480 replies to this topic

[KAKTUS]

I was told on another site that there are other boxes that work with the VAST card.

Quote

VAST cards working in UltraPlus 980HD and F-9000 receivers with MCAS plugin.

So there are probably other boxes as well, Unfortunately you still have to buy the UEC box to get a card.

[Jeffry]

 KAKTUS, on Jan 8 2011, 09:32 AM, said:

So there are probably other boxes as well, Unfortunately you still have to buy the UEC box to get a card.

Possibly not for too much longer.

Looks like there may be a box choice soon and, maybe, some with more features than UEC. Look for Strada916's posts. My guess is the third supplier might be Strong.

Jeff

Edited by Jeffry, 08 January 2011 - 12:31 PM.

[KAKTUS]

 Jeffry, on Jan 8 2011, 01:30 PM, said:

Possibly not for too much longer.

Looks like there may be a box choice soon and, maybe, some with more features than UEC. Look for Strada916's posts. My guess is the third supplier might be Strong.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, I've found that on that site a lot of posters quote their Dreams, hopes and opinions as fact.

If ADB or Strong market a box to compete with UEC, Will it come with an approved card?

[DrP]

That's a good question.  If the receiver doesn't come with a card, you'll have to provide the box serial # when applying for a card (or activating it) at which point the card will only work in that box.  It may also be a requirement that boxes from other providers are as locked down as the UEC.

There's really only one way to tell for sure, wait.  Sooner or later the details will leak (or be released officially!), but I have no doubt that when the information does become available a certain well known forum member will dispute it (a***h).

[Smacca]

For those not in the know;
The VAST card was initially Irdeto v5.7. They issued these with the first wave of UEC's when Mildura switched-off analog. These cards work in 3rd-party recievers with the MCAS plugin.

Unfortunately, most of the latest UEC's come with a new Irdeto v6.0 card. These are yet to be opened on a 3rd-party receiver.

[bellotv]

Whats a MCAS plugin ?

[Smacca]

 bellotv, on Jan 8 2011, 07:07 PM, said:

Whats a MCAS plugin ?

At a guess, it's some sort of script or software that fools the card into thinking it's been inserted in the box it's married to. I haven't got a card to play with yet, so I'm not 100% sure.

[woopant]

RE UEC Vast decoder box I think I have a customer with a faulty one. I have not attended in person yet I want to no if any installers have had this fault yet
The customer reports the picture freezes between 10 to 30 seconds at a time. Perfect picture not pixalated then restarts with no faults. This is not weather related
as clear sky today and still doing it. The fault is also  random.
If it is as i think and faulty has anyone delt with uec for warranty on vast boxes

[alanh]

So who said that the ABC and SBS signals were not encrypted?

So who said that VAST WA service was on air?

Must have confused VAST with transmitter feeds!


AlanH

[M'bozo]

 woopant, on Jan 13 2011, 09:10 PM, said:

If it is as i think and faulty has anyone delt with uec for warranty on vast boxes

Contacting the supplier should be the first port of call.

[mtv]

 woopant, on Jan 13 2011, 09:10 PM, said:

RE UEC Vast decoder box I think I have a customer with a faulty one. I have not attended in person yet I want to no if any installers have had this fault yet
The customer reports the picture freezes between 10 to 30 seconds at a time. Perfect picture not pixalated then restarts with no faults. This is not weather related
as clear sky today and still doing it. The fault is also random.
If it is as i think and faulty has anyone delt with uec for warranty on vast boxes

The issue is common to all VAST boxes, but the problem is apparently with the conditional access (encryption) system than the decoder itself.

There is a message appearing on the VAST info page (800) advising UEC is aware of the issue and hopes to have an OTA firmware fix for this by the end on Jan 2011.

[Jeffry]

CHANNEL LIST

I can't recall seeing a list of VAST channels anywhere in the forum. So, for anyone interested, here is a list of the channels showing up around here;
ABC1, 2, 3,4 -NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, WA, Tas & NT.
SBSHD, One, Two -NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, WA, Tas & NT.
One HD
Regional news (central NSW Prime news at 7pm)
Imparja South
Ten Central
7 mate central
7 two central
Gem
Go south

Jeff

Edited by Jeffry, 14 January 2011 - 09:57 AM.

[beeblebrox]

Activated a VAST Rcvr online yesterday for a customer in country Vic and it was fully activated in under an hour from the time I hit submit on the online form.

So the online process does seems to work pretty well.

Shame about the crappy UEC box though.  You would have thought after all these years they would have improved the UI and the useability...   clearly not a priority for them...

