Did you get any FTA stuff for Christmas?

[Larry1]

I just ordered another PCI DVB-S card for my computer. Found one on the boxing day specials. Hopefully It will be here on Thursday. Did get myself another hard drive and USB case before Christmas as I was finding too many recordings that needed to be edited filling up my hard drive. Now looking for a good price on good quality blank DVD's to put the recordings on.

 

[hantu]

I received the ninth ed. of The World of Satellite TV book. Since it is only one of a few non-fiction titles received, I'm only through the first 45-50 pages of it. From looking through the table of contents, I get the feeling that it will be quite the informative purchase! I'm looking forward to digging deeper into it tomorrow.

Since my birthday and Christmas are only two weeks apart, I usually buy myself what I didn't get for Christams as birthday presents to myself. Can you say "Hello, FTA Direct? May I have a Collsat 5000 please?" Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!

Cheers everyone and Happy Holidays!!!!!!

 

[Tron]

Got a used SG-2100 motor (my second) before Christmas, very cheap My Christmas FTA project is underway, namely, weatherproofing my motorized installation and setting up the 36" dish I found

 

[gizzer777]

Interested in how you weatherproof your FTA

Got a used SG-2100 motor (my second) before Christmas, very cheap My Christmas FTA project is underway, namely, weatherproofing my motorized installation and setting up the 36" dish I found

I see you have pretty much the same setup I am looking at for my dedicated FTA dish...Question, What are you using to weatherproof the motor drive? I presume you like the Winegard....Can you say what state you are in...for reference purposes (dish size)...

You Found a 36" dish....A NICE FIND INDEED!
TIA
Jeff

 

[Mr Tony]

gizzer
Tron is from NEw Orleans...there's lots of dishes there for the taking

 

[Mr Tony]

Oh Boy....NICE one with the Hard Disk too I presume!!!

correctamundo 2 tuners and a hard drive

Let us know (I am sure you will) how you like the new receiver!!!

I usually do

 

[spyder]

I broke down and ordered my Manhattan ST550 receiver with the built-in 36 VDC positioner. Had to order from across the pond so it'll probably be here towards the first of the year. Will do a review of it when I receive it.

You'll really like that unit. I'm still using the ST550 as my main DVB unit. I just wish we could see more quality units such as these imported and sold here in the states.

 

[satseeker]

I'm an FTA noob, second post here, and I did the 'from-me-to-me' deal. Very cool forum you've got here Iceberg. I shopped at the ol' eBay and got a Viewsat Platinum, sg2100, Winegard 76cm and Invacom Quad lnb. Dug a hole, concreted the post into the ground and assembled it all today. Since I took the week off, tomorrow will be the alignment-cussing day and then I can get some quality couch time with a few cold ones and a new toy to play with.

 

[Tron]

I see you have pretty much the same setup I am looking at for my dedicated FTA dish...Question, What are you using to weatherproof the motor drive? I presume you like the Winegard....Can you say what state you are in...for reference purposes (dish size)...

You Found a 36" dish....A NICE FIND INDEED!
TIA
Jeff

The Winegard performs quite well, and has better stats than some dishes a bit larger. I would still be using it if I hadn't scratched it in transport back and fourth to Baton Rouge, and subsequently found the 36" dish.

The motor housing itself seems to be weatherproofed quite well from the factory. The SG-2100 is very well built. The problem is with the bracket (the part the motor bolts into that attaches to the pole) and the supplied U-bolts. They strip and break very easily, and also can corrode in moist environments (as Iceberg said, I'm from New Orleans )

The solution (hopefully) for me is to drill out the holes in the bracket where the U-bolts go so they can accept a commonly available (at ACE Hardware) 3/8" zinc U-bolt. I then paint the entire bracket with grey primer, making sure the holes I drilled out are also coated. I also drilled out and painted the two clamps that the U-bolt goes through on the other side of the pole.

For good measure (since I scratched it when I removed the dish), I also painted the motor dish shaft. I removed the shaft from the motor with a hex key before doing this. While the dish shaft was off of the motor, I applied some household grease to the actual shaft of the motor itself to prevent possible corrosion.

