Put old Orby set top boxes to use.

[Skyscanner]

The Orby HDD.
Anyone know capacity and can it be used for PC backup or other?

Oops, I see it now- 500 gig

 

[FTA4PA]

The Orby HDD.
Anyone know capacity and can it be used for PC backup or other?

Oops, I see it now- 500 gig

It's just a standard notebook hard drive so you should have no problem using it for other purposes.

goHardDrive.com - Toshiba 500GB MQ01ABD050V 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5'' Notebook Hard Drive - 1 Year Warranty

Toshiba 500GB MQ01ABD050V 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5' Notebook Hard Drive - 1 Year Warranty- best deal at goHardDrive.com

www.goharddrive.com

Amazon product ASIN B0100ZM5QG

 

[TV Junkie]

The Orby HDD.
Anyone know capacity and can it be used for PC backup or other?

Oops, I see it now- 500 gig

why the disassembly friend? Change your mind about using it as OTA receiver?

 

[Skyscanner]

why the disassembly friend? Change your mind about using it as OTA receiver?

I'm 72 and have balance issues, so it's not safe anymore to be on a ladder working on c band dishes. I don't need to get off the ground for the ku band dishes, but there are fewer and fewer open channels I'm interested in watching anymore. SO... losing interest in FTA, that's where Orby came in.

I have a good FTA box with OTA interface and DVR, so if I ever get the urge to play with that again, that's what I'll use. Just not much interested anymore, just want to watch TV, and if there's a problem, call Dish and say "Come and fix YOUR problem" LOL.

Speaking of problems though. After the installer left yesterday, I found the diagnostic page and did sig quality test on 61 and 72 and was shocked to see between 45 and 60%. One was better than the other. What a pitiful little frisbee dish he put in (25x20"). This morning had pixelation on all channels except my OTA! OTA q was 100%! It's OK now, but I remember the guy was having trouble with his meter and the wind was HOWLING, so maybe it could be tuned better. I'll check it out later today, and if that's as good as it gets, I'll call em and tell em "You need to come out and fix YOUR sig/pixelation problem." LOL

Anyway, getting back to your question, I don't need the Orby doorstop, but maybe could use the drive. I see fleabay has encosures with USB terminals, typically for around $6 - $10.

Off topic:
I have 4 or 5 4' Primestar dishes that I'm not using, so kicking around the idea of pointing 1 at 61 and 1 at 72 for max reception. The Dish LNB installed has a built in switch, does anyone know what switch protocol the Hopper 2 uses to switch from 61 to 72? Disecq commands maybe? 0/22? Or maybe some proprietary method?
LOL, thanks for reading this windy post!

 

[TV Junkie]

Knowing you should stay off a ladder is the first step to being safe!! Besides it sounds like you have lots going on. No time for a ladder any way my friend... Is the dish that got installed the dish turbo style?

 

[Skyscanner]

Yah, have a 20 acre hobby farm/orchard/vineyard/garden that takes all my time. My boat hasn't been in the water for 5 years. Have to prioritize my time. Golf was the first casualty, fishing the next, and now FTA.
I don't know what a turbo dish is, it's just a pitiful little thing with 2 LNBs and switch combo.

 

[primestar31]

I have 4 or 5 4' Primestar dishes that I'm not using, so kicking around the idea of pointing 1 at 61 and 1 at 72 for max reception.

I did exactly that years ago. Even so, it only brings up the signal level about 15 points, so on full-black full of rain storm clouds, it only kept the signal a little longer than a small Dish dish. You should be getting MUCH better signal from the dish the tech installed. IMO, something is wrong with his installation.

 

[Skyscanner]

I did exactly that years ago. Even so, it only brings up the signal level about 15 points, so on full-black full of rain storm clouds, it only kept the signal a little longer than a small Dish dish. You should be getting MUCH better signal from the dish the tech installed. IMO, something is wrong with his installation.

Yah I think that could be adjusted a little tighter. The extra 15 points you got would have made it watchable this morning.
What did you use to switch between the 2 LNBs?

 

[primestar31]

Yah I think that could be adjusted a little tighter. The extra 15 points you got would have made it watchable this morning.
What did you use to switch between the 2 LNBs?

I had a VIP 722k dvr, and used a DPP44 switch to combine them. I used DP Plus lnb's on each dish. Not sure how you'd do it with a Hopper.

 

[Skyscanner]

why the disassembly friend? Change your mind about using it as OTA receiver?

