Which HDTV FTA is best? I'm moving up!

[Roldaddy]

Hey all. I currently test a VSPVR7000, I'm looking to move up. In my research I see the SonicView 8000HD, the Viewsat 9000HD, and the CaptiveWorks 3000HD as the most talked about and most popular. Is this true? If so which should I get? If not, what should I get?

I know alot of people ask questions but I figured I would ask for myself. Also I know about the 8spk part.

My real question is what has the best support and picture and the less issues?

Thanks for reading. Please add in.

Roldaddy

[Roldaddy]

Please tell what you think is best also. Thanks everyone.

Roldaddy

[peabody]

well right now dont waste your money for the vs-9000 unless you want to spend 700 to watch hd. i got the reciever foe 469.95 shipped but i will have to spend 185.00 for another board to make it watch hd. and you will have to move your dish to get the 129 bird 0on d*sh to get the hd or 82. for b*v. and right now dish doesn't give a lot of good channels

[Roldaddy]

Thanks for the response Peobody. I'm leaning towards the Sonicview8000HD...and I'm buying a motor for my 39" dish. Anyone have comments about the Sonicview?

[peabody]

dont get me wrong the reciever works fine i haven't tried to use the record deal, but i did need to get a merory stick to load files on it. but the didn't tell me about the hd part. and the motor dish is great to have can't wait till spring to get mine up

[cool view]

i,m using this verry good recever with rotor and 36 inch dish and dual band lnb switching between lower and upper band with a sw 21 switch i have 13 birds programed in and 8psk module also using a 91xg uhf antenna with chanelmaster amp 26db gain with over 20 ota channels the only drawback on the ota no analog or channels below channel 14 and 320 gig western digital external harddrive works real good. over all sv8000 is a highley recomended recever

[greatjumpah]

I am new to testing and would like to move up to HD. Do all the satboxes need extra accessories to receive the HD signal?

[porkenstein]

best and FTA in the same sentence. Isn't that an oxymoron.

[cool view]

I am new to testing and would like to move up to HD. Do all the satboxes need extra accessories to receive the HD signal?

to receve di*h yes a 8psk module and adapter no module for b*v or at least for now that will probaly change when they want to put more hd channels in

[wgruesho]

Hey all. I currently test a VSPVR7000, I'm looking to move up. In my research I see the SonicView 8000HD, the Viewsat 9000HD, and the CaptiveWorks 3000HD as the most talked about and most popular. Is this true? If so which should I get? If not, what should I get?

I know alot of people ask questions but I figured I would ask for myself. Also I know about the 8spk part.

My real question is what has the best support and picture and the less issues?

Thanks for reading. Please add in.

Roldaddy

DONT BUY THE SONICVIEW THE FRONT USB CONNECTION WILL GO AND YOU HAVE TO USE THE BACK CABLE TO LOAD FILES I HAD TWO AND HAD ENOUGH ALWAYS HAVE TO SEND BACK AND GET IT EXCHANGED FOR NEW ON EAT A COST OF 25.00 SO AT 50.00 BUY A VIEWSAT MORE RELIABLE

[wgruesho]

Thanks for the response Peobody. I'm leaning towards the Sonicview8000HD...and I'm buying a motor for my 39" d*sh. Anyone have comments about the Sonicview?

OH DONT BUT SONICVIEW YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS WITH USB AS IT WILL GO BAD AFTER A FEW WEEKS

[Wisweed]

Sonicview 8000HD best on market hands down.
Go with the A1 (all in one) board
Works even better than the origional (some had heat issues, most did not).
Sonicview support cant be beat.

