4DTV INITIAL PROGRAMMING

Just a few words about programming your new 4DTV satellite receiver. As you may know, the receiver may be programmed a number of different ways. What we will attempt to do here is get you “started on the right foot”, so to speak. The whole process can be done very easily if you begin your programming using satellite G9 in the menu. If this satellite is stored correctly first, all of the rest of the satellites will just fall into place very easily. Before you begin mapping in the receiver on a digital channel, the receiver will not have all of the satellites available in the menu, and the digital channels will not be available.

Here is what to do: if you are replacing a receiver that works, move it to satellite G10. At this writing channel 24 has the Out Door Channel and channel 23 is A&E. This is where we will begin our programming. We will assume that you have followed the wiring diagram in the book, and everything there is correct. When you attempt to move the dish, pushing the right arrow button should move the dish in a Westerly direction. If it goes East, transpose the M1 and M2 leads. Now we are ready to begin.

With the power switch “on”, push OPTIONS 6-4. Push ENTER on YES to allow dish movement for updates. Now push 2 and select your actuator type. If you are East of the Rockies, normally the actuator is mounted on the West side of the dish and the dish goes West as it retracts, so select LINEAR/WEST. Those on the West coast select LINEAR/EAST. Now push 2. If you have only a C-band system, push the left arrow (next to the big blue ENTER button) and scroll through the LNB types until you get C-band LNB. If you have C and Ku on your system, that is the factory default. Push GO BACK, then push 3 and the set limit menu will show up. At this point, you don’t set limits yet, push 3 again which is program satellites (under the set limit menu). Now you get a partial list of satellites. Move the yellow highlighting to satellite G9 and push ENTER.

You will now have a menu allowing you to move the dish and adjust the skew. Since the unit is not mapped yet, you can use the channel “up/down” button on the right side of the remote to scroll down to channel 24. Now you should have the Outdoor Channel visible on the right side of the menu. If the picture is not clear, adjust skew or dish position to make it clear. HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. If the channel is not visible, DO NOT adjust the skew to get it because if you do, you will probably have to adjust the skew on all the rest of the satellites as well. What you want to do is push OPTION 6-4-2 and at the bottom of this menu, for feed horn polarization, select “rotated 90 degrees” and push ENTER. You will now have video visible around the edges of this menu. Push GO BACK, push 3, set limits and 3 again, program satellites. G9 will be highlighted, push enter and you will have the menu that allows moving the dish and adjusting the skew. You may peak up the picture at this point if necessary.

When you get a clear picture, push GO BACK, push ENTER to save G9. Now you will have a menu showing the satellites with G9 highlighted in yellow. Push ENTER and you will be back on the menu allowing dish and skew adjustments. Use the channel “up/down” button to scroll down to channel 23. This is A&E and you should get a good signal here—it is a VideoCipher pay channel. Adjust the skew if necessary to get a good signal then push GO BACK and ENTER to store G9 again. Now you have stored G9 on both polarities and all of the rest of the satellites will program in very easily. Generally speaking, when you look at the menu which allows dish and skew adjustments, the H and V numbers for the skew should be one positive and one negative and they should be about 90 degrees apart. For instance if H is 60 then V should be about –30. Or if H is 45 then V should be about –45 etc. If there is no ability to adjust the skew in the menu, you have selected LNBF for your LNB type.

Now using the channel-“ up/down” button on the right side of the remote, scroll down to either channel 7 or 13. You should observe a “quality” number in the lower right part of the menu. Digital channels need a 15 for a minimum quality. Now you let the unit “map in” the missing satellites and the digital channels. This will take about 15 to 20 minutes. You can go to the system status menu, OPTION 6-5 and observe the channel count in the lower right. It will increment up to something over 4000 channels. The final channel count is variable, and will not reach the maximum until the latest firm ware gets loaded, usually after the first 24 hours of operation. At this point if you have not called your programmer and had the digital channels authorized, it would be a good time to do so. Let the receiver sit on channel 7 for about 15 to 20 minutes to map. Until it is authorized and mapped, no digital channels will be available, the guide will not work and the clock will have incorrect time.

After the mapping is done, you can begin programming in the satellites under the set limits menu. Program them one at a time moving West until the Western most satellite is stored, then set the West limit. You will now have the ability to use the EZ sat locator. Simply go to the set limit menu, pick # 3, program satellites, and highlight W2 on the East, push enter, then push #1 on the remote and the dish should then automatically move to this satellite. Caution: you MUST know how far the dish can travel to the East without getting stuck or becoming damaged. If you don’t know, set the limit short and get help setting the limit from your local dealer.

After you have several satellites stored, and the limits set, the EZ sat locator will find all of the other satellites for you. Simply go to the program satellite menu, option 6-4-4, highlight the satellite you want to store and push enter. Then push 1 on the remote and the dish will move to that satellite. When it stops, push go back, and enter to save it. Go on to the next satellite.

UPDATED 11 / 00
T. RAUSCHER