[woodcreeker]

Coolsat 6100 private USB - Great Receiver Review and Information

First Impressions of the Coolsat 6100 private USB Receiver

I just got my 6100 today so I haven't learned all about it yet, but I have been running a 6000 for a long time now. Anyways, here are some of my observations:

While many of the menus have basically the same options/settings, they are layed out somewhat differently. The 6100 is ok but will take a minor getting used to after being used to the 5000 and 6000 units.

6000 Uses the Proloader 2.4 program, the 6100 uses the same as the 7000's loader (Coolsat7000 Loader).

Default options on the 6100 are pretty much the way I like it while the 6000's options must be manually setup (when unit first started). I consider this one a very minor plus for the 6100.

While the transfers to/from the 6000 can be made while the receiver is on, the 6100 must be turned off with the switch on the back and back on again to start a transfer (reminding me of a viewsat xtreme which I hate). This is a minus to me because after MANY years working in electronics, I prefer not to remove power then re-apply it if possible (can spike the system). Note: Always leave the power off (to any electronic device) at least 4 or 5 seconds to allow power supply caps to bleed off before turning it back on.

Setting up the dishes is a little different, you will need to pay attention to the various selections. For example, in the dish positioning, once you've moved the dish to the correct location (I use a SG2100 motor), you have to change a menu option from "go to sat location" to "save sat location" (Wife's watching her stupid game shows now, so I can't get exact spelling), then press OK. It won't save the new position until you find and do this step. It does seem, at least so far, to move the dish a little better than the 6000. The 6000 must sometimes be selected to a different sat "on the way" to get it moving before selecting the final sat desired. The 6100 has so far worked correctly on first try.

Getting the guide is different. For example, on the 6000, I'd just goto 239, press Guide and leave it alone for a half hour to an hour depending on how much guide I want loaded. The 6100 only loads the first 2 shows for each channel (like the 4000 does) until you press the EPG button (blue if I remember right). You can then choose between 3 days and 9 days epg. My first attempt was with the 9 days mode, which after completing, returned with only the default 2-shows per channel guide info. Trying it again later with the default 3 days mode did load in about 4 minutes. Tests between Bv and Dn were both the same 4 minutes time. This time it did load extended guide.

I have not put the batteries in the 6100's remote but used my older 5000 remote instead. It works fine, so replacing the remote for a 6100 is easy to do. The one remote function the 6100 seems to be missing is the PageUp and PageDown buttons, I really miss this one. The new remote doesn't have the paging buttons on it though they've been replaced with other functions which I haven't even looked into yet.

The channel map can be loaded and saved just like the 4000, 5000 and the 6000. However, while the map file from the 4000, 5000 and the 6000 are all compatiable, the 6100's map file is not. For me, this means manually re-naming a bunch of channels (like on G10R, T5, etc).

The green button does not bring up the audio selection menu. This could be caused by not being on a channel that has more than one audio track, I haven't played with this one since to test the theory.

Bin file support may be better for the 6100. I noticed today there's a new bin file for the 4000, 5000 and 6100 to fix the Bv channels, but no new bin file for the 6000 yet. I don't know if this is something important for the near future in making a receiver choice.

After running the receiver (6100) all day yesterday, I finally decided to re-connect my older 6000 even though it's bin file is not yet up to date. The missing page-up and page-down commands in the guide was a real issue with me. Also, the guide was not fully loading up as it should. For the time being, I plan to just stick with the 6000.

I hope this first impression info will be of help to others -RoofRabbit