New Receiver but no knowledge

[malcwatkinson]

I'm new to satellite and have just bought a Samsung DSB9401F FTA receiver and 80cm dish which I have pointed at 28.2° and believe I have a good signal.
The instructions with the receiver are less than useful and don't tell me what a SID, PID VPID or any other setting is.
I have done the auto scan and this doesn't even get the BBC channels, which I know are there. Quite a few other channels (although not many I want to watch) are there though and good quality.
Can anyone tell me or suggest where I can find general information on how to search for channels?

 

[rolfw]

Go to http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.shtml this will provide you with the transponder information you will need to enter in your receiver. Go to add transponder, or search for channels, it should give you an add transponder option, then just type in the frequency, polarisation and symbol rate, the search should then do the rest.

 

[w hole]

Hello Malc

Just a thought, but the BBC Transponder does have a restricted footprint.

What is your location?

Regards

W. Hole

 

[rolfw]

Romney Marsh WH, I believe that it is in the S.E.

As opposed to Rodney Marsh, who played football in the S.E.

Many of these receivers do not have the newer 28.2 transponders listed, they need to be added separately.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Set up the receiver scan with 'network' enabled. This will improve the chance of more transponders being captured

 

[malcwatkinson]

Thanks for your help and useful info everyone. I have now found the BBC channels after enabling the network search. I am a little puzzled however as to why, on auto search, if I select only "eurobird" as the satellite to scan, I get good signal strength showing on some transponders but the scan seems to bring up mainly known ASTRA2 channels. In other words, why does the receiver ask you to enter satellite names for scanning when it appears to ignore them?

There is supposed to be a software update facility (from satellite as it doesn't have an RS232) for this receiver according to the manual. I have tried re-orienting the dish to hotbird and astra 1 locations to get this but the receiver just says "searching for update" forever. Have tried Samsung's website to no avail.

 

[Channel Hopper]

It sounds like the firmware for the receiver is not being broadcast all the time or has moved to another transponder. To get the update you may have to enter a different frequency , where the info might come from is not known to me.

Networking on a full scan will help find all channels broadcast from the same position in space, Astra2 and Eurobird are close enough together on a small dish to constitute the same orbital slot