Metronic 'The Original Box'

LukeUK

I just got myself a cheap Metronoic 'Original Box' Analogue decoder, brand new for £23, so I'd suggest taking a look at it before spending similar sums on old Analogue decoders from Ebay .

It's working great for the FTA channels on 19.2 E, my main reason is so I can watch the cycling on Eurosport with English Commentary.

I got mine from amazon, from a seller called PixMania. They do also have a website . The postage was cheaper on amazon, although it came from France, with a plug adaptor and French manual, they say they provide a downloadable English version , I haven't checked since my French isn't too bad.

I had a fair amount of sparklies when it was hailing earlier, but once that stopped it was all clear (I'm using a 43CM Zone 1 Minidish......).

2cvbloke

Sounds pretty good, although Analoguesat has an advert on his site for Morgan Kingston receivers for £15 + P&P, dunno if they're still available, but as the ad's still there I guess they are...

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stevew66

Dear Luke,
I've just bought the same kit also to watch cycling on Eurosport. Unfortunately my French isn't so good and I can't get it to work, I missed the Tour of Flanders yesterday. I've contacted pixmania and asked if they can send me an English PDF of the manual but in the mean time would you mind saying if there are any problems with the set up I have at the moment.
Polarity: V
Band selection: 22H off
Selection D'entree du Commutateur: Unsure what this is and have tried all three options.
Frequency: Unlo
Freq: 1259
Freq Lang: 7.02

I've used a compass and aimed it toward 19 degrees the East side of South. I've tried moving the dish back and forth and up and down. The best I've got is a snowy screen instead of just blue.

Thanks
Steve

2cvbloke

Try using google's translation page, sometime's a bit vague but it might help...

_http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en

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LukeUK

Hey Steve, sorry to hear you missed the Tour of Flanders... I'm not too sure it's the box you have the problem with from what you've said, the setup you have mentioned looks the same as mine..but I'll tell you how I set mine up, other than that I might not be able to help much.

Turn the box on and select channel 1 (or whatever channel you want to put Eurosport on).

Press the button on the remote that says 'Freq.' - You'll see on screen it will come up, use the volume keys to select 'UnLO' on the display panel.

Press the 'Freq.' button again until you reach some numbers and type in 1259

Press the 'Freq'. once more until you see 'A 5.80'......use the volume keys to move this to 'A 7.20'.

Now use a pen or something similar to press the 'MEM' button in the middle of the remote.

The next step is to get your TV somewhere you can see it whilst moving the dish, tune the box to the Eurosport channel and move the dish around. As for what the vertical angle should be, here in the south I have my Minidish set to 25 on the mounting bracket, not sure if that means a lot...

Skew (the angle of the LNB), and the angle the dish is twisted at will make a difference too.

All I did is spin the dish around until I got a vague picture, and then adjusted it from there.

What dish are you using and whereabouts are you? If you get a snowy image at one point, but blue the rest of the time then I would say you're best bet is to get back to the snowy image, and then adjust from there.

Hope this helps!
Luke

P.S. Sometimes Eurosport have a video internet stream running, so you might be able to catch some of the classics on that live - http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/070420...-schedule.html

stevew66

Luke/ 2cvbloke thanks for getting back to me.
i've tried the online translator but as you say it's not ideal.
I found some info on the the oriention. I'm in Bristol Azimuth 157 degrees Zenith 27 degrees and LNB skew -7 degree.
I've put the TV outside set up as above and tried adjusting. As yet not had any luck, I'll keep trying.

stevew66

Just to let you know that I finally got it set up. The problem was with the Zenith angle. Various websites advised 27 degrees. I got a satellite signal finder for £15 from Maplins. Using this I found the signal with the dish at approximately 17 degrees. Looking forward to the Paris Roubaix.

Topper

We are always glad when someone gets sorted just enjoy the buzz of all those channels

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LukeUK

Great to hear you got it all set up Steve, I'm looking forward to the Paris-Roubaix too!

I was never sure just how well the satellite finders worked, so I never bought one. I might try one out if it helped you out.

Enjoy the cycling!

2cvbloke

Satellite finders are more useful with digital setups or if you haven't got a small portable TV as with analogue setups you can normally just wave the dish about until you see something on the TV screen, at which point you can pinpoint the direction fairly quickly, that's what I do usually...

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Stephen H

Does anybody know whether this receiver would work with an old Amstrad Wire dish and Blue LNB. My Amstrad SDR400 no longer seems to send any power to the LNB, and wondered if this would be able to replace it, or whether I would need and new dish and LNB too?

LukeUK

It depends what the problem is, it could be that the LNB is the problem, or it could be the box. Either way you shouldn't need to replace the actaul dish itself.

If it is the box then this would replace it, or you could upgrade to a FTA digital box too.

