Visionsat IV-200 PVR For Dummie(s?)

[phlatwound]

First of all I'd like to thank all the kind folks around here that have gotten me to where I am in getting into the world of FTA, your patient and generous guidance have been invaluable thusfar. I recently purchased a Visionsat from SatAv and couldn't be happier with it, with your help I had it slaved to my old C-band analog/BUD rig and operational in a couple of hours (and about 1.75 hours of that was due to my ignorance )! I have successfully located and scanned all my viewable C-band satellites from The List and would like to quiz the braintrust here on some things I haven't been able to find by searching the forum.

1.) I can't find any information on "teaching" my Visionsat remote to operate my TV, VCR or DVD player. There is a list of remote codes in the Users Manual but the instructions are for a different remote than is now being shipped with this receiver, if they will work with my remote I am just not understanding them. I would like it to control my TV and have one less remote, at least. I spoke with a CSR at SatAV and it seems there is no new instructions for this remote.

2.) What is the purpose of the different Search Modes (Auto, Blind, Manual, & Advanced)? So far I have just used Blind to scan, assume the other modes are to filter the search results but am not sure when you would want to use each.

3.) Search Types ("All Services", "FTA Only" & "TV Only"). Does an FTA Only search ignore the scrambled channels possibly?

Please bear in mind that these questions come from someone that couldn't even spell "FTA" about a month ago, and I'm sure I'll have more, thanks again.

 

[gabshere]

auto scan = scans the preloaded transponders
blind scan = scans all transponders in freq range set
manual scan = allows you to enter a transponder manually
advanced scan = don't know but suspect it allows you to enter the audio & video pids for a certain transponder. just a enhanced manual scan.

all services = all FTA , scrambled & tv the less you do the faster your scan will be but you might miss something that says scrambled that isn't. it doesn't really ingore the scrambled channels, what it does it it see it but doesn't store the transponder if you set the scramble part off and only do FTA.

the remote codes i'm sure Brian & his gang over at SatAV can be of assistance on that part as i don't have a Visionsat

 

[phlatwound]

auto scan = scans the preloaded transponders
blind scan = scans all transponders in freq range set
manual scan = allows you to enter a transponder manually
advanced scan = don't know but suspect it allows you to enter the audio & video pids for a certain transponder. just a enhanced manual scan.

all services = all FTA , scrambled & tv the less you do the faster your scan will be but you might miss something that says scrambled that isn't. it doesn't really ingore the scrambled channels, what it does it it see it but doesn't store the transponder if you set the scramble part off and only do FTA.

the remote codes i'm sure Brian & his gang over at SatAV can be of assistance on that part as i don't have a Visionsat

Thanks gabshere!

Your explanations, when added to the info in the Users manual really helps me to understand the scan parameters. I installed the latest factory firmware a couple days ago, reset everything to factory defaults, and when I rescanned my satellites I did set the Service Type to FTA Only, and it did seem to scan faster. Next time I scan I'll try "All Service" just in case I am missing any FTA, it's pretty easy to delete the non-viewable stuff anyway.

Maybe Brian will see this thread and give some input on the remote caper, but the person I spoke to today at SatAv wasn't able to help. They do list remote codes in the manual but the remote that is shipped with the receiver is not the remote described in the manual. It's not a huge deal but it would be nice to eliminate a remote or 2, my wife and daughter think I'm nuts anyway when they see me punching buttons on 4 remotes at a time!

 

[Mr Tony]

2.) What is the purpose of the different Search Modes (Auto, Blind, Manual, & Advanced)? So far I have just used Blind to scan, assume the other modes are to filter the search results but am not sure when you would want to use each.

auto scans the transponders that are already loaded
manual scans just a transponder. Also allows to enter one if you have the info
blind searches for the transponder info
advanced is what we call a PID scan. Allows you to put in the audio & video pid. Used seldom but some people use it to put radio channels on the TV side.

3.) Search Types ("All Services", "FTA Only" & "TV Only"). Does an FTA Only search ignore the scrambled channels possibly?

all--self explanatory
FTA just finds the free stuff
TV logs all TV channels (scrambled and free)

Please bear in mind that these questions come from someone that couldn't even spell "FTA" about a month ago, and I'm sure I'll have more, thanks again.

no dumb question...we were all newbies once

 

[Mr Tony]

1.) I can't find any information on "teaching" my Visionsat remote to operate my TV, VCR or DVD player. There is a list of remote codes in the Users Manual but the instructions are for a different remote than is now being shipped with this receiver, if they will work with my remote I am just not understanding them. I would like it to control my TV and have one less remote, at least. I spoke with a CSR at SatAV and it seems there is no new instructions for this remote.

in my manual it says the following. Now I have the old remote so I dont know if it works with the new one

1. Turn on the device (TV, VCR, etc)
2. Press OK key and device key at same time. Lamp LED blinks twice
3. press 3 digit code...lamp led will blink
4. lamp led will blink twice

auto setting
1. press OK & device key
2. press channel + or - until the unit shuts off
3. press OK

 

