Which PVR to get?

[zepol_wube]

The right PVR wanted.

I came across your review here and found it helpful, I am looking for a PVR twin tuner FTA receiver that I can also input OTA. I have found 4 so far, the Pansat 6000 HSX, Sonicview PVR 1000, Dreambox 7025SI, and Viewsat PVR 7000. Have you reviewed any of these others are there others I should be looking at? Can you make my choice easier by saying one is known for difficulty or other problems... This will be my first attempt at FTA and it is for my father so I have to do it right the first time or hear it for years to come....
Suggestions?
I am in central Illinois, Dealers here? Suggested dealer?

 

[voomvoom]

I think Manhattan makes a dual tuner FTA PVR, but I'm not sure. Do a search on Manhattan. I'm not from Illinois, so I can't help with a local dealer. But, there are some good ones at the top of the page, that sponser this site. Good Luck!

Al

 

[Mr Tony]

The Pansat 6000 does have some hiccups. The big one being on some feeds and satellites it stutters (the picture freezes every 2 seconds or so for a split second)

also, almost all FTA boxes the OTA antenna portion is just a pass through and couldnt record it to the PVR

 

[zepol_wube]

So I hear one negative for the Pansat, any positives or experience with any of the others? I am more likely to go with one KNOWN negative than no KNOWN information. Are there other forums or discussion groups I should look to before a purchase of the pansat? I usually research the heck out of it before purchase of something, but I still find FTA somewhat of an inigma since I cannot walk to the local store and see it in action. For example I understand the difference in polarity, but how do I know which LNB will work with what... I am hoping to take the PVR I purchase and hook it to the dish that the previous owner left on the house from Dish Network, do a little aiming to get an FTA satellite and revel in the glory...

 

[Mr Tony]

I worked with the 6000 for over a month. I now have a Pansat 5000 and that has the same hiccups with the freezing of the picture.

I am hoping to take the PVR I purchase and hook it to the dish that the previous owner left on the house from Dish Network, do a little aiming to get an FTA satellite and revel in the glory...

not much for free with a Dish500 dish. NASA< Angel One and a few audio channels
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=308435&postcount=1

 

[OhmEye]

I worked with the 6000 for over a month. I now have a Pansat 5000 and that has the same hiccups with the freezing of the picture.

I'm looking at the Viewsat PVR 7000. Have you gotten any feedback on that one, Iceberg? Their VS2000 seems to get pretty good marks and it looks like their PVR is based on this model.

 

[Mr Tony]

havent heard anything about the Viewsat PVR. Hopefully they fixed the motor issue that the VS2000 has

Viewsat + motor = yeeesh
(Viewsat dont play well with motor)

 

[zepol_wube]

I do not plan on using a motor, Does this make the viewsat a better option than the Pansat with hicupps?

 

[Mr Tony]

I dont know. Never worked with the 7000 PVR before

what satellites are you gonna try and get since you dont have a motor?

 

[zepol_wube]

Have you worked with either the viewsat or sonicview the manhattan listed above looks ok as well as far as features go. Any suggestions as to what I may have better luck with as first timer with patience? The manhattan looks UK based, are there any issues to be aware of with compatibility?
I have not looked recently but as I recall there is a bird over the east coast that has Public tv, PBS and there is one over the west coast with the basic cbs, nbc, fox... I sit in the country in Illinois and think I can see either direction. I have four discarded dishes, two direct tv one round one elliptical and two dish network one 500 and one superdish. I also have the switches and cables that were with them so I planned to point one east and one west and connect them to the same switch with 8 inputs and run two outputs to the receiver. How far in over my head am I? All I want is basic tv and pbs some international would be nice, I am an engineers and spend most my time on pbs, discovery and history stuff when the tube is on.

 

[kymics]

You do realize that you're going to need a larger dish than what you have to get any significant FTA channels? The crux is that they are mostly not all on one satellite (although G10R is pretty rich), so keeping a motor in mind is a good consideration.

Any small dishes can really only benefit from a few channels on 110W and 119W, all the rest are all locked up or have mostly promo channels.

