Pansat 9500HDX Warning

[el bandido]

The Pansat 9500HDX is a great receiver but I have found a couple of things that I would like to warn people about.

1. The Pansant 9500HDX Will Accept Bogus Firmware
The 8-2011 firmware will allow you to load an .ABS firmware file from another into your Pansat through the usb port.
If you load Openbox firmware into your Pansat through the USB port, the receiver will become unusable. It may be recovered by loading the correct file through the RS232 port.
I suggest not putting any other receiver firmware on your usb drives or other hard drives that you will use with your Pansat. Doing this will ensure that the wrong firmware does not get loaded into your receiver.

2. Openbox Channel Editors Do Not Work Correctly With the Pansat 9500HDX
I decided to take a shortcut and transfer all of my scanned Openbox channels into the Pansat 9500HDX. This caused the Pansat to become stuck in a Boot Loop, but I was able to recover it by loading a file through the RS232 port.
The Pansat 9500HDX seems to have a slightly different channel design than the Openbox so the free Openbox channel editors do not work correctly with the Pansat. I have only one channel editor that works correctly with the Pansat and it is not free!!!

Hopefully these tidbits of information will keep somebody from having to return their receiver for repair. EB

[ViP3R]

Thanks el, This just makes any argument that much stronger why ALL FTA Receivers SHOULD have an RS232 port.

[el bandido]

IMO, The RS232 is a dinosaur that works. These ports went out of style over a decade ago but they are still in use and they work very well where high data speed is not an issue.
The usb port should be maximized. There are a lot of things that could be done with the usb port. I would expect everything that can be done through the RS232 and more could be done through the usb port.
And I agree. No fta receiver should not have a rs232 port unless it has a Proven usb port that functions as good or better than a RS232 port. EB

[Lee]

The problem with USB el is that it is dependent on having some type of drivers being loaded up in order to interface with the port. If your receiver is in a state where it can't load up it's own O/S it also won't load up the drivers required for the USB. RS232 doesn't have those limitations.

[ViP3R]

I thought I read that some pansats had recovery through USB port.. Either way a good habit is to just transfer the one file you are loading on the USB Stick when flashing any box to be sure no mix ups occur.

[dr.zin]

the m3602 processor actually has code to keep the rs232 port working,even if the flash is all garbage in the bootloader section.For disaster recovery I recommend the m3602 loader v2.0.0c.
The pansat channel/sat list is bigger than the openbox,that is why it acts funny.
Loader v2.0.0f will let you save individual chunks of flash to pc via rs232.

[dr.zin]

Is that firmware still around?
the link was dead.

[el bandido]

What firmware are you referring to?

[dr.zin]

What firmware are you referring to?

aug 8 2011

[ViP3R]

Is that firmware still around?
the link was dead.

It's fixed now..

[dr.zin]

thank you.
It will give me something to play with tonight.

[dr.zin]

2. Openbox Channel Editors Do Not Work Correctly With the Pansat 9500HDX
I decided to take a shortcut and transfer all of my scanned Openbox channels into the Pansat 9500HDX. This caused the Pansat to become stuck in a Boot Loop, but I was able to recover it by loading a file through the RS232 port.
The Pansat 9500HDX seems to have a slightly different channel design than the Openbox so the free Openbox channel editors do not work correctly with the Pansat. I have only one channel editor that works correctly with the Pansat and it is not free!!!

and vice versa.
That is probably why I got no audio on my s10 when I edited a channel list with pvr800.
It said no audio pid even when it was set correctly with the pvr800 editor.

[dr.zin]

The channel editor that is billed as for pansat 9500hdx is actually an older version of pvr800 editor without the alieditor.ini file.
This version didn't have the h264 or ac3 tabs.
The newer pvr800 program won't show the tabs if the ini file is incorrect,i.e. chip type=3329c instead of 3602.The script.ini has to match the program and receiver,so using the old ini with new program doesn't work.I will keep searching for a good script.ini.

[dr.zin]

2. Openbox Channel Editors Do Not Work Correctly With the Pansat 9500HDX
I decided to take a shortcut and transfer all of my scanned Openbox channels into the Pansat 9500HDX. This caused the Pansat to become stuck in a Boot Loop, but I was able to recover it by loading a file through the RS232 port.
The Pansat 9500HDX seems to have a slightly different channel design than the Openbox so the free Openbox channel editors do not work correctly with the Pansat. I have only one channel editor that works correctly with the Pansat and it is not free!!!

In my travels I grabbed an old version of alieditor from 2006,and I noticed it also had av_db_31.h in the archive,which was slightly interesting.
Playing a few hours ago I deleted the script.ini from the newer version and forgot to put it back.
I went to run that version again and it burped,asking for the ini file,then it asked for a template file which lo and behold had a .h filetype.I put the .h file in the same folder and loaded it,and it makes a fresh script.ini from that automatically,which was very interesting.Unfortunately,the ini is so old the pansat tv channels show as radio and all garbage.That is the closest I have come to sourcecode,so maybe with serious editing the modern alieditor will finally work correctly.

[dr.zin]

aug 8 2011

it that the oldest firmware available?
I am trying to find stuff even older than that.

[el bandido]

Look at the date this receiver was released....

[dr.zin]

don't know
I look at the bootloader date,which was july 15,so theoretically there could have been firmware then or even earlier if that wasn't the first rev of bootloader.

[el bandido]

The receiver was released in the first part of August. There is nothing available to you before then unless you can find an original file that somebody saved. Even with a saved original, I doubt you get anything before July.