Linkbox 9000i

[wvman]

Is anyone running a Linkbox 9000i receiver? I just received one, but I haven't had time to hook this one up. I intend to do that this weekend. I did like the fact that it has an internal power supply. With my security system and my satellite equipment, I am wall wart poor. I did look over the manual a little bit, but not extensively, and it doesn't look overly complicated to program. Any recommendations, warnings or weaknesses with this receiver?

 

[norman881]

Is anyone running a Linkbox 9000i receiver? I just received one, but I haven't had time to hook this one up. I intend to do that this weekend. I did like the fact that it has an internal power supply. With my security system and my satellite equipment, I am wall wart poor. I did look over the manual a little bit, but not extensively, and it doesn't look overly complicated to program. Any recommendations, warnings or weaknesses with this receiver?

I've been using mine for 1 1/2 years. The only problem that I ever had was that I put it into a boot loop (kept restarting) when I uploaded a new channel list. Customer Service was excellent. They pointed me to a file to fix the problem on their web site and it worked like a charm. If you bought the local, it has a strong tuner. My basic cable only has 20 locals on it. The 9000i picks up 38 local channels in my area and some from Idaho. Needless to say I find myself looking through the locals before I move my dish. I never did this before I got the 9000i

HTH
Norman

 

[ZetaMale]

My biggest problem is the lack of NTP time sync. It's been at least 6 months and that issue still hasn't been fixed. Since it syncs the time with transponders you'll get radically different time - sometimes the time is correct, just don't expect it to always be correct. So, don't expect to set up timers to record with any reliability. It's real disappointing that the firmware hasn't been updated to fix the time sync problem.

 

[norman881]

My biggest problem is the lack of NTP time sync. It's been at least 6 months and that issue still hasn't been fixed. Since it syncs the time with transponders you'll get radically different time - sometimes the time is correct, just don't expect it to always be correct. So, don't expect to set up timers to record with any reliability. It's real disappointing that the firmware hasn't been updated to fix the time sync problem.

I record by timer 5 days a week. I usually check the time on the 9000i before I go to work. I've only adjusted it once in the last 3 months. Are you running V1.46?

 

[ZetaMale]

I record by timer 5 days a week. I usually check the time on the 9000i before I go to work. I've only adjusted it once in the last 3 months. Are you running V1.46?

Yes. I need a clock that can be synced to an NTP server, not a transponder time signal that may or may not be correct.

 

[norman881]

Yes. I need a clock that can be synced to an NTP server, not a transponder time signal that may or may not be correct.

I record on 116.8 and 99.0 during the week. The time is always within 1 minute of my 9000i. Please tell me a sat where the time is way off and I'll try time recording a program on it?

Thanks
Norman

 

[wvman]

I've been using mine for 1 1/2 years. The only problem that I ever had was that I put it into a boot loop (kept restarting) when I uploaded a new channel list. Customer Service was excellent. They pointed me to a file to fix the problem on their web site and it worked like a charm. If you bought the local, it has a strong tuner. My basic cable only has 20 locals on it. The 9000i picks up 38 local channels in my area and some from Idaho. Needless to say I find myself looking through the locals before I move my dish. I never did this before I got the 9000i

HTH
Norman

Where I live, OTA locals are non-existent. I live down in a deep valley, and all the locals for my area are on the North side of the mountain behind my dish site location. Even before they went digital, we never received them, so I didn't order the 9000i with the local tuner. I have a 50 foot tower in the yard, and even atop it, no locals. So the tuner wouldn't do me any good anyway. If that's the only down side, I'm good.

 

[wvman]

My biggest problem is the lack of NTP time sync. It's been at least 6 months and that issue still hasn't been fixed. Since it syncs the time with transponders you'll get radically different time - sometimes the time is correct, just don't expect it to always be correct. So, don't expect to set up timers to record with any reliability. It's real disappointing that the firmware hasn't been updated to fix the time sync problem.

The receiver I have now, a V8 Golden has the same problem, and I haven't found a way to switch the clock from military time to 12 hour time. I don't have a problem with military time, but it drives my wife crazy. As far as recording, I do most of it when I'm sitting in front of the TV, but it is a bit of a pain in the arse when I look through my recorded programs and try to find a recorded program by date and time.

