Sky Minidish. Astra 19E & 28E. General Questions

[frederific]

Hi there,

I'm 16, so excuse my ignorance.

First, a very basic question. Is satellite generally digital or analogue? We used to (10yrs ago) have "astra" satellite, which I believe was analogue (Could be wrong, I was 6 at the time). One of my clearest memories of the thing was of going "too far" up the channels and getting german Nickelodeon

At the moment, my house has a standard Sky Digital subscription & associated equipment; and a spare minidish, LNB, and knackered Digibox (Box developed a fault, BSkyB installed a complete new system).

I'm studying German GCSE (O-Level) and would quite like to receive some FTA german TV to aid my learning. Am I right in thinking that I need a dish pointed at one of the Astra satellites at 19.2oE to pick them up? Would a minidish be OK? (I'm in Warrington, NW England)

If I also wanted BBC/ITV, I need 28.2oE as well, don't I? Is it worth getting a rotator or, as that's what (I think!) the BSkyB dish is pointed at, can I use that? That would mean putting a Dual LNB on the BSkyB dish, wouldn't it? Or is there a way to use a splitter?

So, if I have these 2 cables from 2 dishes, how do I connect them both to a single box (or PCI card, which is more likely)? Can I use a passive 2 into 1 adaptor, some kind of hardware switch, or do I need some kind of clever and expensive switching box?

Is EPG available on free-to-air?

One last question, if I use a PCI card, such as a WinTV Nova-s, what software should I use to watch on Linux? I'd ideally like something quite lightweight (lighter than MythTV), mainly for just watching, but with the option to record/pause if needed. Or would I better with a cheap box, plumbed into a Video Capture card and audio line-in?

Sorry to ask so many questions at once.

Thanks a lot

Freddie

[Analoguesat]

Hiya mate, and a hugwe welcome to our friendly little forum.

Lets try and answer one question at a time. Most satellite delivered tv is digital these days. Theres still some analogue going - mainly the German channels on 19E. Howerver this is under sentence of death in the next few years.

The minidish will be fine for use with the digital channels on 19E, so go for it!

If you want BBC / ITV then yes you need your digibox with the dish on 28E. Leave that installation alone and put an extra dish up for playing with. Whilst it is possible to put a second lnb on a minidish they arent designed for it and the result is likely to be unsatisfactory.

Most channels carry basic now & next epg info. Info is easily available fromother sources like www.tvtv.de though.

Cant help with the PCI stuff, but heres a quick tip. Change the default language on your digibox to German, then put 509 EuroNews on

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Freddie, welcome to the forum

If I underestand your proposed dish setup correctly, then yes, if you swap the LNB on the dish feeding your main Sky system for a quad (almost impossible to find any twins these days, but quads are only £12 on eBay) and take a second cable off that to your PC, you can then setup the second minidish at 19.2E for the French/German stuff. That will give you another cable to your PC.

Then you can either use a manual switch (known as an A/B switch) at around £7, or a 2-way DiSEqC switch, which will flip between the two automatically (much nicer solution) at around £10.

As for a PCI card, I would go for a Skystar2. Very good support, even on Linux. Not too sure about software for Linux, but you should be able to find some software to allow you to (maybe under Wine) open two of the biggest pay-TV packages on 19.2 including Premiership football and more movies than you can shake a stick at.

Hope you follow through with your plans. I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it, and at a pretty low cost. The Skystars can be had for around £40 if you shop around (again eBay is good).

Keep us up to date with your progress. You're going to have a lot of fun. I'm sure you'll fly through your German exams too

STICK

[Jimdefruit]

Hi Freddie, welcome from me as well.

I have been playing with Ubuntu linux recently and I find that Kaffeine works very well with my Skystar 2 PVI card.

That would be your cheapest option for the German channels.

[frederific]

Bloody Flip! That was quick! I'm used to fast forums, but that just takes the mick! Thanks a lot for your replies.

So, would something like the "SKYTIT2" on this page be OK to replace the existing sky LNB?

Will a Skystar2 pick up german channels, what with them being analogue? I'm looking at this list

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that SkyStar2 doesn't support DiSEqC 1.2; is this something that I need to watch out for; or are switches generally 1.0/1.1?

I've just found the screenshots of Bahn TV, that's gonna be my motivation :geeky smiley:

[BGonaSTICK]

Yeah. "SKYTIT2" will work fine, but this has twice the number of outputs, is less than half the price and is designed specifically for a Sky minidish

The Skystar 2 is a digital receiver. There are way more free digital channels than analogue. Forget analogue unless you're on a really tight budget. That includes Bahn TV on 12633 H 22000 5/6

DiSEqC 1.2 is only for motors, and there are several plugins to achieve this, at least under Windows.

[frederific]

Great, thanks a lot!

No doubt I'll be back when I hit a problem.

[BGonaSTICK]

Please do. We're always ready to help

[Analoguesat]

Fantastic stuff - we have another railway loving sat nut on the forum

Last weekend I spent a very cold saturday morning on the Weardale Railway down in the North Pennines. It was snowing, it was bitter cold and the train had no heating on it. And I had a great time! Just had to have a couple of pints when I staggered off the train chilled to the marrow.

The pic shows the diesel unit standing in the beautifully restored Stanhope Station last Saturday

[diapason]

That's a typical experience and they heat the trains in July!!