Advice please.. Fortecstar or mvision...

inabsentia

Hi.. been away from here for WAAY too long, so I hope I'm posting this in the right place!!

OK, I'm running an Echostar 3000IP VIA and a SKYSTAR2 PCI card off a dual LNB. I've been holiding off updating the Echostar until HD came down in price and also added PVR functionality.. it seems that time has now arrived!

I was in Maplin's at the weekend and saw both the FORTECSTAR and the MVision HD200 so I'm looking for some pointers as to the plusses and minuses of each receiver. I've seen the review of the MVision HD200 in WotSat which seemed pretty positive other than it seems to be hot running. I also like the idea of it having DVB-T too that the FORTECSTAR doesn't (seem to) have, but that wouldn't be a 'deal breaker' if the FORTECSTAR is the better box.

As my dish has a 36 volt motor, I realise I would have to keep that recceiver to move my dish- would I be able to loop the dish input through either of these receivers to the Echostar?

Would I be correct that you can attach external hard drives to the USB ports of either of these two receivers to record the DVB stream and then attach that drive to a PC and extract the footage for authoring onto DVD?

Any feedback would be gratefully received..

Thanks

Robbo

Hi, another receiver worth considering is the Technomate TM6800 or TM6900 (DTT-built in), they cost ust over £200, and a HDD can be added via the USB.

Also, it is not obligatory to control the motor with the Echostar, a V-Box will translate DiSEqC1.2 into 36V controls.

Robbo

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inabsentia

Thanks for that Robbo- to be honest, when I was trawling through the forums this morning I came across the Technomate receivers- they seem to offer the same as the MVision looking at the spec sheet, but if you are familiar with both, what would be the advantages of one over the other?

I was considering the V Box option but in reality, it would still be a '2 box' option... would there really be any advantage in ditching the current 'dish mover' (i.e. the Echostar) and going to a V Box?

Robbo

Sorry, I have no experience with either, which is why I just offered an alternative to consider rather than giving a definite recommendation.

I have read many posts on the Fortec HD, and a lot of people appear to have problems with them. The TM6900/6800 has the same user interface as my current receiver is very good, hopefully I will getting one myself very shortly.

As for the mvsion, all I have read is a few posts saying that it is a cheapy.

The advantage with a V-box is that it would interface directly to a Diseqc1.2 receiver, so when you change channels the dish would move to the right position (once setup) so there would be no need to mess about changing satelites on two receivers.

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bamber

I have the same Echostar receiver and I recently added the Fortec Star Passion HD receiver in the way suggested. The feed from the satellite dish goes to the Passion first, then is looped through to the Echostar, using the cable which used to feed the now redundant analogue section of the Echostar. This arrangement does mean that the Passion has to sit on top of the Echostar, which is not ideal as the Passion tends to run hot; I have added some spacers between them to improve air circulation.

To use the Passion, the dish is first moved to the correct satellite using the Echostar; the Echostar is then switched off and the Passion is swiched on. Only one receiver can be on at any time, to avoid confusion over which is controlling the LNB. The Passion also needs to be set up in the initial menus as if it is connected to a fixed dish, so that it does not send any spurious disecq commands to the LNB. To avoid an excessively long channel list on the Passion, I have not tuned in any channels which are already on the Echostar.

The Passion does suffer quite frequent crashes, which can always be cured by switching off/on at the main power button and allowing it to reboot. One puzzling glitch, though, is that it often takes about 45 seconds to register any signal after switching on from standby.

I have also managed to connect both receivers to a video sender to feed TVs in other rooms. I achieved that by a lead from the TV scart on the Echostar to the vcr scart on the Passion, then another lead from the TV scart on the Passion to the video sender. This works because only one of the receivers can be on at any one time; when the Passion is on, it feeds the video sender, otherwise it loops through the output from the Echostar. The only disadvantage is that I now have to use the RCA phono sockets on the Echostar to feed the main TV, so the signal is composite rather than RGB.

All that I need to find now is the one-for-all remote code for the Passion, so that I can control it from other rooms.

inabsentia

Thanks Bamber.. I've just ordered the 'Innovation' from Maplins which is almost identical to the 'Passion +' but with additional CAM interface.

The way I was thinking of intigrating this into my system was to disconnect the LNB from the echostar altogether and just leave that as 'Dumb' positioner (Viewable through the RF loop so not taking any AV input into the TV).

One thing you've mentioned there though that does concern me slightly. You've mentioned setting it up as a fixed dish so as not to confuse the LNB- this makes sense but would doing that mean all the saved channels would be on one list rather than a 'per satellite' basis?

If so then I think the best solution would probably be to lose the Echostar altogether and get VBox to control the dish- but I've heard bad reports on these being fiddly (admittedly this was many, many years ago now!!)

Just one thing I meant to ask does the Fortec receiver you have just 'loop through' the RF signal or does it actually put the signal into the RF loop (i.er. so you can set the channel somewhewre between ch21-69 0n your TV)?

bamber

Here are the answers to your points, Inabsentia:

1. If you have no LNB connection to the Echostar, then it will show no signal strength and it will be difficult to tell when it is properly locked on to a satellite and difficult to make any minor adjustments to the recorded satellite position in the receiver's memory.

2. Yes, the Passion's channels do show as one long list. That is why I have limited it to the channels not already available on the Echostar.

3. The Passion does not have any RF connections.

I hope that this helps.

inabsentia

Thanks again Bamber...

1. Yep, understand that, though the positioner in the Echostar has always been spot on. If any slight 'nudging' of the dish is necessary, I could use the split screen feature on the TV to view both at the same time. Not ideal, I know but I had to do that when I got my first digital receiver (Nokia 9600) - that didn't have a positioner at all.

2. Hmmm.. not good then. I wonder... can you turn off the 22KHz tone in the software of the Fortec box? That way no signal would go from the receiver up to the LNB?

3. Thought that might be the case.. Just means I wouldn't be able to add it to the RF loop for watching upstairs.

Looks like I will probably finish up having to go with a V Box to get the best out of the Innovation

bamber

To Inabsentia.

Yes, there is an option to turn off the 22khz switching tone in the antenna set up menu when disecq is on, but I have not tried it as I found it easier just to have the whole disecq control switched off. If you buy the receiver and set it up the other way, then I would be interested to know how it works out.

inabsentia

It came yesterday - I've just disconnected the lnb feed to the Echostar and put it into the Innovation- no problems at all, don't have to switch anything on or off!!! I'll hold off buying a V-Box controller for now.

robsond90

I just thought I'd add that I used to control my dish via a Manhattan receiver, looping the LNB feed through to the Passion, but it was annoying to have to juggle three remotes every time I changed satellites. I bought a V-Box a month ago (actually a G-Box II from *****), and this has made a huge difference in ease of use. The G-Box was easy to set up and is more accurate than the positioner in the Manhattan - use the G-Box remote controller to fine tune the dish position for each satellite before saving its position on the receiver, after which you only need the Passion's remote to do everything. Well worth the £30!