OTHER GeoSatPro HDVR1200

[wvman]

I haven't seen any discussions on this particular receiver, but that doesn't mean they aren't there because I am new to the forum. I bought two of these receivers and hooked them to my old C-Band 7.5 foot dish. It works well, but I was wondering if someone has a little tuning advice. When I set up the channel scan, I set it first to a normal scan, and once I had several channels identified, I added a blind scan to the mix. Found several other channels it missed on the standard scan.

Since then, I have done a blind scan just to see what else is there, and when I do this, it rescans and does away with the modifications I made to the channel name. Is there any way to lock these names in place so I don't have to keep renaming the channels when I do another scan? I save the changes each time, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I realize a factory would do away with all your custom settings, but that isn't what I'm doing. Any suggestions. It's not all that big of a deal, but it would be nice if it retained the changes.

 

[FTA4PA]

wvman! I don't have any experience with the GeoSatPro HDVR1200 receiver but both my X2 Premium (killed by lightning) and my Amiko Mini HD SE did the same thing to channel names if you rescanned. To get around that, once I get everything renamed the way I like it, I make a backup of my channel list to a usb drive. When I do blind scans and find any new channels I like I write all the info about them down (satellite, frequency, symbol rate, polarity) then I restore my channel list back up from the usb drive and do a manual scan on only the new channels transponders. It may change a few names if they happen to be on the same transponder as the new channel but everything else remains unchanged. Also works if you scan for feeds a lot - just restore your channel list from usb drive after feed is gone.

 

[drunk247]

The workaround I do is to manually add channels that you want to not get scanned over. Then when they scan in with a different name they won't overwrite the channel that you added. You can then delete the one with the name you don't want.

 

[Titanium]

Extract the channel list from the receiver and use the PC editor to change the channel SID to an unused number (example:0). Reinstall the channel list back to the receiver. Next time you scan, these channels will not be updated. The channels will scan in again as the receiver thinks that they do not exist as you wiped out their identifying data. Personally, I find it easier to delete the duplicate channels than rename.

 

[Corrado]

I have a dummy test satellite location stored that I use for blind scanning purposes as to not mess up my stored channels. If I find something I like or permanent I will add the TP manually to the list and just scan that TP.

Changing the channel SID to 0 worked great as long as you have a channel editor that's easy to work with. Some I have tried are likely to cause more issues than they are worth.

 

[wvman]

I saved the channel info to my external drive and so far , it's worked well. I am currently doing something that's a bit of a pain on some channels, but I had to do it to get a couple channels I like. My dish was originally positioned on Galaxy 16. At first, when I tuned the receiver, it picked up a few channels that were on SES1. In order to get the channels on SES1 & Galaxy 16, I had to move the dish between the two satellites, which worked well on most channels. I am currently looking for another dish so I can position one on each satellite, as I lost some of the channels that were weaker.

I do something going on that's a bit odd, but it may just be the nature of the beast. When I had my 7.5 foot dish positioned on Galaxy 16, the highest signal I had was 73 on the quality. After positioning the dish between the two satellites, I still have between 58 & 60 quality on most channels, but I am getting a good bit of video breakup on certain channels. Some channels even though the signal was at 73 still acted like it was loosing the data stream. Some are still too bad to watch. I am wondering if I need to do an LNBF change, as this one has been on there for several years. It is a digital LNBF, but it's getting some years on it.

 

[FTA4PA]

I saved the channel info to my external drive and so far , it's worked well. I am currently doing something that's a bit of a pain on some channels, but I had to do it to get a couple channels I like. My dish was originally positioned on Galaxy 16. At first, when I tuned the receiver, it picked up a few channels that were on SES1. In order to get the channels on SES1 & Galaxy 16, I had to move the dish between the two satellites, which worked well on most channels. I am currently looking for another dish so I can position one on each satellite, as I lost some of the channels that were weaker.

