I just scored a VS2000 Platinum on Craigs List for $20.. came with the original box, remote, manual, a DiSEqC switch, and a 9 pin RS232 cable. After doing a lil reading on the web it seems to me that this model was pretty popular a few years back... and it looks to be in decent shape. It doesn't say USALS anywhere on the case so I'm just praying that it is compatible. Can anyone confirm or deny that it works as USALS?
viewsat VS2000 Platinum
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I got an Ultra same same less the serial for $20 a few months ago. Couldnt pass it up. Some dont like the Viewsats because of their "target audience" but I've had a 2K and an Extreme for several years, w/o any serious issues. They arent as sensitive or as quick to scan as the 1st gen Coolsats, but they will get you A/V on just about any standard def DVB bird you point them at.
I dont use USALS but I believe it is available hardware-wise in these units. Functionality is by virtue of the FW (flash) written to the box. I dont know if the OEM FW supports it, or very well if it does. Plenty of "aftermarket" flashes out there that should better support the enhanced functions, and since the N2--->N3 swap, using the aftermarket stuff is a moot point from a legal standpoint.
Congrats on the find, now watch for a 5/6K Coolsat you can pick up for a few drachma for kick ass blindscan receiver.
I dont use USALS but I believe it is available hardware-wise in these units. Functionality is by virtue of the FW (flash) written to the box. I dont know if the OEM FW supports it, or very well if it does. Plenty of "aftermarket" flashes out there that should better support the enhanced functions, and since the N2--->N3 swap, using the aftermarket stuff is a moot point from a legal standpoint.
Congrats on the find, now watch for a 5/6K Coolsat you can pick up for a few drachma for kick ass blindscan receiver.
Well.. I'm assuming by some of the options in the menu, that this thing is sporting an eyepatch. I already did a "load factory defaults" and will soon flash it. At this moment the viewsat site is down for maintenence but as soon as they are up I will get the firmware, flash the thing, and start to build a channel list....
It is certainly a much more appealing interface than the Fortec Star Lifetime I've been using.
It is certainly a much more appealing interface than the Fortec Star Lifetime I've been using.
LOL. Likely hackware if it has the XP cartoon look, eyecandy GUI.
The Viewsat OEM GUI is to the "new" (hackware) GUI with the RPM style metering what the Classic Mode W2K GUI is to the XP cartoon mode.
Can you tell I'm a Classic Menu advocate?......lol
.....and dont get me started on Vugsta and Sleven's useless eycandy.....lol
I'm not sure that down for maintenance is accurate. I believe they were under court order to forfeit all resources to Ditch Notwork. I think the OEM FW is on the board here.
If not, I'll see if I can locate my backups or you can check with Ice or other members as they may have it at their fingertips. You will loose the Cutiepie GUI going back to the OEM FW, and I dont know to what extent it supports USALS, if at all. Unless you have a specific reason to go back to the OEM, the aftermarket FW may serve your needs better.
Decrypting routines contained within are useless on present day signals, but if it makes you feel better, go in the keys section and zero them out, then it's positively neutered.
The Viewsat OEM GUI is to the "new" (hackware) GUI with the RPM style metering what the Classic Mode W2K GUI is to the XP cartoon mode.
Can you tell I'm a Classic Menu advocate?......lol
.....and dont get me started on Vugsta and Sleven's useless eycandy.....lol
I'm not sure that down for maintenance is accurate. I believe they were under court order to forfeit all resources to Ditch Notwork. I think the OEM FW is on the board here.
If not, I'll see if I can locate my backups or you can check with Ice or other members as they may have it at their fingertips. You will loose the Cutiepie GUI going back to the OEM FW, and I dont know to what extent it supports USALS, if at all. Unless you have a specific reason to go back to the OEM, the aftermarket FW may serve your needs better.
Decrypting routines contained within are useless on present day signals, but if it makes you feel better, go in the keys section and zero them out, then it's positively neutered.
Thanx for the tip Melgarga...
The site was up a few hours ago... in fact I started the download.. but my computer crashed partway through... by the time I got back online the page was gone.
As far as firmware goes.. yep.. it has the tachometer style signal and quality meters. In the manual this thing shows a software blind scan... mine has none. The volume control doesn't seem to do anything... AC3 doesn't work with my sonic voom...
and here is something odd... under "Receiver Information" The firmware is listed as "VS2000 Lite". Should this not be "Platinum"? Did someone possibly load the wrong hacked firmware into this?