With the moter go with SG2100

Sonicview tends to work a moter better as well :dogpile:

[scorpio1]

from my point of view viewsat has good support like sonicview
for money option i go with sonicview but quality i go with VS

[scas64]

took this form another site and qualify it to be very important, it is a resume and some stuff I did not know specially for the captain, I was ready to buy it, now i won't touch it with a 10 feet pole

plz move the post if u find a btter place to put it, thx

(UPDATE: 2008/04/01)

With HD becoming more and more popular among the community, I am seeing a lot of recycled questions. So, instead of constantly answering them and wasting precious FTATalk bandwidth, I thought I would take the time to write a Q&A for the four HD receivers that I currently have experience with, the Viewsat 9000 (VS9K), Sonicview 8000 (SV8K), Pansat 9200 (Panny) and the Captain 8000 (C8K). There are other HD receivers available in the market but I will not comment on them as I have not had the pleasure to test them out. My hope is to give our new members some insight into this hobby; not to start a brand war. If anyone has something to add, I'll be happy to edit my post to include additional helpful information.


Q1: Which HD receiver is the best?

A1: All four HD receivers are capable of bringing in HD content. But before we go any further, we need to look at what I believe to be the most important aspect of a receiver, SUPPORT. By this, I mean receiver updates and upgrades via software. This aspect should be applied to ALL receiver brands, not just the four that I am mentioning in this post.

My recommendation is to spend 10-20 minutes in the respective receiver forums and read various posts to get the track record of each receiver. At this timepoint, all four receivers are experiencing decent support. However, you must realize that in the hobby of FTA, there are no guarantees that receivers will have continual aftermarket support. This means that support can be here one day and gone the next. Do your research carefully to see which brand will have support that will most likely be here to stay. Again, this aspect should be applied to ALL receiver brands.


Q2: How much does each receiver cost?

A2: I will not list the price of the receivers as the prices can vary from vendor to vendor. What I will say is that on average, the SV8K, Panny and VS9K are very similarily priced while the C8K is priced approximately 60% less than the others. The difference in price between the receivers is well reflected in what features each receiver has.

The 8psk module for the SV8K and VS9K is approximately $175. The 8psk module for the Panny is approximately $250. (Please see A3 for the reason behind this module)


Q3: What programming can I get with each receiver?

A3: Currently, all four receivers are capable of receiving BEV HD (MPEG-2) out of the box (with the latest software update, called a BIN file). DN HD is a little more complicated. It is MPEG-4 encoded and 8psk modulated (Please see Q8 for clarification on MPEG-4 and 8psk). All receivers except the C8K have the option of receiving DN HD. These receivers are already MPEG-4 compliant so an add-on 8psk module is what you will need. You can find these 8psk modules on fleabay or even at certain FTA dealers. Once you have obtained your 8psk module, look in the respective receiver forum for installation instructions.

At this point, it would be prudent for me to add that in a 2007 company report, BEV indicated that their priority would be to switch all HD programming from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 format. In addition, a little further down the road, you can bet that in addition to MPEG-4, 8psk modulation will also be used as more HD channels are being introduced; essentially following in DN's footsteps. They have already begun on the hardware front by introducing receivers that are capable of MPEG-4 and 8psk. Having said that, it is worthy to note that BEV has still NOT given a firm date on when they will be implementing these changes but still, it is important to keep this fact in mind.

Another thing to note is that the VS9K was not originally MPEG-4 compliant; a software upgrade was needed to add that feature. Perhaps the C8K can also be upgraded to MPEG-4 via software upgrade. I am not completely sure but if anyone knows, please let me know.


Q4: PVR?

A4: With an external hard drive, the VS9K and SV8K are capable of recording and playing back TV. This can be done via the timer function or by selecting a program in the electronic program guide (EPG). You can also pause, unpause and fast forward or rewind live TV with the built-in timeshift feature. While the receiver is recording, you are able to watch another channel but that channel must be on the same Transponder (TP) as the one you are recording.

The C8K does not have PVR capabilities and will never have PVR capabilities. As for the Panny, at this time, it currently does not have PVR capabilities however, it is able to accomodate PVR capabilities with a software update; this feature may be added at a later time.

