Stay with analog, try digital again, or go to small dish?

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Ron in Norco

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May 21, 2006
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I have a General Instruments innovation 550i Videochiper, with analog feed. I purchased a Motorola DSR-922 digital receiver from NPS, but after hours of trying to make it work with the help of the tech guys on the phone, I never worked and I sent it back. They though it was due to a low signal strength. But my analog is clear and works well. With the digital technology due I try it again and bring uot a service guy if I can find one out in this area? or do I go to the small dish? I only pay around 350 a year for programming and that's great, but it's getting scarce? Do you have any suggestions? Please
 
NPS has been known to send out refurbs at times and one don't work.
As for the programming, I would stick with C band and add ku to the dish as well.
Did the DSR 922 work on analog? If so you might need some minor fine tuning for the digital. You have to be dead set on that satellite for the receiver not to crap out (pixel, tile) on digital. Also something else of interest, to get even more out of your dish, you could add a FTA receiver to it and bring in a lot of free DVB mpeg II signals. some are AC3 audio feeds which can be decoded but none the less worth while.
BTW :welcome:
 
something else, have you considered adding a DSR 905 sidcar to your analog receiver? That maybe an alternative to look into as well to your current analog set up. The unit does the digital side only but works off your analog receiver.
 
Moved thread to C-band area (yet again)

Ron…we have a C-Band area. Please post questions there. The operations area is for issues relating to this site.
 
Ron in Norco said:
I have a General Instruments innovation 550i Videochiper, with analog feed. I purchased a Motorola DSR-922 digital receiver from NPS, but after hours of trying to make it work with the help of the tech guys on the phone, I never worked and I sent it back. They though it was due to a low signal strength. But my analog is clear and works well. With the digital technology due I try it again and bring uot a service guy if I can find one out in this area? or do I go to the small dish? I only pay around 350 a year for programming and that's great, but it's getting scarce? Do you have any suggestions? Please

I would go with a 4dtv again, this time give us the details, and or you can call a tech in your area to help out, it could have been a simple thing in the setup of the 4dtv why it did not work, or the unit could have been bad.

What size is your dish?
Is it in good shape?
 
I agree with Tdti1, go with the 922. I just got rid of Dish Network a few months ago after having it since 1999. The C-band picture quality is much better. Switching to pizza will make the installation process easier, but you won't like the crappy picture. Particularly since you're already used to analog C-band. Get the 922 again and then come back here for help.
 
Me Too!

iammike said:
I agree with Tdti1, go with the 922. I just got rid of Dish Network a few months ago after having it since 1999. The C-band picture quality is much better. Switching to pizza will make the installation process easier, but you won't like the crappy picture. Particularly since you're already used to analog C-band. Get the 922 again and then come back here for help.

Like the guys (gals?) said...4dtv...& NO PIZZA for me! 9 yrs of 4dtv will spoil ya!:D Still have my original dish too...from the old analog days when you had a separate positioner and tuner then an outboard VCII or was it VCI?, then the internal VCII+
 
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An LNA huh???

dfergie said:
VCII...standalone... I still have one, and it is the exact same size as my old GI 2400 R receiver... I used at first with Sat Tec receiver and LNA technology...


HeLL...Even I am not that old!!:D (yeah right)...

My last analog was that neat Toshiba with the orange "belt" display! Still trying to retrieve it for my antique collection!

Regards
jeff
 
dfergie said:
VCII...standalone... I still have one, and it is the exact same size as my old GI 2400 R receiver... I used at first with Sat Tec receiver and LNA technology...


I got a 2400R stashed away some place around here :)
 
Yeah I got one, don't think I ever used it with my original Drake with the LNA set-up, everything after that went to LNB's. Mine is a GI VEDEOCIPHER* II Satellite Descrambler 2100E. Maybe it was first used 2-3 receivers down the line, I've had several receivers over the years, always something to improve on. The Drake and GI DSR920 4dtv and a GI DSR 922 4dtv were the only analog receivers I bought new, the others were always 2nd hand. All my FTA receivers were bought new. The only people I know with FTA are on this site.

Al
 
What actual channels can you get w/ a FTA Receiver? Do you have to do any additional setup to the dish other than having a C/Ku LNB??
 
tdti1 said:
I got a 2400R stashed away some place around here :)
Mine still works except it won't change the polarity on sats...bought it new in El Paso back in early 90's along with a 46" Hitachi at a furniture store... :D ( The Hitachi still sorta works too after I cleaned the lenses and reflector inside, but have not used in awhile as it is the perfect height for my X1 to rest on)
 
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jself1982 said:
What actual channels can you get w/ a FTA Receiver?
There are lots of channels on FTA, a 3rd of which are foreign channels, a third are probably wild feeds (news and sports and some syndication), and a 3rd which are mostly off networks like UPN, WB, and RTN and a few News Channels and a couple of Movie Channels (old B/W and/or B movies), lots of stuff. Don't expect HBO, TNT or any other favorite cable channels though, you'll be disapointed. But, there's still a lot to watch.
jself1982 said:
Do you have to do any additional setup to the dish other than having a C/Ku LNB??
Yes, but not the dish itself. But, then again in your case, you might want to get a C/ku feedhorn and a ku lnb. Mainly you would need a DVB (mpegII) receiver, and there are different ways to hook it up.

Al
 
dfergie said:
Mine still works except it won't change the polarity on sats...bought it new in El Paso back in early 90's along with a 46" Hitachi at a furniture store... :D ( The Hitachi still sorta works too after I cleaned the lenses and reflector inside, but have not used in awhile as it is the perfect height for my X1 to rest on)

The one that came with the system over 20 years ago was a old chapparal, don't have it anymore, don't even recall the model, it was like 3 boxes or something just to tune sats and change channels :)

Got a few more, gave some away to freinds, but my GI still worked great last time is was used, its sitting in the basement somewhere.
 
heck...fta

voomvoom said:
There are lots of channels on FTA, a 3rd of which are foreign channelsAl


heck, I see stuff on FTA (BUD) from countries that I never knew were countries!!! Pretty cool surfing!!!:D Favorite is still G10R with the Tube though!
Jeff:)
 
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