Big dish update from your friends at Satellite Receivers/Programming Center

[TheTechGuru]

Most of us have UPS, but around here, I've seen outages that last 10 hours or longer. Does one lose the maps during a complete shut down of the receiver, as in as if it were unplugged? If so, then I guess my 922 would be screwed sooner or later, since one of these lengthy power outages is bound to happen sooner or later.

I would think most of the original c-band users (ones that paid over $1000 for a full setup and install) would have the means to have a whole house generator system which is $1000-$4000 depending on how many KW's you want. UPS is to tie one over long enough for the generator to get started.

Even a simple $200 generator would power ones computers/tv/receivers during a extended outage. Just be sure the UPS lasts long enough to get it hooked up and started.

 

[truckracer]

I have 12kw's of natural gas/gasoline generator. LOL...it's funny how us sat guys know each other?

 

[radio]

Owning a radio station, I live in an RV powered BY the station, and we're backed-up, so I'm very fortunate! Full size standby for our AM/FM all equipment, air, heat, and of course, the owner. 40kw for a 5kw AM and FM translator facility. Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am my "needs" are met by my business! UPS's however are used on all critical equipment during switchover from grid to generac.

By the way, SOME chepaer UPS units do NOT like generator power. We have to use ones with "AVR" (Automatic voltage regulation) or...they constantly switch from generator-powered AC to battery, and eventually go dead during long outages. Larger APC brand units with LCD displays serve us well, and can power our entire FM translator rack, or a production room and our internet servers! (just a heads-up for generator owners....your UPS can still go out when generator is ON, which could cause failure in components with weak batteries!!)

 

[Anony55]

...Does one lose the maps during a complete shut down of the receiver, as in as if it were unplugged?...

No. Your unit will maintain it's maps as long as the internal battery is good. HOWEVER, I have seen my 922 glitch & lose its maps while having a good battery. This is rare (I've only seen it once), but can happen when the electricity starts coming on & going off... even through a Panamax. Welcome to Oklahoma, LOL. A UPS should help to further minimize the danger of this.

I don't think you'll lose maps unless you do a master reset. Or at least i think so.

Even though it's rare, the condition I described above is a lot more scary when you know the tiles are gone from G1-3. And who knows what other issues might come up after things change in January that require a MR to correct?

I'm not trying to scare anyone. I just think we should all be prepared for the possibilities and do what we can to protect our units.

Cheers

 

[Asket]

I got the same e-mail. I need to get hold of a 410. I want some channels from W5, but not at the cost of "bricking" my 920!

I smell something bad. There is no reason to disable the 4DTV receivers. Only to give them the ability to receive W 5 in a different manner. This has to be a Motorola idea. Watch out that they have not already sent Malware to your receivers already.
Something such as a digital time bomb that will activate on a certain date and kill you receiver. Apparently the intent is to kill C and Ku reception on FTA.

 

[tvropro]

I smell something bad. There is no reason to disable the 4DTV receivers. Only to give them the ability to receive W 5 in a different manner. This has to be a Motorola idea. Watch out that they have not already sent Malware to your receivers already.
Something such as a digital time bomb that will activate on a certain date and kill you receiver. Apparently the intent is to kill C and Ku reception on FTA.

One can never trust Motorola too much. My receiver has been out of the datastream except for about an hour in the last 2 months. I thought about doing one last blowout subscription to the masters, but now I probably won't. I value being able to tune what I can tune now when ITC. I don't think Motorola has gone out of their way with a time bomb yet. But it is possible they may run a master kill sequence at the end.

When VC 2 was shut down one evening my VC 2 was getting hit with 7 hits in a row every 2 minutes for a couple hours before I noticed. I then pulled it out of the datastream. Up until that point my VC 2 didn't get hit for many months and was running OC with no subs. I see the same thing happening with Digcipher probably starting at NPS shutdown around 12/26 and again on 1/4. I think its best the ones that won't be going to W5 should keep the units on an analog only channel between 12/20 to 1/10 or so.

 

[Davage]

I have a subscription to VH1 Classic and Discovery Suite. I'm going to keep tuning them in until January 4. I don't buy the whole conspiracy theory 'timebomb' stuff. After January 4, then I will decide what route I'm going to take (if any) to continue with Subscription C-Band. I know that I won't 'neuter' my 922. I also have faith in some of the behind-the-scenes testing that is going on right now, and figure that we'll have an Option B by the the time January 4 rolls around. I've offered up some ideas to Mike Kohl directly, and I know that he's doing some testing right now. I'm not sweating it..

