Newbie advice required!

Pyongyang

I've had a good look around online and on these forums but am still left a bit puzzled as to what to do with my Humax Foxsat PVR box and the card slot.

I would like to be able to watch Spanish La Liga matches (pref in English), I don't mind other games, but really want the Barcelona matches.

I have a quad LNB, Sky dish and Humax Foxsat HDR box. What else do I need to buy etc in order to obtain the games? Searching the forums and online, an Al Jazeera sports card is touted as being a good buy.

I'm not sure what I need to do though, just buy the card, put it in the Humax box and away I go? Do I need a second dish? More cable?

Less important, if possible I'd like to get Barca TV too if that's available.

Many thanks for any help you may be able to offer me!

tomslick

With the CI slot in the box you can add a CAM that will read your card ie Conax for Canal+. You would need to get an IRDETO Cam for Al Jazeera. You then point you dish at 13east and tune it in. The cams usually cost around £50 and card is about £160. As far as I know you won't be able to record with this box on non-freesat channels so this may be a problem.
Your box is able to drive a motor so for £40 and a bit of skill you could have many options open to you. Your sky dish should pickup 28east, 19east and 13east no problem but would recommend you get a new 80cm dish if you go down this route.
Barca tv is available on the Digital+ Spain pack. This is not really possible to get cheaply.

Pyongyang

tomslick wrote: »

With the CI slot in the box you can add a CAM that will read your card ie Conax for Canal+. You would need to get an IRDETO Cam for Al Jazeera. You then point you dish at 13east and tune it in. The cams usually cost around £50 and card is about £160. As far as I know you won't be able to record with this box on non-freesat channels so this may be a problem.
Your box is able to drive a motor so for £40 and a bit of skill you could have many options open to you. Your sky dish should pickup 28east, 19east and 13east no problem but would recommend you get a new 80cm dish if you go down this route.
Barca tv is available on the Digital+ Spain pack. This is not really possible to get cheaply.

Thanks tomslick, much appreciate the advice.

So if I got a motor on my dish for £40 + getting someone to install it for me, do I need to buy an extra LNB to go next to the LNB I already have? Or will the one I already have be motorized and pick up whatever it points at?

In essence I'd just be looking to spend £40 + install and then around £210-ish for a CAM and viewing card?

Any ideas where I can buy all the equipment from?

Pyongyang

Ok, small update. I placed an order today for an 80cm dish, single LNB and fitting kit.

Decided that for now I'll just make do with a second dish on the wall of the house and look in to an LNB holder or a motor at a later date.

Instead of a 2 way Diseqc switch I got a 4 way one, on the assumption that I have a Freesat quad LNB with two cables running out of it on my Sky minidish. I want that and my new 80cm dish for Hotbird to combine to my Humax Foxsat HDR.

Now all I need is a CAM and an Al Jazeera Sports card!

Not wanting to push any forum rule boundaries, but may I ask if someone can recommend me a good shop online for a card and cam?

I'm looking in to one of the multi-cam devices, I assume that these can actually read Conax, Viaccess etc cards? I just want a multi-cam device to save me buying different CAM's in the future.

Hope I haven't crossed the line there, if I have, my apologies.

Looking forward to any advice you may have. Thanks!

Pal

I bought Al Jazeera card from Marconi and it just died.
They did nothing about it

Had major delivery problems with Falconsat.
Very difficult to get them on the phone or resolve anything.

Good experience with Alsat.

redout

Pal wrote: »

I bought Al Jazeera card from Marconi and it just died.
They did nothing about it

Had major delivery problems with Falconsat.
Very difficult to get them on the phone or resolve anything.

Good experience with Alsat.

Was it an Irdeto card ?

snaps

Just make sure you get the correct cam for the card you buy. Blue Al Jazeera is the best so you will need a Viaccess cam. An Orange Al Jazeera card is Irdeto.

Personally id go with Blue as these cards are brand new and just been changed.

Also i would have gone with a cheap reciever instead of a cam as it would have been cheaper than possibly getting a cam and also most cheap recievers (Eg Fergusson, opticum etc) can be flashed with firmware making their card readers multi caid (Most encyption systems being able to be read)

Pyongyang

Thanks Snaps!

I haven't bought a CAM or card yet. What receiver would you recommend for Al Jazeera Sports?

I just want a cheap thing with the right card so I don't need a CAM etc. Whatever is cheapest.

What do you recommend?

