What you should know about Twinhan DVB

[Technojunky]

I shoped around for a Twinhan 102G and found a fair price on ebay. The seller was Guestfrom, yep, that is his ebay user name. I received the card and it did not work. The seller told me that his ebay auction states that he gives no refunds, or exchanges. He offered to send a second card for $50 to makup for getting a bad card. The most interesting part is when I tried to communicate with the Twinhan company to get it fixed under whatever warranty it had. No such luck, they have no office in the U.S., only Taiwan and China. All contact information is in Taiwan. Email to them has gone unanswered in four days. I am told that I can get the card fixed, but it appears it will take a very long time, and it may involve me sending the card to Taiwan. I won't know until they actually answer my requests for help.
Lesson learned, either buy the card from a reputible dealer that will assit you in getting repairs for the life of the product warranty, or skip it and buy a card with company contact in the U.S. After I get done fighting this guy for not delivering goods as desribed in an auction. I will go find a good deal on a Happauge Nexus-S. Happauge is easy to get in touch with, and they make the best DVB card, although the most expensive too. Know that when I say that Happauge makes the best satellite card, it is based on quality, support and function. Nexus-s beats Twinhan in all three of these areas. Joe

 

[timmy1376]

I got a card off ebay that was a bad one from the beginning too. I too was ignored from Twinhan. Nice cards when they work, but a pain for a company.

 

[NiteOwl]

Sorry to hear about your card. I just bought a 102g. I haven't installed it yet. From your avatar it looks like your dish is mounted on a pole. How well does that work? What size dish is that?

 

[TiminMb]

Thanks for the heads up on the risks involved. I'll heed your advice and only buy from someone that offers warranty service.

 

[Technojunky]

I have a 36" Fortec dish, mounted on a 2" pole into concreate. I filled the pole with concreate as well. The hurricane did not bend the pole, but it broke my Sadoun motor. A plastic gear inside, snapped. The replacement part from Sadoun is more than $30 with shipping. A small contact switch also broke loose, so even though the motor is only a couple of months old, it is trash.
I guess I should have taken the dish down before the storm. I thought that the dish would bend, or the pole would bend, but never that the motor would break. I wonder if any of the motors have metal gears. Plastic is not meant to last a very long time.

If you are going to put a pole in the ground, I would make it a heavy pole, not a fence post. A 3" pole would hold plumb better, even though my 2" pole is still plumb, I have no faith that it will stay that way for ever. Joe

 

[Technojunky]

Tim, what does that Universal LNB do for you that my Quad 031 duel LNB won't do for me? Joe

Thanks for the heads up on the risks involved. I'll heed your advice and only buy from someone that offers warranty service.

 

[Technojunky]

Still have not heard fromTwinhan support.. Going on a week now. Also, not one Twinhan dealer stepped up to try and help; mostly because they didn't sell the card to me. Paypal is still thinking it over, and the guy who sold it to me is now seling other FTA receivers with the same great warranty. "No returns, no exchanges"

 

[TiminMb]

Tim, what does that Universal LNB do for you that my Quad 031 duel LNB won't do for me? Joe

The Universal will pick up some lower frequencies on Ku band that basically nothing is on (except Cubavision, I am told, if I recall correctly). I think because manufacturors want to capture the biggest market share, their products have to cover the most customers needs, including some which us in North America have little use for.

 

[Technojunky]

I am going to try a bigger power supply on the Twinhan. I heard from more than one source that the Twinhan requires a minimum of 400 watts for it to work correctly. I have a 500 Watt supply coming from newegg. The supplies in both of my present computers are 350WY. I can probably take the PC that worked for a minute or two and removed every extra card from it, then test the Twinhan on that 350WY supply, it might hold the voltage better with less of a load on it. Joe

 

[Technojunky]

Ok, here is the reply from twinhan support. Keep in mind that the guy who sold it will not take a return, or do an exchange, or offer any warranty help at all. The original message to Twinhan was that I have no lnb voltage going out to my lnb, so I can not receive anything with it. Here is the reply:

Dear Sir

There will be such sound for your card.

For your problem, can you RMA it to your purchase store and notice them you have this issue

They will help you to do a burning test
Sincerely
Support

TwinHan Tech

 

[SGAFTA]

Well you know, they say you get what you pay for. $50 is about $8 over avg dealer cost, so he probably knew it was bad from the get to.

You have Gold Sponsors here, yes, you would pay in the case of us sgafta on ebay 68.55 + 14.95 shipping, but you have a one year warranty direct with us and if we die, our distributor.

Then of course another gold sponsor here is Sadoun, I am sure they also warranty their items. If you ever want to find us on ebay, as they are more on our site, use the EBAY ID MARYKSKIN.

This does not help you and I am not trying to be sarcastic, but you buy from who you know, who you know has a reputation and certainly 1000+ feedbacks is always a good idea.

 

[_Ziggy_7]

I am going to try a bigger power supply on the Twinhan. I heard from more than one source that the Twinhan requires a minimum of 400 watts for it to work correctly. I have a 500 Watt supply coming from newegg. The supplies in both of my present computers are 350WY. I can probably take the PC that worked for a minute or two and removed every extra card from it, then test the Twinhan on that 350WY supply, it might hold the voltage better with less of a load on it. Joe

My Twinhan 102g works fine with the stock 240watt PS that came with my silverstone lc11.

 

[Technojunky]

I tested my 102G on a 420 Watt, and a 500 Watt supply, and still get nothing through it. I tried several things to be sure it wasn't my error, one being to set my dish on a satellite, lock it there and not connected the motor, or diseq.

I did get my new Stab HH90 motor from SGA, and I feel that I made a great choice. the Stab motor is a well made product. Any motor I buy in the future will be made by Stab.

I am still waiting on Paypal to make their judgement on this Ebay transaction. They sure take their time about it.

Joe