 

[tvropro]

I have a subscription to VH1 Classic and Discovery Suite. I'm going to keep tuning them in until January 4. I don't buy the whole conspiracy theory 'timebomb' stuff. After January 4, then I will decide what route I'm going to take (if any) to continue with Subscription C-Band. I know that I won't 'neuter' my 922. I also have faith in some of the behind-the-scenes testing that is going on right now, and figure that we'll have an Option B by the the time January 4 rolls around. I've offered up some ideas to Mike Kohl directly, and I know that he's doing some testing right now. I'm not sweating it..

I don't think Motorola will place any malware to destroy our receivers as some have suggested. They will send a massive turn off sequence for all subscribed units though. That's a guarantee. They don't want us to be able to watch anything subscribed (the subscription 4DTV masters we get now) beyond 1/4 because if they did they could be liable to the programmers.

As far as a solution for next year I have been speaking with Mike and offering my testing info He also called me to ask me about some things I found out. So I know he's working behind the scenes for us. I have voiced my concerns to him about what we all really would like to happen and gave suggestions. Mike and a few of us, Davage included are working behind the scenes looking for a work around for our maps and tiles. Mike though has resources at his disposal that none of us as end users do. He gets to try all the real hands on testing in a controlled environment that he can control and gets paid at the same time. That is way cool.

I was involved in the testing of the Videocipher 2 plus and the Videopal with GI so being part of the this test program is like old home week to me. Like Davage said, chill things have a way of working out.

 

[TheTechGuru]

What's Up With SRL Removing Everything Non-W5 From Their Site & WebSAMS?

I was on my way to order the non-W5 Discovery suite and found this!

WebForm1

They also removed the W5 Discovery suite pack?

So now I'm completely without the discovery suite unless I want to get the SuperPak.


I think it's very rude of them to not let us know they would no longer be taking orders for masters in December, I thought they would just pro-rate.

Now I'm stuck with just my Discovery 3-pack.

 

[tvropro]

I was on my way to order the non-W5 Discovery suite and found this!

WebForm1

They also removed the W5 Discovery suite pack?

So now I'm completely without the discovery suite unless I want to get the SuperPak.


I think it's very rude of them to not let us know they would no longer be taking orders for masters in December, I thought they would just pro-rate.

Now I'm stuck with just my Discovery 3-pack.

They were there a few days ago. I spoke to them on the phone too the other day and they told me I can order 4DTV programming that runs up to 1/4.

 

[brex2001]

I was on my way to order the non-W5 Discovery suite and found this!

WebForm1

They also removed the W5 Discovery suite pack?

So now I'm completely without the discovery suite unless I want to get the SuperPak.


I think it's very rude of them to not let us know they would no longer be taking orders for masters in December, I thought they would just pro-rate.

Now I'm stuck with just my Discovery 3-pack.

I must've just gotten under the wire then for G1 programming.

Early on Dec. 1st I ordered Starz pack thru Skyvision on the DSR-905 to get it active again before the shutdown. This I did through WEBSAMS.

They pro-rated the month of December to my end date of 12/21(for the GI DSR-922), then billed another month to end 1/21/2011.

Guess we need to ask specific questions about these program changes before the end.

 

[truckracer]

Owning a radio station, I live in an RV powered BY the station, and we're backed-up, so I'm very fortunate! Full size standby for our AM/FM all equipment, air, heat, and of course, the owner. 40kw for a 5kw AM and FM translator facility. Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am my "needs" are met by my business! UPS's however are used on all critical equipment during switchover from grid to generac.

By the way, SOME chepaer UPS units do NOT like generator power. We have to use ones with "AVR" (Automatic voltage regulation) or...they constantly switch from generator-powered AC to battery, and eventually go dead during long outages. Larger APC brand units with LCD displays serve us well, and can power our entire FM translator rack, or a production room and our internet servers! (just a heads-up for generator owners....your UPS can still go out when generator is ON, which could cause failure in components with weak batteries!!)

Generators are usually do not provide power that is as clean and stable as utility grid power. At least they don't if you don't have a whole room full of power conditioning equipment. a lot of UPS units will detect the small fluctuations in voltage and frequency as "brownout" or "dirty power" and start over correcting or at least trying to and kill themselves in short order.

i guess ideally...it would be be best have large true sine wave a/c inverters fed from a heavy duty DC source that originated from A/C generators that were rectified and filtered.