I do something going on that's a bit odd, but it may just be the nature of the beast. When I had my 7.5 foot dish positioned on Galaxy 16, the highest signal I had was 73 on the quality. After positioning the dish between the two satellites, I still have between 58 & 60 quality on most channels, but I am getting a good bit of video breakup on certain channels. Some channels even though the signal was at 73 still acted like it was loosing the data stream. Some are still too bad to watch. I am wondering if I need to do an LNBF change, as this one has been on there for several years. It is a digital LNBF, but it's getting some years on it.

I would highly recommend a C1PLL LNB from Titanium Satellite. I have had great results locking some troublesome channels after upgrading from a DRO LNB. No guarantee it will work when positioning your dish between two sats but at only around $40 it's worth a try.

 

[Elkview]

How is your sound with 1200 on HDMI? All I get is noise from day one which was about four months ago. Not near as good of a picture to use other cables to get sound.

 

[wvman]

My sound on the 1200 is great. However, I have a lot of variation on HD channels as to the clarity of the channels. This may be the fault of the transponder or the uplink quality, but over all, the receiver seems to be a good unit. All my HDMI cables are audio over HDMI cables, so I don't need to run additional cables for the audio. One thing you may want to check is the audio settings. If you push the little button marked audio just above the volume control and then hit the right arrow, it will change the audio settings. I've had a few channels that didn't go to the proper audio for that channel when I did a scan for them. If you push the right arrow and it doesn't change anything, there probably isn't an additional setting for that particular channel.

One thing I found out the hard way is that all HDMI cables aren't created equal. I've bought a few cables that were wired different and had no audio or video, and some had only audio. I try to use gold plated cables to move as much signal as possible, especially on long cable runs. If your TV doesn't have enough HDMI ports, Cables 2 Go makes a great switcher. I have a 6 port and it has worked great. It also has a nice little 6 position remote, and it will also switch automatically to any port that detects a new HDMI source. I paid $79 plus shipping for it and it's worth every cent. Great little product.

For FTA4PA, thanks for the info on the LNBF. I just ordered one.

 

[Elkview]

I was walking in the yard and I thought why not hook my wireless sound system directly to the receiver. So I did and the sound is right in my headset. I don't know if the sound is right coming out of the TV through the hdmi because of my hearing. I haven't been able to hear a TV for 10 years. Any problem that most don't pay attention to stops me in my tracks. Now I get sound and a better picture. Thanks for getting me to think.

 

[wvman]

I have a hearing problem as well, but mine is mostly hearing voices clearly in a crowd, but I found a good set of Bose headphones that are wireless. I got them mainly to keep from waking my wife at night. I have a sleep disorder and I am up all hours of the night. Like you, I notice things my wife doesn't even see. It drives me nuts when I see impurities in the picture, and when a digital channel is breaking up, it's even worse. I was in the satellite business for nearly 30 years, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I notice things most people don't see. One of the hardest things I had to do was getting customers to recognize the benefits of quality equipment.

When I bought my first FTA receiver, I was very skeptical about its quality. I was not used to buying satellite receivers for a hundred bucks. I did some research before buying, and maybe there are better choices than the HDVR1200, and if there is, I welcome any suggestions. I am glad you figured out a solution to your problem. I didn't realize you had a hearing problem. So far, I am very pleased with the channels I found, and I hope we don't end up on FTA like we did with C-Band in the early days. The programmers realized there was a huge market and that's when they started scrambling their signals. Hopefully that won't happen with FTA.

 

[Elkview]

After months I finally found out that nothing is wrong with the GEOSATPRO 1200. The Aquos Link on my Sharp 60" TV was causing the problem. Now glad I don't have to change sound around everytime I go from FTA to dish. Apparently is sends feedback somehow.

 

[stbel55]

Like the 1200 but am having problem with the auto software update on gal19. Does anyone know where I can get the latest software to load via USB. Thanks Toronto Canada

 

[KE4EST]

No firmware has been released for that receiver in awhile that I am aware of, you probably have the latest. Also I don't think they use the Satellite Update anymore.