Total Noob, Typical questions!!

metomwhou

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Hi folks,
I've been cruising around here for a while now and I'm completely stumped. We moved to Germany last May and bought a second hand digi-receiver from a guy who was leaving. We currently have an LNB pointed at Hotbird for AFN and one pointed at Astra for use with our other sat box.

So, on to my dilema. I have a U4101, Univers made by K.F.T. The only info I've found about this thing is that its some kind of clone of a starsat 1500 series. The few threads I have found are in portuguese mostly and thats just not any help to me at all.

I ran through the box yesterday and here's the specs.
S/W version V5.2.5
Updated last 30 Apr 2004
Loader Ver V1.0.3
RS232 connection in back

The box is great, nice clear picture, NTSC or PAL, gets tons of channels from either of our LNB's, doesn't like both feeds at the same time though for some reason.

The "problem" is that among all these channels, we don't get the two we want. I want Eurosport(any language at this point) and my wife wants CNN international.

If anybody has ANY experience with this box, your help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'd love any other tips you can throw my way or which box you would recommend for me to get in case there's no helping the one I have now.

Many thanks in advance!
Tom
 

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If the dish you have acquired points towards 19.2 East, then the chances are you can get these channels without changing the receiver.

You claim you have two LNBs on the dishes but it maybe you need to set up the switching system correctly.

What content are you getting ?
 

metomwhou

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I only have 1 dish with 2 LNB's. The left LNB(if looking to the sky from behind the dish) is pointed at Hotbird(For use with my AFN box), the right LNB is pointing to Astra. Just for giggles, I chose all sat's in the receiver's list this evening to search for channels. It has Astra 1 and 2, hotbird, and about 26 others. The only channels that were found were on either Hotbird(loads of stuff) and Astra(about 200), these included FTA and what I assume is scrambled because the channels that do not show up are marked "S" and the channels I can see are "F".

As for content, I'm getting lots of arabic channels, italian channels, greek, french, german, pretty much all over the place. It finds tons of channels, two Eurosports, both marked "S" and atleast ten others that say ESP Dutch, etc.

If you want specific channels from the Astra side, I can post a short list later.

I'm not sure what switching system you mean. I'm using a 2-in-1-out that I used with my old Strong box, which worked fine with two inputs but this U4101 doesn't like it, no matter how I connect it, it only wants one LNB at a time.
 

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On Astra 1

Scan: 11778 V 27500 for CNN Int'l Europe and 12226V 27500 for Eurosport Germany both FTA

On Hotbird, scan 12597V 27500 for CNNi may not be FTA though but clearing on many receivers.
 

rolfw

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Are you saying that you are using a switch or a combiner, if the latter, then it will not work properly as you will have identical or close frequencies on each satellite. Get yourself a 2 way DiseqC switch, this will switch automatically between the two satellites. :)

If you are using an A+B switch, then there is no point in scanning any satellite, other than the one at which the LNB/dish is pointing, just scan for that single satellite.
 

metomwhou

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Well I think I've found my problem! The pictures below show my set-up. The guy I bought the satellite from told me this was a supposed to hit both Hotbird and Astra. Well it seems that I'm only getting hotbird. The single LNB on the left is "supposed" to be aimed at Astra while the quad LNB is actually aimed at hotbird, as confirmed by my two AFN boxes and the U4101 when connected to it.

I'm pretty fed up at this point. I spent another 3hrs messing with it this morning. I can get Hotbird on either LNB, if I push it far enough in the right direction but can't seem to get Astra at all. I'm to the point of just giving up and paying for the Dorna internet MotoGP package so that I can watch races.

Here's my dish

View attachment 15679


Two LNB's Currently receiving Hotbird on the Quad, nothing on the single
View attachment 15680

This is the 2 into 1 that I was used with my old Strong box, but doesn't seem to work with this U4101.
View attachment 15681

This was given to me by the previous owner of the dish and U4101, don't know why.
img0324smallaq5.jpg



I'm gonna try and find a satellite place sometime this week and try and get someone to come over and sort me out, I'm done! I appreciate all the help you guys threw my way, wish I could've put it to good use!
Thanks,
Tom
 

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Topper

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It is a shame that you have run out of patience, however that is the attribute that is required for this hobby. It is difficult to analyse what is going on as your posts are not specific enough about the scenario you are experiencing but having re-read the whole thread I too am convinced you are merely looking at a minor switching problem which would be solved as Rolfw suggested with a 2 way DiseqC switch then you set your receiver for Port A on hotbird and port B on Astra1.
 

