just recieved my new pansat 2700a

[drhydro]

Well i am now the proud owner of a pansat 2700a. Initial impressions upon opening the box are good. The remote is a universal (will control tv, vcr, dvd)remote that looks fairly easy to use. That will make the wife happy, we will be able to cut down to only a couple of remotes. The users guide is better than what came with my satworks 3618, although there are several translation errors, some of which are kinda humorous. Now i cant wait to get home and hook it up :-D

I do have one question tho. I am going to be picking up a V-Box II diseqc BUD positioner. It will appear to the pansat to be a diseqc motor. Will i be able to use a diseqc switch with this setup? Currently i have 3 dishes on a switch going to my satworks 3618. I would like to set up the Pansat the same way.

I have seen here in the forum that a motor and switch can usually be used in conjunction with each other, with the switch in between the motor and the LNB(s), but i am unsure as to whether or not the Pansat will allow that. The manual is not clear on this. Anyone know?

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, i have new 4 strand ribbon cable for my BUD that i have to run (buried for about 25' then into the house) from my reciever to my BUD. I also picked up a used c/ku corotor (with LNB's) that i have to install. Then i have the joy of programming my new pansat for both c and ku. Wish me luck folks

 

[Stefan]

"Will i be able to use a diseqc switch with this setup?"

I can't say for certain, but I think you should be able to. I'm using a 4 port switch (only use 2 of the ports right now) on my current setup. I have a 40 x 30 primestar on a SG2100 that's currently my main dish. However, I recently installed a fixed 1.0 meter primestar pointed at G10. i had to do this because trees were obstructing my motorised dishes view of G10. Anyway, I'm using the DiSEqC switch between my Pansat 2500a and the 2 dishes. In the menu under antenna setup you can tell it which port to use for each satellite. So, I simply have it setup such that whenever I switch to a channel on G10 it switches to the fixed 1 meter dish. So far it works quite well.

As to whether you can use the switch between the motor and the LNB, I'm not sure but I think that for most of the small dish motors you can do this without problems. Whether it will work between the Vbox II and LNB, I don't know, but if it doesn't you might be able to use a 22KHz switch or a 13/18v switch.

 

[drhydro]

Thanx for the reply stefan. your right, i can always use 22 khz tone or 13/18 v switches cascaded as necessary if the diseqc doesnt work right.

 

[Mr Tony]

you will be able to use a motor with a Diseqc switch. I have for over a year

and Dr......once you get it working and such, please post a review in the review section for all to see

 

[Shawn95GT]

If you haven't picked up the vbox yet I think this is cheap:

http://www.sgassociates.com/dishes.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

I was trying to figure out what exactly that box does and controling a BUD actuator makes sense .

 

[drhydro]

and Dr......once you get it working and such, please post a review in the review section for all to see

As soon as i get everything up and running i will do a thorough review iceberg ; ) Hopefully i can write one that is as comprehensive as you did for the coolsat 4000.

Here are a few quick notes on the 2700a as compared to my satworks 3618.

Comparing the 2700a to the satworks 3618 is like comparing a Ugo to a Porsche. Both get you there, but one does it much faster and with more elan.

Picture quality is very good on the 2700a, with the satworks i had to adjust the color, brightness, contrast on my tv to get a "true" picture when using the SVGA out. Not a problem with the pansat.

Blind scanning is fast with more options (such as scan FTA only, or scan FTA+scrambled for one).

Menues are easy to understand (who needs a manual?) and logically laid out.

The universal remote is very ergonomic, and controls the Pansat, my tv, vcr and dvd player. The satworks 3618 remote is nowhere near as user freindly.

The signal meter is not as stable as the satworks, but i knew this ahead of time.

The only thing I have found so far that i dont like is that I can only delete channels one at a time. I haven't found a way to select "delete scrambled" as you can in some of the other recievers. Also I cannot view a channel as I am getting ready to delete it. That was kind of a bummer when i scanned a DBS sat the other day and had to delete, one at a time, 300+ channels.

More to come after i have played with the pansat some more.

 

[Mr Tony]

The only thing I have found so far that i dont like is that I can only delete channels one at a time. I haven't found a way to select "delete scrambled" as you can in some of the other recievers. Also I cannot view a channel as I am getting ready to delete it. That was kind of a bummer when i scanned a DBS sat the other day and had to delete, one at a time, 300+ channels.

welcome to the world of Pansat....when you scan Dish satellites, it puts 13 dummy channels per TP...it sucks

ExpressVu has around 125 channels...when it should be 10

 

[drhydro]

If you haven't picked up the vbox yet I think this is cheap:

http://www.sgassociates.com/dishes.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

I was trying to figure out what exactly that box does and controling a BUD actuator makes sense .

Thanks for the link Shaun. I took a look at it and what they are selling is the original V Box, not the V Box II. There are a few differences, but i dont see how i will need the added features of the V Box II. The original V Box will remember up to 28 satellites, the V box II will remember up to 60. If i was using this as a stand alone positioner i would want the added sats, but in my case the reciever will be remembering the positions.

The v box II has an optional remote just for the V box. Once again, because i am not using this as a stand alone positioner, i dont care about this.

I think i will be giving these folks a call, thanks a lot :-D

 

[drhydro]

welcome to the world of Pansat....when you scan Dish satellites, it puts 13 dummy channels per TP...it sucks

ExpressVu has around 125 channels...when it should be 10

lol you knew just what i had scanned, your fav. sat. for music So the channels that came in as $pv... were dummy channels?

 

[Mr Tony]

When you scan any Dish satellite (61.5, 110, 119, 148, 121, 105) it puts 13 “dummy channels” per transponder with names like HBO, BET, Bravo, etc. Nothing on these (the PIDs are all 0000). This sucks because you have 400 channels to eliminate

ExpressVu has some like that too…there are only about 10 FTA video channels on ExpressVu (and the radio too)

What Ive learned to do is I have my KUSat 2600 integrated into my setup. I scan the satellites with that (since there are no dummy channels) and if there is something new, I scan just the TP on the Pansat…less channels to eliminate

 

[drhydro]

i scanned in nimiq 1/3 on saturday, and the first scan showed about 300 (didnt keep track) channels. that was the 1st sat i scanned with the pansat, so i just did a factory reset and then scanned in just the transponders i wanted. I am intending on putting the satworks in my bedroom, so i guess i'll do the same thing as you did with the kusat, and use the satworks for scanning any DBS birds i want to check.

Its too bad the pansat does this, because it is faster at blind scanning than the Satworks is. For comparison, the satworks took almost an hour to scan g12 (c band) vs the pansat taking about 15 minutes.

 

[Mr Tony]

if you only scan FTA channels on ExpressVu, its not as bad

 

[drhydro]

if you only scan FTA channels on ExpressVu, its not as bad

but then you miss the fun stuff that shows up ITC once in a while. oh well, scanning those birds is not something i would do often. BTW, i like the audio that is there (nimiq 1/3), esp the edge. I guess i need to go find another 18" dish and dedicate it there.

 

[Mr Tony]

edge 102 (toronto) & Power 97 (winnipeg) are real good

 

[Shawn95GT]

but then you miss the fun stuff that shows up ITC once in a while. oh well, scanning those birds is not something i would do often. BTW, i like the audio that is there (nimiq 1/3), esp the edge. I guess i need to go find another 18" dish and dedicate it there.

Hehe - when I permanently wire my dish in I plan on swinging the Voom dish over to 91W since it's all but useless pointed at 61.5.

Maybe then my GMT offset time will stay nice too .

Shawn