Note: The recorded programs can be converted into other formats for viewing on your PC or even burning to a DVD. Please go to the respective forums and research which hard drive works best with which receiver.


Q5: Which birds have HD content? (UPDATE: 2008/03/15, added sat pointing site)

A5: Currently, BEV HD is available on 82. DN HD can be found on 61.5W, 110W, 118.7W and 129W. If you need help setting up your dish, I recommend using the following site: hXXp://www.dishpointer.com


Q6: Which receiver has the best picture quality (PQ)? (UPDATE: 2008/03/14, removed results of PQ test)

A6: I often get this question from members asking me to compare the PQ of the receivers. PQ is a very personal and qualitative observation.

Originally, I had posted my findings with testing being done on a Bravia XBR4 46" LCD Flat-Panel TV using Monster Component and Monster HDMI cables with all receivers. I have recently completed more testing on my smaller 32" Samsung LCD Flat-Panel TV and have found that PQ varies greatly between different receiver/TV pairings and the type of programming being broadcasted.

In light of this, I have decided that it would be best to remove my original findings. What I will conclude is that all four receivers display exceptional PQ and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend all four.


Q7: How are software updates (BIN files) loaded?

A7: All four receivers can be updated via USB. A USB memory stick is needed. The receivers can also be updated via a serial null modem cable (RS232) that is connected from the receiver to the PC serial port. A 'loader' program, which can be found in the respective receiver's file section will also be needed to allow the PC to communicate with the receiver. If your PC does not have a serial port, you can buy a serial to USB adapter.

If your receiver is not responding to the USB memory stick, the serial cable is the fool proof way of updating your receiver. Please look in the receiver's respective forum on how to update via serial cable.


Q8: What is MPEG-4 and 8PSK?

A8: 8PSK and MPEG-4 are different things. One is a modulation method and the other is an encoding standard. Both are used together to allow providers to make more efficient use of their bandwidth (ie. to fit more channels into the frequency).

For example, DN currently broadcasts all of their HD content in MPEG-4 and 8psk. If DN opted not to use 8psk but only chose to encode channels using MPEG-4, then receivers that are already MPEG-4 compliant would not need to also be 8psk compliant. However, this is not the case as DN has decided to use both 8psk and MPEG-4 to maximize their capability to carry more HD content without having to add more satellites. Thus, an additional 8psk module is needed for those receivers that are capable of this add-on module. As stated earlier, all of the receivers except for the C8K are capable of accepting the 8psk module.

This is a very brief outline of MPEG-4 and 8PSK as I did not want to confuse anyone with too many details. If you are curious to learn more, a simple internet search should provide you with a wealth of information.


Q9: I heard that Viewsat is being sued, how does that impact their products?

A9: Actually, it is the Viewsat and Sonicview distributor, Viewtech, that is currently being sued by DN. The biggest allegation is DN saying that Viewtech has suspiciously sold too many Viewsats to warrant it 'just' an FTA receiver and that it is supporting pirated use of it's receivers. Viewtech has stated that they are only the North American distributor and they are claiming that they are not liable for anything that happens once the receivers are sold

What does this mean for VS? At this point, nobody knows. What we do know is that litigation happens very slowly and most of the time, it takes years for a court settlement. If Viewtech ends up on the losing end of this lawsuit, we cannot just assume that coders will stop coding for Viewsat receivers nor can we assume that no other company will pick up where Viewtech left off.

All this to say that only time will tell and that there are no guarantees with any brand, whether they are being sued or not.


Please note that this is by no means a complete Q&A but instead, it is a work in progress. There are always new questions to be asked as each receiver has its own bugs and nuances. As well, the technology world changes very quickly these days and many answers become outdated. I will try my best to update this post often. If you do not find your answer in this Q&A post, do not hesitate to ask your question in the respective forum as there will always be helpful people to answer your questions.

Cheers
=A=
__________________
Testing:

1. Sonicview 8000
2. Viewsat 9000
3. Captain 8000