I’ve just replaced my 1 LNB Motorised Echostar AD3000IP setup which has served me well, but it’s now a time for change for PVR and a speedier receiver.

Having purchased the HDR a few days ago and installing the latest Raydon software. I’ve got a few questions:

1. The EchoStar was motor driven and at the receiver it had electrical wires going into it, no doubt to control the motor. As there are no places to plug these into the HDR – what do I need to do to re-enable a motorised dish setup?
2. Any issues with connecting an Octo Sky LNB to replace the 1 LNB which will serve 2x HDRs with future proofing in mind? I’m guessing this will be fine.

For 1 of the HDR’s I have already configured it in non freesat mode pointing to Turksat 42”.

1. However, how do I record a future program event i.e. a few hours away/next day etc. I can’t seem to figure it out, the EPG guide is no good (no channel info being broadcast) and I can’t find any manual recording scheduling option to do it.
2. I’ve switched to freesat mode (copied the channels over using the channel editor) but the same problem remains, and what’s worse is that for some reason I can’t even record anything when viewing using freesat mode, but can pause, rewind etc where as on the non-freesat mode I can record.

Other gripes:

1. It takes a while to boot…
2. The channel sorting is really bad, I know you can press the ‘I’ button, but why can’t you choose to have it permanently sorted, bad coding if you ask me.
3. Having read a few threads I can’t believe how a simple thing such as adding favourites cannot be done in non freesat mode– I know it’s a non freesat box but that’s got to be bad coding…. I’ve used Raydon and Co channel editor but that’s really limited, I hope they update it so that you can channel sort etc. The echostar had a 3rd party app called ad3000edit which did the job fab.
4. The front LCD appears to be washed out, I’d have thought you’d only see the channel name but the whole back light is lit which is bright, not sure if its faulty?

I truly hope there will be ways round the above otherwise I’ve bought the wrong receiver for my needs. Happy to reset/etc if required. Cheers.

Thanks for your help.

Presumably your dish motor is a 36V type and with virtually all modern satellite receivers you will need an additional box (a V box) to convert the receivers DiSEqC dish control signals to drive your dish - http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/vbox.htm.

It would certainly appear you have the wrong receiver for your needs - the HDR is primarily a freesat box with limited non freesat capability and all your gripes are limitations of such a receiver that meets freesat's specifications. Most non freesat generic FTA PVRs would not have these limitations. I would suggest posting in the non-specific platform section with the requirements of what you want to achieve and ask for recommendations of suitable receivers.

Why fit an octo lnb to a motorised dish? You are aware that all receivers connected to that lnb would only be able to view/record channels on the satellite that the dish is aligned to and that only one of those receivers would be able to control which satellite the dish is aligned on. Note also that Sky lnbs are designed to work with horizontally oval Sky minidishes and would give poor performance on a standard shaped dish particularly on weak satellites - you need a standard 40mm lnb for that dish for optimum. performance.