FTA summary and questions

[Sandbox]

Actually I meant the two things as separate questions! I realise that the sky channels can't be accessed. I was following up on Stick's post that the Box Office channels are free at the moment. I assume this means that they are "in the clear" but when they came up blank I thought maybe I was mistaken and they were only free if your box is patched.

As for the updates I'm just trying to decide which to use and whether putting the patched version on is worthwhile.

Sorry should have been clearer

[BGonaSTICK]

An official firmware upgrade with possibly fix some minor bugs (not that I know of any) and update the transponder list. You should also be able to do the latter with the channel editor, which should be a lot quicker and easier than by using the remote.

You're right about the unofficial patch. If you could move your dish, you should be able to get Premiere, but if not, don't bother.

Astra 2 (as defined by your receiver) probably covers all the transponders on all the satellites co-located at 28.2E. That's all the 'Astra 2' label indicates as far as you're concerned - just a logical grouping of transponders.

You can check transponders on various 28.2E satellites to make sure they're in your receiver if you're not sure they're all there. There's nothing magical about the Astra 2 tag in the receiver. It could say anything.

Glad you're enjoying yourself. That's what it's all about!

You may have to wait a second or two for the Box Office stuff to appear, but it doesn't need a patch. Just make sure you enter and scan that transponder.

STICK

[Sandbox]

Thanks stick

I've updated the software and channel list with the 'official' files and used the channel editor to put the best on the favourites menus.

Strangely after rescanning Planet Rock disappeared again I did a "Blind Search" (whatever that is!) to find it last time so I did this again and it came back Also it found 920 tv channels where the scan found 'only' 770 :?

Anyway I've got all the channels I was after, and I've even found the SBOs! The channels actually labelled SBO were all blank but there's a bunch of TV 1, TV 2 etc which show clear even though they're marked with a $.

Thanks for all your help guys

[BGonaSTICK]

Cool 8)

Someone else said to me that they came up as TV1, 2 etc, but I didn't believe them!

My Skystar scans them as #10 #11 etc, whilst my Dreambox scans them as 'Sky Box Office' :?

Who cares, as long as you get to watch the movies

A blind scan is a very powerful function to have. It's one of the reasons I recommend the Techno's. Very useful. It ignores most of the transponder data and scans 'everything' at a given orbital location. Can take a while on some machines, but the Technomate 'Super's are now pretty fast by all accounts.

How long did your blind scan take?

You'll probably find that the 150 previously missing channels are purely due to missing transponder entries, even with the latest firmware.

[Sandbox]

It took about 5 minutes I think...I left it to it and went to make dinner!

It certainly seems like a neat box of tricks. The update went smoothly (once I'd dug out a serial cable!). Channel changes are fast too. There is even a pass through scart socket which I've connected my Freeview box to so I can switch to it without having to swap any cables.

To think I was initially going to buy another dab radio to get the extra stations on my stereo. Now for less money I've got all the ones I wanted plus loads more! And they're in much better quality than dab!! And I've got a bunch of extra telly channels as well!!! Bargain

[Analoguesat]

Excellent - well done Sandbox. Enjoy your new channels, but remember the SBO channels will go scrambled again soon, it never lasts more than a few days at a time.

My old Techno TM1000 is hopeless on blind scan - it takes hours! I just try and keep the tp list up to date since the tp scan search is very fast