Weather permitting, I should be re-installing my motor with the 36" dish later this week

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

Technically, this isn't FTA Christmas but:
-I got a video card for Christmas, which means I can TV-out my DVB Card. So far, 4:2:2 feeds and the PBS HD station look pretty good on the TV.
-Friend dropped off a pair of Analog receivers his family used to use a long time ago. I have no idea how to use them, but one says it is a Videochiper II descrambler. Any idea if this will pick up analog stations by itself?
(Obligatory "Not interested in hacking" note -- just hoping this will work as a standalone receiver)

 

[Mr Tony]

Disco
All analog receivers will get the free analog feeds and channels (as long as it can do KU band which most will)

I have a couple old Toshiba recevers that have the VCII boards out and they work great for those analog feeds

 

[gizzer777]

Toshiba...Nice one< Slightly OT

Disco
All analog receivers will get the free analog feeds and channels (as long as it can do KU band which most will)
I have a couple old Toshiba recevers that have the VCII boards out and they work great for those analog feeds

Hi Iceberg...

Those Toshiba receivers were nice! I really liked that orange tracking display on the front and wish the 4DTV had one! I cannot remember what happened to mine, so I have gotten all my " unused C band stuff and put it into a spare room" Have been busy tuning and upgrading my BUD waiting for the new winegard setup to arrive (getting really tired of switching polarization everytime I go to use my FTA Viewsat Extreme!

Next on my list will probably be a Pansat 3500S unless something newer and "greater" comes out.

Also been replacing more batteries on my VCII boards...Last one was 14 yrs old and still the 3 V panasonic battery was at 3.4V!! Think I will Ebay a couple, since I can now sell them with confidence (with the new batteries)!

 

[Mr Tony]

giz
I have a couple TRX-1420's so they dont have the tracking display (Ive seen those before) and an old Uniden 4200.
Use to have a TRX1520 (had UHF capability) but PSB has it now

The analogs still work like a champ....can get all the anlog feeds (just wish I could get a C-Band dish to compliment it...stupid HOA)

 

[bigOleB]

I voted: Buying now with money from Xmas

1.2 Meter w/ Motor - eliminate some of the rain fade

 

[Mr Tony]

Just got a new toy (the “to me from me” gift)…the Pansat 6000 arrived

Too bad the fedex man delivered it at 8:30….and I have to work until 5 : (

I scanned the manual and this manual actually looks somewhat decent. Two tuners (that can work with one dish or totally independent of each other and control TWO dishes) and a PVR

Looks like I’ll be spending my weekend playing with a new toy

 

[gizzer777]

They always do that

Just got a new toy (the “to me from me” gift)…the Pansat 6000 arrived
Too bad the fedex man delivered it at 8:30….and I have to work until 5 : (
I scanned the manual and this manual actually looks somewhat decent. Two tuners (that can work with one dish or totally independent of each other and control TWO dishes) and a PVR
Looks like I’ll be spending my weekend playing with a new toy

Both Fedx and UPS usually deliver here at about 8pm so I can't play!!
Have fun....if you like it, I may spring for one after I get my new dish up...Like the HD idea!
Jeff

 

[Mr Tony]

giz
It doesnt do HD...

 

[sharris]

For those of us without PVR, I recieved a DVD recorder/player. I have a twinhan, but if you want to burn a hardcopy, you have to convert and BS around with it to get a working DVD. Now, I just have to hit record.

looking for a 1.2m as well with some christmas money.

Hey Ice, have fun with the pansat. Looks like a decent machine.

Oh ya, just about forgot, picked up a Fortec Lifetime Ultra, used, but in great shape off of EBAY for 45$. so looking forward to playing with that.

 

[Mr Tony]

nice price for the Fortec

The thing I like about the Pansat 6000 when I read the book is you can cut commercials out after recording a program

 

[Larry1]

My Nexus-s card arrived on Thursday. Installation was really easy, MyTheatre has the updated drivers, and MyTheatre handles the card very nicely. I only have the card seup for recoding of my shows that conflict with my Twinhan card. The only modification I had to do is adjust some of my recording in task scheduler for the second card. (add /CARD2 to the task scheduler entry)
I like storing the shows in mpeg form on a DVD as the files are so small, and there is no loss in picture quality. Some of the newer DVD players will play the mpeg files directly so they do not need to be converted to DVD format.
VideoReDo is great for editing the mpeg files and fixing the data streams. When I started I would go through and edit out the commercials, but I soon settled for just cutting out the recording before the start and after the end of the show.
For my StarChoice system I have a LG PVR, but have found that its recordings are flawed. I now have found that the Pioneer would of been the better choice. The discs made by the Pioneer are by far better. They play in many more machines than the discs made by the LG. i.e. will not play, or will not show the time properly. With the LG if you divide or edit a recoding on the PVR, you can not high speed copy it to a DVD. With the Pioneer you can. I am finding this to be a great disadvantage of the LG PVR. I am still putting the LG to good work as I am just enjoying Turner Classic Movies on my StarChoice system. The free preview runs out tomarrow though. This will be one channel that I will be adding to my package.