Fortec star Zeta PVR

F

frarl

Member
My Satellite Setup
Pentium4
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Hi,

I have a Fortec Star Zeta PVR with this FW

Model ID 0000A526
H/W Version: 2.00.00-3
S/W Version: 1.15.7F
2xCI and PVR with Firewire not USB

I cannt find the CAS menu. I can do EMEDIT etc. but nothing happens.

Anyone can help ?

Regards
frarl
 
Hi, do you still have the Fortec Star Zeta receiver, please contact me if you do as we may be able to share information as I own the same equipment, it may be benefitial to us both.
 
Hi
I had this receiver for 1 year now under another name "Hivion"
It is a cut down version of the Homecast 8000CI PVR receiver (without the fancy display and different case and slightly different software .
I have the USB version.
I have seen this Firewire version today . Does this work with the PC without aditional software ?
The USB version needs special software (you can get from homecast)
It is very nice receiver (missing the nicer display from Homecast one)
 
moggi said:
Hi
I had this receiver for 1 year now under another name "Hivion"
It is a cut down version of the Homecast 8000CI PVR receiver (without the fancy display and different case and slightly different software .
I have the USB version.
I have seen this Firewire version today . Does this work with the PC without aditional software ?
The USB version needs special software (you can get from homecast)
It is very nice receiver (missing the nicer display from Homecast one)
Click to expand...


Hi, not been able to try the IEE1394 Firewire yet as I require a card for the pc but I understand no additional software or drivers are requiried, do you know if there is any way of improving the EPG data I get now and next but never more than that, I don't think there is a workaround but if you know of one it would make setting recording timers much easier, I purchased the receiver recently off ebay new with a 160gb hard drive fitted for £75.00 and I am very impressed with it, I have two Topfield TF5800 terrestrial Freeview PVR's but where I live some channels (Film4 and UKTV History in perticular) can sometimes be problematic as the signal on that multiplex is weak and it can be unreliable when recording so I opted for the Fortec so that I could record from Film4 more reliably, thanks for your post and I hope you may be able to give advise regarding the EPG.
 
Thanks 304092aj, I think the EPG problem is related only to SK-y . I have seen other sat receiver behave this way . It must be designed mainly for their special receivers .
EPG works OK with TPS or other european channels .
THe USB version has one problem : Slow transfer Max 1.92 MB/s . I might go for the Firewire one.
THe original Homecast one is sold for aroung £180 in Germany .
If you need help converting The Tp file please let me know.
 
Hi moggi, thanks again for your input, if you are interested in a Zeta receiver with IEE1394 the guy I purchased my receiver from keeps listing them on ebay although he doesn't have any listed at the moment so I don't know if he still has any available, his user name is alantsaxonholm or you can try the link _http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZalanatsaxonholm , he has been listing Zeta's for £55.00 buy it now without a drive and sometimes £75.00 with a 160gb Samsung Spinpoint drive plus £14.75 for Parcel Force 48 delivery, I used to have a very expensive fully motorised system years ago (SCT Monterey Classic then an Echostar Digital receiver) but I lost interest as the the film channels got more difficult to get card updates for so I just sold it all except the Pace sky receiver, I am thinking about motorising again now but I am out of touch so I'm not too sure if it's worh the effort, I can purchase everything to motorise inc a reasonable quality 1 mtr dish for around £100 and I am able fit it and set it up myself but do you think it's worth the effort.
Jed.
 
thanks 304092aj, Cant find the Zeta from ebay anymore . I know that you can still have premier and D+ on Astra 16 with diablo or dragon . But I am not sure about others . A diseq Motor will work with the Zeta You will need 80 cm dish but I have seen the small Sk-y dish works with hotbird in south england . I have 1.1 m dish from Televes (cost me £60) with Diseq motor . I find this very good but you need a good Diseq motor as the dish weigh about 14 Kg . You can install this by yourself but you need help to get the dish up .
 
moggi said:
thanks 304092aj, Cant find the Zeta from ebay anymore . I know that you can still have premier and D+ on Astra 16 with diablo or dragon . But I am not sure about others . A diseq Motor will work with the Zeta You will need 80 cm dish but I have seen the small Sk-y dish works with hotbird in south england . I have 1.1 m dish from Televes (cost me £60) with Diseq motor . I find this very good but you need a good Diseq motor as the dish weigh about 14 Kg . You can install this by yourself but you need help to get the dish up .
Click to expand...


