First Impressions moving from Azbox Premium HD Plus

[wbarrett]

Got my Raptor Thursday evening and swapped out my Azbox. I used the same physical setup ... KU band on DVB 1, C band on DVB 2 to a GBOX, HDMI to the TV, SPDIF to audio amp ... so it was plug and play easy.

Raptor GUI is very intuitive. I have only been in the FTA hobby for 6 months and this is only my second box so I have a limited experience to compare... but I have had no problem finding functions and features expected work as expected.

Positives so far:

- Blind scan is incredible ... fast and accurate. I did not know what I was missing. Had to get METV on 103W manually though. Had to manually enter the PIDs and then go into the channel editor to adjust the audio.

- Blind scan does not cause the GBOX to lose it's limits like the Azbox. I frankly never did use blindscan on Azbox because of this bug and would manually enter new transponders and services by computer and FTP it back up.

- Plugged in a CISCO USB netowrk adapter and had the wireless connected in just a few minutes.

- The FDU satellite file that came with my Raptor did not go past 61W. I could not figure out how to add a satellite other than editting an unused, existing one. I was about halfway (no pun intended) through the C-band arc when I decided to load the FDU_1B.fdu satellite file on this forum. Had to start over but it was worth it. My C-band arc is 131W to 37.5W and my ku-band arc is 127W to 15W.

- I did find that 111.1W (ku) ANIK F2 was missing from the FDU_1B.fdu file. But it ws easy enough to change the 110W Echostar satellite to Anik.

- Getting wild feeds so easily now FAR outweighs the loss of 4.2.2 services for me at least.

- eScapes HD is solid and does not jitter like the Azbox did.


Negatives:

- Not crazy about having to enter a PIN every time I want to do anything with the receiver. Really would like the option to disable that.

- I get an awful lot of services that get identified with a generic "SVC_x_Channnel" It is easy to change the generic identifier to something more appropriate like "Shalom TV" but there sure are a lot of them to wade through and have to change.

- I cannot get the Fox station (KRBK) on 99W 3720 H 7330 using any combination of scans or manual entry :-(



very impressed overall though

===
Bill

[el bandido]

You can go into parental control and unlock everything if you do not want the password messages to show up.
Some pictures are attached.
The receiver names channels as it sees them from the satellite. The Optibox will allow you to edit and change channel names. This can be done in the Service List Manager. Be sure to make a back-up of your scans and channel edits IN the receiver, and also to a memory stick.
There is an improved satellite file that we have made in the Raptor section. Let me know if you cannot locate it. Load the new satellite file after you have backed up what you have now.
I do not get any signal on tp 3720 right now, so this is probably not a problem with the Raptor. EB

[ViP3R]

Got my Raptor Thursday evening and swapped out my Azbox. I used the same physical setup ... KU band on DVB 1, C band on DVB 2 to a GBOX, HDMI to the TV, SPDIF to audio amp ... so it was plug and play easy.

Raptor GUI is very intuitive. I have only been in the FTA hobby for 6 months and this is only my second box so I have a limited experience to compare... but I have had no problem finding functions and features expected work as expected.

Positives so far:

- Blind scan is incredible ... fast and accurate. I did not know what I was missing. Had to get METV on 103W manually though. Had to manually enter the PIDs and then go into the channel editor to adjust the audio.

- Blind scan does not cause the GBOX to lose it's limits like the Azbox. I frankly never did use blindscan on Azbox because of this bug and would manually enter new transponders and services by computer and FTP it back up.

- Plugged in a CISCO USB netowrk adapter and had the wireless connected in just a few minutes.

- The FDU satellite file that came with my Raptor did not go past 61W. I could not figure out how to add a satellite other than editting an unused, existing one. I was about halfway (no pun intended) through the C-band arc when I decided to load the FDU_1B.fdu satellite file on this forum. Had to start over but it was worth it. My C-band arc is 131W to 37.5W and my ku-band arc is 127W to 15W.

- I did find that 111.1W (ku) ANIK F2 was missing from the FDU_1B.fdu file. But it ws easy enough to change the 110W Echostar satellite to Anik.

- Getting wild feeds so easily now FAR outweighs the loss of 4.2.2 services for me at least.

- eScapes HD is solid and does not jitter like the Azbox did.


Negatives:

- Not crazy about having to enter a PIN every time I want to do anything with the receiver. Really would like the option to disable that.

- I get an awful lot of services that get identified with a generic "SVC_x_Channnel" It is easy to change the generic identifier to something more appropriate like "Shalom TV" but there sure are a lot of them to wade through and have to change.

- I cannot get the Fox station (KRBK) on 99W 3720 H 7330 using any combination of scans or manual entry :-(



very impressed overall though

===
Bill

Should be the same as the Anaconda...go to parental control and choose no block..

[wbarrett]

Never would have found that PIN lock on my own. Thanks.

Found another positive difference ... the ability to change audio from left, right or stereo. Could not watch several services on my Azbox due to having different audio feeds on L and R.

[SatelliteGuy]

Blind scan is incredible ... fast and accurate. I did not know what I was missing.

Could someone please explain why the Raptor blind scans so much faster than the Anaconda when they both use the same firmware?

[el bandido]

The firmware for the Raptor and the Anaconda are not the same.

[cpr43]

Hey eb,
sorry to jump in, any idea when the updated NA terrestrial tuner will be available?? which model will carry the OTA tuner?? Will the new NA OTA tuner will change the actual price??? Thanks

[el bandido]

Do NOT Hold your breath for an OTA tuner.
The united States and a handful of other countries uses a different OTA format than the rest of the world, so this would drive the cost of the tuner for us up.
We have requested an OTA tuner but I do not expect to get it. EB