C-Tech 5000 HD Combo Plus

[starman345]

I inquired to Clarke Tech about buying one of these receivers and how it might work in North America, they replied there is a North American version in the works and news would be coming in about 4 weeks. You guys know the drill, that might mean in 4 weeks they will say within 5 years there will be a North American version. But...it is encouraging. I have been reading about this model on the European forums and the reviews are good. Gotta love that dvb-s2 blind scan

CLARKETECH.com - Produkte

BTW, this model is about $500 (Canadian $$), that is the existing Euro model, hard to say what they will want for the real NA model.....if it shows up. If it does everything it claims to do, I'm in line for one.

 

[Lak7]

I contacted Technomate about their 6800 / 6900 Super Models, pretty much the same as the Clarketech. The original Spec's had NTSC listed, but was later removed. So there is always hope.

 

[Henry T]

The receiver is already in North America as the Diamond 9000HD. The C-Tech and Diamond are both oursourced manufactured by Hub-Tech of Korea.

C-Tech makes none of their receivers.

The Diamond can be had new in the Box for les than $250. It is a good receiver, members here can tell about the box's limitations.

Henry:tux:

 

[Lak7]

The receiver is already in North America as the Diamond 9000HD.

We are talking about the "New" models, Clarketech "5000 Plus" and Technomate "6900 Super"
Each are about $260 GBP.
If you add....
ATLONA PAL HDMI TO NTSC HDMI 1080P "NO RESERVE" - eBay (item 260350523411 end time Jan-31-09 12:13:38 PST)

Now you are up to $650+ USD, probably could get a Vantage 8000HD for that.

 

[concord]

Be interesting to know if it will do 1080i over Component, their spec says:

"...HDMI & Component Output (YPbPr) with Hardware Upscaler to Improve Picture Quality..."

 

[Henry T]

I understand you are talking about the new models. My point is, that these companies, Clarke Tech, Technomate, Humax, Bob's Beef and Steak; do not make the receivers, this is done by a factory in Asia. What this means is, when calls one of these companies, it is not equivalent to calling the actual manufacturer who does the actual engineering of the receiver.

It seems to me that one needs to start at the manufacturer level see if there is a "super receiver" then go to a "retailer/ distributer" for the future sales in the NA market.

I also believe that it is an unfortunate fact that the market is not driven by guys like us. Untill the buccaneers of FTA need DVB-S2 blind scan and the other bells and whistles we would like, you are not going to really see such a receiver marketed in North America.

 

[phlatwound]

DVB-S2 blind scan would be excellent........but I get a lot more excited about vaporware that also claims 4:2:2 capability.

One of these days..................

 

[starman345]

Henry T, stop raining on my parade, I need something to hope for Seriously though, I think most people reading this realizes its only a matter of time and the better receivers will come, whether this one will or not, who knows?
Lak7, I've been following the Techomate talk on the forums, also the Vantage 8000 hd is very highly regarded. Its interesting, I've noticed since these new boxes hit the Euro market, they have had several firmware updates, very buggy to start but gradually they iron things out. I wonder where it was that manufacturers enlisted customers as free beta testers for their products Would have been unheard of 20 years ago but people seem to have come to expect and accept it.
Also, I noticed the C-tech 5000 mentioned above uses the ndf file format....maybe Channelmaster compatible.

 

[Lak7]

Also, I noticed the C-tech 5000 mentioned above uses the ndf file format....maybe Channelmaster compatible

It's the same NDF format as Coolsats. Same as Diamond, Technomate, MAXDigital, Clarketech and about a dozen other boxes.
If you wanted a Poor Man's Blind Scanning Diamond 9000HD, you just have to get a Coolsat 5000 to scan with, then transfer the NDF Channel List directly to the Diamond, no Channel Master needed. LOL

 

[starman345]

It's the same NDF format as Coolsats. Same as Diamond, Technomate, MAXDigital, Clarketech and about a dozen other boxes.
If you wanted a Poor Man's Blind Scanning Diamond 9000HD, you just have to get a Coolsat 5000 to scan with, then transfer the NDF Channel List directly to the Diamond, no Channel Master needed. LOL

Yes, I have a couple of Coolsats here, they are great for generating blind scanned lists that I can import into MyTheatre format through Channelmaster. The reason I said "maybe channelmaster compatible" is because I was not sure how the terrestrial channels are handled in the box, if they are kept separate from the satellite channels or are mixed in together in one file. Maybe it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

 

[i4tas]

these next generation models "Super and Plus" have only one diference from the first generation it offers Blind Scan of dvb-s channels. I also have heard on other european forums that the blind scan isn't that great and can't do S2... I do like the diamond 9000 tunner which has good signal readings / meter.

