CaptiveWorks CW-600S Premium vs. Viewsat/Coolsat?

[intuitionsys]

Well, don't be afraid that you made the wrong decision about your Captiveworks. I like mine just fine, it's easy to use, has a couple of quirks (but what's perfect?). I bought it because I was a "newbie" and just wanted to watch some TV, doggonit!

That's kinda why I went with the CaptiveWorks because I'm a noob to FTA. It just arrived today. I'll be picking it up at the depot after work this afternoon. I did some laser sighting last night and it looks like I've got a clear line to the sats I'm interested in. With the huge platform I built it clears the treeline by a few feet...

 

[thetractorking]

Hey, congrats....
Looks like you got the same setup I have. Hope you like it...

 

[intuitionsys]

Thanks I'm sure I will! I got everything up this evening except the dish so I'll be doing that tomorrow. People weren't kidding about that Invacom LNB either - it really is a monster

Maybe I'm just too new to FTA to know better but it looks like the CW-600S Premium does have a working blind scan although I haven't REALLY tested it yet (just scanned with nothing connected to see what it would do).

 

[intuitionsys]

Am I wrong here or does the blind scan on the CW-600S Premium just "pretend" to work? I see it finding high quality levels as it scans through the satellite but it never actually does anything beyond that.

I'm enjoying my new setup otherwise. Here is the platform the dish is on. The other dish belongs to my neighbor. He's Chinese and doesn't speak English or French so I haven't discussed with him what he can see with the smaller dish.

Here are some photos of the platform. Normally I would have just put the dish on the roof but because it's an attached townhouse we're not allowed to do that. The parts that are unpainted are where I redesigned the faceplate and extension spar to make them shorter and lighter.

 

[Mr Tony]

Am I wrong here or does the blind scan on the CW-600S Premium just "pretend" to work? I see it finding high quality levels as it scans through the satellite but it never actually does anything beyond that.

sadly it just pretends to work. My Captiveworks says "blind scan" too but it doesnt work

 

[intuitionsys]

It looks like the blind scan actually does work on the CW-600S Premium - if you're patient. I can only guess at what it's actually doing but it appears to be doing one pass with horizontal polarization, another pass with vertical polarization, and then finally scanning the transponders it found a signal presence on. The progress bar goes through 3 iterations, but the third time it often immediately jumps to somewhere in the middle. It takes forever (at least 5 minutes - I haven't timed it) but it has found a few channels that line up with Lyngsat that weren't there before (and I hadn't added them manually).

 

[SATisfied]

It looks like the blind scan actually does work on the CW-600S Premium - if you're patient. I can only guess at what it's actually doing but it appears to be doing one pass with horizontal polarization, another pass with vertical polarization, and then finally scanning the transponders it found a signal presence on. The progress bar goes through 3 iterations, but the third time it often immediately jumps to somewhere in the middle. It takes forever (at least 5 minutes - I haven't timed it) but it has found a few channels that line up with Lyngsat that weren't there before (and I hadn't added them manually).

I have the CaptiveWorks CW600s, not the premium. After I upgraded to the new Kround OS, it did show the blind scan option, but as Iceberg says, it only pretends to work. I get no actual results with it, however, I have read that the premium model does indeed have a working blind scan. I can't verify that since I don't have that one, so if it were me I'd ask all CW600s Premium owners to give their input as to it's actual performance. Anyone have the premium CW who would comment?

 

[intuitionsys]

I'm a bit suspicious of my last entry I may have spoken too soon. When I get home I'll back up my channel list with ChannelMaster and remove every transponder from say AMC6 and then blind scan and see what happens...

 

[Mr Tony]

The easiest way to see if it works is select a different satellite than what you are on and try

I did that when I had a box that people thought it didnt have blind scan. I chose AMC5 and aimed and in the box chose a satellite I couldn't see (like T12) and the blind scan worked.

Even if you nuke all the transponders on a satellite, it may still "see" those on a blind scan

 

[intuitionsys]

Will do. I'll post the results later this evening (at work with the BIG dishes right now )

 

[intuitionsys]

It did exactly what I expected. Quality peaked several times during the scan, but with the transponders gone (used AMC6) it found nothing. Added the TP for GBN, "blind scanned" and bingo it "found" it. So the blind scan truly is blind Oh well...

 

[Mr Tony]

bummer...