General Instrument 400

[Techfizzle]

Somoene has a GI 400 for sale. He says he used if for big dish. He says it doesnt have a module in it but he used to use one that was black witch is never any of the colors of descrambler modules ive ever seen ( maybe DCII?)
Anyway, I cant find any info for it on the web.
1. Is this receiver analog or digital?
2. Does it have motor Control?
3. Can you sub to 4dtv on this?

 

[Mr Tony]

1. analog
2. probably
3. no...only boxes you can sub to DCII are the 4DTV units (905, 920, 922) and also the 410 (which only sees one satellite)

 

[Mr Tony]

OK I did some more checking and found that the GI400 was mainly used for StarChoice which is a Canadian satellite provider. So I was wrong above

Yes its digital but I don't know if its "fixed" on SC sats like the newer boxes or if you can have it map to other satellites.

 

[Techfizzle]

The guy sent me pics of the back it has a lnb in for a dish and then a cable in for cable tv so this was hused for HITS?

 

[Mr Tony]

yeppers

It was designed for the X4 package (G4/G16 at 99W)...the same thing as the 410 does but without the cable connection...now the kicker is two things

1. since it was designed for X4 and that ceased as of today (June 1), can it be remapped for the HITS stuff on W5 (AMC15 at 105W)?
2. Can it be subbed or is the user id on it designated for a HITS setup (cable company)?

 

[Techfizzle]

I thought they were pulling the plug on HITS. Isnt there a few free channles on DCII?
Should I pull my bid on this receiver? Seem its not going to be of any use .

 

[Mr Tony]

I thought they were pulling the plug on HITS.

They moved HITS to W5 (AMC15 at 105W) C-Band

Isnt there a few free channles on DCII?

C-Band or KU? KU has a couple. C Band has much more

Should I pull my bid on this receiver? Seem its not going to be of any use .

That's up to you and your pocketbook whether or not to bid on it

 

[Techfizzle]

Since this is a DCII box, cant I sub to 4dtv? It has the DCII module in it.
Do you have a list or know of a list that says the free DCII channles?
I thought HITS2HOME was going to end this summer, can you subscribe to it?]


SkyReport

The satellite-centric HITS2Home platform operated by the Comcast Media
Center, known for its efforts in supporting programming services
delivered to small cable operators, is preparing to cease operations
this summer.

According to sources, Comcast Media Center's contract for carriage of
HITS programming on Galaxy satellite capacity expires in June. Also,
there are very few affiliates for the service, given that Ku-Band
frequencies can't offer the better signal quality of C-Band. In
addition, the HITS2Home platform cannot support advanced services like
video-on-demand.

Nonetheless, the Comcast Media Center is expected to announce more
details about the platform in conjunction with the upcoming winter
conference held by the National Cable Television Cooperative. The
programming and hardware buying cooperative represents more than 1,100
independent MSOs, their individual systems and more than 12 million
subscribers nationwide.
.

 

[Mr Tony]

Since this is a DCII box, cant I sub to 4dtv? It has the DCII module in it.

just because its a DCII box doesn't mean you can sub to 4DTV. The unit id needs to be subscribable. The ID on the box may already be set up for "hits for cable systems" only. Its like a Dish box and a Bell ExpressVu box. Sure they're both made by Dish (Echostar) but the unit ID is set up for Bell ExpressVu only or Dish abnd are not interchangable. I can't take my DSR505 StarChoice box and subscribe to W5 because the ID is "locked" to Starchoice

Do you have a list or know of a list that says the free DCII channles?

KU? easy
Oklahoma PBS on AMC5
Georgia PBS on AMC3
and formerly the audio channels on G4/G16 (but they ceased today)

I thought HITS2HOME was going to end this summer, can you subscribe to it?

hits2home ceased on KU as of yesterday. It still thrives on C-Band..this is for the 410
DSR-410 Digital Programming

 

[Techfizzle]

can i sub to hits2home?

 

[Techfizzle]

what would do better on cband, a 4 ft radioshack dish or a 10 foot winegard?

 

[Mr Tony]

can i sub to hits2home?

sort of. Hits2home is the cable name for it...the link I posted above is for the 4DTV option

 

[Mr Tony]

what would do better on cband, a 4 ft radioshack dish or a 10 foot winegard?

bigger the dish the better it is...never saw a 4 foot Rat Shack C-Band antenna...a 5 footer yes but not a 4 footer

I use a 6 foot Fortec just fine

 

[Techfizzle]

anyone else i can sub to? i want ala carte.

 

[Mr Tony]

If you have a true 4DTV (905, 920, 922) yes you can sub ala-carte. But those are the only boxes that you can sub ala-carte to
www.callnps.com
www.skyvision.com
www.programming-center.net

 

[voomvoom]

Have you looked here?
Satellite Receivers C band and 4DTV satellite programming

 

[Techfizzle]

1 whats is all in the clear for dc-II
2 the guy said this doesnt not take modules, doesnt DC-II have a module live VC-II

 

[rv1pop]

FYI, I do have a "Black" decoder. I do not know what is different about it, but I may find out later. Very busy with construction now.
POP

 

[schlever]

Pop you building a house out on the spread?

 

[Techfizzle]

i always thought the "black" boxes were boxes H*****S used to get free stuff.
just my .02