Coolsat 5000

[Mr Tony]

Didn't see my last night post, try it again.
Thanks Iceberg for such great detail review!!!
After read your review, I got the CoolSat 5000 unit. It's my 1st time trying to install dish & receiver. For some reasons, I couldn't pick up any channels from satellites. In the satellite setup screen, the level bar has about 90% ,Quality only has 4~7% and they are in red not like you posted in green color. Is that because the satellite direction didn't point to the right direction? I'm in OR
Thanks you in advance!!!
pj

I moved the original post out into the main FTA area so we could keep this one to specific questions of the review

Here is your original post
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=54109

 

[jayelem]

Coolsat 5000 flickering lights

Iceberg, have you experienced pulsating or flickering LED display ?

I have been playing with my receiver aggresively for last 2 days, alot of button pushing on remote Up- Down- Menu- Exit, if there's a button I've pressed it , and yes while my Stab HH 100 is changing from bird to bird.

Maybe my receiver is trying to catch up with me and maybe a little patience is what I need, I have experienced loss of remote functions and have remedied it by shutting down receiver, as to the flickering LED - - - - Has anyone experienced this ?

 

[Mr Tony]

never had that happen. And I use my Coolsat 5000 alot..especially when scanning for games

 

[jh98]

I just got my Coolsat 3 days ago, so I've probably been pushing the buttons as much as Jayelem, and I noticed a bit of flickering on the LEDs. I turned it off with the remote, then back on, and the flickering stopped.

The blind scan works fast, but has anyone else noticed it doesn't scan very well? On IA-6 it missed both Azteca channels (the strongest TP on the sat) and Gene Scott, and on SBS-6 it missed WGNO. There were a few others, too. I got them with manual scans, the signals were strong.

The Coolsat does seem more sensitive than the Pansat 2500. On G10R, the 11720 TP is almost as strong as 11800; it was much weaker on the Pansat.

 

[jayelem]

The coolsat 5000 is my first FTA receiver ( not counting Birdview C-band in the 80's) for Mpeg 2, theres a couple of issues I have with this unit and I believe they were pointed out by Iceberg.

One being that programmed satellites not factory installed are out of sequence and cannot be moved unless you use Channel Master program via Computer cable.

Another feature which I haven't been able to get used to is that using USALS although great positioner, when you enter new data for new sat and exit, your positioner will move back to previous Sat you were on, or channel changing when setting is on all sats will move your dish unless you remember to chose only that specific Sat. I'm sure its some sort of default and in time I'll figure it out.

+ Scanning is fast, yes I've noticed some channels were missed, I also have tweaked my dish and Improved Quality and this seemed to help pick up more sats.

 

[Mr Tony]

The blind scan works fast, but has anyone else noticed it doesn't scan very well? On IA-6 it missed both Azteca channels (the strongest TP on the sat) and Gene Scott, and on SBS-6 it missed WGNO. There were a few others, too. I got them with manual scans, the signals were strong.

thats weird...Azteca scanned in for me. Doc Scott didnt but when I changed the option for symbol rate to "Detail" it picks it up. (I know there is a feed real close that might overpower it)
WGNO is really low right now. I can barely get it with my Pansat 1500

The Coolsat does seem more sensitive than the Pansat 2500. On G10R, the 11720 TP is almost as strong as 11800; it was much weaker on the Pansat.

that is one drawback....a 66 signal on the Coolsat could be the same as a 30 on a Pansat. I use to have a thread on that a long time ago where a signal that was 99 on the Pansat was a 80 on the Coolsat and a 30 signal on Pansat was a 65 on Coolsat. The best I can get for signal on the Christian station on AMC6 (which blows the meter off my Pansat) is a 83

 

[jh98]

I'll spend some more time figuring out how it scans. When I scanned SatMex, it showed 125 radio channels, apparently from Echo 7 on 119.

I know you can't compare numbers from one brand of receiver to another... but on the Panset 11720 on G10R were almost breaking up, and they're very strong on the Coolsat. I found the same thing you did with the religious channel on AMC 6.

When I scanned Amazonas, I also picked up several TPs from the Echo/Sky Angel sat. Around a 90 signal! (of course, they're all scrambled, and oddly, it scanned in about half of the Sky Angel channels twice.)

 

[Mr Tony]

thats weird with Amazonas....I can scan Amazonas and Echo3 separately with no crossover. On the Coolsat make sure to only scan between 11700-12200 for KU and 12200-12700 for DBS.

I did notice that 11720 on G10 was stable on the Coolsat

 

[jayelem]

Look Familiar

I just found Clarke- tech receivers (Germany)

They sure look alot like Coolsat 5000.

I wonder how similar the software is .

