Which HD receiver?

[Swamp_Rat]

As things come to a close for the eye patch crowd prices are starting to fall a bit on the HD receivers. I have been using Pansats for a few years now and had good luck but also see quite a few using Coolsats.
To the point I am wanting to get a HD receiver and am looking for advice on what to buy. Also what HD add on card do I need?

Thanks in advance!

Marty

 

[tdti1]

The Pansat 9000 would be good if you can find one, the others come down to the Coolsat 8000/8100 or Digiwave 9000 no ad ons for any of them as they do dvb-s2 out the box.

 

[eurosport]

I have a Pansat 9200 and a Coolsat 8000. I would recommend either one.

 

[Anole]

We should have a stickie on this.
There are maybe three receivers to choose from, for real FTA.
All . have . significant . drawbacks.

Pansat 9200 needs hard-to-find add-on tuner and is expensive (will blind scan, but not S2).
Digiwave Diamond 9000 can't input from remote, must download some params
Coolsat 8000 / 8100-PVR, setup from remote, can't edit sats on computer
(the latter two won't blind scan anything)

Look up these receivers here on the forum for more info.
Comments above are very abbreviated and not to be taken as all-inclusive.
The other receivers which claim HD, are hacker boxes.

 

[kirara386]

I have a Soicview HD8000. It's actually a pretty good box, but it does not do S2 at all. It does have an excellant blindscan, an ATSC tuner, and limited PVR functions. It's kind of a pity it can't do S2, since it's such a nice box in so many other ways.

Before the green one gets after me...I did write that review on this unit but I couldn't post it. I've got it saved on my laptop.

 

[ikki]

As I posted before about the Pansat 9200 HD. Be aware of the broken PVR which will NOT allow you to offload recorded programming.

I have covered this in other threads, and also the updates Pansat has been releasing lately are not worth installing. More often then not they broke more then they fix.

If I had to do it all over again I would not be buying a Pansat.

 

[Swamp_Rat]

I am not all that concerned about the PVR. The big thing is obviously high def and blind scan. In all the years I have been doing this I had one stb that didn't have blindscan and it is one feature every stb should have.
Also I thought the 9200 would do S2 with the correct add on.

Thanks for the input!

Marty

 

[Swamp_Rat]

Anole,

I agree on the sticky, as prices fall more and more will be interested in the HD receivers. We could all add our input and experience and people would be able to make an educated decision based on everyone's experience.