Here's the info it displays:
Bootloader: 0.0D
Main SW: DBPSW-090501P
Satellite: U001
H/W version: V0.1
Model Name: VS2000 Lite
The site was up a few hours ago... in fact I started the download.. but my computer crashed partway through... by the time I got back online the page was gone.
As far as firmware goes.. yep.. it has the tachometer style signal and quality meters. In the manual this thing shows a software blind scan... mine has none. The volume control doesn't seem to do anything... AC3 doesn't work with my sonic voom...
and here is something odd... under "Receiver Information" The firmware is listed as "VS2000 Lite". Should this not be "Platinum"? Did someone possibly load the wrong hacked firmware into this?
Here's the info it displays:
Bootloader: 0.0D
Main SW: DBPSW-090501P
Satellite: U001
H/W version: V0.1
Model Name: VS2000 Lite
the viewsat website has been down for hours... maybe permanent... I did try one more firmware that I found out on google... Because I use linux it took a little while to figure out how to load the thing but I got it... pretty disappointing. The AC3 still doesn't work and still no blind scan... maybe this box is landfill fodder
Anyone have the OEM file?
Anyone have the OEM file?
No. You can make it usable. As I recall one of the "features" of the new and improved GUI of the aftermarket stuff was the elimination of BS from the menus, and prolly removal of the code for it in the FW altogether. (Signal thiefs have no use for BS on Echo birds) The new awesome, cool, rad, hip, WTF ever (crappy AFAIC) GUI was adopted overwhelmingly by the mindless "drink the Koolaid and look at the pretty colors" mentality morons that it was tageted for, AKA those Free(loaders) To Air operators from the dark side.
Put somethig pre "New GUI" on there and your BS selection will return. Be prepared, it is very slow.
The 2K (Platinum) was a 1st gen (actually the popular one was the 2nd version of the same named box) and the last of that design was the "Lite" that was a model stripped of some of the "unnecessary" (for stealing signals) hardware. It was the same from an OS position so the Lite FW also runs on the 2K Platinum. There is a 2K Extreme that does have hardware BS (still slow compared to a legacy Coolsat) and the FW is NOT intechangable with the Plat. Take care not to dl/load that Extreme ver on your Plat.
The AC3 optical out is all they came with. You still must run that to a decoder/amp to hear the AC3 content. Many of the later higher end receiver/amp have digital/optical input(s). If you dont have one, Google Sonic Voom. It is a compact AC3 to analog decoder, with headphones. The jack is proprietary for all six signals but a std 1/8" can get you an analog sound source to work with. Some have said there are "holes" in the sound presumably when the audio is on the channels that arent being connected to the amp. I had considered cutting the connector off the headphones and building a resistor network to re-mix all the channels back to 2 input mode, but my stereo has AC3 in so it hasnt been a priority project.
I think I paid ~15 buck for the lil thing via Fleabay a few years ago.
The Viewsat is a mediocre box in the world of real FTA, but it makes a decent receiver in a dedicated set it and forget it service, like for the grandkids, the elderly etc. If anything else you use is supported by the ChannelMaster editing app. use that for scanning as opposed to the VS.
For example, the neat thing about using the ChannelMaster software and a Coolsat 6K is that I can scan in everything (SD) I want to have, load it to CM and output a .cha file compatable with the VS.
I believe Iceberg posted the OEM FW for that box a year or so ago. There isnt really a files section here per se, you have to look thru the posts for attachments. I'll see what I can find, but the post search GURU is Anole. If he can find a link to what you want, it doesnt exist.....lol
Put somethig pre "New GUI" on there and your BS selection will return. Be prepared, it is very slow.
The 2K (Platinum) was a 1st gen (actually the popular one was the 2nd version of the same named box) and the last of that design was the "Lite" that was a model stripped of some of the "unnecessary" (for stealing signals) hardware. It was the same from an OS position so the Lite FW also runs on the 2K Platinum. There is a 2K Extreme that does have hardware BS (still slow compared to a legacy Coolsat) and the FW is NOT intechangable with the Plat. Take care not to dl/load that Extreme ver on your Plat.
The AC3 optical out is all they came with. You still must run that to a decoder/amp to hear the AC3 content. Many of the later higher end receiver/amp have digital/optical input(s). If you dont have one, Google Sonic Voom. It is a compact AC3 to analog decoder, with headphones. The jack is proprietary for all six signals but a std 1/8" can get you an analog sound source to work with. Some have said there are "holes" in the sound presumably when the audio is on the channels that arent being connected to the amp. I had considered cutting the connector off the headphones and building a resistor network to re-mix all the channels back to 2 input mode, but my stereo has AC3 in so it hasnt been a priority project.
