From: dleon@seas.smu.edu (David Leon)
Subject: Re: Anyone out there with new SuperGuide (SG-10) and Monterey 50/90?
Organization: SMU - School of Engineering & Applied Science - Dallas
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 04:50:52 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.234848.7424@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> ries@amiga.enet.dec.com (Frank W. Ries Jr.) writes:
>
>I recently received my SuperGuide upgrade to the new version (SG-10).
>
I am using the IQ SSC 1000 (or some similar godawful name like that.  It
has the latest ROM upgrade in it.

I am also using it with a Monte (30) and Sony VCR.


>I have a Monterey 50 receiver, which is about 6 months old. I have
>found that the SuperGuide has intermittent problems sending the
>Infrared Codes to the Monterey, or so it would appear. The Monterey
>works fine with its own remote, as well as a programable remote which
>I use. The SuperGuide works fine controlling my Sony VCR, and a friends
>Sierra III receiver. However, on my Monterey 50, it sometimes fails to
>do anything, or misses a key when sending satellite names or channel
>numbers. In fact, its not even consistant turning the power on/off or
>muting the audio. It just seems like there is some sort of a timing
>problem with sending the codes to the Monterey.
>

You are correct, if you will notice, sometime when you key in commands
quickly, your Monte will "hiccup" and not receive on of the commands.
The SG has no checksum or feedback to know if its command was received.
Therefore, if it tries to put in the command for "<sat>" "G" "5" and
then "1" "9" (as an example), and it hiccups on the "1", the IRD only
sees <sat> G5, 9; where it will hang until you enter another number.
Since Superguid only enters in transponder numbers in increments of two,
you'll always have that little problem when the Monte hiccups.  Hit "view"
on the SG remote to clear it and start over.  Mine still cant turn the 
power on/off, so you are ahead of me there.

>I called technical assistance at SuperGuide and they were of little
>help, but gave me the name and phone number of the General Manager. So, I
>called him. This was an experience. He was extremely rude, and I gave
>him no reason whatsoever to be that way. I was not upset (initially
>anyway), I just wanted to find out if this was perhaps some known
>problem, and what I could do about it. He really jumped down my
>throat, and said that there were MANY satisfied SG-10 owners with
>Monterey series receivers and that the problem must lie with my
>Receiver. He also said that Chaparral had told him that the SG-10
>worked fine with all their receivers, old and new, so there!
> 

Sounds to me like he has received a few too many calls complaining that
his box doesn't work correctly when it's supposed to.  I ended speaking
with some guy in tech support who was pleasent, even called me back.


>Now this may all be true, but that doesn't solve my problem.

>Unfortunatly, I know noone else locally with a Monterey 50 which
>I could try my SuperGuide with to see if it is the SuperGuide or
>the receiver. Calling Chaparral isn't going to do me any good
>either since the receiver works fine with the normal remote. I'm
>sure they will tell me to call SuperGuide.
>
>I also raised the issue with this guy about the fact that the
>Monterey series has no "D" key for naming satellites, and therefore
>since SuperGuide calls Anik E1 and E2, D2 and D1 it cannot
>select those satellites. I got another ear full, a rather flaming
>one! I mean this guy was just plain and simply, RUDE! I was not
>flaming to him, but stating a simple fact, and was interested
>in knowing what might be done about it. Being a software engineer,
>I would have put in some sort of mapping function to map SuperGuide
>satellite designators to those of a selected receivers. Then, if
>I chose a program to "watch" which was on D1, the SuperGuide
>could send A1 (or whatever) to the receiver. Simple. He did indicate
>that some "fix" like this was in the works but offered no timeframe
>or any other info about it, or if I would be able to get it.
>
You may not have the lates ROM in your SG, mine will select "A1" for
D1, and ASC= A6.  You mayu wish to speak with the engineer guy.


>What makes me angry is that the Monterey 50 was listed as a supported
>receiver in the upgrade notice I got last August. What interested me
>most about the upgrade was the fact that it could control the receiver.
>SuperGuide has always listed the Anik series satellites as D#, and
>they knew that the Monterey series receivers have no "D" key, so in
>fact its not 100% compatable. Plus, it may turn out that it plain
>don't work if I find others out there with Monterey's that don't
>work with the SG-10.
>

Aside from the Monte's hiccups, the set up has worked OK for me.  granted,
there are SEVERE things that should be changed (the owner's manuel, no
UHF remote, better control over the VCR-like using the SG remote to FF/RW/
Play/Stop/Pause since it has that built-in, ALPHABETIZING THE BROWSE
DESCRIPTIONS!!, haveing the SG select audio subcarriers, putting the
spectrum analyzer back in--why did they take it out?, ability to "tape"
for the browse descriptions screen, etc)


>By the way, he did mention that there was an intermittent problem
>with a "previous" model SuperGuide (SS mumble 1000) and the
>Monterey receiver, but that this had been fixed in the software
>in the SG-10. :-).
>
>He offered to refund my money, but what good is that. I invested
>$350 in the original SuperGuide, and spent another $200+ on the
>upgrade. Since SuperGuide no longer supports the old unit (they
>are/have terminated the old data stream) I would be left with
>a boat anchor. $350 down the drain! Of course I believe that
>their decision to drop the old data stream (cause as they said,
>MOST subscribers elected to take the upgrade) outta be illegal.
>The old units are now useless (anyone wanna buy one :-) ). I can't
>believe everyone decided to upgrade. They offered to refund any
>unused subscription to anyone who did not upgrade, but big deal!
>What about the original hardware investment!
>

Please explain this.  Are you saying they had an original box, that they
later dropped and they charged you $200 to upgrade?!  I thought the boxes
had a selectable datastream.  Which unit did they drop?  I certainly didn't
agree to an upgrade.

>I used to think that SuperGuide was great (and still do, really),
>but I am now totally turned off by the company. There is no
>excuse for how I was treated by their General Manager. And if
>you think about it, what they did with their upgrade policy
>is outrageous. You had to send them $50 months ago  (in my case,
>last September) to "reserve" a unit that would be shipped in earlier
>November, that did not ship until the end of December! If you
>decided not to upgrade, well then, just write off your initial $300+
>investment. I mean, at least GI's VCII+ upgrade was free to legal
>subscribers!
>  

I purchased my unit back in May.  I've had the ROMs upgraded once since then/
Please don't tell me they are obsoleting this machine now.  I do know that
they are introducing their own IRD w/ SuperGuide built-in (ala Uniden 4800)
Hopefully they will overcome those earlier mentioned problems.

I think your flames are well deserved.  This product has the potential to
be one of the most useful things to a TVRO owner.  Seeing this shortcomings
(which could easily be overcome) in an otherwise great product is frustrating.
Add to that rude personnel, and you have a recipe for failure. 


>Oh well, enough flames. If anyone out there has a Monterey receiver
>and a SuperGuide SG-10, please send me mail or post a reply and let
>me know if it works for you or not.
>
>Thanks!

Your welcome.

David L. Leon
dleon@seas.smu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.video.satellite