DSR-4200  INFO

   Since there are quite a few old DSR-4200 receivers hitting the EBAY market recently, I thought I should write a page describing how to operate this receiver.  The DSR-4200 is a commercial grade DCII (Digicipher II) receiver, that originally sold for over $1100.  It was, and still is used by a lot of PBS stations and Cable systems for distribution of programming. This receiver is the commercial version of the 4DTV receiver, however you cannot get it authorized for reception of programming, but it can receive programming that is not scrambled.
    There are several different versions of the 4200.  I'm aware of at least 3, but I'm sure there are more.  The 4200V is the most complete of the 4200 series, as it does all the commonly used sample rates. There is a 4200C, which I have no knowledge of, but I think it is similar to the 4200B.  The 4200C is similar to the other two models, but it only does symbol rates of 3.25, 4.88, and 19.51, which is fairly limiting, however that probably covers nearly half of the channels out there.  So, before attempting to tune a channel, check it out in Lyngsat and make sure that the model you have does the symbol rate of the channel you are looking for.
    The DSR-4200 is NOT a convenient receiver for channel surfing because it can hold only 1 VCT in memory.  A VCT is a virtual channel table, which is pretty much just a list of channels with tuning parameters that the receiver downloads from the sat, allowing it to tune these channels.  When you reset a 4200 to factory defaults, it will not have a VCT in memory, and cannot tune channels.  When you input the frequency of a transponder you want to tune, after it locks, it will download the VCT, and after it assimilates this info, it will have a list of several channels that you can access either by typing in the channel number or by using the channel up/down buttons.  A VCT can have hundreds of channels, or might only have one channel, but typically will have 4 or 5 channels.  So since you can only have one VCT, when you want to go to another channel in another VCT, you have to reset your receiver to factory defaults, and tune in the second VCT.  This can be quite time consuming, as it requires about 50 some keystrokes to tune in a VCT, and often involves waiting 5 or more minutes for the VCT to download.

          Connecting the 4200

   The main connections are pretty obvious, the audio/video to your TV, and there are 2 connections for the coax to the LNB.  If you have a dual C/Ku system, there are 2 connectors there.  You can choose the proper connector

           Downloading the VCT 

    Before starting, go to Lyngsat and find the channel you are looking for. As an example, let's choose Georgia Public TV, GPTV, on AMC-3.  If you look at the Lyngsat listing, you will see a frequency listed on the left, ie 11984.  This is the actual downlink frequency, but is not the frequency that the receiver sees. The receivers sees the downconverted IF frequency, which is dependent on the LO frequency of your LNB.  Most TVRO'ers use a standard LNB that has a 5150 MHz LO freq on C-band and a 10750 MHz LO freq on Ku band.  You can determine the IF freq by subtracting the LO freq from the downlink freq, or visa-versa, in the case of C-band. For example, 11984-10750=1234 .   You will notice that if you hold your mouse over the 11984 on the Lyngsat site, it will pop up the 1234 IF freq at the bottom of the page.  Of course if your LNB is non-standard, like a universal lnbf, then you'll have a different IF freq.  Also on Lyngsat, you will see a column labled SR-FEC.  This is where you find the symbol rate and FEC values. With the 4200, you don't need these, but it speeds things up tremendously if you enter them. 
      OK, once you have those values, use your remote, and do the following:

********************First*****
Before trying to tune in a VCT with the above values, you should reset your 4200 to factory conditions.  You can't tune in a new VCT if there is already one in memory.  The 4200 only holds one VCT.
So FIRST, to reset the 4200, follow the first 2 lines of the instructions below.  This will take you to an installation menu.  At the bottom there are two reset buttons.  Use the arrow keys to highlight the one on the right, ie the "factory defaults" button.  Then hit the {TIME} button.  Your screen will go blank for about 20 seconds or so, while it is erasing the stored VCT.  When your screen comes back, then follow the sequence below, which starts out the same way.
*******************************

{Options}  {34}	This will take you to a page where you need to type in a password.
{996} {TIME}	This password, ie 996 takes you to the secret Installation menu.  Note the time button instead of enter.
{2}	This takes you to the Setup menu.  Normally you can omit this step, unless you need to select the port.
{up}
{right or left} {Select}	choose between C and Ku and hit SELECT
{back}	This takes you back to the Installation menu.
{3}	This takes you to the manual tuning menu.  The top item is the IF freq. Highlight that if not already.
{1234000}	This enters the IF freq.  The zeros are necessary.  Note 1234000 is example for GPTV. Other #s for other channels.
{down} {down}	Hit the down arrow twice to get to the Symbol rate.
{right or left}	Hit the right or left arrows to get to the appropriate symbol rate.
{down}	Hit the down arrow once to get to the FEC item.
{right or left}	Hit the right or left as necessary to get to the appropriate FEC value.
{down} {Select}	Hit the down arrow to get to the "TUNE" item, and hit "Select"
	WAIT     It may take 5 or 10 minutes at this point to download VCT.
	If you want to observe the progress, go to the diagnostic screen as follows.   ADVISED
{LAST}{44}	This takes you to the first Diagnostic screen.
{right} {right}	This takes you to the third Diagnostic Screen.
	Watch the number in the upper left.  If this is 4, or any number other than 7, there is no lock. 7 indicates lock.
	After you get a lock, wait for a couple minutes, then try to change channels.  If the channel changes, then the VCT has
	downloaded, and you can usually go to all the channels in the VCT.  Check to make sure you can access the channel you want
	If not, it may have been only a partial download, and if you've lost lock, you may have to go back to the tuning page and re-enter
	the values there, and hit Tune again.
	However usually at this point you have the VCT downloaded. If interested, you can go through the channels, and observe what
	frequencies (middle near bottom) are indicated for the various channels, since they may be on different transponders.  Sometimes
	the different channels may even be on different polarity transponders, and sometimes they might even be on different satellites,
	however, usually you can access all the channels at this point.   When through investigating, you are ready to view programming.
{VIEW}	Hit VIEW to get out of the menu pages, and you can watch programming.
	Note, it is usually recommended to go into the {options} {35}  Audio & TV Options page to select appropriate settings.
	Usually  English    None    Stereo   TV    4:3    are appropriate for most viewers.    Surrnd sound gives strange audio usually.

Note, after following the above steps, you can view programs that are not scrambled (ZK) or in what they call Fixed Key or Fixed Process mode (FP), which is technically scrambled, but uses a universal key that any 4200 which has ever been authorized can access.  You can observe this mode in the 2nd diagnostic screen that you go through in the above steps, down at the bottom.  If it says MP or something similar, it usually means that the channel is encrypted. There are other indications there if the signal is missing completely.
      Enjoy.   The 4200 is a nice receiver, which is not as dumbed down as a 4DTV, but can reach some channels that the 4DTV cannot get to, and avoids all the problems of figuring out which sat and channel you have to tune to get to hidden channels that 4DTV'ers go through.