Meo sat

rato

Since the separation of TV Cabo(Zon) from Portugal Telecom, the third satellite provider in Portugal appeared on th 15th. of April 2008. With a good line up of channels, competitve prices and a very compact and sleek HD ready STB(Phillips DSR7131/24), Meo sat is to play a role of catching all those unsatisfied or undecided customers from the other providers(TV Cabo & Tv Tel, now a parent company of Tv Cabo also).






Transmitting on Hispasat 30ºW, Meo, uses 3 transponders:

12012GHz. Horizontal SR 30000; FEC 3/4

12052GHz. Horizontal SR 30000; FEC 3/4

12092GHz. Horizontal SR 30000; FEC 3/4

A total of 61 channels with MPEG-4 encoding. Encryption is Seca/Mediaguard but might change to Nagravision.

Dish sizes in Portugal go from 40cm to 60cm but the Technisat 33cm dish will give you a great signal if you are in the 52 to 54 dbW EIRP footprint. Signal is strong and easy to receive all over Europe.



List of channels:_h**p://imgs.sapo.pt/files/meo_v2/pdf/canais_meo_sat.pdf

Prices range from the 3 packages offered:

Light - 20 channels from 14,90 Eur./month
Base - 45 channels from 19,90 Eur./month
Base+Mix - 65 channels from 24,90 Eur./month

Customers who already have a PT phone contract and/or a Sapo internet contract, benefit a 5 Euro discount for 24 months on any of the monthly packages with Meo.


You can still get the optional Sport TV channels(1 & 2), for an extra 22,50 Eur./month. TVC(1,2,3, &4 Movie channels) are also extra at 22,30 Eur./month. You still have Playboy TV & Venus as extra chanels( 6,50 Eur/month & 9,50/month).

The STB can be rented at 2,50 Eur./month or bought with a single payment of 79,00 Eur. Activation fee is 20,00 Eur. If you already have a dish from another operator(i.e. TV Cabo), then the 80,00 Eur. for a new installation fee is waived. You can purchase/rent two more additional receivers(for a total of three per contract), and billed only the regular monthly package once. Optional channels are billed individually to each receiver and summed on the monthly bill.

rato

The STB is a Phillips DSR 7131/24. It comes neatly packed in a box inside a outer cover that has the Meo info.

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The 7131comes with HDMI connector for digital signal. Scart output also included. For digital audio signal there is SPDIF optical & coaxial out, for analog there is audio L & R out via RCA output. There also exists for future use a USB and Ethernet connector.

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The remote is very complete and neat. This STB does not come with a hard disk but the remote come with commands for recording. There might be a future upgrade for a connection of a HDD to the USB port.

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The Meo card is Seca/Mediaguard(by Nagra France, a parent company of Kudelski), but might switch to the Nagravision encryption. The card goes in the right hand corner of the STB and is neatly covered by the CA embedded slot door. Activation sometimes takes 24 to 48 hours, but if you purchase on a Thursday, you might not get an activation for the weekend and only until Monday will the process the activation(not good). Tv Tel come pre-activated and takes about half an hour to activate the card. Tv Cabo is the same process as Meo(sometimes longer).

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The interactive menu is simple to use. Info is complete. EPG works fine with little delay. There are no DiSEqC control just a manual serach for the Hispasat satellite. It functions like the Sky Digibox, just made for working with the provider.

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In comparison to the other Portuguese providers, Meo has a better image quality, due to the fact that this Phillps box is capable of having a better construction and higher quality rate in choosing its components and that Meo transmits with less redirection of the original signal. The four national Portuguese channels are very clear and stable in terms of image, but there are few(Euronews or France24) that you notice some pixels fluttering on the screen. RGB output via scart is good but via HDMI is a better choice. Through the HDMI output, there is no way of choosing 576i, 720p or 1080i. It is by default on 720p. No DiSEqC support can limit you to having two coaxial cables to your living room: one for the Meo box, the other to you usual STB, or via loopthrough by putting a DiSEqC switch through the other receiver, but Hispasat should be set on LNB A(or 1). You can only have one or the other receiver on, a pain if you other receiver has a hard drive and you recording, but want to see the Meo STB. Changing channels is fast. It comes with a handy channel guide brochure the size of the remote, so that way you can go directly to the channel via number pad on the remote.

