Looking at getting Starchoice

[lern4483]

Any new Hd on horizon for SC?

Does anyone know if there is new HD programming on its way to
SC?

Im from South Florida not sure what we are missing on SC.

Any HD channels both sports or movie channels that SC should add on
currently not available?

 

[SatboyZ]

As i mentioned several times before ... do not under any circumstances use UPS for cross border shipping! The customs brokerage charge will apply every time and has nothing to do with duty/taxes. You will pay this with UPS if you do not have your own customs clearing firm (who does personally??). The price quoted by Fedex and USPS/ Canada Post includes customs clearing and if you have paid duty before (if applicable I have never paid anything on electronics) you should not have to pay again (with proof).

Satboyz

 

[hiker]

As i mentioned several times before ... do not under any circumstances use UPS for cross border shipping! The customs brokerage charge will apply every time and has nothing to do with duty/taxes. You will pay this with UPS if you do not have your own customs clearing firm (who does personally??). The price quoted by Fedex and USPS/ Canada Post includes customs clearing and if you have paid duty before (if applicable I have never paid anything on electronics) you should not have to pay again (with proof).

Satboyz

The problem is KuSat only uses UPS to ship so we are stuck with the $30 brokerage fee. If there's another reliable source of SC equipment besides eBay that doesn't require them to handle my SC account and charge a fee for it, I'd sure like to know.

 

[dish_dtv]

I used Canada Post/USPS the 1st time

Yes, as SatBoyz mentioned, I researched these forums and realized that I might be hit with a brokerage fee and used CanadaPost. Of course, it took 3 weeks (instead of 1) due to the X-mas holidays and I shipped it back USPS to Canada when I found that the unit was dead-on-arrival. Imagine having to pay $30 twice just to ship bad units back-and-forth in addition to shipping charges. ARRGH!

 

[hiker]

Yes, as SatBoyz mentioned, I researched these forums and realized that I might be hit with a brokerage fee and used CanadaPost. Of course, it took 3 weeks (instead of 1) due to the X-mas holidays and I shipped it back USPS to Canada when I found that the unit was dead-on-arrival. Imagine having to pay $30 twice just to ship bad units back-and-forth in addition to shipping charges. ARRGH!

Did you have any USPS special requirements to ship it to Canada? I researched this on the USPS web site and it looks like you have to submit a 2976 Customs Form and declare the value. Did you have to do that?

 

[dish_dtv]

Don't remember form #, but filled 1 at post office

Hiker:

I don't remember the form #, but we did have to fill out customs forms both ways. I filled 1 one at USPS and the counter person attached it to my package. I wrote 'defective dsr 505 receiver, returned for in-warranty repair/exchange' with a $100 value. Coming in, it had a CanadaPost form (the first time).

Of course, today/tonight, my new 505 should arrive without any forms, since my friend will bring it in person.

 

[techn0mad]

Geography and activation?

Does anyone know what the procedure for activating *C is once you have your dish and receiver set up? Does it matter if you are calling from a non-Canadian number or a number with no caller ID display? Is the activation/programming different if you give an address in Western Canada versus Eastern Canada?

Thanks in advance,

 

[joshuals]

Not sure whether you're set up & ready to activate or if you're just asking a question. If you haven't purchased your system, I'd consider doing business with this vendor:
http://www.global-cm.net/

They (and your broker) will pre-activate the system for you before sending the equipment. When it arrives, all you have to do is aim the dish and you're in business.

If you have already purchased, then I would say you might have to work directly with your broker to get authorized. While there are posts in this forum that indicate you can deal directly with *C (without a broker) from outside Canada, I think you run the risk of being asked a question for which you won't have a good answer.........

 

[hiker]

Does anyone know what the procedure for activating *C is once you have your dish and receiver set up? Does it matter if you are calling from a non-Canadian number or a number with no caller ID display? Is the activation/programming different if you give an address in Western Canada versus Eastern Canada?

Thanks in advance,

The phone number you call from does not matter. You must give a valid Canadian address and postal code and phone number with Canadian area code. It's best to have an address in the same time zone as your own since it determines the time the receiver/DVR uses. You can choose US networks either east or west. A US credit card number is OK. If you are getting an HD receiver, stay away from an address in the Toronto area because they are starting something called "simsub" which gives a poor HD picture quality with some programs. Don't forget to get your account number and log on to sign up for paper free billing and auto pay. See the thread here for more info.

 

[dish_dtv]

Success at last!

Update on my Starchoice set-up....

I picked up my new 505 from my friend last night and connected all the cables and plugged in the receiver. After orange-lights dancing for 15-20 seconds, the front panel came to life with a time of 5:00 and a 'GREEN' sat icon. I knew things looked good. I changed to channel 299 and waited for 10-15 minutes. I went to my menus to check my signal on 107. I pressed the Options button on remote, pressed 6-3-1 and then entered 4128 for provider id, signal was 69-70 and after a few minutes, the satellite ID/EMM said A4 and my dish ICON on front panel continued to be green. I exited all menus and to be safe, had my relative in Canada initiate a 3-way call with SC (just to be safe), waited for 15-20 minutes and the SC rep activated my account, left the 505 on resting on channel 299.