Instead of listing the recorded programs by name, it list them by the channel name, like MeTV, followed by the date, which isn't correct in the first place. I tried to change the name once, and it didn't like renaming the recordings to what they actually are, like Hogan's Heroes. The first one went fine, but when I renamed the second one, it went bonkers and listed several episodes as corrupted, and wouldn't play them, and what's worse, it wouldn't allow me to delete them so I could re-record them later.

It works well over all, but it's temperamental as hell with certain things. That's why I decided to try the 9000i. The specs are good, and I like the fact that it has a built in power supply, rather than a wall wart. I was surprised at its weight. Wasn't expecting that at all. Seems like a well made STB.

 

[wvman]

A little disappointed with the 9000i, especially since it cost 3 times what my V8 Golden cost. As for ease of installation and tuning, I have to give it a thumbs up. It's easy to install, and programming the satellites is about as easy as it gets. However, the processor is very slow when processing 1080 HD channels. I noticed during a football game that it doesn't handle fast motion scenes very well.

When a player is tackled, it takes a second or two for the picture to regain its clarity. Once it does, it has a very nice picture. It processes most other channels pretty well, but the picture is much darker than It should be. I tried to adjust the contrast and brightness to compensate for it, but it didn't seem to have much affect on it. Some scenes were so dark, it was difficult to see what was going on in night time scenes.

It tuned the satellites well with the exception of Galaxy 19. While scanning, it listed the 3940 H 30000 5/6 MUX as "Failed." It even showed signal. At first, I could not locate LAFF, Justice, etc:, and then I realized it had entered them in as "no name" with the scrambled "S" in front of them. I had to rename all the channels in that MUX, but I could not find a way to get rid of the "S" in front of the channel name. The switch settings worked without a hitch, but I noticed it has a little trouble finding some channels.

It will show "No Signal" and if it doesn't pop on in a couple seconds, I had to go off the channel and come back to get it come on. The blind scan is very slow, but it is exceptionally accurate as if found channels the V8 missed. I won't send it back, hoping there's a firmware update that will fix some of these issues. Overall, it's a nice STB, with some very good features. I wouldn't call it as waste of money by any means. Perhaps as I use it more, I can work out some of the issues I mentioned.

Just one note. The V8 Golden I'm running has much clearer video and it handles 1080 HD much better than the 9000i, so far. Perhaps I will learn some tweaks and perks as I use this receiver more. This was just a weekend, first time run, observation.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

I haven't had any issues with 1080. I just have the persistent clock issue. Luckily the dish is usually parked on 103w or 125w, which broadcast accurate time. If I could fix the clock it would be a great box. I've tried factory reset, new firmware, etc with no luck.

 

[wvman]

I haven't had any issues with 1080. I just have the persistent clock issue. Luckily the dish is usually parked on 103w or 125w, which broadcast accurate time. If I could fix the clock it would be a great box. I've tried factory reset, new firmware, etc with no luck.

I'm going to hook up the wifi connection and see if the time will stay up to date using it. I checked the 1080 on the FOX CFB channel and a couple other HD 1080 channels and had similar results. I assume these receivers come with the latest firmware updates, but they may not. I could live with sluggish HD, but the darkness of the channels is a bit of an issue. The video all around is not what I expected, and I hated like hell to give a better rating for my V8 than the 9000i.

I liked the fact that the 9000i had a better selection of aspect ratios than the other receivers I have. It did have 4.3 PS which I use for some channels. Perhaps there are internal settings in the 9000i that will deal with the video issue. My other receiver has a brightness, contrast and tint adjustments. Perhaps this one does also.

 

[ZetaMale]

Another isue is that 1080p doesn't work. 1080i seems to work OK though.

 

[wvman]

Another isue is that 1080p doesn't work. 1080i seems to work OK though.

I noticed when I switched to 1080P, the video got extremely jittery. Forgot to mention that. Is that what yours does? I never checked the 720, hows it do on yours.

 

[ZetaMale]

I noticed when I switched to 1080P, the video got extremely jittery. Forgot to mention that. Is that what yours does? I never checked the 720, hows it do on yours.

