STBs Tell You Nothing While Blind Scanning

[cyberham]

My Friday pet peeve is satellite receivers that tell you almost nothing as they blind scan. You sit and watch a screen entice you with signal freq/pol/SR reports but the receiver doesn't tell you what those signals are, or how strong they are, or how close you are to locking them if they are using a format compatible with your receiver. I guess this is why they call it Blind Scan: you are blind to what's going on. All the receiver says is "Fail". Or worse, at the end of the scan, the receiver says "No signal found". But it must have seen something: you could see it slowing, speeding up, considering as it scanned.

Should I get a USB receiver? Will such a receiver give me more feedback and clues as to why I see evidence or hints of a signal but can't lock it in? I want more information from my receiver so I know if it's worth doing something so I can catch a new signal.

 

[Lak7]

Should I get a USB receiver? Will such a receiver give me more feedback and clues as to why I see evidence or hints of a signal but can't lock it in? I want more information from my receiver so I know if it's worth doing something so I can catch a new signal.

It come down to what you are looking for.
I use an OmiCom Sat Card(fast) and CrazyScan. "Scans" a Sat in a few seconds - it's not a trues blind scan, more like a spectrum analyzer. (CrazyScan does have a BlindScan feature, but it's slow.)
Then go back and pick out the "peaks" and see what they are.
Any signal the OmiCom will not lock, I switch to the TBS5925 (slow).
Note: Not all sat cards can scan.

It brings a whole new level to feed hunting.

 

[Magic Static]

Well if you want more from your FTA hobby, you need to put more into it. Get yourself a paid copy of TSReader and say, a Genpix USB tuner and learn to use those. Then you will see a mountain of information from those scans. And when you can decipher all that info, you have become an FTA Super Geek or if you can get paid for it they call it an engineer

 

[cyberham]

These ideas sound interesting. This sounds like the direction I'd like to go. I've been mostly focused on the popular standalone STBs. Now I need to learn more about USB or even PC card satellite receivers using what I've learned about the fundamentals of FTA to move forward.

 

[xtgold]

I am just grateful it finds something in a timely fashion.
My old viewsat and mvidea would take over 1 hour to blindscan a sat and often find nothing.
Some of the euro nt78326 based receivers have a spectrum analyzer display built in.

 

[northgeorgia]

These ideas sound interesting. This sounds like the direction I'd like to go. I've been mostly focused on the popular standalone STBs. Now I need to learn more about USB or even PC card satellite receivers using what I've learned about the fundamentals of FTA to move forward.

Me too

 

[Lak7]

Don't go cheap on PC Sat device - get a device that is compatible with CrazyScan AND has ability to Lock all the newer formats, 16apsk, 32apsk. (keep in mind Dish & Equipment Size / Quality will still limit you)

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've thought about a PC FTA card also and I even went so far as to contact Prof back a few months ago about buying direct from their website. Since I also build and repair computers I thought the next logical step would to be to combine my computer hobby and my FTA hobby. I already did this with my race car as it has a programmable digital ignition and also an Innovate Systems data logger logging 18 channels on each run I make. I've really enjoyed being able to connect my laptop to the race car and view data and change stuff in the ignition. Is a gearhead computer geek and oxymoron?

Major drawbacks for me on this is that the older I get (68 now) I'm becoming increasingly less tolerant of sh*t that doesn't work correctly (X2 comes to mind) and I've not seen much info posted here on the newer stuff that's out there. If several others get into this I may go ahead and make that move also as it may help to have more people involved to help get a setup that works and also with problems that may turn up.

I'll keep watching this thread to see where this goes.

 

[northgeorgia]

The problem is that with the newer USB/PC Card solutions for 16/32 apsk, the cost is around $250 for a unit. So in my case, that will involve saving up for a while.

At the moment, I don't have a HDTV (no problem, I can use a laptop for a USB solution or my computer monitor), but eventually a media center PC to use with a TV will be the solution. For that, I'm thinking of getting an old dual core/1 gig ram off of craigslist but if it doesn't have one, I'll still need a video card that can output both HDMI and component....hmmm

 

[Lone Gunman]

I was looking around yesterday for an affordable computer for the local rescue squad since Windowz XP will no longer be supported after 04/14 and ran across this. http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ You might want to look at what's available with Windowz 7 in either a desktop or work station box that would require a minimum of investment to get it up to media center standards. I'm thinking about buying a couple of them with Windows 7 on'em for resale as there's not many people that want to take the plunge into Win 8 because of it's smart phone interface.

 

[xtgold]

my pc is 2 years old and has no slot for a dvb card.

 

[Lak7]

my pc is 2 years old and has no slot for a dvb card.

Your Motherboard has no PCIe slot?
But if not, there are USB devices.

 

[mmewrench]

I can tell you from past experience that an off the shelf PC does not do well with DVB. Power supplies need to be upgraded, often times video chipsets need to be upgraded, and as previously mentioned, sometimes motherboards need to be upgraded. You really have to be dedicated to the cause.

 

[Lak7]

You really have to be dedicated to the cause.

But for just scanning and locking, you do not need much PC power.

 

[xtgold]

plug and pray

 

[turbosat]

I'm curious too, but not that curious. I think a lot of the stuff these receivers try to lock on is just spurious signals, data transponders, DC II signals and other stuff I couldn't see anyway lol. The little X2 leaves a lot to wonder about in its channel-naming, but it does find most of the video signals. Even the Vantage box I have does that, just not as quickly.

 

[jmc98]

I wouldn't go the USB tuner route there a pain to use plus finding free software is a pain I wish now I would have never bought my prof 7500 as I like STB better and will probably add an AZBox soon for 4:2:2

 

[cyberham]

I probably agree with these last two comments as a viewer. As a little scientist, I need to know more.

 

[jmc98]

I probably agree with these last two comments as a viewer. As a little scientist, I need to know more.

cyberham,

I am looking to sale my prof 7500 if your interested in a USB tuner

 

[cyberham]

I'm interested. But...no budget.