For this first contact, I think that Meo will capture a lot of hungry HD fans and unsatisfied Tv Cabo customers here in Portugal that are tired of the outdated "Powerbox". It's the first provider here in Portugal to come out with an HD ready STB, so we must give them a thumbs up on that. Having also the choice of more than one STB and one packaged billed is a big plus! Let's see what the future holds for Meo.

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mjaco

Hi, I have tvcabo in the UK could I have Meo? Besides the box do I need to change anything else? Like realign the disk? Is meo better than TVCABO? Value and programming?
Thanks you Mr Rato

rato

Hi mjaco,

You can have Meo, as long as you have a valid Portuguese address and can get it delivered to you in the U.K. The dish is the same and it doesn't need a realignment.

On the matter of being better that TvCabo, it's up to you to decide on terms of programming and value to what you want to watch. In terms of STB, the Meo is HD ready and has a DVB-S2 tuner. Picture quality is better than TvCabo, less redirection of the original signal, and a par from being with MPEG4 encoding, picture quality is far better than the compressed channels in MPEG2 per transponder by TvCabo, not to mention that the Powerbox has a very weak tuner and is using 2nd. rate components. It's up to you what are your needs and demands.

Cheers,

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mjaco

Rato,

Muito obrigada pela informacao. Thanking you for all your help.

Algarvean

Hi I have an old Tv cabo powerbox setup in the UK, which no longer has a subscription. Is there any way of subscribing to Meo or Cabo without a Portuguese address? I would very much like an official subscription, but do not have a Portuguese residence, unfortunately!

Many thanks

rato

Pretty much the same thing as having a Sky subscription, they need an address to send the invoice and also for it to be "legal", that is, being inside the country it was meant for.

It might show up sooner than you think on some online sat shop an official subscription card for Meo but for a higher price than the regular fee.

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cmog

Rato,

O facto de serem utilizados 3 transponders horizontais quer dizer que eu posso ter duas meo box a usar o mesmo cabo do LNB sem problemas ?

RoyalFalcon

Hi there, for me its great because I live in Germany and my father made a Meo contract for me. I have 2 dishes, one 85 and another 120 , both on motors. I have TVTEL already but its really poor. Meo was a reason for me to choose so I can have the HD Channels.

MMatos

Olá rato.

You must correct this part of your first post to:

TVC(1,2,3, &4 Movie channels) are also extra at 15,00 Eur./month. You still have Playboy TV & Private Spice as extra chanels( 6,50 Eur/month & 9,50/month).

Boas.

mauro_1

Theres no need of realignment, but might require a LNB ajustment...

Rgrds

mrtomato

Will a 60cm zone 2 dish be enough?

rato

The bigger the better.....

If you can get a 80cm dish, it will be more certain not to fail on days of heavy rain compared to a 60cm dish. But for normal reception, a 60 cm dish will do fine.

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mrtomato

I have finally tuned into Hispasat, but now I cannot see the channels because it sas they are scrambled. I have paid my subscription. Is this the activation process? Do I need to leave the box on?

rato

It normally takes about a day or two after the registration process is complete. You should have one or two updates on the STB, to which the card is then activated.

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mrtomato

When you say the registration process do you mean when the box is switched on, or when I purchased it from PT?

I bought the box on 31st July, but I did not manage to connect it to Hispasat until yesterday. I can receive the FTA channels (TVMonde, Record TV, TV Galicia etc) but no RTP, TVi or SIC.

Topper

I suspect Rato means the box firmware itself will have to update a couple of times before the card will become useable. It may be some kind of system which only updates the premium channel information to the box once the account is activated and the card is inserted to identify which stb the premium channels have to be activated upon and obviously this takes a couple of days.
Patience is the word I suspect

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mrtomato

When we first activated the box a new software download installed itself.

We waited for many hours (overnight in fact) as advised by the 'customer service' people with the box on. Still nothing has happened. They even advised switching it off, reconnecting cables, resetting the box etc. We've done all that.

Other people on the Forum have had a similar problem. I think my frustration is made bigger because I am miles from Portugal and feel a bit isolated. I am very lucky to have you good people to help!

Topper

But has the card been in the stb all the time?
I can understand your frustration but I would give it a second day as Rato has suggested is sometimes required.

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War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left!

Formerly toppervte33h
whose six pack has turned into a keg

Help support this web site by making a donation
Or use other options to help support Sats UK
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mrtomato

Hi. I've taken it out and put it in again as advised over the phone. I'll sit tight for a couple more days and see what happens.

Many thanks for your advice. Much appreciated.