Satellite receiver power usage

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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #32
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    Blackcherry04 wrote: »
    What provider are you on ?? Do you know how to do a " Hard Re-set " on the box ?? Mine is holding down the up arrow key and using the on / off button. Some providers have a way with a on-line account where you can make it take a " New Hit " from the satellite. I keep mine off for days at a time and overnight with no problem. I have DTV.

    Something I have noticed lately is that for some reason the LNB use to be either on signal or completely off signal . Now for some reason it can get to a point where I only get half of the channels and I have to re-aim it. I don't have HD or multiple satellites, but it still gets off.

    They are huge power hogs.

    My provider is Bell Canada. Not aware of my receiver having a hard reset, or the ability to receive a hit beyond having to call Bell to send it. Wish it did have those abilities, would be a huge help.
    Re only half the channels from time to time - - could that be an LNB problem, or a receiver problem? If it's a Bell, or Dish Network Receiver, they send one voltage to the LNB for vertical polarization (for half the channels) and a different voltage for horizontal polarization which provides roughly the other half of the channels. I'd suspect a problem along those lines before the dish moving around on it's own. I forget the voltages, one could be 12 volts and the other 18 volts. Been a while since I was involved.
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  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    #33
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    Blackcherry04 wrote: »
    ...Some providers have a way with a on-line account where you can make it take a " New Hit " from the satellite. I keep mine off for days at a time and overnight with no problem. I have DTV....

    As I've mentioned recently here, I also have Directv and keep all of my non-DVR boxes off most of the time. Every few months I just call in or log in to resend the security keys. Saves a ton of kwh!
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
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  • solarvic
    solarvic Solar Expert Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭✭
    #34
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    waynefromnscanada wrote: »
    My provider is Bell Canada. Not aware of my receiver having a hard reset, or the ability to receive a hit beyond having to call Bell to send it. Wish it did have those abilities, would be a huge help.
    Re only half the channels from time to time - - could that be an LNB problem, or a receiver problem? If it's a Bell, or Dish Network Receiver, they send one voltage to the LNB for vertical polarization (for half the channels) and a different voltage for horizontal polarization which provides roughly the other half of the channels. I'd suspect a problem along those lines before the dish moving around on it's own. I forget the voltages, one could be 12 volts and the other 18 volts. Been a while since I was involved.

    Wayne, I don,t have any experience with bell since I live in USA. I was browsing on thier website and think you might be able to do your own reset on the internet. Here is the link. http://support.bell.ca/TV/Self_Serve_options/I_can_t_access_some_of_the_channels_that_I_ve_subscribed_to :Dsolarvic:D
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #35
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    solarvic wrote: »
    Wayne, I don,t have any experience with bell since I live in USA. I was browsing on thier website and think you might be able to do your own reset on the internet. Here is the link. http://support.bell.ca/TV/Self_Serve_options/I_can_t_access_some_of_the_channels_that_I_ve_subscribed_to :Dsolarvic:D

    AWESOME!!! Thanks very much solarvic! I'll definitely be giving this a try. :):)
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  • ChrisOlson
    ChrisOlson Banned Posts: 1,807 ✭✭
    #36
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    waynefromnscanada wrote: »
    Sucks.
    I'm going to try the timer again, but only have it shut down the receiver for 8 hours after midnight and see what happens. An extra 10 watts in daylight (PV) won't be a problem. It's the unnecessary night drain that bugs me.

    We used to have all these problems with satellite too - including our internet. Our solution was to get rid of it. There was nothing good on it anyway.

    We get free digital over-the-air broadcast TV - got an antenna 70 feet up on one of my wind turbine towers and we can get all the major broadcast networks. For special programs we want to watch (like on Discovery Channel - Gold Rush is one that we watch) that we can't get over the free broadcasts, we just download them on our internet from Amazon. We buy a TV Pass for the series we want to watch and it is pretty cheap compared to paying for satellite like we used to, and get a whole bunch of programming that was totally useless. Plus when we get the new episode on our TV Pass it plays straight thru with no ads on it, and we can watch it any time we want.

    What made it possible to get rid of the satellite is when the local TelCo did some upgrades on wiring, and they were nice enough to bury wires to our place so we could have DSL internet.
    --
    Chris
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #37
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    ChrisOlson wrote: »
    We used to have all these problems with satellite too - including our internet. Our solution was to get rid of it. There was nothing good on it anyway.

    We get free digital over-the-air broadcast TV - got an antenna 70 feet up on one of my wind turbine towers and we can get all the major broadcast networks. For special programs we want to watch (like on Discovery Channel - Gold Rush is one that we watch) that we can't get over the free broadcasts, we just download them on our internet from Amazon. We buy a TV Pass for the series we want to watch and it is pretty cheap compared to paying for satellite like we used to, and get a whole bunch of programming that was totally useless. Plus when we get the new episode on our TV Pass it plays straight thru with no ads on it, and we can watch it any time we want.