 

[Lak7]

There is a whole new Chip Set for the Super and Plus.
Technomate assured me that the Blind Scan will pick up DVB-S2, but would not comment on how long a Scan would take.

 

[starman345]

These newer boxes have been blind scanning dvb-s2 for a year or so now.....thats how far behind the Europeans we are. There is a long thread on satellite co uk about the best blind scan and sensitive receiver on the market. Lots of talk about scan speed, number of channels logged, frequency step of scans, and some side by side comparisons of receivers...pretty interesting stuff.

 

[kaissi]

Hi guys, I hope everybody is doing well. Please allow me to comment on this subject since I own three receivers from Europe: I have a Technomate 5200 super, Octagon 818( from Germany), and a Manhattan XT-F, and they are all perfect . I call the technomate " a Coolsat on Steroids". It is everything the Coolsat is ,and much much more. Comparing it to my Coolsat 5000, it's Almost identical to the Coolsat in the menu structure, but somewhat different in function, but since the most important things for most of us true FTA users is the blind scan and picture quality than here goes: the picture is Identical to the Coolsat( which is very good). The blind scan is twice as fast as the coolsat and as sharp, especially when scanning C-band. It finds everything in half the time. You can backup all your channels via USB and the PVR is flawless. Now ,I know we are talking about HD receivers, and that is my point: Just because the receiver in Europe looks identical to a receiver in the USA, that does not mean that is is a clone .. I am not an FTA expert, but my opinion is that , yes maybe some of these receivers are manufactured by the same mother company, but they have a different software, and please correct me if I am wrong( and maybe I am) but I thing most of the malfunction that comes from a receiver is from the software.

There is also something that makes the receivers from Europe desirable for me and that is the Factory support. Technomate had a great software support. Yes the HD receivers do have bugs on them, but they keep trying to fix them. Sadly , I feel that the manufacturers here cater for hackers , not true fta users. They release a new receiver, full of bugs, and then they stop making new software to fix them, and leave it to the hackers to come up with new software that maybe will fix some problems. Ever since I got these receivers, I promised myself never to get any receiver from North America again. I broke my promise, by getting a Diamond 9000. It is brand new, with the original factory software, I updated to V.104 via Serial cable and for the first two days it was smooth until day three when it decided to screw with me. All the channels started to freeze, and I started to loose my MPEG-4 channels. I reloaded the software again and reloaded my channels via serial, with no hope. I had this problem for a few days, until this morning when it decided to go back to normal.
So, I am back to my promise: I will always buy my receivers from Europe!!.
Please forgive me if I offended those of you who love there Diamonds, Pansats, Colsat, etc. but those are my personal feelings.
Starman 345, also take a look at the Octagon 918, It does have NTSC support.

 

[starman345]

Hello Kaissi,
Are you in North America? If so, have you had any issues with your Euro boxes as to power requirements(I know a plugin adapter is required)? do they have any problems with ntsc signals?
I agree with you about the software-firmware being the stumbling block, stb's are very similar, its usually the buggy software that causes the headaches. The same can be said for the dvb cards, it always seems to be a driver, interface issue.

 

[kaissi]

Hi Starman. Yes, I am located in Texas . All the receivers that I have work perfectly over here. All you need is a plug adapter.They are all NTSC compatible. The Technomate and the Octagon display a perfect NTSC picture on my TVs. The Manhattan has a problem with NTSC TVs : the picture is bigger then the screen. For example: if you are watching a program, you will not see the full frame (the picture is zoomed a little bit).

 

[Tron]

The Manhattan has a problem with NTSC TVs : the picture is bigger then the screen. For example: if you are watching a program, you will not see the full frame (the picture is zoomed a little bit).

Sounds like it is cropping the 625-line PAL frame to a 525-line NTSC frame and discarding the difference...

 

[Lak7]

Technomate said they are also working on an NTSC option / unit.

 

[starman345]

Technomate said they are also working on an NTSC option / unit.

I downloaded a channels list for the tm 6900 from their home page, it is in ndf format but won't open in Channelmaster, does open in Ndfedit.
Sounds good about the NTSC unit, I would take a chance on buying the Euro version if I thought a Pal to Ntsc converter would make it functional here.....but, its a lot of $$ to take a chance on.

 

[Lak7]

I think you have to Import into Channel Master.

EDIT: I tried to import into Channel Master using Coolsat Wizard, did not work. NDFEdit is easy to use though.

I did see a new Sat Meter that blind scans DVB-S2....
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