Complete system - usb? motorised?

[snappy]

I have read lots of posts on this site. I have searched the net for options. I have made decisions only to renounce them on gaining more info. Wary that a little knowledge is dangerous, grateful for this site and its dedicated supporters, I thought that before buying I would ask for comment/advice.

I hate monopolies like Sky - living in North Powys where even terrestial TV struggles to reach us - finding it hard to spot the real football from all the dots on the screen - we resorted to the basic Sky service. We watch mostly non-Sky. Wanting to reject Sky I've searched around for a new setup. I'm hoping to buy from the site's sponsor - but what to buy?

Our needs: primarily standard UK fta channels (which we can't receive except via satellite). In future who knows - maybe football on Turksat or Astra 1. Access to CNBC?Bloomberg would also be useful.
The Solution: Working on the basis that no subs I felt that 1-2 yrs investment in Sky could be spent on a new setup.
The receiver: TM5400 - because: latest model, usb (Is it easy to use with an ordinary external hd ? I have a maxtor 300gb usb2 drive.), has CI+ (the future - and could it be used to read yellow sky house card for Ch4 & 5 reception?), it's patchable.
The dish: if I'm going to utilise it to the full I thought an 80/85cms new dish - but should it be motorised or fixed with 4 lnb's? If one bought a monobloc presumable it would not be pointed at 28degrees and so no BBC/ITV?
Motorised seems cheaper and ultimately the most flexible. What to choose?

Sorry it's long. So long Snappy.

[Yorks]

Hi snappy, Welcome to Techwatch.

You certainly have done a bit of reading. The system you are looking at sounds good to me. Not sure whether the TM can handle the FTV Sky card though. The need for this may disappear hopefully in the not too distant future, if Freesat is kind to us. But contractual obligations have to be fullfilled first.

www.freesat.co.uk

If you can put up with the snowy terrestrial picture for those channels for now, then you can get a hell of a lot more. I would go for a motorised dish, as it gives you more scope - provided that you have a decent line of sight. You could however have a multi-lnb set up if you only want a few sats, which are reasonably close together. If you were wanting a multi-lnb setup then you would usually have individual lnbs on a special bracket designed for and supplied with the dish.

A monobloc is a 2 in 1 job. Most common one is for 19.2E and 13E.

Yorks

[Jimdefruit]

Welcome to the forum snappy.

Reading your post, I get the impression that you already have a sky dish/receiver and card.

I would recommend that you keep those for the fta/ftv uk channels and if you want to be more adventurous, get a motorised dish and the receiver you have mentions to get channels from a large number of other satellites.

That way you can watch one satellite and record another. If you have two tvs then you can watch corrie whilst 'er indoors watches footy.

Other than some of the linux based receivers, only the digibox will read the uk viewing card.

[Yorks]

Yes. If you keep your existing box then that solves the ftv channels problem.

Well spotted Jim!

[Robbo]

Hi snappy,

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with the others.

Cancel your Sky contract, keep the Sky dodgybox,card and existing dish and with that you will be able to view all the FTA and FTV channels from 28.2E/28.5E.

Then get yourself a motorised system run it in parallel and have some fun.

I don't know if joshjess has got any of these systems left for £190.

Special Technomate Prices

Robbo

[radtv]

One left!

[snappy]

Thanks for the consistency of reply on the motorised dish option. I particularly like the dodgydish reference to the sky box.

Any thoughts on the effectiveness of the usb ports and their compatibility with ordinary external usb hard drives?

[snappy]

One further thought on the motorised dish - a pole or a wall. Does it make any difference? I have quite a good line of view as I'm alone up on a hill with just the wind and rain. My current dish is wall mounted.

[Yorks]

The wall is fine for a dish up to 1m in diameter, if you have a suitable site. Above 1m you need planning permission.

Yorks

[radtv]

Hi Snappy.

I will reserve you the system, and will order in some more today.

Regards