This morning, I just had enough time to confirm that my receiver front panel was showing the correct time (EST, since that's where my relative lives) and that all the channels showed up with info on the guide. Just to make sure that I got both sats correctly, I went to channel 299 (for 107) and also to channels (280 - TSNHD) and some between 280-299 (nbc-e hd, cbs-hd). All looked great. In fact, the east/west HD locals on my SC matches the PQ from my OTA and TSN-HD looked great too.

Questions for you all:
(1) From reading these forums, I know that for 107, if you get good signal strengths/Ebnos on 299, the rest of the channels on 107 should fall in place. Can I do anything to tweak my 85E dish pointed at 107 to increase my Ebno and/or signal strength?
(2) On 111, strangely, my Ebno on TSN-HD was higher closer to 8 and signal strength says 92. I guess we must have hit a sweet spot on my other 85E dish pointed at 111. Also, is there an equivalent to channel 299 on 111, that I should have high Ebnos on 111 to ensure stability on the other 111 channels?
If there's anything that I could do to increase the signal strengths/Ebnos on both dishes and possibly get to the 85-90% signal strength and good Ebnos, please let me know and I will try and tweak my dishes this evening.

It has been a long journey for me, but my initial impressions of SC's PQ seem to make my troubles worthwhile. Thanks for all the folks who helped answer my questions and help point me in the right direction.

 

[hiker]

Congratulations on getting your 505 set up.

Your dish alignments sound ok but if you can get a TV out to the location of the dishes, you might be able to get a slightly better reading by tweaking the elevation and/or the azimuth. Before attempting, you might want to wait until you have a strong rain storm to see if you lose signal. Make sure you mark the position before you try. I would wait until the 505 downloads version E0 firmware. Try for the highest Eb/No and move the dish tiny increments and wait a few seconds until the 505 can react.

 

[SatboyZ]

Hiker: if there is enough need here, I can look into becoming a SC dealer and supply them to US members of this site. I would ship only Fedex/USPS though <insert sarcasm here>.

Just an idea I was thinking about.

Satboyz

 

[Mr Tony]

2. try channels 260 or 559 or 420. All of those are on F2 and allows you to tweak the signal

 

[joshuals]

2. try channels 260 or 559 or 420. All of those are on F2 and allows you to tweak the signal

Just for my information, can these channels be used for tweaking if they are not in one's programming package?

260 shows as TALC1; 559 is EWTN, and 420 is NFLNET; all of these are outside my package and show with various messages stating I am not subscribed.

 

[hiker]

Just for my information, can these channels be used for tweaking if they are not in one's programming package?

260 shows as TALC1; 559 is EWTN, and 420 is NFLNET; all of these are outside my package and show with various messages stating I am not subscribed.

Use any HD channel that you can view.

 

[joshuals]

I have a DSR-315, so no HD. I have only the French package, so all the channels I get are between 700 & 763, and I have a single dish pointed at F2. I believe we peaked the signal using 701 & everything works fine.....I was just curious if the signal can be peaked on a channel outside one's programming package.

 

[dish_dtv]

Correlation between signal level and Eb no?

Sorry for being away from the thread.....getting addicted to HD on Starchoice. , espl. with time shifting with the east/west HD locals.


Iceberg, thanks for mentioning the F2 channels. A few questions:
(1) Since I have 2 dishes (or even otherwise), should Options 6-4-7 on my 505 report signal level and Eb nos from both sats? For me, it only reports for 1 sat (presumably the sat that my channel belongs to). Also, If I go to Options 6-3-1, it always says A4, never A5 (even if I am on TSN-HD).
(2) On 111.1, my signal level is ranging from 89 to 94 on the various HD channels. Whereas my Eb no ranges from +6.9 to +7.6. Is there any correlation between the 2? Does my signal level indicate that I should be getting a higher Eb no by fine-tuning?
(3) I might be one of the exceptions here, but my signal strength on 107 is 70 (eb nos varying from +6.0 to +6.9 at the most), and on 111.1, it varies from 89 to 94 (eb no from 6.9 to 7.6). The only difference is my 107.3 dish is wall-mounted, where the right edge (when I am standing behind the dish) is no more than 6-9 inches away from the wall (no other obstructions). Whereas my 111.1 dish is roof mounted (I did not want 2 of these on the wall or on the roof) and there is no visible hindrance and it enjoys a clear view of the SW with no trees etc.

Since I keep reading posts mentioning stability and Ebnos, I thought I will ask the experts here. Of course as Hiker says, I won't do anything until I see my signal stability during our next rainstorm. FYI, my current version on Option 6-4-7 says E0 and target version 0.0.

Ok, bye now....Back to Sportscentre-HD!