It happens very often that you buy a cheap receiver without a manual or simply lose the one that was attached. Unfortunately, you don‘t know how to operate your receiver/decoder. A basic satellite receivers manual is essential, especially for newbies on how to find out how to look for new programs, sort or delete them, installation and so on.
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Basic satellite Receivers’ Manual
This manual provides instructions for setting up your satellite receiver, making it easy for anyone to get started.
We will try to help you find and use the basic functions of your receiver. After that, you can even use the more specific feature, by simple “trial and error”.
Satellite receivers are designed for television signal reception, meaning they have to be connected to a TV set, which they can use as OSD (on-screen display). As a matter of fact, the front sides are mainly very poorly equipped and just contain a few buttons and a segment display. Also, only very few receivers can show channel names and other information via an alphanumeric display, sometimes a display is missing altogether. So, you will have to turn on your TV for most receivers to know which channel you are currently listening to.
The front sides are mainly very poorly equipped
Some receivers offer a few buttons to operate the unit without a remote control. However, these buttons are just duplicates of the ones available on the remote. Although with one exception. Some of them contain a menu and the power on/off switch.
The other buttons are normally just for “channel up/down” and maybe sometimes volume up/down. If a special button to enter the main menu is available, it‘s in most cases not very useful because there are no numeric keys available on the receiver’s front, and so you can‘t use most of the menu entries.
All available connectors are on the back side
Luckily, there‘s one point, where all receivers are similar. They offer the available connectors (which are also standardized) on the backside. Normally, the receiver is even ready for use if there are just the signal input and the video output connected.
– The antenna/Dish cable has to be connected to the signal input. This normally carries the IF Input or LNB-IN labels.
– You connect your TV via the Scart plug, HDMI, or AV/RCA/Components cables.
– Some receivers also offer an RF output in the UHF range
– The audio signal e.g. for radio output can be taken from the white and red RCA plug (Stereo)
– You can connect your PC via the 9-pin RS232 connector
– Sometimes a menu and a power switch are also available.
Basic satellite receivers manual: Connect your TV via the available output
As soon as the receiver is connected via the IF input with your antenna and via the Scart output with your TV. You can turn it on and you should immediately see some pictures. If you use an older TV set with no Scart or video input, connect it via your receiver‘s RF output.
The Scart and video input should always offer a picture. If you are very lucky that your receiver was pre-programmed with a channel list and you can immediately start watching. However, if there‘s just some strange message on the TV, don‘t panic; some receivers need a few seconds before they show the first channel.
In general, we recommend that you perform a completely new system setup. This helps you to set up the receiver correctly and get all the newly available channels. But please be aware that you need your original remote control to use all the special features of your device.
To open the main menu, try to find the menu button on your remote. Sometimes the main menu also pops up if you press the OK button. The installation procedure is basically the same for all receivers. Although the necessary menu entries are sometimes labeled in a different way.
Basic satellite receivers’ initial setup entries
1. Search (adjust satellites, select/ enter transponders, channel search)
2. Edit (antenna, transponders, group/sort/delete programs)
3. Basic settings (language, video output, time setup, PIN)
4. Information (status, factory reset, software upgrade, games)
Basic receivers setup
First of all, you should set up the OSD language to English. This helps you to find the correct buttons on the remote control unit. Furthermore, you can prevent some confusion, because it happens very often that translated menu entries contain strange and misunderstood text. Also, the manuals contain sometimes lots of translation errors. These can make it quite difficult for the beginner to understand their meaning.
After setting up the OSD language, some other basic settings like time setup or video output have to be adjusted. Some receivers prompt you to enter a pin code to access these menus, which is normally 0000 or 1234.
Also, you may need to do some cleaning up If you bought a used receiver. With a used receiver, there might be hundreds of old channels. Besides, even a new receiver might contain some overaged data. In this case, it‘s very useful to perform a complete factory reset.
The important factory reset is normally available in every receiver
The factory reset can be found on nearly every receiver and normally it does only reset channel data and some user settings. Transponder and satellite data will not be deleted because the receiver would be useless without them.
However, considering that the receiver was manufactured a few months or even a few years ago, these transponder data might not be very up to date, and you will probably have to add new transponders, which can be found on flysat.com, lyngysat.com, and the likes.
Enable the „FTA only“ option during the channel search
If you own an FTA-only receiver that has no CA slots or card readers, it‘s very useful to reduce the channel search to free programs only. Normally this can be done in the search menu by selecting the option “FTA only“. This helps you control your channel list if you scan a few different satellites. If you don’t select this option, you might fill up the receiver’s channel memory with hundreds of unwanted and encrypted channels and lose space for other free-to-air programs. This is because most receivers have a channel memory of 3000 TV and 1000 radio channels.
Update your receiver via PC and the Internet
It‘s much more comfortable to set up the receiver’s channel list on the PC than on the unit itself. Just connect your receiver and the PC via an RS232 cable (crossover cable) and use a PC program like SetEdit or some other program offered by the manufacturer to do the job. Sometimes these programs are capable of directly importing new channel lists from e.g. SatcoDX.
Nearly every manufacturer offers a homepage on the internet and normally they are really worth a click. If you can‘t find one of your receiver’s manufacturers, try Google or Wikipedia. But normally you‘ll find the correct site by entering the manufacturer’s name with .com or with the local country extension.
Be careful when upgrading the receiver’s software
Finally, I have a very important warning for you. Manufacturers offer from time to time new software updates to fix new bugs or to enhance the receiver’s functionality. If you are lucky, your receiver can update its software automatically via satellite or via a USB drive. However, most of the older models don‘t offer that option. You have to visit the manufacturer’s website and download the software. Then install it to your receiver via the RS232 connector and your PC or via a USB drive. In this case, please read all the information provided by the manufacturer on the website and check if you are really using compatible software for your receiver.If you install the wrong software, your receiver might become damaged
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