Newbie - Advice Needed - Motorised Dish/Reciever

[blicky]

Hi all,

First post so go easy one me!!

Just started looking into motorised sat systems (been at the back of my mind for a good few years though!)

I currently run $KY HD and i'm happy with it (so will be keeping seperate) I run a 42" HD plasma and a 100" HD projector.

So many questions to as so here are a few of them for now: -

Tracking the arc - I'm looking to possibly install a dish on the back of the house, as for position am I right in saying the standard $KY dishes point near the center of the arc required?? if so this should be ok for me as the dish is almost flat against the wall pointing straight out. Not looked into setting this up enough yet but i'm sure there is lots to read up on!

Reciever - Not many HD boxes about yet (or content) so maybe I will go for a normal box for now and upgrade later, I like the look of the Dreambox's and i'm quite farmiliar with IP, FTP and the like, also like the fact it can be played around with 8)

Dish - 80,90 1m?? I'm in Andover, Hampshire if that helps. I hear a 36v motor is best for a new install?? I will be doing the install myself as i'm quite handy with electrics and don't mind working at heights!!


I'm quite happy with the dish side of things and looking around I can get a decent dish and motor for around the £150 mark, does this sound around right?? As for reciever i'm totally lost should I go cheap to start learning and progress to HD at a later date (I guess dish/cable/motor will be OK for HD at a later date) As I said I like the look of the dreambox (600 PVR??) and don't mind learning but from day 1 i'm not sure if this box will be tooooo much to even set a system up??

I'm not looking to recieve any channels in particlular just wanting to see what is up there and to have more selection.

Ps budget is around £300ish - £400 if Dreambox/HD box (not including HDD, will be added later if required)

Any advice will be greatly recieved.

[BGonaSTICK]

Welcome to the forum blicky

You sound like a Dreambox recruit, I reckon

Of course it's always hard for us to tell if you'll struggle, but generally if you have the enthusiasm to give it a go, then you'll be just fine. You can start off by simply following some basic instructions to FTP stuff around and then move on to more complex stuff.

The 600 PVR is a fine box, but a 7000 or 7020 are better bets if the extra physical size isn't a problem. They have more memory, and a USB slot which is worth it's weight in gold.

A 90cm dish on a DiSEqC motor is the modern standard setup, and I would go with this. Cheap and easy.

DiSEqC motor and decent dish for under £100.

I'd leave HD for the moment, but be prepared to trade up in 12 - 18 months.

Have fun!

[blicky]

Originally Posted by BGonaSTICK

Welcome to the forum blicky

You sound like a Dreambox recruit, I reckon

Of course it's always hard for us to tell if you'll struggle, but generally if you have the enthusiasm to give it a go, then you'll be just fine. You can start off by simply following some basic instructions to FTP stuff around and then move on to more complex stuff.

The 600 PVR is a fine box, but a 7000 or 7020 are better bets if the extra physical size isn't a problem. They have more memory, and a USB slot which is worth it's weight in gold.

A 90cm dish on a DiSEqC motor is the modern standard setup, and I would go with this. Cheap and easy.

DiSEqC motor and decent dish for under £100.

I'd leave HD for the moment, but be prepared to trade up in 12 - 18 months.

Have fun!

Many thanks mate looking forward to getting into it, can you or anyone give me a link to some of the places you have purchased kit before or can recomend??

[Jimdefruit]

Welcome to the forum blicky.

From your letter, you appear to have a good grasp of satellite.
The Sky dish points at the satellite located at 28.2 degrees east of south. The satellites you would most likely want are located between 30 west and 28.2 east. You will probably be ok to get all of those unless you have any big trees or other obstructions in the line of sight.

I haven't used them yet because I haven't bought anything recently but the sponsors at the top of the page may help. Stick can advise you on their systems.

We are all waiting for the HD dreambox to appear on the shelves and until then most will stick with the SD versions. I would certainly recommend the Dreambox and if you can stretch to it I would recommend the 7020s model. It has a lot of support.

[wod]

dish wise a 1metre dish on a diseqc motor, mounted on t&k brackets would work well depends on the location of where the dish would go as if the location is exposed to high winds then a dish on a polar mount with actuator motor would be better

[satsid]

Hi m8 get a compass,point so it says w @ the west.This is the middel for your dish.going left you would come to 28 east where your min dish is.Now do the same right this will take you to 30 west.From here your see if any trees are in the way of signel.The more right or left the lower the beam will be on signel.This will help on what your see from satellite & where to put your dish.With luck you have a south facing wall.So if you have your compass @ 1 west & a wall @ your back,you have a south facing wall to set up from.Doing the above you can find out how much of the ark you can see.house or trees will block signel if you set your dish to close to them.
sid

[blicky]

Many thanks again for the advice guys,

Looks like first stop is a compass then!

Thinking about the reciever - would it be worth me getting a DM500S for the time being as for £99 (new) it will get me started with the Dreambox way of doing things, like I said HD is important to me in the not to distance future so I will be upgrading within 12 or so months.

[satsid]

Originally Posted by blicky

Many thanks again for the advice guys,

Looks like first stop is a compass then!

Thinking about the reciever - would it be worth me getting a DM500S for the time being as for £99 (new) it will get me started with the Dreambox way of doing things, like I said HD is important to me in the not to distance future so I will be upgrading within 12 or so months.

Hi m8,if i was you i would get a vantage receiver,there not to pricey & are opening a lot atm.Have a look on sateuroper @ the top of the page on price.If you get a vantage make sure it the 200 series.the ones without free view are cheeper,top class on blind scanning,great tuner in these boxes & so on.
sid

[Jimdefruit]

Stick with your idea of getting the dreambox 500s as a starter. You will be able to learn the way it works and there is a lot of support. It is a basic linux receiver in that you cant add extra software because it does not have a usb 'extra memory' option like the 7000s or 7020s but you will learn a lot. If you have a router on your pc network the dreambox will connect to the internet and assistance will be directly available to you.

As an option, if you see a 7000s seconhand on ebay then that would be a very good option.

[BGonaSTICK]

The Dreambox 500 would be a perfect choice. It will teach you virtually everything to need to know to get started, and it will always be supported by the Linux community.

It should therefore resell well if you choose to upgrade to the Dreambox 8000 HD for example (if and when it ever makes it onto the market.) :

The Technomate TM91xx Linux boxes are also a cheap way to have a play too, but they do have a few limitations and don't have the huge library of images and whatnot behind them right now.

STICK