Another annoying n00b asking about Receivers

[Xourque]

Hello!

Yep, I'm a n00b. This is an amazing forum!! I've been reading as many stickies as I can. All amazing information. I've recently tried to up my nerd level by investing in some FTA equipment.

As of now, I have purchased and assembled (but not put on the roof yet):
- GEOSATpro 90 cm dish
- GEOSATpro SL1PLL Standard Linear HD LNBF
- SG2100 Satellite Dish Motor DiSEqC 1.2 HH

I'm trying to decide which receiver is best for what I want to do. I have cable TV right now, with every channel provided, so I'm not really in this to constantly watch TV or DVR shows. I'm mostly curious about all the strange and cool international channels beaming down. With that said, I'd still like a receiver that is compatible with all KU sats/channels, but I don't care about DVR functionality. Which receiver would be best for me?

I'm considering these two:
1) GEOSATPro microHD, $125.00 + $14.50 shipping
- Looks like it has the best features, and unanimously liked on this forum.

2) SUNSTAR ST-5000HD DVB-S2 HD FTA Satellite Receiver, $45.00 + free shipping.
- Looks like it's possibly some mass-built asian receiver, that this company got a huge shipment of and is selling off cheap.
- CHEAP!
- Has the dish motor features I want, and the ability to get all the channels/sats I want.
- Sold by oceansatellite (dot) net - for some reason I can't post this post with URLs..??

Which one would be best for me? Thanks in advance!!

Tony

 

[Bongu]

I dont think you can go wrong with the Geosat Pro MicroHD receiver. I have one and it is one of the easiest to use. In my opinion it is a great receiver, albeit very tiny, for someone just getting in to the hobby. For your $125 +shipping you get truly world class service from the Manufacturer. Firmware updates are flowing and bugs are getting corrected very quickly.

The other brand you mentioned, I have never heard of. I did buy a Skybox F3 from mixeshop for about $65 shipped, but the box is far from perfect and some of the "features" it has are cumbersome to work with at best. I dont regret buying it, but this is not my main receiver. The firmware updates are not moving very fast as they flooded the market with these boxes and I feel they moved on to the next "better mousetrap" of a receiver.

If you are familiar with this site, review the MicroHD forum and see how SatelliteAV has responded to the requests/reports of the users at this site. Use that info to help make up your mind.

BTW, Welcome to the forums here!

 

[Anole]

Well I had a snapPy answer for you, but I glitched & lost it.
Get the microHD. That's what I'd buy. It'll work and have support.

If you can avoid the roof, please do.
First time motor setup is best done on a ground-mounted pole.
Easier to work on.

 

[Xourque]

Thanks guys! I will just go for the microHD box if it will save me from future annoyances.

As for the roof mount, all I need to do is step out of my bedroom window to get onto the portion of roof where it will be mounted. It will definitely be my first dish mounting, ever...wish me luck! That is of course if you absolutely insist on a pole mount instead.

Again, thanks, it's all these little details that are extremely important for me to know. Keep em' coming!!

 

[primestar31]

Thanks guys! I will just go for the microHD box if it will save me from future annoyances.

As for the roof mount, all I need to do is step out of my bedroom window to get onto the portion of roof where it will be mounted. It will definitely be my first dish mounting, ever...wish me luck! That is of course if you absolutely insist on a pole mount instead.

Again, thanks, it's all these little details that are extremely important for me to know. Keep em' coming!!

I highly suggest your first dish be installed fixed on a particular satellite, say 97W and you get that all tweaked in and running perfectly to prove your new system all works correctly. Once that is done, THEN think about installing a motor to get to other sats. If you also try installing the motor right away and have issues, it can seriously make you wish you never heard of FTA satellite! lol.

 

[nhulst]

Best of luck to you. A few tips that might save you some headaches...
Do the string test on your dish before you install it. (It's described in the manual for the microHD.)
Make sure whatever mount you choose is installed absolutely plumb/level. This applies to the mount itself, not the shaft of the motor.
Also make sure your mount is well anchored wherever you choose to put it. The very first time I tried, I secured the mount to a piece of plywood, but it just wasn't stable enough. My first successful install used heavy paver stones as the base.