I think I paid ~15 buck for the lil thing via Fleabay a few years ago.
The Viewsat is a mediocre box in the world of real FTA, but it makes a decent receiver in a dedicated set it and forget it service, like for the grandkids, the elderly etc. If anything else you use is supported by the ChannelMaster editing app. use that for scanning as opposed to the VS.
For example, the neat thing about using the ChannelMaster software and a Coolsat 6K is that I can scan in everything (SD) I want to have, load it to CM and output a .cha file compatable with the VS.
I believe Iceberg posted the OEM FW for that box a year or so ago. There isnt really a files section here per se, you have to look thru the posts for attachments. I'll see what I can find, but the post search GURU is Anole. If he can find a link to what you want, it doesnt exist.....lol
I can confirm that when I got my Extreme, the hackware did not have BS on it also. Ironically, I found factory software on a hack site that is still up after Nagra 3 was impletmented.
Might want to Google "tvKeyz" and go to their website to get factory software for your unit. It worked for me.
Steve
Might want to Google "tvKeyz" and go to their website to get factory software for your unit. It worked for me.
Steve
I guess I should have been more clear about that. I do have a sonic voom... I am running my audio through the sonic voom.... On AC3 channels there is no audio coming out. The standard audio comes out on the standard channels, but no AC3 Audio. I tried the same sonic voom on my Fortec Star Lifetime and AC3 works perfectly... so apparently its something with this box.
I checked that site just now... Thx for the tip!!! the one I just loaded seems to be pre BS.. but there are a few more on there
SatboyZ and melgarga... thank you for all of your help... it is much appreciated
OK. missed that I guess. Well your over half way there. Did you hit the audio button (green button?) and select AC3 mode in the audio mode select window?
AC3 implementation is screwy sometimes. If you select L/R etc it may not output the optical, and it seems I've selected AC3 out on some channels and it killed the internal analog output. Maybe not, it's been a while since I've messed with it, but I'm pretty sure you have to select AC3 in that "audio select" widow to get the output on some stations.
well... there is the problem... there is no "AC3" item in the audio menu for this page. I tried a few different known AC3 channels and the same thing happens... the options are stereo, mono, left, right....
I wonder if the channels are not recognised as AC3 and I must go into the channel editor and add this support manually... I have not even looked at the channel editor for this thing yet.... I have just been adding the honeypot transponders manually.
I wonder if the channels are not recognised as AC3 and I must go into the channel editor and add this support manually... I have not even looked at the channel editor for this thing yet.... I have just been adding the honeypot transponders manually.
I went to "the list"and compared audio PID's of the AC3 channels with those detected by my receiver. The audio PIDs that the receiver detected were not correct. In every single instance of AC3 the audio PID was "8192"... interesting number... exactly 2^13? that is a little too coincidental for me... anyone have any clues?
After using Channel Master to change the PID's to their correct values and re loading the channel list I have AC3 audio
Here are the current software versions I have installed:
Main S/W: 2.78
Bootloader: 0.0C
anyone have more recent firmware than this?
After using Channel Master to change the PID's to their correct values and re loading the channel list I have AC3 audio
Here are the current software versions I have installed:
Main S/W: 2.78
Bootloader: 0.0C
anyone have more recent firmware than this?
Sorry I cant be more help. I cant recall what FW ver is on the one I have in service. It is at a relatives home in "set it and forget it mode" Without being able to look at it, the version #'s dont ring any bell with me off hand.
I dont know why it is scanning in the 8192 for a PID and not what is actually needed to allow the AC# output to be enabled. Seems like I read somewhere the 8192 is a placeholder or a flag that represents the presence of AC3 data availability. I cant recall exactly, it's been a while back. If it was on this board a search for 8192 might yield some add'l useful info.
Sounds like you found a work around, albeit very user unfriendly for scanning in new AC# capable signals. Hope you get her going to your satisfaction.
I dont know why it is scanning in the 8192 for a PID and not what is actually needed to allow the AC# output to be enabled. Seems like I read somewhere the 8192 is a placeholder or a flag that represents the presence of AC3 data availability. I cant recall exactly, it's been a while back. If it was on this board a search for 8192 might yield some add'l useful info.
Sounds like you found a work around, albeit very user unfriendly for scanning in new AC# capable signals. Hope you get her going to your satisfaction.
I appreciate all you have given me, melgarga... though this thing seems to have more problems than I think I am willing to handle at the moment... I think I will make one more thread listing all of the problems... give it a day or two to collect some info... then put this thing on the shelf and call it a waste of $20.
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