Blast from the Past - Fortec Star Dynamic Receiver Review

[Hyper]

BLAST from The PAST - this was the very first EVER product review on this forum - over 11 years ago


See below


We have come a long way since then.


FTA Receivers have come a long way since then.



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Original Post - January 24, 2009, 11:36:26 AM


We will be doing a comprehensive review of the Fortec Star Dynamic FTA Receiver right here. We have these in stock at HyperMegaSat and they are fairly new on the market, so I wanted to let the legalfreetoair.com members know all about this unit, how it looks, how it works, etc.. This review will take several posts. I will start with information from the manufacturer, then I will add pictures of the product as I received it along with first impressions, and then I will put the unit through some tests to report on how well it performs (or not) and include some actual screen shots of the unit in action.


Lets start out with the manufacturers description, features, and spec's:


Manufacturer: Fortec Star
Model: Dynamic
Price: $116.89 (from HyperMegaSat.com 012409)
http://www.hypermegasat.com/Receivers.html

Manufacturer's Description:

DYNAMIC is a powerful satellite receiver ideal for satellite enthusiast. The receiver has an easy-to-use Menu, yet is feature-rich. DYNAMIC comes with a comprehensive Power Scan for blind searching satellites. Users can back up their channel list before upgrading the software, and then restore the channel list, all from within the receiver’s own menu. The front panel has 8 buttons allowing complete control of the receiver’s functions without the use of the remote. The back panel has all the connection options you would need, with RCA composite jacks, component jacks (Y,Pb,Pr), and an S-video connection.

Features:

Easy to Use Menu
Universal Remote
Channel Back-up and Channel recovery function
8-button Menu Control on the front panel
Universal Remote
Component video (Y,Pb,Pr) and S-Video connections
3 RCA connections (1 Video, 2 Audio L/R)
POWER Scan (blind search) with complete parameter control
One-button quick start Power Scan on the remote
One-button jump to Channel Edit function
Dolby Digital 5.1 audio pass-through (optical)
100 programmable satellites and 6,000 programmable channels
Timer function for Sleep / Wake Up / VCR Record and Channel Reminder
Fully MPEG 2 / DVB compliant, MCPC/SCPC, C/KU reception
1 LNB input with IF loop through for 2nd receiver
Manual PID scan function
DiSEqC 1.2 support
USALS supported (View video for installing a STAB HH-90 motor)
Picture-In-Graphics function
Multi-Picture (4,9, 13 or 16 pictures) function
ZOOM In/Out
Electronic Program Guide
Multi language menu
8 favorite channel group selection and parental lock
Close Caption Supported
Data transfer: receiver-to-receiver or PC-to-receiver


Specifications:

IF / Tuner
Input Frequency 950 MHz to 2150 MHz
Input Signal Level -30 to -65dBm
Input Impedance 75 ohm nominal
Input Connector F-type, IEC 169-24, Female
FEC Decoder Convolution Code Rate l/2, 2/3, 3/4,
5/6 and 7/8 with Constraint Length K=7
Demodulation QPSK
Symbol rate 1-45 Ms/s SCPC/MCPC
IF Frequency  Zero IF
LNB Power & Polarization V13 / H18, 500mA MAX. overload protection
DiSEqC Control DiSEqC. 1.0, 1.1 / DiSEqC 1.2 Compatible
Positioner USALS compatible  
Memory
Processor NEC 61114
Flash Memory 2 Mbytes
SDRAM 16 Mbytes
Satellite Capacity 100
Channel Capacity 6,000
Audio / Video Decoding
Video Decoder MPEG-2 MP@ML (ISO/IEC 13818-2)
Input Rate 60Mbit/s Max
Video Resolution 720 x 480(NTSC)
Aspect Ratio 4:3, 16:9 (Letter Box)
Audio Decoder MPEG Layer I &II  
Audio Mode Mono L/R, Dual Channel, Joint Stereo, Stereo
Audio Sampling Frequency 32, 44.1, 48 KHz
Audio / Video Output
Video RCA composite, component (Y,Pb,Pr), S-Video
Audio R/L RCA/Cinch Volume & Mute Control
S/PDIF Digital Audio Output
DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 Pass-through
Serial Data Interface
Connector Type 9 Pin D-Sub (male)
Signal RS-232C, Max. 115200Bps
Power Supply
Supply Voltage  100VAC ~ 120VAC 60Hz(SMPS)
Power Consumption Max. 30W
General
Weight Approx. 2.52 Kg
Dimensions 300(W) x 210(D) x 60(H)mm

[bynch]

its a pretty receiver dr dish done a test on its brother on youtube the older model

[Hyper]

OK. Lets start out with packaging and first impressions. Here are some pics of the gift box and what it comes with as well as the back panel and the front panel and display. The packaging is very nice, like most other FTA Receivers. This one has a box within the gift box as you can see in the pictures this is the white box. The unit comes with: Receiver, Remote and Batteries, RCA Cables, and a Manual. Of course ig you purchase from HyperMegaSat you get a update cable and a 4x1 switch also.

