What Is Most Important to You in a FTA Receiver

[primestar31]

Easy.... Save the firmware or firmware and user data to a USB drive then load on the new unit. All microHD's are identical hardware components (chipset, tuner, flash, etc.).

I can confirm this works perfectly.

The ONLY thing you want to always make sure you NEVER do on the MicroHD, is NEVER, EVER delete a satellite from your list, without FIRST deleting all the scanned-in channels on that sat first!

It'll boot-loop, and the only fix is to buy a cable for the internal serial port header, and reflash it. Instructions are posted in the receiver forum.

 

[KE4EST]

....and if you don't have windows 7, vista or XP or an older machine laying around, the cable is useless.

 

[Lehman bud farm]

SINGLE INLINE CHANNEL LISTS SUCK! THAT is the one major complaint I have with these Micro HD receivers I have. When you got 100 channels on a satellite and you need to get to #50 that means you have to scroll up or down though half the list to get there, IF, you remember where it is in that list that is.

That is a huge drawback on any receiver. I would like to see it more like the Azbox channel design where you can have the channels appear by satellite or by a complete listing.

However one major downside to any new FTA receiver is that they stick in them all these outdated frequencies that you need to go in and delete all but one before you get started.
With the blindscan feature on the receivers now, why not have a dummy transponder on each satellite and allow the user to scan in or manually enter what they want.
Before the blindscan feature came about it was nice to have the channels listed and then make the changes but it no longer makes any sense to do so if there is a blindscan feature available.

 

[KE4EST]

I think a new out of the box receiver should contain at least a couple of known transponders for each satellite. This list will have to be kept up with and updated as needed, before shipping out a new receiver.
For us seasoned folks, I agree a dummy xponder is all that is needed. However, for an absolute beginner it is nice to have something in there that is relevant, to help get them started.
A list of 20 or so, though I agree should not be done. Just blind scanning every bird and then saving the list. Then, putting that list on every receiver that ships out is a bad idea; that I have seen done in the past.

 

[stargaze]

Just blind scanning every bird and then saving the list. Then, putting that list on every receiver that ships out is a bad idea; that I have seen done in the past.

I have seen in they past where they went to Lyngsat and just added everything that was on that site into the dvb fta receiver, even the digicipher signals! That was a senseless waste of junk.

One channel that is known on a satellite is all that is needed even for a beginner as they should get accustomed to doing a clean blind-scan anyway. Not every system is set up properly and many may be off frequency which also makes things a real treat when the system is pre-loaded with transponders that will not work for them anyway.

For an absolute beginner it is also a good thing to get as accustomed to a receiver as quickly as possible.

 

[KE4EST]

Yep, I meant to add that to my reply above. That is really annoying when someone in China, sits and punches in transponders from Lyngsat.

 

[Jim S.]

My favorite is when they're not even using a current copy of Lyngsat. I've seen channel lists with low-band Ku transponders on AMC 6. There were never any low-band Ku transponders on AMC 6, they were on a satellite called Nahuel 1 which hasn't worked since before I got into FTA, but it was at 72 degrees.

However, what's more annoying than a bloated transponder list (on a modern receiver that doesn't blow up from a bloated transponder list, anyway...) is a receiver that won't overwrite a transponder, or even add a new one, when the symbol rate changes. I don't know how many times I saw the Amiko A3 find transponders on a blind scan, then not scan them for channels, til I figured out that that's what was happening.