SilverCrest madness - Sirius, Astra1 and Astra2 off a mindish!

testpie

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Just to let you all know that i'm shaking here. I went out today to my local Lidl and bought myself a lovely SilverCrest box for £39.99. I brought it home, unplugged my existing Nokia box and plugged in the SilverCrest. What you have to remember here is that i have not moved my dish - it is still a standard 45cm Sky minidish, and is still pointing at Astra1 19.2E.

So, i set about tuning it and all was well. Then i thought i'd have a little tinker with the signal meters, and just for a laugh, went through the list of satellites. I almost had a heart attack when it said that i was getting not only Astra1 on this minidish, but also Sirius 5.0E and Astra2 28.2E. Now, i was as sceptical as you would be - but sure enough on tuning it in, it is listing all the channels from these three satellites.

Can someone please tell me how this can be? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's bloody brilliant - but how can a little 45cm minidish receive three clusters of satellites that are over 20 degrees apart?

I'm not going to be sleeping tonight :p.
 

Nismo400R

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From what I read, quite a few of the popular satellites like hotbird sirius astra etc are already programmed into the box, you wont be able to watch any of the sats until you point your dish at the desired sat. If it did work, they wouldn't be so cheap lol

Nis
 

testpie

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Unfortunately it seems you are correct Nis. Although it is a little strange that the box says it has signal strength for Sirius 5.0E and Astra 28.2E, and lists all the channels, but then has no signal on each channel.
 

gameboy

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This may be due to the frequencies being the same on the satellites but used for different channels.

As Nismo400R says the only way to receive these channels is to move your dish or replace it and add a motor or more LNBs.

What do you think of the receiver?

Can you help with this post?

Receiving BBC channels
 

testpie

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gameboy said:
This may be due to the frequencies being the same on the satellites but used for different channels.

As Nismo400R says the only way to receive these channels is to move your dish or replace it and add a motor or more LNBs.

What do you think of the receiver?

Can you help with this post?

Receiving BBC channels
The receiver is pretty good - fast channel changing, easy to understand, lots of features and of course it's damn cheap and quite slim-line for such a good receiver.
 

gameboy

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Previous Comag (SilverCrest) receivers have been patched to open channels on Hotbird.

Keep your eye out for a patch for this receiver.

It has been sold throughout Europe so should be well supported.
 

Analoguesat

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Gameboy is correct - some of the frequencies on the 4 sets of satellites will be the same. You can prove this quite easily - go to the Sirius setting, and find an active frequency. Scan it and you will actually get the channels on the nearest appropriate transponder on 19E.
 

testpie

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gameboy said:
Previous Comag (SilverCrest) receivers have been patched to open channels on Hotbird.

Keep your eye out for a patch for this receiver.

It has been sold throughout Europe so should be well supported.
I already have my hands on a lovely patch, guide and some firmware loading software. Now to wait for my null modem cable to arrive through the post :p.

Thanks for all your help with this.

Analoguesat said:
Gameboy is correct - some of the frequencies on the 4 sets of satellites will be the same. You can prove this quite easily - go to the Sirius setting, and find an active frequency. Scan it and you will actually get the channels on the nearest appropriate transponder on 19E.
Unfortunately this seems to be the case. Still, for a moment there, i thought i had defied science :p.
 

welby

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well you'll be the first to get patched software for the SL65 in Europe.

Well done.
 

testpie

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welby said:
well you'll be the first to get patched software for the SL65 in Europe.

Well done.
Alas - it didn't work. Now for the wait for a proper SL-65 patch...
 
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