Another newbie looking for advice..

[maj3091]

Firstly, hello all from this newbie here!

I'm looking for some advice if someone would be kind enough to help.

I've recently seen a Eurovox system running at a mates on Cable and was impressed at the range of channels he had available.

I don't have cable in my area and wondered if there was an equivalent system that runs on Satellite?

I have a Sky Digital dish on my wall being a previous sky customer and wondered if I could use that dish?

I'm no expert on Sat stuff, wouldn't even call myself a novice! lol

I've recently redone my living room and run my sat cable under the wood floor to a socket (using good quality digi-sat cable), but I'm beginning to wonder whether that is going to cause me problems in what I want to do.

I've read about multiple LNB's and I'm assuming each one needs a cable to the receiver - which leaves me a bit stuffed now. Also, if I need a motorised dish, does that require an extra cable out of the receiver or is that handled through the normal coax (probably a dumb question).

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Mark

[Jimdefruit]

Welcome to the forum maj.

If you want just the free to view uk channels then you can use the existing dish with a digibox and a free to view card without any subscriptions.

If you want to view channels from the continent and North Africa then you can install a new dish with either multiple lnbs or motorise a dish. In both cases the single cable will be ok. For multi lnb you would need to fit a diseqc switch to select which lnb is in use. The selection is via the receiver.

The size of dish will depend upon where you are located and which satellites you want to lock onto.

[maj3091]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the reply.

You've made me happy in regards to the single cable thing, my mrs doesn't want any cables going around skirtings anymore!

In regards to the Channels, my mates Eurovox box seems to pick up all the sports (from the big sat supplier here) and also National Geographic, Discovery and Kids stuff, so I guess I'm looking for something similar along those lines.

I'm not convinced my old Sky digi dish is in a great place anyway as It used to go all blocky and freeze sometimes when it rained or bad whether, but I do like the size of that dish - doesn't stand out too much on the side of the house, although I wouldn't be adverse to changing it if gave me what I was looking for.

I assume a motorised dish gives you access to more satellites, but being mounted on a wall would give you limited movement wouldn't it? Does it need to be on the floor (in the garden for example) or are all the sats we can access in a pretty close proximity in regards to the angle of movement for the dish, or am I missing the point altogether with the motorised bit?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am completely new to all this.

[Robbo]

Hi have a read of these two, that will give you a start.

The satellite arc

Beginners - EutelSat: A Guide to Communications Satellites

But basically the satellites that we can see are spread approx 70 degrees either side of due south. The pole that the motor sits on has to be mounted on brackets that hold it away from the wall so that the dish can turn without hitting the wall.

You can also mount on the ground too if you wish, a scaffold pole concreted in, works well, I can confirm, if you can be bothererd to dig a hole.

Sky minidishes often cause pixelated pictures in bad whether, not just because of bad siting, but also because they are too small.Most of the time you will get a picture OK, but heavy rain, could cause problems. A bigger dish cures this.

Robbo

[maj3091]

Thanks Robbo,

I feel I understand a little more about how it all works now.

Now I just need to figure what receiver I need to look at to achieve what I want to (if that is possible of course?).

Mark

[Robbo]

Well, there's plenty of choice. But make no mistake, you won't get the same channels you get with full proper sky or cable subscription.
But there is a lot more choice at the moment, subscription or otherwise. For a beginner the Technomates are good (eg TM5400CI+), or for more of a challenge, one of the Linux boxes eg Dreambox. Also heard some good reports on the Vantage receivers.

[maj3091]

Thanks Robbo,

I'll have a browse of the forums to see if there are channel listings of what I can get with these boxes before deciding what to do.

Mark

[Robbo]

Originally Posted by maj3091

Thanks Robbo,

I'll have a browse of the forums to see if there are channel listings of what I can get with these boxes before deciding what to do.

Mark

Well, at the moment, and I stress "at the moment",
on the TMs with the latest patch, you can get TPS(13E),Polsat (13E), premiere(19.2E), DigitTV(1W) and probably a few other minor packages or part thereof. Also sometimes there are the odd BISS channels you can get, FOX TV(12.5W) for example. Also packages like DigitalB on 16E can be subscribed to, and the card would work in the TM. Plus all the FTA channels available of course.