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Yep, tis a shame, as your 2 in 1 switch is a Diseqc switch and should have worked fine, you just had to tell the receiver which switch position to use for each satellite.

Not sure what the splitter was for, but you shouldn't need it.

Robbo:)
 

metomwhou

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So here's the long awaited update. I was never really able to acquire Astra so I simply ran a single line down to the U4101 and that was that. At some point the dish must have moved or something because we started losing channels on both the AFN boxes and the U4101. I messed with it a few more times and just couldn't get it to work. I finally found a satty guy and he comes over and has both birds in about 15minutes.

So I should be good to go right? Nope, he decides to do a factory reset on the U4101 and now I only get about 50 channels from Astra. He plugged in his box and grabbed a few hundred just to prove that the signal was good. For some reason the U4101 doesn't like to search the TP's above 11000.

Now here's my dilema. Do I go out and buy a new box or try and get this one working?

If I go buy a new box, I'll have to buy some kind of video converter because my TV is NTSC only and most of the local stores only carry PAL receivers.

Any recommendations on an easy to use, inexpensive box?

The U4101 has a built in converter so I won't need to an additional converter. But, like i said way back, I can't find much info on this machine. I've been trolling the forums and finally found the Univers website but the U4101 isn't listed on their site any more. I emailed them about support but haven't heard back yet.

If its not too much trouble, could someone explain how to use a firmware update program and possibly which one to use? I'll be getting a null cable this week, just in case.

Thanks for reading my book! And thanks for all the great info and help you guys have provided so far.
Tom
 

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metomwhou said:
So I should be good to go right? Nope, he decides to do a factory reset on the U4101 and now I only get about 50 channels from Astra. He plugged in his box and grabbed a few hundred just to prove that the signal was good. For some reason the U4101 doesn't like to search the TP's above 11000.

My ID digital is like that, it does not have the correct SR programmed in on every single satellite since obviously as digital has grown and the manufacturer no longer puts updates out OTA over the air or on the website the stb becomes obsolete unless you can find a work around like I did. On my stb they are pre-programmed by and thus the only way to get alternative ones is to search using a different antenna setting which does contain the correct SR setting, it sounds like you need to do similar
metomwhou said:
Now here's my dilema. Do I go out and buy a new box or try and get this one working?

No point in spending unless you really have to
metomwhou said:
If I go buy a new box, I'll have to buy some kind of video converter because my TV is NTSC only and most of the local stores only carry PAL receivers.

It must be quite old then as most modern TV's LCD and plasma have that as a switchable option. However if I am not mistaken the majority of stb's not have that option in their setup menu as you can see if you click here so if you bought a new one you would still be able to use your TV.

metomwhou said:
Any recommendations on an easy to use, inexpensive box?

I do not do recommendations as I have very little personal stb experience

As regards the update procedure they are receiver specific, but there are some posted on the forum.
 

metomwhou

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Thanks Topper.

The TV is only 1yr old, however I'm American living in Germany, hence the reason its NTSC only.

Still no replies from any of the folks I emailed about support on the U4101 so I'm thinking of buying the tecnomate 5400 CI, since it seems to be an update of the 1500.
 

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metomwhou said:
Thanks Topper.
The TV is only 1yr old, however I'm American living in Germany, hence the reason its NTSC only.

I have to say I am surprised by that, what make is it?

BTW the U4101 (which sounds more like a German U boat reference than an stb) I thought I had cracked it with this but your model is not there.

However I did find out that your model accepts a dongle whatever that is but only if you upgrade the firmware to a 4103 so it may be worth a bit more exploring as it seems to be a clone of another model

Indeed if you look here they tell you it is a 5518STB which is pretty standard

metomwhou said:
Still no replies from any of the folks I emailed about support on the U4101 so I'm thinking of buying the tecnomate 5400 CI, since it seems to be an update of the 1500.

Nothing wrong with a Technomate and lots of support available on A L S A T
 
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