Icon S550 overview

[turbosat]

Santa came early, and I am now the owner of an Icon 550 fta receiver. I researched for weeks, downloaded user manuals on dozens of receivers, new and older trying to find a combination of hardware that would allow fast, reliable blind-scanning. This is box #7 or 8 for me, in 3yrs, and I don't plan on buying another SD receiver. After using the Viewsat for two years, I was eager to try another late edition receiver. Sorry, my camera is crap so I can't throw in any screen shots to make a complete review, but I'll relate what I've learned in two days/nights of playing with this one.

First, its a very well built, solid receiver made in Korea (stamped on the back-would they lie?) Pretty leds ,etc front screen will display channel# or local time, u choose.
Specs say "200 mhz ST5119" processor, 32mbs ram, 8mb flash ram (instead of 2mb). I'm unsure about channel capacity, some of the ads say 10,000 channels, the manual says 8000. Here's some more from one of the net ads:
Features:

• 8MB FLASH ROM!
• Component Video Output
• MPEG-2 Digital DVB Compliant System.
• Enhanced ST20 32bit VL-RISC CPU (ST5119 @ 200MHz)
• SW update through USB and RS-232 Serial port
• 10,000 Programmable Channels & 400 Channels / 9 Favorite Lists
• Program Search by Key words & Theme Menu.
• User-friendly Electronic Program Guide (7 days)
• Innovative GUI Design
• Smart Card Reader Built-In
• Universal remote control

This receiver came out around March 08, and seems to be a sister to the Satopia 1100-specs are the same at least. I read some good reports on that one, and some input from one of our members helped me decide on this one.

It's late and I won't go into a lot of detail as I'm still learning this thing myself, but so far it works pretty much as advertised. It seems to be as fast as the Traxis 3500, but doesn't lock up like the Traxis does on high bit-rate feeds, or HD feeds.
Were it not for that, I would've been totally happy with my Traxis and its super-fast scans. This new receiver scans most of the linear sats in 2-4minutes.
It has several settings for blind-scan , detailed 1mhz, 2mhz steps, a "compact" step-scan, which really is steps of 6mhz, a 'normal scan' of 4mhz steps, and lastly, a 'fast'scan setting of 5mhz. Normal seems to catch everything on the sats, including the low SR channel on AMC6 ku (the preacher/shopathome ch), KTEL
on AMC5, and some low SR channels on G26 and AMC4 that I didn't know existed! And it will scan multiple sats , if you have a diseqc motor connected, which I don't right now. Finding the sports feeds is FUN with this one. No HD or 4.2.2, but I don't have to stop, reboot the box to keep scanning now!
Channel editor I'm still learning, no ChannelMaster support, nor outside program supplied from manufacturer yet. Deleting channels is easy, deleting transponders will remove some from sev diff satellites at once, a big bug in the software for now. AC3 works properly, both type output connectors present. Channel list is very complete, with names used as of March 08, but I can't find any way to 'rename' a satellite-hopefully a software upgrade will fix that soon. There are 10 empty sat slots at the end of the programmed list though, Sat1-10.

I'll add more later on, I haven't loaded any c-band birds yet to try, so this is about the extent of experience that I have so far with the new toy. Fire away with any questions!

 

[turbosat]

more

Ok took me awhile but I finally found it>you CAN edit satellite names with this one.
Under the Manual Scan menu, click on the blue button to get the sat list, pick the one you need. Then the red button for EDIT TP, at the bottom there is an option for Rename Sat! Well hidden, my hat is off to 'em!!
*Another thing I've found with this receiver, if you decide to delete empty transponders using the above menu >Don't ignore the warning that may pop up "TP has Channels associated-delete all? " Apparently the system is different here, if you delete a tp that happens to be the same on another satellite, it will delete there also, along with whatever channels it has on the other satellite you've blind-scanned.
Share's tps or something, weird. But it's still dang fast and I like it more and more.
*Sort channels by satellite is goofed up here, does it on its own, but if you scroll thru the channel list on one sat>it will continue into the channels on the next sat you've scanned, very confusing. Not a show-stopper, you just have to watch for it.

 

[turbosat]

After almost a year

Somemore information about the Icon after having it about a year, and adding a diseqc motor. Just a few things I've learned:

1. Blind scan is tops, picks up channels with SR of 1000, lowest I've ever seen/used. The default range on linear satellite scans is 11700-12900. There have been no software updates released since the box first started shipping to fix this, or anything else. BUT, the range is adjustable with remote, you can set the start and stop freq to scan, say from 11700-11800 if that's your pleasure. But you have to set the stop frequency every time, or it will spend time searching to 12900mhz. The freq range on Cband sats is correct and no adjustments needed, again,the range you scan can be adjusted easily.
2. With a diseqc motor, control is very good, I use USALS and it is right on the money with every satellite entered. Setting up the motor is easy , and adjusting the orbital location for every satellite included (or added) is possible.
>a: The motor will take off on its own if you're not careful flipping through the channel list. The channels are grouped by satellite, and you can scroll through, but if you're on , say AMC5, and flip through the channels until the last one listed, the next channel in the list may be on G18, and the motor will start moving. No way to just use the channel up/down to flip through one satellite's channels without that happening. Hit OK to bring up the channel list for each satellite, and you can see if you're nearing the end of that sat's list, though. Aggravating, but you get used to that.
>b: In the Channel Edit menu, channels can be deleted one by one or many at a time. Hitting ok places a checkmark by each one, then the red button saves the 'delete' listed channels. AGAIN, after those channels are wiped out, the motor will take off to the satellite where the next channel in the list is located. Grrrrr.
>c: Call up a satellite before scanning it, otherwise the motor will return the dish to the current satellite once the scan is done.
>d: There is a 50second delay built-in to the blind-scan feature, even if you're already on the satellite you wish to blind scan, it still sits there 50seconds before starting the scan. Not too important as it usually scans ku birds in 3-5 1/2 minutes!
3. The specs claim more channels=but I've found this Icon will start acting goofy, and a couple of times has deleted its own memory after reaching about 850 video channels (and a couple of hundred radio channels). No big deal, I can reload the list I saved to the usb stick.

That's about it for now, other than the motor's 'mind of its own' behaviour, I have really been satisfied with the overall use of this receiver.