The Pansat 1500 is what I like to refer to as “The little brother of the Pansat 2500". And honestly, other than a couple features, it really is. The 3 main features missing from the 1500 are
-The capability to upgrade the remote to UHF
-No channel showing on the unit. Also the clock doesn’t show, which with the clock issue on the Pansat being off, this can actually be good
-No Ac-3 output
I was upgrading from a unit that had no motor option and no search option, so I was pretty stoked. When I first got this, I pulled out the instructions to read. Well, most people can throw them away (or if you live in the back woods, use it in the outhouse) because they are worthless. They really don’t give you much info.
The unit can control a motor, which is great. Nothing suck worse than “ghetto moving” (hand moving) a dish from Galaxy3C to Galaxy 10 in the middle of a Minnesota winter when it can be -10. The unit can use DiseQc 1.2, which allows you to pick the spot and store it, or it can use USALS. USALS allows you to put your latitude & longitude and true south, and once true south is found, the unit will automatically move for you. No having to find the satellites to store. It does it for you!
The main feature of this unit is the Smart Search feature. No more looking at Lyngsat charts or finding stuff on other sites. The unit will search for the feeds and all the channels not found anywhere.
Once you are setup, you have many options. Going into the install menu, you have many options
-install an antenna
-satellite scan
-transponder scan
-advanced scan
-smart search
-edit transponder/satellite
installing an antenna allows you to set all your parameters, such as LNB frequency, DiseQc (if you have more than one dish), and it allows you to see signal strength and quality on a given transponder. You can also search all transponders stored on a specific satellite by hitting one button. You also can search for just free to air or both scrambled & free to air.
Satellite scan will scan a given satellite. The one problem is it will scan and store both scrambled and free to air stuff. If all you want is FTA, this can be an issue
Transponder scan will allow you to scan a specific transponder on a satellite. This works real good if all you want to do is see what new channels showed up on transponder 22 on IA5 for an example. This is real handy if channels show up on a given TP.
Advanced scan allows you to enter PIDS. Sometimes, channels won’t show unless you put PIDs in. I used this to add the radio stations on G10 to the radio list.
Smart Search is the main reason I got the unit. You go into this menu and you can pick to scan a satellite and just one side of the polarity or both. You can also search for FTA or both scrambled & FTA. It takes about 5-10 minutes to scan a given satellite. It shows you on the screen a list of all found transponders and then scans those for channels.
Edit satellite allows you to “delete” satellites from the list, so when you go into the install screen, you don’t see all the satellites that you may not be able to get. Since all I have is KU, I deleted all C-Band satellites. It doesn’t actually delete them. It just hides them.
Some of the good features are
-smart search
-able to run a motor
-can set it up so the motor is on one port of a swicth and the other 3 can be used for fixed dishes. Some receivers only either a motor or Diseqc. This does both
-separate radio and tv lists
-allows you to move channels on the lists. So you can have it by network, satellite, or however you want it.
-loop out to add another receiver. I have an analog receiver looped to it.
-delete channels off a TP you don’t want. This is nice if you only want one channel on a TP or if you want to keep just the English channels on IA5 and want to delete the rest.
The unit does have some flaws
-No AC-3 ouput...oh well, should have got the 2500
-If the unit scan a HD signal, the unit goes wacky. You get some real cool colors, but your on screen and menus are gone. You have to turn it to a different channel and do a master rest (unplu unit or hit the switch in the back)
-If you scan a DBS satellite, I highly suggest doing it sparingly. The unit has what I would like to call the “Pansat flaw”. When you can ExpressVu, there are 12 FTA channels and 30 radio stations. The “Pansat flaw” seems to find the stuff with 0000 for PIDS and add them. So when you scan ExpressVu 91, you end up with over 100 channels, most of which are bogus. Dish is a way different animal when you scan. It puts 13 (now up to 15) “dummy” channels PER TRANSPONDER. There is nothing on these, and all they do is plug up your channel list. So if you scan a Dish satellite, you have 200, 300, even 400 bogus channels to delete. Can be a real pain. I just scanned 119 last night, and there are 16 TP’s I can see (there are 5 spotbeams that I am out of), so 16*15=240 bogus channels to delete. If you scan with scrambled, these 15 are added ON TOP of the normal scrambled. I wish Pansat would come out with a software upgrade to take care of that.
-Signal meter. Maybe its just me, but the quality meter jumps all the time on the unit. I have a Viacast and the quality stays at what it should be. 45,46,45,45,etc.. On the Pansat, it jumps from 70 to 45 back to 69 back to 50 back up to 70 down to 69 etc....it can get real frustrating when aiming a dish.