As for the Al Jazeera card, I thought they were all blue now on both Viaccess and Irdeto?

redout

snaps wrote: »

Just make sure you get the correct cam for the card you buy. Blue Al Jazeera is the best so you will need a Viaccess cam. An Orange Al Jazeera card is Irdeto.

Personally id go with Blue as these cards are brand new and just been changed.

I dont know about Viaccess but Al Jazeera only recently signed a deal with Irdeto to provide encryption for their sports cards. So if anything I would buy an Irdeto one over the viaccess one just to be on the safe side.

Pyongyang

redout wrote: »

I dont know about Viaccess but Al Jazeera only recently signed a deal with Irdeto to provide encryption for their sports cards. So if anything I would buy an Irdeto one over the viaccess one just to be on the safe side.

Sold. I'll go for that one then. Is it worth getting the Irdeto mpeg4 cam?

snaps

Ive an Irdeto cam here doing nothing, its an old one (P/N 901275 X) if that makes any sense. Your welcome to it if you want? Perhaps someone will confirm it works 1st with Al Jazeera and i can give it to you.

I know my old Astoncypt cams that are older than this Irdeto cam still works fine with Cyfra+!

Pyongyang

snaps wrote: »

Ive an Irdeto cam here doing nothing, its an old one (P/N 901275 X) if that makes any sense. Your welcome to it if you want? Perhaps someone will confirm it works 1st with Al Jazeera and i can give it to you.

I know my old Astoncypt cams that are older than this Irdeto cam still works fine with Cyfra+!

Thanks for the generous offer! I don't think the card will work though judging by this link I found:

http://www.lefdata.com/satellite/cam/ci.html

Those stats might mean more to someone else though so I may be wrong!

I think I'm going to go with a HD Irdeto card from Satboy.com and an Al Jazeera Sports card.

Before I go ahead and order though, does anyone know a better card to get that I will be able to watch Barcelona games on? I don't care about any other leagues just Barcelona games!

Pyongyang

Well I finally got my CAM. I ordered the Neotion MPEG4 Viaccess Extra CAM.

Hope that was a good choice!

Now to grab an Al Jazeera Sports card, get the dish slapped on the wall and I should be off and running!

I did look at multicrypt CAM's but the cost factor is just too much. I just want to watch Barcelona matches. Nothing else!

watty

Bad choice.

Pyongyang

watty wrote: »

Bad choice.

What would you recommend? A different CAM?

watty

One without an MPEG4->MPEG2 converter. That makes it run very hot. It also makes it more expensive.

Pyongyang

watty wrote: »

One without an MPEG4->MPEG2 converter. That makes it run very hot. It also makes it more expensive.

Just a standard Viaccess CAM? At the time, the price difference was minimal (€5 I think) so I went with the MPEG4 CAM.

I'll give it a go first and if it doesn't work out I can always buy a normal one.

Thanks for the info though, much appreciate it.

snaps

dont know why you didnt get a receiver with card slots that can do all types of encryptions??

Pyongyang

snaps wrote: »

dont know why you didnt get a receiver with card slots that can do all types of encryptions??

I was thinking about it, but I wasn't sure what receiver to buy. For now, the only thing I really want is La Liga games (well, more specifically, just Barcelona games).

Sadly for Barca TV I've been informed it's really hard to get outside of Spain as a subscription. Not sure why but anyway, that door closed itself I guess...

So for what I want to watch, I think for now I just need a Viaccess CAM and the Al Jazeera card. I went with Al Jazeera because from everything I read up on them, they seem to offer the most comprehensive La Liga coverage.

Multi-decryption embedded CAM receivers are an interesting proposition though. I just don't know enough about them. I don't think I would want one of those hobby CAM's. I couldn't even activate a subscription card in one apparently.

For future reference though, what receivers would you recommend? Can I swap an activated card from one receiver to the other or once activated in my Humax, if I put it in another receiver would it not work?

snaps

Theres a lot of cheap multicam recievers out there SD and HD.

Technomate
Fergusson
Opticum
Edision
Mvision
Smart

The German market is flooded with cheap receivers of all kinds

redout

Pyongyang wrote: »

Sadly for Barca TV I've been informed it's really hard to get outside of Spain as a subscription. Not sure why but anyway, that door closed itself I guess...

It use to be on Sky but is no longer carried for some time. Not sure they even broadcast in English anymore which I find quite odd. Think its only primarily Catalan then castellano as a secondary option.

