Noob... What do I buy

longstockings

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With so many digital receivers on the market I am unsure as to what I should be looking for and how much I should be spending and which online shops I should be purchasing from (big ask I know)

Apologies if you see this question alot and are fed up of seeing it.

I don't want anything overly complicated and don't want pvr as I would rarely use it. Hearcd good things about Humax 5400 but they do seem hard to come by.

I do want a motorised satellite dish but am limited to a 1m dish or smaller as any bigger my girlfriend will kill me. Need a dish that can pick up those far away weaker signals within size limit.

I want to be able to view as much as humanly possible
I would like to view adult channels and films mainly and hopefully completely replace my existing Sky setup.

Am I right in saying that the best cam on the market is the dragon cam or is the matrix revolutions better.

What are the advantages of Titanium smartcards and would you recommend the phoenix/smartmouse to program it

My computer knowledge is far greater than my satellite knowledge and this is my second project after hacking the pants out of Xbox's for the past 2 years.

Any help would be much appreciated

My max budget is £500 and I live in South West England
 

Razor

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We never like to tell what box to buy, as it is a hard call. Just make sure you get something with a CI slot, this is a MUST for multi sat viewing. As for the dish a Triax 1.1m dish is only about £70 max and will pick up most of what is up there.

For cam and card, I think the MR and Tit card is the all round best. The dragon cam is good, but it can be easy to find help quickly for MR and tit.

I have in front of me this months copy of WHAT SAT and they a write up on the TOPFIELD TF3000CI Pro it comes in at £199 which is not bad at all for a Twin CI box. And with the MR at £75 and Tit plus Infinity USB Pheonix programmer at £85 that comes to about £429. This set up would get all the hacked stuff all it needs now is a motor and you would have more channels then you can watch.

Hope I have Helped......Razor.
 

dazzer

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Hi,

I'm in the same situation as longstockings. In fact I'm in the south west too !!
I've been into satellite stuff in the past but I moved into a cheap flat with the missus in order to save enough money to buy a house. Didnt realise at the time there was a "no dish" rule and I lost touch with what was happening in the satellite world. I'm now in a new house and have come back to see whats new and I'm totally lost.

I have motorised 1m dish with a 0.6db LNB, which cost an arm and a leg and a testicle at the time, connected to a PACE 508IP. I guess the receiver is worthless now as are the various D2MAC decoders I have knocking around. I've got a parallel port PIC programmer that I built from a schematic I found on the net and a card\RS232 converter that I used to connect my 508IP to an old 386. I also have a VC2 box that I converted from VC1 (crappy amstrad thing I think) and various cards, single PIC and PIC + 24L16.

So, here come a thousand questions and I feel a bit guilty about asking so many questions when I could get some of em answered by reading a mag or two but I know I'll get a few personal opinions thrown in which I always find helpful.

1) Is any of my existing kit useful. I presume the dish\LNB combo is still usable.

2) Irdeto, viacess etc are encryption methods needing special hardware to decrypt ? CAM ? Are these addons or is this refering to a card ?

3) Good reciever to get started ? Cheap as I only have one remaining testicle to which I'm very attached too !! Maybe a list of 2 or 3 would be ok as I appreciate its a tough one to answer.

4) How many channels\encyption systems have been compromised ? Is there a reasonable selection to choose from. A XXX channel where the camera man can manage to get a viewing angle below horizontal would be a bonus.

5) Is there still an issue with getting keys on a regular basis like in the D2MAC days. Autoupdating available on any cards\channels ?

I've more questions but I guess I figure many of them out when I get a system up and running. It's the CAM\card thing I'm most confused about at the moment !!

Thanks,
dazzer
 

Razor

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Welcome to the board Dazzer.

Lets get started.

1) Is any of my existing kit useful. I presume the dish\LNB combo is still usable.

Dish and LNB are fine, as for the rest, the word "bin" springs to mind.

2) Irdeto, viacess etc are encryption methods needing special hardware to decrypt ? CAM ? Are these addons or is this refering to a card ?

Yes they are all types of encryption, But multi cams like the MR ,, dragon,, and Magic cams will do most of them. Gone are the days when you had to have a seperate cam for each encryption. Some cams even work without a card.

3) Good reciever to get started ? Cheap as I only have one remaining testicle to which I'm very attached too !! Maybe a list of 2 or 3 would be ok as I appreciate its a tough one to answer.

You can pick up a nice second hand box for about £100 to £140, here are some names Humax, Nokia, Echostar, Force, Samsung, Technomate, Topfield.

4) How many channels\encyption systems have been compromised ? Is there a reasonable selection to choose from. A XXX channel where the camera man can manage to get a viewing angle below horizontal would be a bonus.

At this time we have a lot of stuff open more channels then you can ever watch and more mature content then ever we had, it is on day and night.

5) Is there still an issue with getting keys on a regular basis like in the D2MAC days. Autoupdating available on any cards\channels ?

No ,,files are easy to get just go to Nobbly's section on this site and see the list of sat boards. Some files are AU.