So all in all, it’s a nice little unit. It may not be as good as “the big brother, the 2500", but it does everything I want it to do. Well, almost (I would like AC-3)
-The capability to upgrade the remote to UHF
-No channel showing on the unit. Also the clock doesn’t show, which with the clock issue on the Pansat being off, this can actually be good
-No Ac-3 output
I was upgrading from a unit that had no motor option and no search option, so I was pretty stoked. When I first got this, I pulled out the instructions to read. Well, most people can throw them away (or if you live in the back woods, use it in the outhouse) because they are worthless. They really don’t give you much info.
The unit can control a motor, which is great. Nothing suck worse than “ghetto moving” (hand moving) a dish from Galaxy3C to Galaxy 10 in the middle of a Minnesota winter when it can be -10. The unit can use DiseQc 1.2, which allows you to pick the spot and store it, or it can use USALS. USALS allows you to put your latitude & longitude and true south, and once true south is found, the unit will automatically move for you. No having to find the satellites to store. It does it for you!
The main feature of this unit is the Smart Search feature. No more looking at Lyngsat charts or finding stuff on other sites. The unit will search for the feeds and all the channels not found anywhere.
Once you are setup, you have many options. Going into the install menu, you have many options
-install an antenna
-satellite scan
-transponder scan
-advanced scan
-smart search
-edit transponder/satellite
installing an antenna allows you to set all your parameters, such as LNB frequency, DiseQc (if you have more than one dish), and it allows you to see signal strength and quality on a given transponder. You can also search all transponders stored on a specific satellite by hitting one button. You also can search for just free to air or both scrambled & free to air.
Satellite scan will scan a given satellite. The one problem is it will scan and store both scrambled and free to air stuff. If all you want is FTA, this can be an issue
Transponder scan will allow you to scan a specific transponder on a satellite. This works real good if all you want to do is see what new channels showed up on transponder 22 on IA5 for an example. This is real handy if channels show up on a given TP.
Advanced scan allows you to enter PIDS. Sometimes, channels won’t show unless you put PIDs in. I used this to add the radio stations on G10 to the radio list.
Smart Search is the main reason I got the unit. You go into this menu and you can pick to scan a satellite and just one side of the polarity or both. You can also search for FTA or both scrambled & FTA. It takes about 5-10 minutes to scan a given satellite. It shows you on the screen a list of all found transponders and then scans those for channels.
Edit satellite allows you to “delete” satellites from the list, so when you go into the install screen, you don’t see all the satellites that you may not be able to get. Since all I have is KU, I deleted all C-Band satellites. It doesn’t actually delete them. It just hides them.
Some of the good features are
-smart search
-able to run a motor
-can set it up so the motor is on one port of a swicth and the other 3 can be used for fixed dishes. Some receivers only either a motor or Diseqc. This does both
-separate radio and tv lists
-allows you to move channels on the lists. So you can have it by network, satellite, or however you want it.
-loop out to add another receiver. I have an analog receiver looped to it.
-delete channels off a TP you don’t want. This is nice if you only want one channel on a TP or if you want to keep just the English channels on IA5 and want to delete the rest.
The unit does have some flaws
-No AC-3 ouput...oh well, should have got the 2500
-If the unit scan a HD signal, the unit goes wacky. You get some real cool colors, but your on screen and menus are gone. You have to turn it to a different channel and do a master rest (unplu unit or hit the switch in the back)
-If you scan a DBS satellite, I highly suggest doing it sparingly. The unit has what I would like to call the “Pansat flaw”. When you can ExpressVu, there are 12 FTA channels and 30 radio stations. The “Pansat flaw” seems to find the stuff with 0000 for PIDS and add them. So when you scan ExpressVu 91, you end up with over 100 channels, most of which are bogus. Dish is a way different animal when you scan. It puts 13 (now up to 15) “dummy” channels PER TRANSPONDER. There is nothing on these, and all they do is plug up your channel list. So if you scan a Dish satellite, you have 200, 300, even 400 bogus channels to delete. Can be a real pain. I just scanned 119 last night, and there are 16 TP’s I can see (there are 5 spotbeams that I am out of), so 16*15=240 bogus channels to delete. If you scan with scrambled, these 15 are added ON TOP of the normal scrambled. I wish Pansat would come out with a software upgrade to take care of that.
-Signal meter. Maybe its just me, but the quality meter jumps all the time on the unit. I have a Viacast and the quality stays at what it should be. 45,46,45,45,etc.. On the Pansat, it jumps from 70 to 45 back to 69 back to 50 back up to 70 down to 69 etc....it can get real frustrating when aiming a dish.
So all in all, it’s a nice little unit. It may not be as good as “the big brother, the 2500", but it does everything I want it to do. Well, almost (I would like AC-3)