[phlatwound]

in my manual it says the following. Now I have the old remote so I dont know if it works with the new one

1. Turn on the device (TV, VCR, etc)
2. Press OK key and device key at same time. Lamp LED blinks twice
3. press 3 digit code...lamp led will blink
4. lamp led will blink twice

auto setting
1. press OK & device key
2. press channel + or - until the unit shuts off
3. press OK

Thanks once again, Iceberg! Sounds like we have the same manual but the person that wrote it originally probably didn't know English as their first language, your version was better. I didn't realize that you had to press the Device key for 2 seconds (while pressing the OK key), the manual said to press it in 2 seconds (I thought they meant within 2 seconds). I never did get it to work using Manual Setting, so I tried the Auto Setting and, bingo, I can now control my tv with the Visionsat remote, another small victory!

 

[Mr Tony]

cool Glad it worked out

 

[glen4cindy]

I often find that if you SCAN ALL it will find FTA channels and or feeds that would not be found if you scanned FTA only because they are marked with a $ (at least with my 2 STB's).

You can always delete the actual $$$ channels after you check them.

I have found several feeds that come thru that are not tagged as FTA so you would miss them without scanning ALL.

 

[Mr Tony]

agreed

I usually say scan all. I remember a couple of the religious channels on AMC4 use to say scrambled but they weren't (they'd have the $$ in them)

 

[phlatwound]

Last Friday morning my receiver kept trying to go to standby over and over for some reason. I turned off the power switch on the back, waited, then turned it back on, instead of going to standby it would go to "On" (with picture & audio) for about 15 seconds, then go back into the standby loop. Tried unhooking all power, LNB, video and audio cables....no help. I finally fixed it before we left for the weekend by turning it on, and in the 15 seconds before it tried to jump back to the standby loop I went into the Menu and changed my Timer Manager (I had it set to turn itself off every night at 1:00 AM a week or so ago) to the default setting. Not sure if the Timer change cured it...or just the act of going into the Menu alone did it but it's back to normal now. Hope this helps someone if they experience the same deal.

 

[phlatwound]

With my Visionsat IV-200, in the bottom right corner of the on-screen display info box there is a bar meter that sometimes shows some red, sometimes nothing. I guess it is indicating a level of something but as I go through different channels I can't detect any rhyme or reason for the difference in levels. There are also 4 icons right above that bar meter, the first is "$" which indicates a scrambled channel, and the last I think indicates Dolby but I don't have a clue what the other 2 are, does anyone know what this stuff is?

 

[Mr Tony]

I have no idea what the red bar is for either....I wish it was the signal meter but the green >>>> do justice

the 3rd one is for teletext which we dont have in the US...2nd one i have no clue

 

[phlatwound]

Thanks Iceberg, I could detect no pattern to the readings and thought I was missing something real obvious there but guess not. I wish that red one was the signal meter also because it's a lot easier to see than the green indicator, but if piddly stuff like this is all a guy has to whine about that's probably a good thing.

 

[Mr Tony]

so I take it you're having fun with the Visionsat?

 

[phlatwound]

so I take it you're having fun with the Visionsat?

You bet! I was doing more watching (CBS Carribean) than playing with the receiver while the NCAA Bball tourney was going on, but now I am back to trying to figure things out. I think my next project is try to figure out how to load info into the channel editor, manipulate it, then load it back in. I made a quick attempt at that last week but couldn't figure out how to load my info into the editor.

 

[Mr Tony]

OK figured them out

per the manual (yeah...I know) the 4 icons are
scrambled
teletext
subtitle
dolby digital

the red bar we dont need to worry about. If we had a EPG on the receiver, the red bar is to illustrate how much a program has gone on. If there is no epg, then no red bar. Figured that out after scanning SBS6. Ohio News Network had no bar then 10 seconds later a bar popped up as did a EPG with "current" on it. One other channel had no EPG and no red bar

some channels seem to log a EPG as "current" and says that for 12 hours. The red bar is for that. But since we don't have EPG its a moot point

 

[phlatwound]

Heh, I had pretty much given up on the manual but I just found that icon info, just missed it before. Gotcha on the red bar deal too, thanks, it will be ignored from now on.

 

[Mr Tony]

kinda off topic but your avatar god I wish my dish was that high on the true south

Here in MN true south is 38 degrees which is pretty low

 

[phlatwound]

Wish it was about 10 degrees higher, we've got one walnut tree to the east that will probably have to come down this year once the leaves pop out, another towards the west end of the arc that is getting close.

 

[phlatwound]

I'm wanting to decode AC-3 audio on the applicable C-band FTA channels with my Visionsat setup and have been reading this thread "AC-3 Decoding cheaply" from about a year ago:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/90922-ac3-decoding-cheaply.html

Is the sonic Voom headphone unit still a good (read "cheap" ) method to achieve this? I think I have found that same unit on eBay and would be willing to give it a try, it seems like everyone that commented in the thread back then was pretty happy with it. I don't have any kind of home stereo equipment that will accomplish this now and I realize I will have to get a Y-adapter to run the Voom unit into my TV, thanks!