As for cams and card..see my post above.
 

longstockings

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I now have enough knowledge to make a descision but I do have 2 small questions

Where should I buy from ? Is one company better than another or cheaper and where do you buy your sat stuff from

The MR does that refer to Rel**ded or Rev***tions ?
 

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You are in Wolstys territory as he is right in the corner of Cornwall

I would recommend the local dealer approach initially as they would be able to advise on wall brackets and other mechanical considerations based on the area, something a mail order company has no experience of , or would really care.

As for binning anything, I would retain the Pace, cable runs and existing motor, simply because they are likely to withstand the problems of high winds far better than the newer generation of DiSEqC stuff, and gives you an analogue outlet to the TV, something a number of cheaper digital receivers do not have, which may compensate for the loss of one of your testicles.
 

Razor

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longstockings said:
I now have enough knowledge to make a descision but I do have 2 small questions

Where should I buy from ? Is one company better than another or cheaper and where do you buy your sat stuff from

The MR does that refer to Rel**ded or Rev***tions ?


MR = MATRAIX RELOADED
M-REV=MATRIX REVOLOUTION

I live in Ireland and only buy from two places, both are in the UK.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX


I don't really like to give out links to sat dealers, and as a MOD here have removed links other people have posted in the past. And may well remove these in a few hours, but while they are here , new guys to sat should look at both sites, just to see what type of stuff is out there and what it may cost. Might I also add , I gain NOTHING by giving out these links, but they are well known dealers and in my view , have good names.

New guys should look at the receivers, what they can do, look at cams and what they can do, look at types of cards and programmers as both give short read-ups for each item. This is how I learned by reading.

LINKS WILL BE REMOVED SOON.

Razor.
 

longstockings

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Welcome to the dumbest question ever asked on the satellites.co.uk forums

Mods please delete this post after a reply has been given as I can't believe I'm going to ask such a dumb question.


Here goes

Will Dreambox recognise my sky viewing card ?
 

BGonaSTICK

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Yes, but only if you send me £500 cash in a brown envelope, uninsured, from Uzbekistan (no offence intended to Uzbeckistanians!).
 

Razor

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longstockings said:
Welcome to the dumbest question ever asked on the satellites.co.uk forums

Mods please delete this post after a reply has been given as I can't believe I'm going to ask such a dumb question.


Here goes

Will Dreambox recognise my sky viewing card ?



The Dreambox will a lot of stuff , but at the moment Sky stuff is out or reach. The encryption used is videogard, and has so far held up to all attempts to break it. Also unlike all other encryptions there is no cam on the market, and the way to get a cam is to buy a SKY digibox as there have built in videogard cams. The old sky analouge system was well hacked and nearly brought sky down. So they have spent a lot of cash to make this one FOOL PROOF. If and when it is ever broken....YOU WILL here the shouting and crying on all sat boards.
 

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Handy links for me Razor, I'm only 20 mins away from one of them. I'm off to the shop on saturday to spend some cash on a receiver depending on whats on the shelf !!

Regards,
Dazzer
 

longstockings

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I hope sky one day is hacked but to clarify the original question

If I put my sky viewing card in a dreambox will I be able to view the sky channels or do I have to use the original sky digi box to be able to use the viewing card.

Apologies if I did not correctly understand your answer.
 

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You need the Sky box, nothing else (apart from a dedicated commercial receiver from Tandburg) will do the job of decyphering the Videoguard signal
 

longstockings

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Thanks for the info

So do I use an upgraded dish with an lnb with 2 feeds so that 1 goes to a new digi box and the other feed to the sky digi box or

Do I get a dish with 2 lnbs 1 for sky and one for everything else or

Do I run 2 dishes a big one and sky mini dish (don't like the sound of that)

One more question what is better and what is the difference between a .6dB lnb and .3dB lnb is one more powerful ?

Do girlfriends/wives mind you having such a big dish bolted to the side of the house or taking up all the space in the garden.

How should I convince my partner that a 1.2m high gain satellite dish is a beautiful thing

Probably the most important question ever asked on this forum.
 

Channel Hopper

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Dishes are beautiful, far better than a rusting TV aerial

1.2m is a planning permission job so be a bit careful with the methods of fixing and final profile wrt the visibility by the neighbours

I believe your system is best served by a moving dish with twin output LNB (unless you can hide a small dish where nobody can see it ) , downside is the sky box will only work with the card when you are pointing at Astra 2
 

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Tell all the neighbours, planing people, wifes, and girlfriends to take a hike. Get your dish ( a big one ) up and running, get a nice selection of cards and cams, find a Chinese take away that will also supply tins of beer and never leave the house again.
 

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Whatever you do, go motorised. I think you might regret it if you don't, especially talking about all the cams etc. I think that's the first decision to make and then you know what you are dealing with. With respect I think you have too many inponderables at the moment and should reduce them, in your mind, gradually.
 

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How to convince the partner- now you have created a lot of discussions

I suggest that your either , have a nice meal, with a lot of expensive wine with flowers at the start and end of the day/week/month of constant creating a nice impression.

or you simply say hi my love I love you however i would love to have to have a nice new satellite dish as well

Good Look either way


Old Satellite
 
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