Looking inside, I wonder if lifting the drive out would alter the ability to receive Orby signals if there were any? Only 2 HDD cables; 1 looks like 5V power, and the other, thicker cable is probably data in/out? Makes me wonder if both rx and DVR boards were the same, but the designated DVR box was nothing more than a rx with a hard drive plugged in?
Also wondering; since there was no menu for freq, sr, polarity, etc, doesn't seem likely Orby rx could receive or process sigs from another satellite, making it useless for any FTA use?

 

[TV Junkie]

Looking inside, I wonder if lifting the drive out would alter the ability to receive Orby signals if there were any? Only 2 HDD cables; 1 looks like 5V power, and the other, thicker cable is probably data in/out? Makes me wonder if both rx and DVR boards were the same, but the designated DVR box was nothing more than a rx with a hard drive plugged in?
Also wondering; since there was no menu for freq, sr, polarity, etc, doesn't seem likely Orby rx could receive or process sigs from another satellite, making it useless for any FTA use?

Beyond receiving signals, I wonder if it would even boot without HDD.

No, in current state orby box is mostly useless (OTA only right now?) it seems

 

[Corrado]

I'm still working with my never activated DVR receiver to get past the setup wizard.

I don't really need another OTA DVR since I use my Edision Mio4K for that but I enjoy the challenge.

 

[Skyscanner]

I did exactly that years ago. Even so, it only brings up the signal level about 15 points, so on full-black full of rain storm clouds, it only kept the signal a little longer than a small Dish dish. You should be getting MUCH better signal from the dish the tech installed. IMO, something is wrong with his installation.

Well, again yesterday and today, having pixelation making one of our fave channels (Grit) and some others unwatchable. This morning I got back on the diagnostics page to see the sig quality, and it was bouncing up and down like before. Happened to see a section labeled "tuner", and and it was set on "2", so, not knowing anything about Dish boxes (apparently there are 3 tuners in this box), I changed the setting to "1", and the sig was a rock solid 51 with no movement at all. Just dumb luck! Channel is great, no need to call Dish now. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.
Getting used to Dish now, think I'm gonna like it ok.

 

[mopardude01]

Well, again yesterday and today, having pixelation making one of our fave channels (Grit) and some others unwatchable. This morning I got back on the diagnostics page to see the sig quality, and it was bouncing up and down like before. Happened to see a section labeled "tuner", and and it was set on "2", so, not knowing anything about Dish boxes (apparently there are 3 tuners in this box), I changed the setting to "1", and the sig was a rock solid 51 with no movement at all. Just dumb luck! Channel is great, no need to call Dish now. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.
Getting used to Dish now, think I'm gonna like it ok.

Which hopper do you have?

 

[Skyscanner]

Which hopper do you have?

I was told it was a Hopper 2. Is there a way to tell for sure?

 

[mopardude01]

I got the Hopper duo which has 2 tuners and with the OTA dongle that has 2 tuners as well. I think the others have 16 tuners.

 

[mopardude01]

I got it because it was cheaper per month.

 

[primestar31]

Well, again yesterday and today, having pixelation making one of our fave channels (Grit) and some others unwatchable. This morning I got back on the diagnostics page to see the sig quality, and it was bouncing up and down like before. Happened to see a section labeled "tuner", and and it was set on "2", so, not knowing anything about Dish boxes (apparently there are 3 tuners in this box), I changed the setting to "1", and the sig was a rock solid 51 with no movement at all. Just dumb luck! Channel is great, no need to call Dish now. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.
Getting used to Dish now, think I'm gonna like it ok.

I wonder what that setting does? Did it disable one of the tuners? Was it just something the tech miss-set? Hopefully somebody here knows, and lets us know. There are some real Dish installers here.

 

[Skyscanner]

It's just a standard notebook hard drive so you should have no problem using it for other purposes.

goHardDrive.com - Toshiba 500GB MQ01ABD050V 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5'' Notebook Hard Drive - 1 Year Warranty

Toshiba 500GB MQ01ABD050V 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5' Notebook Hard Drive - 1 Year Warranty- best deal at goHardDrive.com

www.goharddrive.com

Amazon product ASIN B0100ZM5QG

I have a Seagate 500 gig drive that I used for the DVR on my FTA box. Pulled the cable off the front and plugged it into the Orby drive and plugged the USB end into my PC. Nothing... the PC does not even show this drive connected, or in the list of drives, so... I have to think the drive is pretty much useless for anything but Orby. I can hear the drive running and the LEDs flashed once or twice but nothing else happens. I ordered an enclosure, maybe it arrives, it will make the Orby drive work?

 

[solarvic]

The last tablo player I bought takes a sata hard drive. Once you connected it to tablo, you had to format hard drive. The tablo has a menu to format the harddive. So if you still have the fta box maybe you can format it with your tuner box.












the last tablo player I bought uses a sata hard