The packaging was excellent. No problems that I see. The Remote is pretty light, not too big not too small. The batteries are no names but thats pretty standard with FTA Receivers.  The remote is supposed to be universal to control yout tv/vcr/dvd. The user manual is excellent. Its an actual booklet and has 31 pages of instruction. Then another 31 pages in a 2nd language, and another 31 pages in a 3rd language. It seems to be worded very well and easy to understand. There is a place for notes in the back.

The Receiver looks very good. Check the picture of the back panel and you will see an on/off rocker switch, and all of the input/outputs listed in the specs above. You have many options to connect it to you tv/stereo, etc.. The front panel of the receiver is very well done. Crisp clear LED display. One nice feature is the big blue surrounded button on the fromt display. You can change channels or volume up/down from this panel. This is important in case your remote goes on the fritz. You can still use the receiver while you wait for another. It also has Power, Menu, OK and Cancel bottons on the front panel.

Overall I am pretty impressed with the unit , the packaging, components, receiver look pretty high quality to me. All except the batteries but maybe those are good ones back in Korea where this unit is made.

Next week I will actually test this unit out for picture quality, motor control, scan time, menu function, etc.. and report here.


 8)

[Hyper]

OK. Time to start testing and posting results.

Its important to identify our test equipment, set-up, etc..., so we have a baseline to compare to other receivers.

We are testing this on a Winegard DS2076 with a Invacom QPH-031 LNB using RG6 coax running through a SG2100 and a DMS 4x1 switch.

Prior to this test we tested an older Coolsat 5000 Platinum. Same set-up. On Galaxy 10R (123W) we had a signal strength of 80 and quality of 61. A blind scan of this sat using the CS5000 took 7 minutes 45 seconds and came up with 32 tv and 0 radio channels.

OK. Now on to the Fortec Dynamic.

Upon power on you get the language set-up screen. You have the menu and audio language which is strange. Most receivers only have language. You can choose menu and audio language independently. I dont know how this would work. A question for another time.



There are 21 languages to choose from: English, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Itlian, Norwegian, Polish, Porteguese, Romanian, Persian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. Thats a lot compared to the Coolsat and most other receivers.



OK. After this you go to the menu. You have these choices:

Installation
Autoscan
TP Scan
Power Scan
Factory Reset



One thing that impressed me right away was the satellite list loaded in from the factory. 57 satellies in all which is way more than older models like our test sample the CS5000. And it included many of the newer sats like Galaxy 16 99W, AMC 7 137W, AMC 8 139W, etc...  What was strange to me is they are in alphabetical order. I am used to numerical order 79W, 82W, etc.. Took a little getting used to but kinda of nice.



I chose installation and put it on 123W (just like the test Coolsat 5000 above) and choose the appropriate LNB, Frequency, and Switch port.

Signal was 82 and quality 38. Quality was lower than on the test receiver (Coolsat 5000 above) even though I did not move the dish.

I ran a autoscan which took 2 minutes and 5 seconds. 38 tv and 1 radio channel. That was suprisingly fast compared to the CS5000 and scanned in more channels.

I then tried the Power Scan. Thats works differently. It first scans for and makes a list of transponders which on 123W identified 16 TPs. Then it scans channel. This scan took 7 minutes 32 seconds. 48 tv and 8 radio channels scanned in.

Many of these extra channels had audio no video, or video no audio.

Picture was excellent. It looked to me just as good as the CS5000 which has always had a reputation of a STB with excellent picture.

So far, everything on this receiver is looking good. Menu is easy, scan is quick and accurate, and picture is excellent.

Next we will check out motor control, picture/audio options, etc...

Stay tuned

 ::)

[Hyper]

OK. I finally figured out what the audio language setting is used for. If you have a channel that shows more than one apid that may mean the audio is broadcast in more than one language. In that case you can select the language you want to listen to the audio in.

I would probably never have a need for that but it may be a nice feature for others.

[Hyper]

Fortec Star Dynamic discontinued .....

Never fear, see here:

http://legalfreetoair.com/index.php?topic=425.0

 :o

[Hyper]

BLAST from The PAST - this was the very first EVER product review on this forum - over 11 years ago!


We have come a long way since then.


FTA Receivers have come a long way since then.