Edited by beeblebrox, 15 January 2011 - 07:48 AM.

[Jeffry]

 beeblebrox, on Jan 15 2011, 08:47 AM, said:

Shame about the crappy UEC box though.  You would have thought after all these years they would have improved the UI and the useability...   clearly not a priority for them...

Reliability of UEC boxes
Does anyone have information on problems with UEC boxes?
Out of 13 installed in last few weeks I have three faulty;
•LNB error message and will not clear. Two other boxes at same address (same dish) working perfectly
•Refused to accept upgrade download (error "Demod tune error 0X8003001A") and completely shuts down regularly. Can only be cleared by power off/on reboot and this is accompanied by a large list of error codes
•"scrambled channel" message can only be cleared by power reboot.
First two worked for several hour before problem showed; third, problem showed after two weeks.

My confidence in UEC boxes is pretty well non-existent.

Jeff

[KAKTUS]

I was going to buy a box from Jeff this week, but now I think I'll wait a while until they get some of the bugs out of the damned things.

[woopant]

 M'bozo, on Jan 13 2011, 09:27 PM, said:

Contacting the supplier should be the first port of call.

Thanks for the help with faulty vast box. I got my reply from uec today regarding fault
It reads  Yes , a software will be available soon to rectify problem
This is an over the air download.
Thats it in full looks like the help desk is like there box half ass
You would think that buy the 17th they would have the software download date
Got to ask do they have a solution?

[Jeffry]

 Jeffry, on Jan 15 2011, 09:20 AM, said:

Reliability of UEC boxes
Does anyone have information on problems with UEC boxes?
Out of 13 installed in last few weeks I have three faulty;
•LNB error message and will not clear. Two other boxes at same address (same dish) working perfectly
•Refused to accept upgrade download (error "Demod tune error 0X8003001A") and completely shuts down regularly. Can only be cleared by power off/on reboot and this is accompanied by a large list of error codes
•"scrambled channel" message can only be cleared by power reboot.
First two worked for several hour before problem showed; third, problem showed after two weeks.

My confidence in UEC boxes is pretty well non-existent.

Jeff

Well a little news on errors;
•refusal to accept download is because these boxes are not compatible with dual frequency LNBs. I have a dual LNB to allow reception opf Al Jazzeera from Foxtel. I thought I would try to get a card activated before installing thus allowing the customer seamless transfer from Aurora to VAST. The LNB setup menu has provision for dual LNB! UEC would not state exact problem but I suspect box will only work upgrade with 10,700 and 11,300 LNB frequencies. It does receive ABC and SBS fine with dual LNB (apart from hourly interruption trying to download upgrade and then rebooting and re-scanning).
•"scrambled channel" message was because customer had removed smartcard to check number before emailing VAST to try and speed up his activation. He did not insert it back in the slot firmly. Initial internet application was Christmas eve and finally activated 16 January.

So, maybe not quite as bad as I thought.
I have just downloaded the latest upgrade from UEC website to try manual upgrade. I will report back if it was successful.

Jeff

Edited by Jeffry, 19 January 2011 - 03:54 PM.

[mtv]

 Jeffry, on Jan 19 2011, 04:52 PM, said:

Well a little news on errors;
•refusal to accept download is because these boxes are not compatible with dual frequency LNBs. I have a dual LNB to allow reception opf Al Jazzeera from Foxtel. I thought I would try to get a card activated before installing thus allowing the customer seamless transfer from Aurora to VAST. The LNB setup menu has provision for dual LNB! UEC would not state exact problem but I suspect box will only work upgrade with 10,700 and 11,300 LNB frequencies. It does receive ABC and SBS fine with dual LNB (apart from hourly interruption trying to download upgrade and then rebooting and re-scanning).
•"scrambled channel" message was because customer had removed smartcard to check number before emailing VAST to try and speed up his activation. He did not insert it back in the slot firmly. Initial internet application was Christmas eve and finally activated 16 January.

So, maybe not quite as bad as I thought.
I have just downloaded the latest upgrade from UEC website to try manual upgrade. I will report back if it was successful.

Jeff

If by 'dual frequency' LNB you mean a Universal LNB.... VAST boxes will not work correctly with Universal LNB's

They will work with 10700 or 11300 single or dual 'output' LNB's, but I would personally go for a 10700, just in case any channels migrate to D3 in the future, on transponders which an 11300 LNB won't receive. It's not an issue now, but worth considering for the future.

