Fortec Star Mercury II Digital Satellite Receiver

[SadounFeeds]

Fortec Star Mercury II Digital Satellite Receiver Reviewed in Tele-Satellite International Magazine as one of the most reliable, feature-full and easy to operate FTA receivers on the market. The M-II is one of the few consumer receivers that will identify the frequency, symbol rate, polarity, FEC and even the PIDS for positive lock to any KU or C-Band satellite. With the “BLIND SEARCH” feature there is no need to manually go through the set up. Simply aim the dish and...

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[rainman]

thats one of the main reasons I ordered one now the hard part waiting for it to come in.LOL

[elgemcdlf]

I wanted to write a bit on initial usage of the Mercury II. I have not had time to read the manual and am swapping out a Fortec Platinum receiver. My process: Dish pointed at G10R and watching TV. Shutdown and swap out receivers. Turn the MII receiver on and set switch and lnbf. No signal. This is interesting Decided to go ahead and setup USALS and fought for quite a bit before showing signal. Scanned in channels and upon moving to watch a channel showed no signal. This is really starting to be fun

Have no idea what transpired but for the most part this issue seems to have disappeared. Still has the same problem as the Platinum in that switching sats in mid move leaves the receiver wondering what to do.

Picture quality is superior to any DVB receiver I have used in the past. The animated menus are a bit of a pain to me as I find myself waiting for the animation to take place instead of just being there. Coming from receivers with screens that had "add ..." which produced an empty entry to be filled in, the new layout of overwriting an existing entry and then choosing to save as a new or an edit is a little rough on me also.

I have experienced the 0% strength and 80% quality readings spoke of here at the forum. I honestly believe at this time it is simply a software issue in the receiver and to an actual reading. In other words I have signal just not showing. I have not figured out how to do a manual scan yet on a single tp so trying to scan a known good tp when this 0% strength comes up has not been an option for me.

I have only played with the new receiver for a couple hours and do have it in use with roughly 360 channels scanned into it. I do not care for the new display when changing channels. I find it difficult to read signal level and volume levels. The older bar type display was easier to interpret probably due primarily to everything does things that way.

I do like the way the receiver looks on the exterior. It appears to have a door that opens on the lower portion but have yet to get it opened. It may not open. Hopefully time will permit me to play with the new MII this weekend.

Overall I am very satisfied with the receiver at this time. I wanted to post my initial thoughts and once I have had the receiver in service for some time will post another opinion. In my opinion the increase in picture quality alone makes this receiver worth purchasing.

Prior to using this receiver I was of the old thought of what is being sent down but I now know how what is being sent down is read also plays a vital role in PQ. I will most likely be installing Fortec's most current software if it is present not in the receiver as I had read an article (perhaps the one listed above) that spoke of additional features.

[wejones]

I just received a Mercury today too. Hooked it up, and did some preliminary tests. The video quality seems to be better than I was getting with my Lifetime and Ultra. I tried some blind scans using I think the 6 MHz spacing and detailed locking (I'm not sure what these really imply yet, I'm guessing it is more complicated than what it says in the manual). The blind scan found transponders with SRs between 4,000 and 20,000, but it failed to locate a transponder with a 30,000 SR. When I manually entered the freq/SR, it immediately locked and I scanned in the channels. Tomorrow, I'll try some different settings for the blind scan to see if I can find settings that can find both low and high SR transponders. The scanning speed seems not too different from the Ultra, although I didn't really time it.
The user interface is much quicker than with the Ultra, because you can get to several functions directly without having to back out of menu branch and up another branch. It's also nice that it seems like you can control the thing from front panel buttons, rather than me needing to run upstairs and get my remote. (I keep my remotes upstairs and usually run my receivers remotely, but it's nice to be able to control things right from the receiver too.) I also found that as other's reported, that it doesn't seem to interfere with my other Fortec receivers, which is nice. I didn't run into any example (yet) of the high quality/low signal thing, but I've only looked at one satellite so far, AMC3.
So far, my only complaint is that there are so many buttons on the remote, that it's hard to find the buttons I need. It looks like they have tried to make it easier for most people by color coding some of the buttons, but I'm a bit color blind, so I'm having a bit of a problem with a couple of the colors. I also need to go get an optical cable to hook up the spdif port to listen to the AC3. Hopefully RS has them.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by wejones

I just received a Mercury today too. Hooked it up, and did some preliminary tests. The video quality seems to be better than I was getting with my Lifetime and Ultra. I tried some blind scans using I think the 6 MHz spacing and detailed locking (I'm not sure what these really imply yet, I'm guessing it is more complicated than what it says in the manual). The blind scan found transponders with SRs between 4,000 and 20,000, but it failed to locate a transponder with a 30,000 SR. When I manually entered the freq/SR, it immediately locked and I scanned in the channels. Tomorrow, I'll try some different settings for the blind scan to see if I can find settings that can find both low and high SR transponders. The scanning speed seems not too different from the Ultra, although I didn't really time it.
The user interface is much quicker than with the Ultra, because you can get to several functions directly without having to back out of menu branch and up another branch. It's also nice that it seems like you can control the thing from front panel buttons, rather than me needing to run upstairs and get my remote. (I keep my remotes upstairs and usually run my receivers remotely, but it's nice to be able to control things right from the receiver too.) I also found that as other's reported, that it doesn't seem to interfere with my other Fortec receivers, which is nice. I didn't run into any example (yet) of the high quality/low signal thing, but I've only looked at one satellite so far, AMC3.
So far, my only complaint is that there are so many buttons on the remote, that it's hard to find the buttons I need. It looks like they have tried to make it easier for most people by color coding some of the buttons, but I'm a bit color blind, so I'm having a bit of a problem with a couple of the colors. I also need to go get an optical cable to hook up the spdif port to listen to the AC3. Hopefully RS has them.

if RS don't have them Bill you can get them at walmart thats where i got mine at.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by wejones

I just received... Hopefully RS has them.