Yep, the 1080p is jittery and unusable. I'd have to double check but as I recall, 720p was OK. Major issues with this receiver and they're either unwilling or unable to fix them.

 

[wvman]

Yep, the 1080p is jittery and unusable. I'd have to double check but as I recall, 720p was OK. Major issues with this receiver and they're either unwilling or unable to fix them.

Update: I found out one of my HDMI cables wasn't up to snuff. Changed it and the video improved exponentially. I did find video controls that allowed me to increase the contrast and brightness, and now with the new cable and the adjustments, the video is very nice. Having a little trouble getting the wifi to connect. It says it's connected, but when I try to hook to YouTube or one of the others, it says "filed to connect to the server." We have really trashy internet out here, so it could be a problem with it.

As I said, this was a test run to familiarize myself with the receiver. The video now is actually better than my old receiver. 1080 and 720 channels look very nice, although I have not tried the 1080 on a ball game since this weekend. Looks like I'm going to have plenty of time to play with it. I had to have the end of my toe removed and the podiatrist told me to stay off it for a few days. Hopefully, it heals well enough I don't lose the whole toe. Being a diabetic, these kinds of problem can go either way.

Any way, I like the receiver since I made some miner tweaks. The channels change quickly, and the only issue I have is the 1080P not working and the blind scan being a bit slow, but as I said, it may be slow, but it's more accurate than my old receiver. I believe I'll order a second one for the wife's TV. Cheers!

 

[ZetaMale]

I tried different HDMI cables - no joy.

 

[wvman]

I tried different HDMI cables - no joy.

I may have not been clear about the HDMI cable replacement. It didn't help the 1080p issue. It's as jittery as before the cable change, but the over all video quality improved. The 720P setting is just fine. Sorry for the confusion. I got this in an email.

"The problem with 1080p is that 1080i can not be (upscaled) from interlaced to progressive scan. So most broadcasts on satellite are 1080i and will only look very good when viewed in 1080i, if you choose 1080p to view a 1080i broadcast it will not look good. But unless you have a VERY large TV you will not be able to see the difference between the 2 (1080i or 1080p)."

Everything look so good now, I'm not too concerned about it. Maybe they'll find a workaround later. Have a good day.

 

[RT-Cat]

After 11 months mine died. They replaced the unit and it works very well.
Since it has been stated here that some record with this unit I have a question on a problem I have had with watching a recording. If you watch one hour of a two hour recording and must stop the playback and come back later, I have found no way to "mark" the location when you stopped playback. The recording starts all over again. Has anyone found a way to restart where you stopped the playback?

 

[wvman]

After 11 months mine died. They replaced the unit and it works very well.
Since it has been stated here that some record with this unit I have a question on a problem I have had with watching a recording. If you watch one hour of a two hour recording and must stop the playback and come back later, I have found no way to "mark" the location when you stopped playback. The recording starts all over again. Has anyone found a way to restart where you stopped the playback?

Yeah, my old receiver was like that. I tried using the wifi antenna to connect to the web, but I couldn't get it to work. I have lousy internet and I figured that had a lit to do with it. I hard wired it to the router, and it worked, but on some apps, I get a lot of failure to connect to the server errors. Figured that was the internet as well. It woks great on YouTube and some IPTV channels, but there's a lot of the error to connect issues as well.

I really wanted to watch the Military Channel, but it kept loading forever so I didn't try it again. Overall, I am very satisfied with the 9000i. It has great audio and video, it's easy to use and program, and so far, it works very well. I believe they have a 3 year warranty too. I am getting ready to order a second one. I spent the evening boxing up all my old receivers and storing them in my electronics room. I have eight in my collection not including the 9000i. I love playing with these things.

 

[Shicks4]

Well My take is I love to hate and hate to love my 9000I local. Most of the hate comes from the recording part of the receiver. If it were refined just a bit more Id have zero issues with it. Now if there is a future model that had terrestrial, satellite, better DVR and Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Ect. It would be in every location that had a TV in my home. I dont even care about the 4k part since I dont see 4k becoming a real issue for at least 3-5 more years. (except from streaming, and well call me old fashioned thats what they make the 4k blurays for). Overall I think its a pretty good receiver, but i know Id hate it if it didnt have the local option since I have other receivers that handle satellite only better.