help & advise needed**digitalb & FTA Sat

colinbhoy

hi folks - 1st time poster here. a friend of mine recommended i ask someone on this site for advise. I presently have the misfortune of living in a sky conway monoploised apartment complex in dublin city centre. I have had enough paying someone for FTA tv. They are cowboys and having read some posts on this site im not the only one to feel this way.
I am a complete novice with sat tv and if im honest i get lost when i read all the jargon on different websites.
I think i want to get digitalb because i would be lost wothout my football and i would also need to get the FTA system so the missus still has corrie and eastenders
What kind of equipment do i need to get? ideally FTA signal to be split between 2 rooms to allow someone to watch different channels on 2 tv's. What is best box to get? do i need 2 boxes? - ie one box for FTA and one for digitalb or can you combine both? The digitalb signal is available i think @ 16o E. Are any other channels available at this co-ordinate or would i need to reallign the dish to pick up other channels?
i rang arouned a few companies yesterday and was quoted E1000 for full installation and 1 year sub to digitalb( gold). I thought this very expensive.
Do i need a 1M dish? What is best place to buy these? also is a motorised dish easy to use. does it auto-reallign itselfg to different frequencies? Also i am reading about cams and i have no idea what these even are.
I would hope there is some kind hearted citizen out there who can help this tecnho virgin out and give me a step by steo guide to what i need to.
A friend of mine who used to work in satellite systems said he would help me install any equipment i get.
a PM would be great or reply here. thank you to anybody who posts in advance

CB.

syboit

colinbhoy wrote: »

hi folks - 1st time poster here. a friend of mine recommended i ask someone on this site for advise. I presently have the misfortune of living in a sky conway monoploised apartment complex in dublin city centre. I have had enough paying someone for FTA tv. They are cowboys and having read some posts on this site im not the only one to feel this way.
I am a complete novice with sat tv and if im honest i get lost when i read all the jargon on different websites.
I think i want to get digitalb because i would be lost wothout my football and i would also need to get the FTA system so the missus still has corrie and eastenders
What kind of equipment do i need to get? ideally FTA signal to be split between 2 rooms to allow someone to watch different channels on 2 tv's. What is best box to get? do i need 2 boxes? - ie one box for FTA and one for digitalb or can you combine both? The digitalb signal is available i think @ 16o E. Are any other channels available at this co-ordinate or would i need to reallign the dish to pick up other channels?
i rang arouned a few companies yesterday and was quoted E1000 for full installation and 1 year sub to digitalb( gold). I thought this very expensive.
Do i need a 1M dish? What is best place to buy these? also is a motorised dish easy to use. does it auto-reallign itselfg to different frequencies? Also i am reading about cams and i have no idea what these even are.
I would hope there is some kind hearted citizen out there who can help this tecnho virgin out and give me a step by steo guide to what i need to.
A friend of mine who used to work in satellite systems said he would help me install any equipment i get.
a PM would be great or reply here. thank you to anybody who posts in advance

CB.

Just to get your started, yes from other threads around here a 1m dish and a multible lnb setup. 1 for 16" and the other for 28" (where you find all the bbc/itv stuff). You can pick up various sat boxes when can then take feeds from both lnbs (with a disqc switch) and each sat box you setup can see channels from both feeds.

Check out the suppliers pages here for dishs and other equipment, a few searches around here should also get you some good threads where peoeple bought a lot of stuff from germany.

http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/digitalb.html will show you all the channels on that satellite. Not sure how the subs work, you'll need to get a sat box where you can insert the relevant decoder card.

Pal

you need :

1 Dish (80cm is fine. Not 1 meter)
2 Sats on the dish (These are called LNBs. You need the ones #16 and #28)
1 Box with a viewing card slot (get a Technomate. cut the crap)
1 Digitalb card (try www.alsat.co.uk )
1 person who knows what they are doing to install it for you.

This will all cost much less that 1,000
shop around

colinbhoy

thanks alot guys.

ill check these out tonite online.
much appreciated.

colinbhoy

gonna get technomate 6900 i think. looks like a fairly good piece of equipment with inbuilt freeviewer and programme search.
found one for £280stg.
anyone know anywhere else i could get one cheaper?
any recommendation for sat dishes?

biologikal

Excellent choice. Price on the TM6900 seems about right, and tuner has MPEG-4, which will serve you well if DTT goes to that at rollout. You can get it on eBay a little cheaper, though when you add P&P to here, it'll work out to about £280 odd, probably:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=technomate+6900

Though you could find an eBay seller to sell you everything you need, and get a decent P&P price for multiple items.

yellabelly

Also look out for the Clarke Tech 500C because it shares hardware with the TM6900. From Germany it can be around the €300 mark. It is a great value receiver and can pickup the DTT test channels including the mpeg4 ones.

