Advice on basic digital setup

[robot5x]

Hi all -
been reading as much of the excellent advice here as possible, but it's all going over my head I'm afraid....
I currently have a cheapo analogue setup, but will need to change this due to the Polish channels I want switching off their analogue broadcast. So basically my question is, would someone be kind enough to advise on a basic, minimum hassle setup that would enable me to pick up the Polish channels I want. There are quite a few unencrypted digital ones still on hotbird - would it literally be a case of simply getting a digital receiver and tuning in? If I eventually decided to get a subs with cyfra+ would that be possible too?
I apologise for what are probably incredible stupid questions - if anyone could instead point me towards a REAL beginners guide on this, I could read up myself....
thanks in advance -r5x.

 

[rolfw]

Welcome to the forum.

If you have a universal LNB, then it should be as you say, simply a case of substituting the receiver for a digital one. For the Cyfra+ package, you will need a receiver with Mediaguard conditional access, either embedded, or a CI slot for a Mediaguard CAM.

 

[robot5x]

Hi - thanks for the reply, slowly finding my way around this minefield

Having looked around a bit, it seems like the technomate 1500 CI+ is recommended as a good starter box. What I can't find though is a Mediaguard CAM - all the CAMs available seem to deal with viaccess or something else.
Is this a good receiver, and will it allow me to watch cyfra+ if I can get hold of a Mediaguard CAM from somewhere?
Thanks a lot..