The good news, is that larger dishes are that expensive. If you have a decent computer, your best PVR is actually a PCI-based FTA card. Sky's the limit in terms of functionality through software and you can also use it to get HDTV feeds.

 

[dem0nlord]

The dreambox will do a lot more than the rest mainly due to the ethernet interface. Things like your weather conditions and forecast, play mp3 and mpeg videos from network volumes, all the different skins that are available, even things like a web browser if you want. It's really just a PPC computer that happens to be in STB form.

 

[Tron]

As far as the dishes you have, the most useful one is going to be the Superdish. You can use the Ku LNB on it to pick up FTA channels from most of the satellites up there. The other dishes will only be useful for the handful of freebies on 82/91/110/119.

While the Superdish will work, it won't pick up the weaker TPs very well since its somewhat undersized. Also, Dish Network switches won't work on a FTA receiver, and neither will the built-in switch in a DirecTV Phase III dish.

 

[updatelee]

Ive got a dreambox pvr and love it, except for the fact I wish it had blindscan it wasnt bad when I had a coolsat, I could import the scan from the coolsat into channel master, then export it to dreambox format. now Ive got a fortec mercury II and channel master doesnt support it, so im using satcodx lists which for the most part are accurate enough to get 95% of the fta out there, then I just add any tp manually when I see something on the fortec that I dont on the the dreambox

classic linux, everything is stored in a text file (xml accually) so its incredibly easy to add tp, once it has the tp, it scans them in quite well.

 

[Larry1]

After trying a Sonicview, I can't stress enough DON'T BUY A SONICVIEW!!! Tried it connected to G10R with no motor. Recorded fine, but could not sucessfully transfer the recording to my computer. The file transfers were slower than the actual play time of the programs. Once the utility was run to transfer the files (via USB) it corrupted the hard disk in the Sonicview and the sonicview would no longer acknoledge it had a hard disk installed. Had to take the hard disk out and format it in a USB case to get the unit to see the hard disk again. The unit locked up during a satellite scan and had to turn the unit off via the power switch on the back. Once doing this you lose the time and have to set the clock again. The unit looks nice and works untill you install a hard drive. But what good is a PVR with no hard disk. I set my hard disk jumper settings correctly as per their instructions (master with no slave), and even tried the other settings. (master with slave and CS) The box should be great if they can ever get their software running. The unit has an ethernet port and USB port. Great fetures if they only worked. Only the USB port is used. When I was transfering from the box to my computer, the transfer speeds ranged from 10kbps down to 0.5kbps. I tried both versions of their USB driver (the USB 2.0 and USB 1 versions of the driver) with the same results. I have connected to a USB 2 port that i regularily use for an external hard disk to move my TV recordings from my desktop to the external hard disk to move to other machines of friends and mine. The menus on the box were ok, but could use a lot of improvement. Access to the recorded shows was NOT just one button on the remote and to delete a show was even more of a trouble having to navigate deper into the menus. The small manual is all but useless, and you must read their website if you even have a hope of getting the unit working... or shall I say attempt to.

For a scale of 1 to 10, (1 bad, 10 great)even a 1 would be over rated.

 

[zepol_wube]

Thank you for the response, that is the type of +- information/experience I am looking for.

 

[moseley]

I saw a new box on ebay conixsat or somesuch that connects to a usb hard drive or stick. It was under 200. I had never heard of it before. Sounded pretty cool.

I sure miss dvr. But they all seem pretty useless without a guide. I guess My dvd recorder with suffice until people start broadcasting guides.

 

[Larry1]

I have tried the Sonicview again with the latest software from the SonicviewUSA web site. The box does work a lot better, but it still does not transfer from the box to your computer properly. The box needs to be turned off to reset it before each transfer or they will not transfer properly. When they do tranfer, they do so at very slow speeds. (about 10Mbit/s) I am thinking more and more to just get the dreambox. From what I have read, it works great.

 

[updatelee]

does the sonicview have blindscan ?

the dm500 doesnt but you can get it for around $200, and it uses your computers ethernet connection to share your computers harddrive, and can record no problem to it.

 

[Larry1]

I do not know at this point, as it went back and am not considering it untill they fix the transfer of files from it to my PC.