[jrp001]

THE FACT IS THESE UEC BOXES ARE CRAP

HAD ONE ON THE BENCH TODAY FOR A TEST & IT IS CHEAP NASTY CRAP

HAD ONE BOUNCE OUT OF 3

THESE BOXES ARE NOT GOING TO LAST LONG

[Jeffry]

Well the manual upgrade worked and full channel list appears. Also, have option for LNB power off now.
Receives ABC and SBS fine on the existing LNB. Will wait on activation and see wahat happens.

I didn't have a USB stick for the upgrade; tried a camera but...no go. Borrowed a stick from my son and, by the time I copied everything from it to restore later, would probably have been quicker just to have swapped the LNB.

I am going to check the box with LNB error message today and will see if turning LNB power off for two boxes and just having one on makes any difference. Will take a spare box anyway; just in case.

Jeff

"How To Upgrade.txt

1. Format USB drive to FAT32. In Windows go to "My Computer" and right click the drive letter corresponding to your USB key then choose "Format". In the "File system" otion choose "FAT32" then press start. A warning will be displayed informing you the cotents of this drive will be deleted. Press OK.
2. Copy the included file "upgrade.uec" to the USB stick.
3. GO back to "My computer", right click the drive corresponding to the USB stick and select EJECT.
4. Remove the USB stick from your PC.
5. Remove power from your DSD4121 decoder and insert the USB stick into the back of the DSD4121 decoder.
6. While holding down the "<CH" and "CH>" buttons on the front panel of the DSD4121 decoder reinsert the power cable.
7 Keep the "<CH" and "CH>"  buttons depressed untill the front panel fo the DSD4121 decoder shows a spinning circle.
8 The upgrade will now start and should be complete within about 4 minutes. After completion the DSD4121 will reboot itself and startup normally. You can now remove the USB stick from the DSD4121 decoder.

NOTE: Not all USB sticks are supported by the DSD4121. If the upgrade fails it could be because the USB drive is not supported.

Known working USB sticks:
IMATION 4GB.
IMATION 128MB HMDS-128C
KINGSTONE Datatraveler 4GB
SANDISK CRUZER MICRO 8GB

Known NOT working USB sticks:
KINGSTON Datatraveler 2GB"

[Jeffry]

Well, turned LNB power off for two boxes, rescanned the problem box (just to be sure) and all three boxes working perfectly with all channels.

I think I just about have these sussed out (famous last words?). My confidence level for UEC boxes has now risen slightly -now just low confidence. Roll on availability of alternate boxes.
Just seems too many teething problems and silly things like volume and channel buttons are opposite to just about every other satellite receiver, STB and TV! Plus they are locked only to VAST and seem incapable of being used for any other purpose, requiring viewers to have a second box for alternate services/satellites.

Still waiting the upgrade for the intermittent lockup fault as advised on channel 800.

Jeff

[KAKTUS]

Thanks for the update Jeff, I still will wait a bit until most of the bugs seem ironed out.

You have to ask yourself, What idiot decided to inflict UEC boxes on us after the problems they had with RABS?

ps: Not sure if I'm misunderstanding what you said about Al jazeera, but I use a 10700 lnb and get Al jaz OK on 12136-V-27800 3/4

[Jeffry]

 KAKTUS, on Jan 21 2011, 06:37 PM, said:

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding what you said about Al jazeera, but I use a 10700 lnb and get Al jaz OK on 12136-V-27800 3/4

Quite right.
I had an 11,300MHz LNB and Al Jazeera was fine when it was on Austar frequency. When it changed to Foxtel frequency I didn't seem to have 10,700 LNB handy but did have a 9,750/10,600 universal sitting around. I have that to put on a 2.1m spun dish with C band and K band and that will allow the best range of frequencies to be received from assorted satellites. Will have a screw positioner with DiSecq control.

Jeff

Edited by Jeffry, 22 January 2011 - 02:52 PM.

[beeblebrox]

Well I've had a box on test plugged into my 90cm motek dish with universal lnb.. got it working iwth the universal but it is dicky..  also it keeps doing something strange to my motek and moving the dish.  My dish and motek on my strong box is rock solid never loses alignment even after high wind but having the uec box connected to it ..  seeing it's not supposed to support diseqc not sure what is going on..

btw the box was fully registered via the online process in  under an hour.

[M'bozo]

 beeblebrox, on Jan 22 2011, 07:21 PM, said:

btw the box was fully registered via the online process in  under an hour.

That's quick.

Had a "special permission" online activation in about 4 hours this week.