    What made it possible to get rid of the satellite is when the local TelCo did some upgrades on wiring, and they were nice enough to bury wires to our place so we could have DSL internet.
    --
    Chris

    If only we had access to those things here. Our over the air channels shut down almost a year ago, and out internet "high speed" is pitifully slow :(
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  • ChrisOlson
    ChrisOlson Banned Posts: 1,807 ✭✭
    #38
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.

    You don't have over-the-air broadcast anymore? When they went from the old analog to the new digital HD broadcast service the range got severely cut, and it takes a different antenna with a booster on it. But we get stations from 80 miles away with the antenna 70 feet up. If it is snowing or raining sometimes the signal gets weak and it shows a bunch of square blocks on the TV screen. But otherwise it works good and the picture is VERY clear and crisp.
    --
    Chris
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #39
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.

    Canada still has OAB, just not everywhere. We have ZERO RF reception here where I am, so satellite is the only choice. Around Vancouver you can pick up digital with rabbit ears (better than Shaw cable in fact). But some parts of the country relied on rebroadcast towers which were viable after the switch to digital.

    Digital TV was yet another mistake perpetrated on a helpless public. :grr
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  • ChrisOlson
    ChrisOlson Banned Posts: 1,807 ✭✭
    #40
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.

    For right now we're happy with the over-the-air broadcast digital TV. The people that put in the wires for our DSL internet said that in the next year or two they will have a digital TV service that comes over the internet wires so there is no cable or satellite dish required. They said that when they get it going we can get it for free. It don't require any sort of box - they said it will come in over the DSL internet into the computer that has the Media Center in it, which our computers have, and we can hook the computer up the TV to get it on the TV too.

    So we will probably try that when it becomes available to see how it works. They said we will get the same broadcast stations we get now for free as long as we have DSL internet. And we can get more stations, that would normally come in over satellite, if we want to pay a fee every month.

    Our DSL is VERY fast - I think it is 20 Mega Bites/sec or something and they buried fiber optic wires for it with a DitchWitch, right to our house. It only costs us $49.95/month.
    --
    Chris
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  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    #41
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    ChrisOlson wrote: »
    Our DSL is VERY fast - I think it is 20 Mega Bites/sec or something and they buried fiber optic wires for it with a DitchWitch, right to our house. It only costs us $49.95/month.
    --
    Chris

    I was wondering how you got good video download and streaming over DSL! Strictly speaking, DSL refers to a technology for putting a digital signal on a copper pair originally considered only good for analog voice or low speed (modem) digital. What you have is Fiber To The Home, FTTH, (or in Canada Fibre To The Hoose.) Verizon calls it Fiber Optic Internet Service, FIOS, since they are not a telco.
    It can give high speed upload and download that supports a host of optional services. Those whose telco provider has installed that are lucky indeed, and can almost compete with average speeds in Japan. :-)
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
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  • ChrisOlson
    ChrisOlson Banned Posts: 1,807 ✭✭
    #42
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.

    inetdog - it could be that. They call it and bill it as (looking at our bill) "20 Mbps DSL". It only takes about 1 1/2 minutes to download our latest episode of Gold Rush (in HD) that will come out tonight on Amazon. We have a little modem for it that only draws 15 watts and we leave that on all the time.

    Our old satellite internet was so slow that it barely worked - and it had a phone line hooked up to it too. The satellite TV box drew 75 watts - it was a Motorola. We used to turn it off with a surge strip switch and it would take the satellite box about 5 minutes to start working when we turned it back on.
    --
    Chris
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  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    #43
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.
    ChrisOlson wrote: »
    Our old satellite internet was so slow that it barely worked - and it had a phone line hooked up to it too. .
    --
    Chris
    Yes, the older satellite internet assumed that the bulk of the traffic would be download, so the link with the satellite was one-way down, and the uplink was the telephone modem. Even when you got decent downlink speeds, the modem reverse channel would be so slow that the downlink would be choked waiting for acknowledgements to come back. Mostly it was good for terminal traffic where you typed a little and a lot of text came back, but not graphics or anything like that. The use case it was designed for does not really exist anymore.

    For a really short wire distance it is possible to get very high speeds over a wire pair, a technology called VDSL, but the wire pair in those cases typically runs from the house to the curb, where Fiber To The Curb transmission takes over to get to the central office. As far as the subscriber is concerned, the practical difference between FTTH and FTTC is only whether or not their lawn got dug up too. It looks like the term DSL has become more of a marketing buzzword for a dedicated link rather than the shared bandwidth that cable gives you, instead of a technically accurate term.
    It is also possible, I guess, that even some FTTH terminates the fiber at the demarcation point outside the house and runs VDSL over installed quad wires to the phone and Internet boxes.
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
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  • solarvic
    solarvic Solar Expert Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭✭
    #44
    Re: DC voltage TV's and Computer Monitors at Best Buy.

    There is free to air digital satelite receivers that get you lots of free channels that aren,t scrambled. You can use a c=band dish or a small ku dish. The old primestar dish works well on ku. :Dsolarvic:D
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