You should have fun with all the stuff on 97 for a good long time! Just this weekend, I wiped my receiver and scanned the whole satellite again, and I believe there was in excess of 200 channels.

 

[Anole]

As long as you have easy and safe access, you'll be fine.
That can be a pole in the ground, wall mount (either at chest height) , or maybe your roof if it's that convenient.

As for setting up withOUT the motor just to get your feet wet, I've given up telling people that.
They'd never listen, anyway!

 

[Xourque]

I am kinda curious how well the dish motor is going to work. I've been using dishpointer.com to see what directions the motor will need to turn to. The LNB skew and elevations are all different. How does one compensate for those variances when using a dish motor? That's what I'm currently not understanding...

 

[primestar31]

It's magic! lol

No, not really. The motor is installed in such a way by the person so that the center reference point (0 zero) is aimed at your "True South" azimuth for the location of your dish. Not magnetic south, TRUE south! That also corresponds to it's highest point of "aim". Now, there may be a satellite exactly on that location, or not. Then, the receiver has your latitude and longitude programmed into it, and if it's set to USALS, it calculates the position of all other sats auto-magically from that true south azimuth!

Also for the lnb skew. The lnb is skewed to 0 (zero) when the dish is pointed true south. As the dish rotates to follow the arc, the whole dish skews with it, therefore the lnb automatically skews properly for each sat. Either + or - depending on whether the dish is going East of South, or West of South.

 

[northgeorgia]

But do try the fixed dish first, even though you've already ordered the motor. 97W happened to be my first satellite, and it's the best to find first since there are so many channels there! Then, quite by accident, I found 95W and 101W by pointing where I thought 97W was (after having to take down the dish for some reason).... This made me curious to find the other satellites. But, I always put that dish on 97W again until I finally decided to get the motor. There is something nice about being able to find the satellites manually first -- you can see landmarks about where you should be pointing that dish (and the dishpointer site is a good one to help out...but it just isn't the same as actually doing it!). When you get the feel of where the arc is, and where the dish should be pointed, then I'd say start fiddling with the motor. I think if I had popped the motor on the pole on day one, I'd never have never figured out where the satellites were

 

[chaskuchar]

i started with the motor installed. i think it was three or four days, 12 hours a day until i finally got signal... charlie

 

[Xourque]

Awesome. I'm excited now. My wife doesn't understand why...in fact, she's pissing and moaning about the dish being on the roof in the first place (even though it's only 90cm and black, like the color of our roof). Women...

Thanks again guys!! I'll aim it manually first just so that I fully understand everything. I have a pretty good compass to get true south. Yesterday I installed the post on the roof and made sure it was plumb and firmly secured with lugs. I'll post pictures once it is up!

Now, to get some good RG6... Ooo, should I ground the dish?

 

[SatelliteAV]

It is always a good idea to ground a roof mounted dish and the coax cable to the home's existing ground rod, especially if you are in an area of frequent lightning storms. Place the coax ground block on the outside of the house near the ground rod and use as short of ground wire as possible to connect to the home's ground.

 

[Xourque]

It is always a good idea to ground a roof mounted dish and the coax cable to the home's existing ground rod, especially if you are in an area of frequent lightning storms. Place the coax ground block on the outside of the house near the ground rod and use as short of ground wire as possible to connect to the home's ground.

Thanks Brian! I will properly ground it all.
Hey, I think you're the one I got the 90cm dish and LNB from on eBay! It came packaged quite well. Now, to find a microHD!

 

[rv1pop]

Just a special NOTE OF CAUTION for those in a dry, windy area. Dry wind builds up Huge static charges. Drain them off with a good ground wire. The further above ground, the faster the buildup of static. I have seen 1000 volts build up in less than a minute. High enough to jump a PL259 plug in less than 10. If the dish or cable shield is not grounded, the static will go to ground INSIDE the STB or computer card.