Analoguesat

I think that needs taking down

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Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

DanielP

Hi,

I've been doing a bit of research into analogue lately and feel that this Metronic original box is probably my best option (it seems to be better vfm than picking up an overpriced sh box off Ebay ). I'm after free English language Eurosport- I think that even if it only lasts for a couple of years, £23 is a good deal to get such a decent channel.

One question- I have a monobloc LNB at 13 and 19E- I can't find whether this box supports Diseqc or not, which I will need. Also, what exactly does Canal+ compatible mean? Can it handle Nagravision encryption??

If anyone who has one of these boxes can let me know, I would be really grateful.

Alternatively, if anyone has a half decent analogue receiver clogging up a loft, drop me a PM! I had a look on Ebay , but the only ones going were heading for a similar price to the brand new Metronic!

Daniel

LukeUK

Hi Daniel.

I'm not too sure how long Eurosport Ananlogue will last, because when they bring Eurosport HD to 19.2 they might say goodbye to analogue to free up the bandwidth.

Canal+ compatible just means you can buy an add-on decoder and plug it into the decoder SCART scocket of the box!

As for DiSEqC, I think so...see below. It has an LNB A/B option on the remote. The manual is in French, and says this:



Online Translation

Function DiSEqC Tone Burst allows to link two LNB on the entrance YEW TREE IN. For it, a commutator is needed
Tone Burst (ref 432507) if you have two LNB' s (two parables or support bi-head). There is also said LNB' s "Monoblocks" which are in fact two LNB' s moved aside so as to pick up Astra and HotBird on a parable 80 cm, the whole put in a case also containing a commutator DISEQC 1.0. Some people are compatible Tone Burst (see packing).

DanielP

Great stuff....that's a yes then!

The box I was watching on Ebay just went for £30 + £10 p and p, so I will go for the new box for £23 + £6.95 p and p!

I'm happy to pay a few quid for this jto cover me until they pull Eurosport. It should tide me over until I learn German properly, anyway! From my reading, they seem to be less willing to pull analogue than was previously thought. I also note that there is one Polish channel that you can't get for free another way.

Thanks for your help.

Daniel

DanielP

Sorry, couldn't resist (I can just about manage French; my translation is slightly above babelfish!)-

The DiSEqC tone burst function permits the connection of two LNBs to the IF IN input. For this, one must have a tone burst switch (ref 432507) if you have two LNB (via two dishes or two head fixture). Similarly, there are LNBs called "monoblocs" which are made with two LNBs spread to handle the capture of Astra and Hotbird via an 80cm dish, all placed in a box containing a DiSEqC 1.0 switch as well. Certain are Tone Burst compatible (see packaging).

I plan to run this box off the loopthrough of my Fortec Star box- I guess if the DiSEqC doesn't work out, I can use the Fortec box to switch LNBs first. I doubt whether I will need to go to Hotbird much anyway, though I want to check out the Polish channel.

Daniel

LukeUK

Glad that it'll work for you. I'm still in the middle of learning French, hopefully watching from French TV on 13E Hotbird will help!

DanielP

To be honest, hearing foreign languages is one of the main reasons why I got myself a 13E / 19.2E setup. Probably a very good way to learn- I am glued to Arte. My three year old also enjoys cartoons in French, German and Italian- catch 'em early, I say.

The other reason is that I hate the Sky monopoly- I feel like I have broken it by increasing the amount of FTA channels I now have!

Daniel

stevew66

Videoing Metronics Oringinal Box?
Has anyone managed to set up their system so that that can video from the Metronics.
Currently I've got it set up as per the diagram in the manual.
The satellite cable going into the Metronics box.
A scart cable from the Metronic to the Magnetoscope (video).
A scart cable from the Metronic to the TV.
A coaxial from the aerial to the TV.
A coaxial from the video to the TV.

When I try and tune the channels on the video it doesn't find the satellite. It does find the terestrial channels and blank blue screen.
I've checked the scart and coaxial cable on other systems and they are fine.

Went away at the weekend and missing the Mountain stages of the Giro.

Any help would be appreciated.

LukeUK

You probably already know this, but..........If you've got the Metronic set up to the VCR by SCART, you'll need to set the VCR to its SCART channel. Sometimes this is called E1/E2 or AV1/AV2 (depending of course in which socket it is connected to).

A VCR should be able to record from it just fine, since I've used my computer and DVD Recorder to record from it.

DanielP

Got my box in today. Although its pretty basic, it does the job and isn't some overpriced dusty relic. The picture is miles better than I thought it would be too.

The only issue is that I seem to need to hit the "toneburst" button a couple of times to make it lock on the channel when I change channels. This happens whether I run it on the direct cable to the monobloc lnb or put it on the loopthrough from my Fortec box. I don't care that much, as it will spend most of its life locked on Eurosport!

Anyone else have this?

Daniel

PS....got it! TB is the diseqc setting- the correct setting needs to be set and saved for each channel! I'm well happy now. Hope Eurosport lasts a couple more years at least!