 

[stecle]

I just received an email from Dishsupplies which is identical to the Satellite Receivers/Programming Center letter. Are these sellers the same company? Included in the email was the new channel assignment for the changeover. I am very happy that there is still a C-Band option. It is very disheartening to read comments from members refusing to subscribe because their box wont be able to control the actuator-polarizer. Is it any wonder that our C-Band industry is on life support?

 

[Anony55]

...It is very disheartening to read comments from members refusing to subscribe because their box wont be able to control the actuator-polarizer. Is it any wonder that our C-Band industry is on life support?

Different users have different needs. There are many C-Band users where subscription services are not the primary use or purpose of their dishes. Many of us sub to C-Band services just because we can. That doesn't make subbing the main thing we use our dishes for.

Are you saying that it's wrong for other users to not sub, even if it will kill their unit for what they use it the most for? ...Or are you saying that it's wrong for them to kill our units as movers?

Cheers

 

[ZetaMale]

I just got a billing notice from SRL today for 01/01/11-03/31/11 but I sent an e-mail to them to inform them that I will not re-sub if my 4DTV can not be used as a dish mover after the changeover to the HITS authorization stream.

 

[TheTechGuru]

They were there a few days ago. I spoke to them on the phone too the other day and they told me I can order 4DTV programming that runs up to 1/4.

I'm needing to get the NON-W5 Discovery Suite (Masters) until 1/4/11 but I have a no card numbers over phone policy. So they would need to either enable it in WebSAMS or bill me and I'll mail in a check.

 

[TheTechGuru]

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASING ANY SERVICES VIA WEBSAMS!!​

*As of January 4th, 2011 we will only be offering services that are located on the W5 Satellite. As a result, we are adjusting our packages to consist entirely of W5 services.

*We have removed all packages from WEBSAMS that contain programming located on satellites other than W5. These packages will still be available through January 4th, 2011 but must be ordered by phone only.

*When ordering monthly services via WEBSAMS, you will always be charged 1 full month and a partial month to bring your services up to the billing date associated with your account. In some cases you will be charged almost two full months. If you do not know your account’s billing date, please contact us via email or phone and we will be glad to assist you.

*If you have any doubts/questions about ordering services via WEBSAMS, please contact us before purchasing your order.

*Updated packages and pricing will be available to order through WEBSAMS on January 4th, 2011.

Ok, but why did they remove the W5 Discovery Suite from it, I prefer the masters Discovery Suite but I'd be ok with at least being able to get the W5 Discovery Suite even though it's about $2 higher.

 

[ussexplroer]

So I emailed srl and got this back

If customers choose to do the conversion the receiver will act just like the DSR-410 which only picks up W5 and does not move the dish. This is the only way for it to work to get on the new HITS/W5 only authorization stream. I know it's not ideal but it's the reality since Motorola is shutting down the 4DTV authorization stream.


Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 10:36 PM
To: srlpc
Subject: 4dtv and clearing out all satellites except w5

​

I don't know what your reason is for clearing out all sats on a 4dtv receiver except w5. If you could allow us to keep existing sats in the system or tell us in a few more months after everything settles down. We will be able to add them back in. I would rather hear that. Then again I would rather hear also that you would allow more than just the 922, 920, and 405 to be authorized. Like some older comerical receivers. I was looking at one the other day that did the traditional 4dtv and some of the new megapipe on ebay for a little under 200.00 used. If I could authorize one of those receivers for w5 that would be great.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[TheTechGuru]

Have they confirmed whether or not a 905 can be converted? and converted without the need for a LNBF instead of a servo.

 

[tvropro]

ALL please read

All 4DTV models will accept the EMM provider update. Contracts have been signed for programming and a plan is in place. Testing is going on in regards to if the units can be converted without loosing all satellites so you can still move your dish 920/922. At this point testing shows there is some hope as far as channel maps and satellite tiles go. I'm part of the testing program and will post what I can as it comes out and approved for public release. I can't say anything else about the nitty gritty even in a PM so don't PM me about this. You have to remember there are many variables and legal obligations to Motorola about any information released, so there is red tape. So even if a fix is in place the political BS has to clear too. Relax and ride the tide out. Don't toss your 4D or condemn it to a brick yet if you want to retain functionality.
Take a wait and see attitude.