Hi moggi, I have emailed the seller direct to see if he has any Zeta receivers to list on ebay, I will let you know what his response is and if you are interested you may be able to communicate with him direct if he has no objections to me forwarding his email to you, I will keep you informed.
Jed.
 
Hi moggi, if you are still interested in a Fortec Star Zeta with IEE1394 (or any one else for that matter)the guy I bought my receiver from has four of them in stock without a drive for £55.00 plus postage as from today but he sells them quite quick so if you are interested please respond to my post and I will forward the relevent information on to you.
Jed.
 
I have tried 3 of these receivers in the past 2 days, from Maplin, £130. They were Firewire models. First I used a 250GB Eide drive, and got "Hard-disc not built-in!" message. I then took it back to the shop, they tried 2 more receivers with a brand new 160 Gb drive, and got exactly the same message. Did you have any probs getting your Hard Disc to work?
It looks a splendid machine, but at present all i have is a blank 160 Gig drive and wont buy a receiver til I am confident they are OK and do actually work as PVRs. Could you please supply details of where you got yours at such a bargain price? Thanks
 
coldav said:
I have tried 3 of these receivers in the past 2 days, from Maplin, £130. They were Firewire models. First I used a 250GB Eide drive, and got "Hard-disc not built-in!" message. I then took it back to the shop, they tried 2 more receivers with a brand new 160 Gb drive, and got exactly the same message. Did you have any probs getting your Hard Disc to work?
It looks a splendid machine, but at present all i have is a blank 160 Gig drive and wont buy a receiver til I am confident they are OK and do actually work as PVRs. Could you please supply details of where you got yours at such a bargain price? Thanks
Click to expand...



Hi coldav, I purchased the Zeta receiver from a seller on ebay and the drive was pre-installed, the make and model of the drive is a Samsung SP1654N, 160Gb, the receiver I received is in every respect is NEW, I believe there are specific model’s (not necessarily makes) of drives that only work in certain PVR’s as I remember reading that somewhere, the receivers he is selling are the same as the Maplin model with IEE1394, he does not have one listed at the moment but he informed me last week he had four to sell, here is a link to his ebay page, http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZalanatsaxonholm, I contacted him last week for another forum member regarding purchasing a Zeta but as yet the forum member has not responded to my post which you can view above, please let me know how you get on as it’s an excellent receiver and well worth this sellers asking price of £75.00 inc a160Gb drive on a Buy-It-Now auction plus postage, please let me know how you get on.
Jed.
 
Hi,

Just happened to stumble on this thread I had started ages ago...Anyway found the CAS menu at last but can't get Premier.

Now running v11.18.1F since later firmware up to v11.20.0F crashes when tuning on Premier.

Anyone knows why ?

frarl
 
Hi frarl,
Sorry, can't help with the Premier question, but could you tell me where you get your firmware for the Zeta from?
The latest version I can find is 11.17.0F

Thanks for any information
 
Thanks frarl,
Unfortunately on Friday I tried connecting my laptop to the Zeta firewire port and fried the reciever. So I no-longer have one. :(

So to anyone else planning to use the firewire port - watch out, don't know what I did wrong, but the curl of smoke coming out was not a pretty sight...
 
Hi Guys..
I would like to join in on your conversation..I found you Guys on Google and it seems this Fortec Zeta is the same as my Hivion..:cool:
I have had very little success trying to get it to run properly since I bought it in the Far East about 17 months ago..
I am currently running the Latest S/W V: "s000a526-20000-11182F.sgn" dated 2.01.2008.
This seems to be the one you are both using on your STB's..!
Lets Chat a little and exchange results...OK
Cheers:)
Andrew
 
Andy,

I went back to 1.11.81F since 82F onwards could not get Multivision even on 1.12.00F. Cannot get Premiere though. Can you ?

frarl
 
You wont get Multivision - they went nagra 3 secure before Christmas!
 
Analoguesat said:
You wont get Multivision - they went nagra 3 secure before Christmas!
Click to expand...
Multivision is still open and it's encripted in Viaccess 2.5 .
 
Thanks Jed. Bought off Ebay for £65 + pp. Took it to Maplin in Poole and they persevered with a few Hard Discs. They had no luck initially, tried their Tech Support, who told them to try a Samsung HD. The shop only had one, which was 500Gb, and it works perfectly. Very impressed!

One niggle remains withFirewire. I'm on Vista, can get "1394 PVR ..." to display in "Device Manager", but it does not appear in "My Computer".
For the price though, it is absolutely excellent. Thanx for details of the Ebay Seller. Much appreciated.
 
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