Getting Hotbird channels on a Sky setup

[mattjones17]

Hi,
I've been searching Google for this and found one or two threads on this forum, but none seemed to answer my exact question. I live in South west England, and I watch via a Sky+ box which I installed myself replacing a broken Sky box. I never got round to installing the second LNB, so I only really have VCR-like recording capabilities as well as live pause and rewind, but oh well, that's another story.

My question is - can I get Russian channels on my setup? My understanding is that Sky uses the 'Astra 1' satellite - Russian TV seems to vary - but a lot of people have mentioned Hotbird. Is this my best option? What will it entail? I've tried adding channels from the Hotbird myself and my box informs me I have no signal - I presume I would need to realign the dish?

Any help will be much appreciated.


Matt

[Rick]

Using a sky box with other sats is tricky. For starters the box can only see Symbol Rates of 22000 and 27500. You cannot add any channels to the normal channel line up. You can Only use the Add Channels manu.

Sky broadcast on Astra 2 at 28e. Assuming you have a minidish, you would need a second dish pointed at Hotbird at 13e, and I would suggest a second reciever. Or you could realign your current dish, but you would then loose your sky channels.

[mattjones17]

I'm told that I could use an offset bracket to mount a second LNB pointing at Hotbird. Would this get a strong enough signal to get anything, in your opinion?

Also with regards to SR's - most of the Russian channels I'm after seem to use 22000 or 27500 anyway.

[SAT-WORLD]

Originally Posted by mattjones17

I'm told that I could use an offset bracket to mount a second LNB pointing at Hotbird. Would this get a strong enough signal to get anything, in your opinion?

Also with regards to SR's - most of the Russian channels I'm after seem to use 22000 or 27500 anyway.

Not possible on the standard(zone 1 minidish:43cm).
As already advised,you would be better off,getting a 60cm or above dish for Hotbird.
The Free to Air Russian channels on Hotbird
Encrypted Russian channels requiring viewing card/cam/fta receiver are the RTVi channels