I found your comment interesting on the missed tp's, connecting them to SR. I will have to watch this more closely. I know the receiver has missed many tp's I had in the Platinum and once manually put in locked onto them and usually found the channel. My initial thought was the blind scan in the Platinum was superior to the Mercury and that Fortec had given up some of the coding in favor of coding to make animations

[wejones]

I had hoped to do more experimenting with the blind scan over the weekend, but as mentioned in other thread, my Mercury seems to be defective with respect to passing AC3, so I've been tied up trying to find a workaround for that, but haven't yet.

I'm curious whether your new unit works on the PBS AC3 channels? If so, what AC3 decoder are you using? (Hoping to find someone else using an Extigy.) The optical port works fine on non-AC3 channels for me, but is dead on the AC3 channels. I'm still trying to figure out whether it is something I can cure by switching to another AC3 decoder or if there is no hope for my Mercury.

Also, does anyone know if RS sells an optical to coaxial converter of some kind?

[elgemcdlf]

Make sure you have SPID turned on in the setup screens. Should be though if you are passing normal audio through the port. I have mine connected to a Sherwood receiver via optical and all works fine for me. All the PBS channels pass audio as well as the AC-3 channels on G10R (Spanish language). I will say this much as to the Sherwood there is some setting in it that kills the optical port. It is an audio setting. I can show the audio set to O1 (Optical 1) but no signal being passed. Playing with the output options got audio back when this has occurred.

Perhaps your Extigy just needs reset. I know I chased the problem for a day before finding it. Thought the cable was bad then perhaps the receiver (Sherwood) then started playing with buttons and all of a sudden sound.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Make sure you have SPID turned on in the setup screens. Should be though if you are passing normal audio through the port. I have mine connected to a Sherwood receiver via optical and all works fine for me. All the PBS channels pass audio as well as the AC-3 channels on G10R (Spanish language). I will say this much as to the Sherwood there is some setting in it that kills the optical port. It is an audio setting. I can show the audio set to O1 (Optical 1) but no signal being passed. Playing with the output options got audio back when this has occurred.

Perhaps your Extigy just needs reset. I know I chased the problem for a day before finding it. Thought the cable was bad then perhaps the receiver (Sherwood) then started playing with buttons and all of a sudden sound.

Thanks. Yeah, I have the spdif port turned on. I've tried 2 different optical cables, and two different Extigys. I've been using the Extigy for years via the coaxial port with no problem. I even hooked the Extigy up to a computer (1st time it has seen a computer in 2 or 3 years), and ran the diagnostic, and all checked out OK.

I have ordered an optical-->coaxial converter from Amazon, which should verify that the problem is in the Mercury, but it won't get here for a couple days.

Basically, my only hope, is that somehow the Extigy behaves differently through the coaxial than it does via the optical input, but that isn't likely. It's a weird problem, because the Mercury is recognizing the channels as being AC3. It's just not passing the AC3 for some reason.

Still hoping that someone else out there uses an Extigy with the optical port.

Thanks.

[rainman]

Got a e mail this morning that my Mercury was shipped yesterday Bill when I get it I will check and see how it works with my Koss sorry don't have the extigy.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by rainman

Got a e mail this morning that my Mercury was shipped yesterday Bill when I get it I will check and see how it works with my Koss sorry don't have the extigy.

Well I received my Mercury II last night got it hooked up and the AC3 sounds works fine on the Koss Bill.hooked it up with the component cable and it has a great picture.more details on my likes and dislikes on this receiver once I have time to use it a little more.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

Well I received my Mercury II last night got it hooked up and the AC3 sounds works fine on the Koss Bill.hooked it up with the component cable and it has a great picture.more details on my likes and dislikes on this receiver once I have time to use it a little more.

Well that's good.... for you anyway. I still have hopes that I might be able to get mine to work once I get the optical--->coaxial converter, ie if by chance there is something weird about the Extigy optical input. I was supposed to get the converter yesterday, but the snow apparently slowed down UPS, so I won't find out until tonight. If the converter doesn't work, I guess it's the Mercury that's the problem. If the Extigy is the problem, then I feel silly for recommending the Extigy for everyone as a simple AC3 decoder. It works fine on the coaxial stuff, but I'm HOPING that the Extigy optical input is the problem. I'll find out tonight!

[elgemcdlf]

I am still thinking something in the Extigy settings. My Sherwood did exactly what you described. Even showed no signal on the AC-3 channels and was just a setting for the receiver that made it happen. I am not familiar with the Extigy but the Sherwood has many presets and I know I can only run the optical AC-3 input stuff on a small group of the presets. If I try Theatre or Church no sound. Wish I could remember the output names that it does work with.

It is as though the Sherwood can do Optical AC-3 but only in certain modes. I have the 922 hooked up via audio & digital audio cables. The analog stations do not pass audio through the digital cable output of the 922 so if I am watching USA on G5 I have to switch the Sherwood to analog input for sound. All digital channels output through the digital audio cable.