Hi All

[justjoe842]

Hello everyone,
I'm new here and I come with questions . I recently purchased 60 of this model receiver at auction and from reading your FAQ section I thinking I might be the proud owner of $300 worth of new boat anchors (paid $5 each).

I tried to set one up which I am pretty sure is new (the first problem I gather from FAQ). I am using a Winegard Sharpshooter SS-3000 antenna (tried it with an without the Diplexer), and I am getting no reception. On the "Installation Steps" menu I show no signal strength on the "Aim Off air Antenna" selection and obviously it acquires no channels when I scan for them (yes I tried anyway).

The menu screen shows software version 00.19.8E, C0136A, 00.06.00. I'm guessing this is version 6.0 (my second problem)


The unit does have a card in it. I am not sure if this receiver has ever been activated or not. It does nothing at all when I select the "Activate Box" selection from the menu. The antenna does work great with my Hisense OTA receiver so I would assume (Ut-Oh) that it should work with this one.

I think about 70% of the receivers I purchased are used but I'm guessing they will be the same version. I grabbed a sealed box when I unloaded them into my storage shed today thing new is always better...silly me.

So, break it to me! Am I the proud owner of 60 useless receivers or is there some hope here on getting these to pick up OTA channels?

Thx in advance, Mark

 

[TNGTony]

Hi justjoe842! Welcome to Satelliteguys.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question, but some one will be around soon enough that may have the right questions to ask you or some info soon enough. Sunday mornings are a little slow so give it a little time.

See ya
Tony

 

[justjoe842]

Thanks for the welcome Tony,

I have an update to my situation. I hooked up one of the used receivers this morning and everything worked great. I was able to quickly get a signal, tune my channels and I'm watching it right now as I type this.

The bad news appears to be that out of 60 receivers I only seem to have about 6 that are packaged with remotes, which it sure seems you have to have. So another question is has anyone had success with generic programmable remotes? I know there are probably a bunch that will work for changing channels and such but what about the dreaded Voom and the color buttons?

I did manage to set up a receiver, scan for channels and view without a remote, just to see if I could. I found that pressing the right arrow button and the last button all the way to the right on the front of the STB will act as the green continue button (at least from this screen), it then allowed me to scroll through the channels using the up and down arrow buttons. So, while it is usable with the remote it would sure be a lot nicer with a remote!

So I guess the new receivers I have are pretty much useless. I don't know what was up with the first one I tested. The second new one scanned channels and such but when I tried to view them I hit the "Authorization" brick wall. So, I pose this to the people in the know, If you had 25 new receivers that could not be used as is would you find a dumpster or hold on to them in the hope that someone someday will figure out a way to make them work? I just hate throwing away anything....

 

[Ilya]

Welcome to the forum, justjoe842!

I hope that out of those 60 boxes at least some have been activated, so you haven't totally wasted all the money...

As for remotes, some third-party remotes will work just fine. It may be tricky though to figure out if all buttons are properly mapped. (I know all Harmony remotes work great, but they are rather expensive)

Good luck!

 

[voomvoom]

If you're interested, you can find some Voom remotes here:
GLOBAL  COMMUNICATIONS

about halfway down the page?

Al

 

[justjoe842]

HI Al & Ilya,
Thanks for the replies. Thanks for the link Al! That is a great price from what I've seen so far. I guess I need to start doing some testing with one of the few remotes I have and find out how many of these units are usable.

Also, from what I have read here, do I understand correctly that the cards and the OTA receiver that can be unplugged from the unit are usable if someone has an activated Tuner. I'm thinking that if the receivers and cards can be of use to someone as spare parts I will pull them all and trash the rest. Unless the general consensus believes that someone will actually find a legal way for these Tuners to be activated and used.

 

[Ilya]

I believe the OTA modules are interchangeable. I don't know if the cards are interchangable (never tried that), but I know for sure that the receiver itself has to be activated, not just the card. If it's been never activated - you can trash it.

 

[ralfyguy]

joe if one of the voom boxes has a software 7.xx or higher, I'd be interested in buying one from you.