Suffering with old Sky system, help!!!!

Salty25

hello everybody!!!

i need help, i would love to be able to watch premiership games for nowt (i dont have Sky)!

I have an old Sky analouge dish and analouge box (basically what Sky gave to customers before they turned digital), and its pointed at Astra 19.2 east (or something like that!).

Can someone please tell what I have to do to be able to receive premiership games for nothing, i'd love to watch Saturday 3pm games!

jimbo

Hello salty25 ....and welcome to the site.

Sorry to say you won't pick up premiership games with your analogue equipment. The transmisions are in digital format and encrypted one way or another. You will have to buy some new stuff to get games free.

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Jimbo

Salty25

ok, well how much will the new equipment cost?

Would I have to move the dish very much?

BGonaSTICK

From about £150 and a few hours graft if you're a cheapskate. You'd have to move your dish about 6 degrees W (Hotbird) for a good selection of games, but by no means all.

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Salty25

could you get the equiptment second hand tho? Wot would actually be involved on the DIY side of things?

All the wiring is in place, all i'd need to do is move the dish n stick the new box into the old wiring? Or do I need new digital wires as well?!

BGonaSTICK

You'd need a new receiver, dish, LNB and motor. S/H is fine. A PC card makes a great cheap receiver ('bout £45 new from Germany) for the beginner. Read up on the dish setup info in the FAQ section. You don't even need the motor to start with.

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BGonaSTICK

sorry.... and no, your wiring is probably fine.

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Salty25

sorry, i'm not up on the old satellite lingo! I take it that by a reciever u mean the set top box, but wots a LNB?

I not interested in a motor, if i wanna move the dish i'll hope up on the roof n do it! I think my dish is 60cm, u sure that wouldnt b enough?

I dont really wanna pay anymore than £100 if i can, i'm a skin-flint, n my mum would probably kill me!

BGonaSTICK

Well the point is, if you're on such a tight budget, you can get a card to go into your PC (assuming your PC is fast enough to run it) instead of an STB which will do the same job.

If you also have an Nvidia graphics card with TV out, then you can cable it to your TV's S-Video input, otherwise you're watching on your PC screen.
The LNB is the blob on the sticky-out bit of your dish. 60 cm will get you something, but 80cm is the real minimum to get a good hit off of Astra 1 or Hotbird in most weather conditions (but this is dependant on where you are in the country - the further south the better).


STICK

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Salty25

i see ur point about the pc, but my pc is up in the loft, and all the wiring is fixed to the wall, so would be alot of trouble to go to!!!

so, my LNB, the bit at the end of my dish which picks up the signals, will recieve digital signals no probs, right? I'm not really confident enough to mount a whole dish, and wouldnt second hand dishd b a bit dodgy?!!!

Wot channels could i recieve on Hotbird? Sorry if thats a big question, basically i'd b happy with jus wot Sky broadcast, Saturday 3pms would be an 'added bonus'!

The reason i'm reluctant to move wiring etc is also that, as i say, it is already fixed on the wall, which is way getting a set top box is my only real option, simply because cos I could take out my old analogue box n bang in the digital one right away!!! I'm in Essex, so from wot i can tell i'm in a roughly good location to come under Hotbird's etc footprint (how lucky of me), so I cant imagine theres much difference in wot i can recieve from you, as ur in Brighton.

By the way, i do love Brighton, my girlfriends at Uni down there, and everytime I've been to see her its been quite an experience!

newbie123

Wot channels could i recieve on Hotbird?

Go to lyngsat.com they have lists of all free to air [totally free] channels that are available on hotboid.

I have only had my sat and dish a month now but i can tell you the following, which if incorrect can the good people out there correct it:

The prem footy i get is on hotbird, in french, which luckily for me i understand fairly well.
On hotbird you will find mostly italian, polish, german, french and middle eastern channels. If i had one lnb pointed at only one satellite then i would choose hotbird [i have a motorised system tho].
I think i am right in saying that if you want prem footy you will need a receiver that has either embedded access or a ci slot.
The bottom line is that you need to decrpyt the signals in order to watch prem footy.
if you do have a bit of cash to spend you may wish to get a matrix card too [depends on the receiver.]
I spent about £500 in all but that so far has gotten me all the porn i can handle [no pun intended!], loads of footy [dutch, german, argy, english, french, and yes saudi arabian!] some nfl and now nba, all for nowt.

By the way you wont get all of skys programming unless you are willing to pay for it [and have their digibox].
You will only get the free to air channels like bbc, god channels and news channels and most are on astra 19. east i believe.
Hope i have been of help.

Salty25

thanks newbie! when u refer to embedded access, do u mean that u had to pay for a subscription card, such as canal+? i just cant afford that sort of money, that card are like £500 a year aint they? as for the porn, hope that gives u much pleasure indeed! especcially on the dutch channels!!!