Anyways heres the link : http://www.clarke-tech.com/products.asp

 

[Mr Tony]

It’s probably the same. The loader they use (I just downloaded it) is the same thing I have for my 4000 & 5000. I didn’t check the software (don’t want to blow up my box) but it probably is the same

 

[Mr Tony]

I downloaded the manual and the screen shots they show look like the Coolsat. Just the signal strength/quality bars look different

(oh, and they probably have a European satellite list loaded into it)

 

[jayelem]

Channel Editor

Iceberg
Here is a link for the settings editor zip, if you download it and try it you can compare it with channel master.

http://www.clarke-tech.com/download/NDFEdit.zip

It would be nice if Coolsat USA could be a little more up to date and offer more user applications like ,loader, games, updates, etc....

 

[Mr Tony]

its the same thing that Coolsat uses

It is different than ChannelMaster. I'll play with this one a little more with my existing list and see how easy it works versus Channelmaster

 

[sling-blade]

Does the PIP show one pic live while the others are "frozen"?? I'm looking for an STB that can show several pictures at once live instead one one pic live and the others just pictures.

 

[Mr Tony]

no

they're frozen (except for one) but you can roll to the others and then the picture comes up

For a true PIP, the Pansat 6000 would work. It does 2 screen PIP

 

[viking540]

getting a new coolsat 5000

I am sure this will be of great help to me in setting up my new coolsat

I had the privalege of reviewing the Coolsat 5000. The 5000 is the newest model from Coolsat, and is an upgrade from their very popular 4000 model. I was able to review the 4000 a while back, so I got to see first hand what the 5000 would do.
The first thing I noticed is the unit is slimmer than the 4000 and a little bit heavier. On the back were a set of audio video plugs, s-video, rf inputs & outputs, and a loop out for a second receiver. The 2 big features are the component outputs and BOTH a coaxial and RCA output for Dolby digital. I didn’t know if the unit would output AC-3 or not, but would find out later. The remote is a universal one and the main buttons are big. Don’t have to fumble around with this one : )
Once I hooked up my setup and turned the unit on, the first screen made me pick my language. After I selected English, it popped me to the familiar Coolsat screen. I selected installation and it asked me for my password. I learned with the 4000, there was a screen that you could turn off the “ask password”. I’ll get to that later. I selected Dish Setting and went in to change my LNB setup. Here is where you set up your system. I selected IA6 because it was my True South. The cool part is it has the new names of satellites (IA6. IA5, etc). Since I was using a regular LNB, I selected 10750 as LNB Frequency and backed out of this screen. I then went into the motorized setup. This is the one drawback of the Coolsat (in my humble opinion). I have used a Pansat for so long (and the Pansat allows you to set everything up in one screen) so I’d have to get use to the 2 separate screens for motorized. I selected a transponder that was active and scrolled down to motor. Since this was a temp setup, I used 1.2 settings and moved until I had a green quality. The neat feature when moving is you hold down the button to move but when it got near the signal, when you let go of the button, the unit seems to hone in on the best signal. You can fine tune if needed. So I went to save it, but here is a cool feature. You just have to exit (make sure to say yes to save changes). The unit STORES IT BY ITSELF!! No need to pick a satellite to store (the Pansat needs to select a satellite) and no having to monkey around with it–just back out. I could use the USALS feature, but I’ll do that once I set the unit up for full use. I backed to main screen and decided to do a blind scan. The Blind scan has lots of options. You can scan the whole KU spectrum (11.7-12.2) or just what you want. So if you know a frequency is somewhere between 11990-12010, just program that in. You don’t have to wait for it to scan the whole spectrum. But one thing I noticed is the blind scan is FAST! I changed the mode from “ALL” to “FTA” because I didnt want the scrambled stuff. The unit scanned IA6 and as it scan, it logs the channels. Other receivers I’ve used log all the Transponders it finds, then scans the transponders for channels. This does it in one step, logs the transponders and channels. I put it up against my Pansat for speed. I had both units on same satellite (SBS6) and blind scanned it. Both units picked up the same amount of transponders and channels, but the Coolsat scanned SBS6 in almost half the time as the Pansat 1500 I have used for 20 months. This is a major plus in my book as I do a lot of scanning for feeds. Once I was done, I decided to scan a DBS slot. So I went to Nimiq1. But much to my amazement, it wasn’t in there. Neither Nimiq satellites were in there. So I added it, as there are 20 blank satellites. So I added Nimiq 1 and repeated the above. Since I had a 22k switch for DBS, I had to select the 22K on. I figured the blind scan would be a little longer, just due to the amount of channels the unit would be processing, and whether or not it was free. It blind scanned Nimiq1 and logged all free channels in just under 5 minutes. It only logged the free channels, no dummy channels like some other units do. For fun, I scanned it saying “ALL” and it scanned in just under 4 minutes. So the extra minute was for figuring out if it was free or not.