Manc-Red

Well I've been interested in Foreign Sat for 3 years or so, bought a dual lnb set-up (13e&19e) & went with the amazing TM 1500ci as my reciever.

Went motorised at the weekend & my god I've just realised what I've been missing, had some problems finding 16east as its a delicate bugger to lock onto, Digitalb transponder is now humming along at 70%. I advise you to get a Triax 88cm to cover this, 80cm dish can fade in bad weather plus make sure if going motorised to lock onto 16east as your starting sat.

Going to buy a Digitalb card myself but apparently you have to get an activation signal sent every month....This correct??

€1000 euro will cover a dish a motor, installation, card & reciever with ease. Go motorised m8 trust me!!

byte

Manc-Red wrote: »

Going to buy a Digitalb card myself but apparently you have to get an activation signal sent every month....This correct??

A signal is sent at the end/beginning of each month. It's sent automatically (you don't need to ring anyone) but your box must be on Supersport 1 for the update, which is usually quick. If you're using a different satellite, you'll not receive the update for hte following month.

I don't think a motorised system will suit the OP, as he wants to use 2 seperate receivers, so I think a multi-LNB (dual LNB's) setup and a DiSEqC switch or two is the way to go.

I found the Triax 78cm dish too small for reliable reception of 16E, but current 1.1m Triax is fine.

ON another note, don't be buying the HD Techomate on the strength of being able to receive Digitalb HD (or their SD MPEG4 channels). There's talk of the cards in the near future needing to be paired to authorised receivers to work...

Pal

If you want to set this up price efficiently, get a Technomate 1500.

http://www.alsatoffers.com/enter/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=40&category_id=7&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

as the poster above says, its an amazing receiver. I agree.

£89

colinbhoy

Thanks for all the advise folks.
In short - I have decided to go with the technomate 1500 ( much cheaper ) - £89
a triax 88cm dish - £35
Multi LNB with a DiSEqC switch - Can someone explain what this is and how it operates?
1 final question i have -How do i get the Irish channels on the sat dish - rte 1, 2, tv 3, TnaG? The girlfriend will not forgive me if i cancel sky digital - she loves the irish cannels. And is it possible to watch different channels in different rooms? what do i need to get this sorted? presently i use sky multi room but i would be happy even if the irish channels were viewable in a different room. do i need to get a seperate aerial for the dish?

Danimalito

The TM-1500 is a great box no doubt, but the 1000 series have been superceded by the 3000 series, which are pretty much retailing for the same price.

e.g. the TM-3500 can be picked up for approx €100 , and it has CI slots plus a USB connection if you want to use the box as a PVR

If you want to pick up 2 or more satellites with one dish, you need to go motorised or install an LNB for each satellite on the dish. The satellite receiver is connected to a diseqc switch , which in turn activates the correct LNB for the channel you're watching.

If you have more than one telly, and want to watch a different channel in each room, you need a satellite box and switch for each telly. The LNBs need to be dual or quad, depending on whether you want to wire up 2 or 4 tellys

You need an aerial for the irish channels, although RTE might start broadcasting a channel in FTA next year.

yellabelly

I personally wouldn't get a new receiver that wasn't HD capable. If you think you might get a new TV then better to be future proof. If you are mainly watching soccer then the picture is much improved in HD on a HDTV. It isn't just Sky that have HD soccer. e.g. I picked up an HD transmission for the Champions League final last week on Astra 19. BBC HD do matches from time to time.

colinbhoy

thanks alot

byte

Danimalito wrote: »

The TM-1500 is a great box no doubt, but the 1000 series have been superceded by the 3000 series, which are pretty much retailing for the same price.

e.g. the TM-3500 can be picked up for approx €100 , and it has CI slots plus an E-SATA connection if you want to use the box as a PVR

The 1000 series was replaced with the 5000 series.

The 1500 equivalent now is the TM-5400 CI+, which has a USB socket for recording onto external HDD's or updating firmware (only records from FTA channels).

The 3500 is a nicer looking receiver though, maybe considered Technomate's "mid-range" receiver? It doesn't seem to have an eSATA though, just USB?

Danimalito

byte wrote: »

The 1000 series was replaced with the 5000 series.

The 1500 equivalent now is the TM-5400 CI+, which has a USB socket for recording onto external HDD's or updating firmware (only records from FTA channels).

The 3500 is a nicer looking receiver though, maybe considered Technomate's "mid-range" receiver? It doesn't seem to have an eSATA though, just USB?

eh, I must have gotten a bit mixed up there, you're 100% correct - the 3500 doesnt have eSATA, it's got USB. The 3500 can record encrypted channels, the 5400 has blind search. Other than that I dont see any major differences, they are even retailing for pretty much the same price

byte

If the 3500 is able to record from encrypted channels, it might be the best one to go for. It looks a bit better too.

bassy

i have a technomate 1500 ci if anyone is interested pm me.