Pyongyang

Looks like there was a problem ordering my CAM so I cancelled the order and am currently 'CAMless'.

With that in mind, can someone recommend me a cheapo receiver sub-€100 that would read the Al Jazeera card, or perhaps recommend a Viaccess CAM?

I decided too, to cancel the install, I'm going to have a stab at installing the dish myself! Why not?! May as well start some time!

snaps

Pyongyang wrote: »

Looks like there was a problem ordering my CAM so I cancelled the order and am currently 'CAMless'.

With that in mind, can someone recommend me a cheapo receiver sub-€100 that would read the Al Jazeera card, or perhaps recommend a Viaccess CAM?

I decided too, to cancel the install, I'm going to have a stab at installing the dish myself! Why not?! May as well start some time!

http://satellite.ie/acatalog/High_Definition_Free_to_Air_HD_Satellite_receiver_from_Ferguson_Ariva_100E.html

http://www.satsklep.pl/index.php?s=produkt&id_prod=1178&id_kat=273&id_typu=0

Pyongyang

snaps wrote: »

http://satellite.ie/acatalog/High_Definition_Free_to_Air_HD_Satellite_receiver_from_Ferguson_Ariva_100E.html

http://www.satsklep.pl/index.php?s=produkt&id_prod=1178&id_kat=273&id_typu=0

Thanks snaps! Is that Polish site reliable?

snaps

Pyongyang wrote: »

Thanks snaps! Is that Polish site reliable?

Very reliable. 7e for ups delivery as well. That Ferguson on satellite.ie is there as well 20e cheaper.

The Fergussons are very well supported as well on German forums.

Pyongyang

snaps wrote: »

Very reliable. 7e for ups delivery as well. That Ferguson on satellite.ie is there as well 20e cheaper.

The Fergussons are very well supported as well on German forums.

Seriously thanks for all your help with this!

I think I might abandon my 4 diseqc switch idea and, seeing as I'm doing a DIY install, I might just buy the receiver and wire up one cable instead.

The only thing that bugs me about that Ferguson receiver is the lack of HDMI. I see other models on there for similar prices but no idea if they read Viaccess.

redout

Just want to add that Satsklep delivery is the absolute worst I have ever come across. Shipping items from eastern europe via road is nothing short of a disgrace. Why in the name of god they cannot do it by air is baffling. The road delivery takes about one week!

Pyongyang

redout wrote: »

Just want to add that Satsklep delivery is the absolute worst I have ever come across. Shipping items from eastern europe via road is nothing short of a disgrace. Why in the name of god they cannot do it by air is baffling. The road delivery takes about one week!

That's not good! I was hoping to (attempt to) put the dish up this weekend in time for the Barcelona vs Sevilla game (assuming my Al Jazeera card arrives some time this week from Tech Digital).

Is there anyone as cheap as Satsklep who offers quicker delivery?

slicedpanman

redout wrote: »

Just want to add that Satsklep delivery is the absolute worst I have ever come across. Shipping items from eastern europe via road is nothing short of a disgrace. Why in the name of god they cannot do it by air is baffling. The road delivery takes about one week!

...ah that explains it! I ordered my card last weekend. Its only as far as the UPS depot outside Dortmund today. :rolleyes:

It was initially scheduled for delivery this Friday (perfect timing for the EPL) but got updated overnight to Monday instead. Still fingers crossed that UPS will get it here in time for the ManU v Newcastle game Monday night

redout

slicedpanman wrote: »

...ah that explains it! I ordered my card last weekend. Its only as far as the UPS depot outside Dortmund today. :rolleyes:

It was initially scheduled for delivery this Friday (perfect timing for the EPL) but got updated overnight to Monday instead. Still fingers crossed that UPS will get it here in time for the ManU v Newcastle game Monday night

Mine was heading for Hollyhead since early this morning so should have it by tomorrow thank god. Courier by road for that distance is an absolute pisstake. It is more than 2,000km.

snaps

Pyongyang wrote: »

Seriously thanks for all your help with this!

I think I might abandon my 4 diseqc switch idea and, seeing as I'm doing a DIY install, I might just buy the receiver and wire up one cable instead.

The only thing that bugs me about that Ferguson receiver is the lack of HDMI. I see other models on there for similar prices but no idea if they read Viaccess.

The HD receivers will have HDMI, cheaper SD models wont.

http://www.satsklep.pl/index.php?s=produkt&id_prod=1081&id_kat=279&id_typu=0