it cheap, by all means do. The HD feeds are worth it

 

[JohninSD]

I haven't tried mine with a satellite dish yet but I have determined that the ATSC section will not receive any VHF channels nor can it receive UHF Channel 30, which in this market is the PBS channel. Using my Sansonic "coupon" ATSC boxes from the same antenna I get the VHF (Channels 8 and 10) and the UHF no problem.
I've tried to contact Sonicview about this but get no response to emails nor does their phone work - it plays a message saying to press 1 for this, 2 for that etc. but it won't do anything but repeat the message no matter what button I push. I did get a response from the seller, Shop4FTA, but all it said was that their techs are still on Thanksgiving break - must have been quite a meal. Don't think I'll be buying any more Sonicview products unless I can see a live demonstration of their doing what the ads say they will do. I still want to get the dish and try the FTA performance - that'll probably have to wait until after Xmas though.

 

[Mr Tony]

Are you sure John?

I could have sworn I read it works fine on VHF Hi. I know my Coolsat 8000 does

 

[chapelrun]

JohninSD what firmware are you using?

I haven't tried mine with a satellite dish yet but I have determined that the ATSC section will not receive any VHF channels nor can it receive UHF Channel 30, which in this market is the PBS channel. Using my Sansonic "coupon" ATSC boxes from the same antenna I get the VHF (Channels 8 and 10) and the UHF no problem.
I've tried to contact Sonicview about this but get no response to emails nor does their phone work - it plays a message saying to press 1 for this, 2 for that etc. but it won't do anything but repeat the message no matter what button I push. I did get a response from the seller, Shop4FTA, but all it said was that their techs are still on Thanksgiving break - must have been quite a meal. Don't think I'll be buying any more Sonicview products unless I can see a live demonstration of their doing what the ads say they will do. I still want to get the dish and try the FTA performance - that'll probably have to wait until after Xmas though.

I think the ATSC problem you refer to is a firmware issue.

If you use the firmware list here - - - that problem goes away - - - I have tested this

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpe...review-sonicview-sv-hd8000-8.html#post2025459

 

[JohninSD]

I kind of thought it could be a firmware problem - but I also thought that maybe Sonicview would post the fixed firmware on their website. I'm willing to try changing it but I understand that it's important to use a 512MB or smaller USB card - is that true? The only ones I have are 2 GB and larger - I'd hate to make things worse by using the wrong gizmo.
thanks,
John

 

[JohninSD]

PS the version numbers that came with the box are "Boot Loader 2.07, Main Software 4.16, Front Software vB-07". Is it necessary (or possible) to save these somehow before loading new firmware (I assume the 4.43 firmware referred to is what the box shows as "Main Software"?

 

[pro96]

It is a good receiver, sold one yesterday for $200.00 cash locally.. I really didn't need due to having the AZB, otherwise I would of kept it.

 

[chapelrun]

I do not know of a way

I don't know of a way to save the current firmware off the STB. Sorry

 

[JohninSD]

Well I worked up my nerve and downloaded and installed the 4.43 firmware - took a while to get the USB stick formatted so that the Sonicview would accept it. This was kind of a scary operation the first time but now I know it works. Even scarier was the fact that after the automatic reboot there were NO ATSC channels showing nor did any show up on a scan. But then after a power down/up cycle using the switch on the back of the unit the channels came back. Scanning VHF Hi it found the 2 channels it couldn't see before, 8 and 10. The only channel it still can't see is KPBS, virtual channel 15, real channel 30. It does pause at 569 MHz during a UHF scan but can't quite grab the channel. PBS is about the only channel I record, mainly the woodworking shows, so this is disappointing; however, I think I should be able to get PBS off AMC21 once I get a dish up so that will complete what I want to do with TV for now. Thanks everyone for the help with this operation.

John

 

[giovanni1]

Just an update.....

I lost the deal for the Sonicview

Hopefully something else HD will turn up soon, at a good price!

 

[Mr Tony]

bummer