I scanned a few more satellites in so I could see what the unit can do. One option once you are set up is scan multiple satellites. It would scan one satellite, and then move to the next. I did scan in AMC3 so I could check the AC-3 to see if it would output it. I hooked up my simple audio decoder to it and popped on PBS. Much to my happiness, the Dolby digital light came on the audio receiver and I had audio. So AC-3 comes standard on the unit, and I didn’t have to monkey around with settings. The unit has a picture in guide so I can scan my channel list and still see my program. The only thing I have to get use is when you find a channel, you have to hit OK twice. If you hit it once, it goes to that channel, but if you exit out it goes back to the last channel you were on. When you are in the channel guide, it does show the transponder info in the right corner. I flipped over to the audio side, where there is a picture of a radio and your info bar at the bottom, which does disappear after a few seconds. The radio picture is nice, but I would go for a black screen as to prevent burn in on the TV. One thing I noticed was on ExpressVu the EPG populated very quickly. I just wish most programmers would have EPG info. This is a nice feature but pretty much useless since most programmers don’t have EPG info. This does work good for the audio channels because you don’t have to remember what channel has what type of music on it.
The unit has a real time clock that can be set by satellite or manually. Some satellites have the clock off so I manually set it. There are 8 timers that can be set if you want. I did set one and it went off without a hitch. One of the “oddball” features is the multi screen option. You can have multiple channels on one screen. Unless you select one of the screens, all it has is a screen shot. If you select the channel, then you get the live picture. You can do 1x2, 2x2, 2x3 or 3x3. I did the 2x3 option and it showed the channel I was on and the next 5. This is neat but if one or more of the channels are on another satellite, the unit moves to it (I tried this on SBS6 where I only had 4 channels and then it moved to AMC6 where the next two channels in my list were).
Moving, editing, and deleting channels was a snap. One of the features is you can delete all radio channels, all scrambled channels, or all channels. There are a couple games and a calculator in the setup too.
The main features of the unit are
-on screen display
-DiseQc Control (can use both a motor and a switch)
-DiseQc 1.2 and USALS
-8 favorite lists
-skip, delete, move, and rename channels
-Channel sort by name and transponder
-EPG
-Blind scan
-Multi satellite search
-Manual and PID scan
-Games
-Parental Lock
-Component output
-S-Video ouput
-Dolby Digital output and AC-3 output
-Multi picture
-Universal Remote
-card reader
Some of the features I really like are the FAST blind scan, the multiple satellite scan and the AC-3 output.
The minor nuisances are pretty minor. The first thing I have to get use to would be the “hit OK twice to go to a channel”. I’m use to hitting OK once and then hitting exit to remove the channel list. When you hit OK twice that does the same thing. The other minor thing is the quality meter. The 4000 had the same thing and I thought they would change this. The meter seems to only work between 60-85, which when using other machines can be a bad thing. My Pansat has a very spazmatic meter, but it seems to be true. The unit goes from 30-99. I scanned in a feed that shows as 99 on the Pansat, yet only a 83 on the Coolsat. Conversely, the Pansat logged in a channel at 45, but the Coolsat shows 70. The Coolsat logged the Nimiq1 satellite as 79-83 on all tranponders, when other units would log it as 75-99. This worries me as I don’t know if the feed is a 35 (and could break up) or at a 99 (and booming.) Maybe Coolsat will fix that.
All and all, this is an upgrade to the 4000 I tested a while back. I know the 4000 now has the same blind scan parameter option as the 5000 does, but the AC-3 standard and it seems like this unit is faster in the blind scan than some other units I’ve worked with. The main differences between the 4000 & the 5000 are the component output, AC-3 standard and the blind scan seems to be a little faster than the 4000 when I reviewed it. The one drawback between the two is the 4000 has 2 set of a/v outputs, where the 5000 only has one. The 5000 replaced that other set with the component output.
On a 1-10 scale, I give this unit a solid 9.5. With a fast blind scan and AC-3 standard, along with an easy to use remote (very big buttons) makes this a great receiver for the beginner or for the veteran. This is a unit I highly recommend if you are looking for a FTA unit.

 

[rargado]

very accuate and informative review...
ever considered a career as a food critic?

 

[Mr Tony]

very accuate and informative review...
ever considered a career as a food critic?

no way....2 reasons

-I'm not real big on trying new foods (when I was a kid that was the big thing...lets try this new dish). I don't like the deviate off of my "normal" list of foods
-Ever see the episode of the SImpsons where Homer is the food critic and they try to kill him? Thats another reason

I just like reviewing satellite stuff

 

[WyrTwister]

After reviewing both the 4000 & the 5000 the main differences I can see
-4000 has 2 sets of a/v ouputs…5000 only has one
-5000 has component output…4000 doesn’t.
-5000 seems to scan faster
-5000 has AC-3 output out of the box and standard.
-5000 has both RCA & Digital output for AC-3

Please forgive my ignorance , but when you are tuned to an AC# channel on my Ultra , I get no sound period .

Do you get any sound on the TV , with the Coolsat on an AC# channel ? Or do you hace to have it hooked up to a sound system ?

I get sound on my PCI DVB-S on an AC# channel .

Thanks ,
Wyr

 

[Mr Tony]

you need to hook it to an external receiver that can decode AC3 (I have an old Wally World tuner that can decode it)