Deleting C-Band Satellites

glen4cindy · #1 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 01:09 AM

I am just in the beginning stages of getting my STB programmed with all of the active satellites that I can see. Many of them I will never look at, but, I just am having fun at all of this.

My question is this. Is there any reason for me to retain all of the C-Band satellites since I only have an 80cm dish, and will never have a BUD unless I move out into the country at which time I could always ADD them back in?

I know that I can add and delete satellites at will up to the point where my receiver's memory is full. I just don't want to go willy nilly with things, and frankly, I don't want to have to scroll past the C-Band stuff.

Would it be a better solution to just move all of the C-Band to the end of the list or is this type of a sort even possible?

Thanks!

rainman · #2 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 06:36 AM

I would just delete them as you said you can always add them back in if need be.

wejones · #3 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 10:40 AM

It might be easier AND better to delete them with the channel editor software, rather than manually. I think that on my 2 Fortec receivers, if you delete them manually, they are really still there taking up some space, while if you use the channel editor software you can get rid of them completely. Plus it's faster.

glen4cindy · #4 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 11:23 AM

Great. Thanks.

I just wanted to confirm that it would be a good idea to get rid of them.
And I will use the channel editor too.

glen4cindy · #5 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 11:22 PM

Actually, this has proven to be difficult. There does not seem to be a 'delete satellite' command on the channel editor or even on the satellite receiver.

When I choose clear data, and one satellite, the ones that have not been selected and scanned do not appear in the list as one to be deleted.

wejones · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

Actually, this has proven to be difficult. There does not seem to be a 'delete satellite' command on the channel editor or even on the satellite receiver.

When I choose clear data, and one satellite, the ones that have not been selected and scanned do not appear in the list as one to be deleted.

Are you using the channel editor program (Gtools) specific for your receiver? Ie Fortec has slightly different editors for each of their receivers. I have a different Gtools program for my Lifetime than for my Lifetime Ultra.

Also, what OS are you using on your computer? Ie the channel editor software doesn't run properly on Win 98, in case you are using that. It runs, but some of the menu items are missing.

Anyway, on my Gtools programs, there are 3 windows, at the right are channels, in the middle are transponders, and at the left are the satellites. If you right click a satellite, a pulldown menu appears with "delete" as one of the options. If you don't have this, then I suspect that you either don't have the proper program, or you have the wrong OS.

elgemcdlf · #7 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:30 AM

On my Platinum if you do not have any channels programmed on the sat it will not show up in your sat list when channel surfing. Matters not that it is the master list.

wejones · #8 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

On my Platinum if you do not have any channels programmed on the sat it will not show up in your sat list when channel surfing. Matters not that it is the master list.

I think he's referring to having to scroll past all those satellites when you are scanning for channels, and/or when on the antenna window, not when you hit the sat button to find already stored channels. It is annoying to have to go through dozens of satellites that you aren't using. Even on my big dish setup, where I DO have C-band sats, I found it necessary to delete dozens of satellites I can't see due to trees, or footprint, because on the Ultra, weird things happen when you fill up the memory. I know these new receivers have more memory, so I haven't heard any reports of them giving this problem, but I think it's always a good idea to keep the sat list limited to only what you are receiving, except that I also keep a "GENERIC-C and GENERIC-Ku" just to scan when I'm testing on a new sat.

elgemcdlf · #9 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 12:08 PM

With my Fortec I have found you can not really delete a sat. I just use the page up page down button on the remote to quickly scroll the list.

wejones · #10 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

With my Fortec I have found you can not really delete a sat.

That's why I recommended using the channel editor. When you use that, they do seem to get deleted. Just using the remote, they go into some kind of hidden state.

Iceberg · #11 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 01:19 PM

I did this same thing in my Pansat 1500. Used the channel editor and eliminated all the C-band satellites. If you master reset the box they come back.

glen4cindy · #12 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wejones

Are you using the channel editor program (Gtools) specific for your receiver? Ie Fortec has slightly different editors for each of their receivers. I have a different Gtools program for my Lifetime than for my Lifetime Ultra.

I am using a program named DnUpMan version 4.2 that I downloaded from the FortecStar website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wejones

Also, what OS are you using on your computer? Ie the channel editor software doesn't run properly on Win 98, in case you are using that. It runs, but some of the menu items are missing.

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wejones

If you don't have this, then I suspect that you either don't have the proper program, or you have the wrong OS.

I would guess that I don't have the right program. If this is the case, where do I get it from? Thanks!

wejones · #13 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

I am using a program named DnUpMan version 4.2 that I downloaded from the FortecStar website.

......................

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.

.....................

I would guess that I don't have the right program. If this is the case, where do I get it from? Thanks!

That all looks OK. I didn't realize that they changed programs, but I see that they have. So apparently for your receiver it's a different program. For the Ultra and regular Lifetime, it's a separate program for downloading firmware into the receiver, and another program, Gtools, for the channel editor. I see that this one does both. I tried downloading it and running it just to try it out, but it won't do anything unless it has data, so it won't let me try it.

Anyway, I'm surprised if it doesn't allow deleting satellites, but since it's different from the Gtools, I can't help.

glen4cindy · #14 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 12:15 AM

I downloaded a gtools for a Fortec Star I found in Google, but, it cannot actually read from my Fortec. It came with a sample file and looks like it would be great and better than the other one.

Any way to make it work?

wejones · #15 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

I downloaded a gtools for a Fortec Star I found in Google, but, it cannot actually read from my Fortec. It came with a sample file and looks like it would be great and better than the other one.

Any way to make it work?

I wouldn't even try. Fortec warns you not to try any other editing program, for fear of corrupting data. I even use a different version of Gtools for my 2 different models of lifetime. I have heard that there are some 3rd party editing programs out there that might work for some fortecs, but I doubt that they are updated for newer models yet. For now, I'd recommend just learning how to use the one you downloaded. BTW, if you have uploaded a file from your receiver to the PC, you might post it or email it so that we could try playing with their software. Maybe we could figure something out. When I tried it, it came to a page where I could either send, receive or edit, but since I didn't have the receiver and didn't have a file, I couldn't go further.

glen4cindy · #16 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 01:29 PM

No problem. I will gladly post a recent download from my box. My main complaint with it is how it shows the PID's. You will see what I mean.

wejones · #17 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

No problem. I will gladly post a recent download from my box. My main complaint with it is how it shows the PID's. You will see what I mean.

Thanks. Yeah, I fed that into the program, and you're right, that is a sorry excuse for a channel editor program. You can erase the sat names, and delete the transponders, but it doesn't let you change any of the sat data, like positioner data, LNB data like LO, DiseqC switch info, etc.

I thought that the Gtools was bad, mainl