A few quick questions

[phils_confused]

Right then. I'm thinking of jumping ship over to satellite now the "educational" cable times are coming to an end.
I've got a few questions, sorry if you heard em all before but I've been reading loads and everything seems to be a little over my head. rite here we go.

1. If i buy a motorised setup with a dm500s, and point it an bsysbs sat (astra 28e i think it is), would I pick up anything without card sharing?

2. Are there many other sats actually worth aiming at for english programming?

3. Is the freesat different to 28.2?

4. If i get it all set up, how easy is it to move the dish? What i mean is will I get it in the neck when the wife can't do it?

5. What sort of epg do you get? ie is it the content as a sky box gets etc?

Thanks guys.

[Satsearching]

1. You will be able to pick up the FTA services, and with a sky freesat card, you will be able to pick up FTV services....

FTA (Free to air) means services that have no form of encryption.
FTV (Free to view) means services that are encrypted, but viewable with a sky card for a one off fee of about £20.

FTA is technically the "Freesat" service.
FTV is technically the "Freesat from Sky" service.

Googling those 2 phrases will show you what you can pick up for "Free"

2. It is surprising just how many Italian, German, Scandinavian, Polish etc etc on other satellites that show American or British sourced TV either with English audio (and foreign subtitles) or foreign dubbed but still has the English audio available as a sub carrier by pressing the audio button.

3. I guess what is confusing about 28'e is that there is technically 2 orbital positions there.

28.2'e Is used by Astra (SES)
28.5'e Is used by Eurobird (Eutelsat)

But as these are so close together, both are viewable as if they are the same.

But yes, Freesat is from 28.2'e / 28.5'e.

To confuse things more, there may be a new service appearing on 28'e soon
REAL Digital TV: Real Choice, Real Value

Also have a look here Eurobird 1 & Astra 2A/2B/2D at 28.2°E - LyngSat to get an idea what it "Free" from the 28'e cluster.

SS

Originally Posted by phils_confused

Right then. I'm thinking of jumping ship over to satellite now the "educational" cable times are coming to an end.
I've got a few questions, sorry if you heard em all before but I've been reading loads and everything seems to be a little over my head. rite here we go.

1. If i buy a motorised setup with a dm500s, and point it an bsysbs sat (astra 28e i think it is), would I pick up anything without card sharing?

2. Are there many other sats actually worth aiming at for english programming?

3. Is the freesat different to 28.2?

Thanks guys.

[Satsearching]

Originally Posted by phils_confused

4. If i get it all set up, how easy is it to move the dish? What i mean is will I get it in the neck when the wife can't do it?

5. What sort of epg do you get? ie is it the content as a sky box gets etc?

Thanks guys.

4. All she has to do is select the channel and the dish automatically moves.

5. Now that is the crafty sky thing, I think you can only get a propper full epg with a sky box, however you do get now and next on the infobar with linux boxes. Also I believe there are plugins available to suck in a full epg from the internet for linux boxes.

Also, tuxbox based images do have the option to get Freesat full epg now. Or wording it different, when compiling an image, the person compiling can add a configure option (enable freesat epg)!

SS

[phils_confused]

Thanks SS. That clears things up a lot. Will a sky ftv card work with a dreambox? I'm sure i read somewhere that a dream card reader uses a higher voltage so will melt the card.
I'm mainly interested in sly channels so would I get away with an 80cm dish in nottingham? My house makes it pretty hard to mount a big dish. Access to other sats would b nice though.

[Satsearching]

Originally Posted by phils_confused

Will a sky ftv card work with a dreambox? I'm sure i read somewhere that a dream card reader uses a higher voltage so will melt the card.

I read the same but I think that is about the new cards, I think I also read a simple mod will drop the supply voltage.

My old card with a "yellow house" has been in my dads clone 500 for a year now and no problems clearing FTV.

SS

[RoYaL KiD]

Originally Posted by Satsearching

I read the same but I think that is about the new cards, I think I also read a simple mod will drop the supply voltage.

My old card with a "yellow house" has been in my dads clone 500 for a year now and no problems clearing FTV.

SS

The sky white cards run at 3.3 volts. The old ones run at 5 volts. Dreambox internal reader reads cards at 5 volts, however i think you can underclock the card by editing the files for the emu which read the card. The sky white cards however do have a 2.2 volts tolerance meaning the card should be ok upto 5.5 volts.

[phils_confused]

Thanks for the answers guys. is there any advantage of getting a white ftv card over a yelloy. I've had a look on fleabay and you can still pick yellows up cheap enough.
Think I'm gonna start shopping round soon. Could do with some suggestions for a place to put a dish though because I've got about the worlds worst house for space to put a dish.


The front of the house is south facing so its gotta be there somewhere. Do any brackets exist that'd allow me to raise the dish above the guttering?

Thanks for any ideas

[Satsearching]

Have a look at the link in this post first.

What size dish and how many?

As you can see, putting it above the gutter is a better place regarding law anyway.

I think it is known as a "T and K" bracket you want, but you need to measure the amount of wall standoff and height you will need.

Make sure you go for propper "T and K" for your dish size, not a flimsy TV antenna type.

SS

[RoYaL KiD]

Stick the dish to the left of the left upstairs window.

[phils_confused]

Thanks guys. I think I'll go with Royalkids suggestion. I'll have to bin the tv aerial, but it's never been plugged in anyway. Just gotta save some pennies now.