Advice Needed What to buy!

[Harry_England]

Hi all hope everyones having a good day

Im new to this and at the moment pay very high sky bills Im interested in getting a box and dish that gets me the most channels i dont think you can but is it possible to get channels from all over the world into my living room in england? Or am i only limited to just american asia and europe channels for england Please get back to me soon so ill get a better idea on which system gives me the most channels Not really affected by the price Thanks

 

[excollier]

Welcome to the forum Harry_England.
If you get the right dish/receiver combo you can receive broadcasts from many satellites receivable in the UK. Many languages/nationalities and many of them free to air. Take a look around the forum, there is tons of help/advice on this subject - too much to list in this post - happy hunting.
I guess adding a motorised dish and suitable receiver to your set up woul give you maximum flexibility. Careful when you say price is no object........

 

[Harry_England]

Thank you its great to be here also i dont know anything about dishs and boxes and whats a motorised dish? I basically need a dish and box which will give me the most channels i can get in england will getting the biggest motorised dish and the most expensive box will get me this? Or can you tell me which 2 will get the most channelsplease! Thanks

 

[rolfw]

A bigger motorised dish will make more satellites available and more free to air channels, but if you are looking to replace the channels you are no longer subscribing to, then motorising and having a larger dish alone will not provide this.

There are commercial methods of receiving these channels which are at best unreliable and at worst illegal, we don't recommend these, you have no way of knowing who your money is going to and how long the service will last. If you have a family and they are used to uninterrupted premium viewing, then stick with your subscription.

 

[Mickha]

I always advise that first you work out where you would need to site your dish, this affects the best size of dish to use.
If you are fortunate you will have an open, south facing rear garden, where you can install a ground mounted dish, and motor. The motor automatically moves the dish to the satellite you want to view, once set up. You want to get at least all the satellites from 42E to 30W, this will provide a lot of viewing options.
You are allowed up to a 1 Metre dish, along with your Sky dish, before needing to apply for planning permission, depending on local variances, listed building, green belt, etc....
For where best to site your dish try dishpointer.com, type in your postcode, select your nearest true souths satellite, dependent on your longitude position, which dishpointer will also provide, positive longitude readings = East, negative = West, hence -1.8 equates to 1.8W. Quite often it's Thor, 0.8W.
Zoom in on the map, locate your house, and work out where you can best install your dish/motor.
Many of us keep the same dish, for years, but do update the receiver, so get the best, most practical, dish/motor, for your requirements.
As mentioned a garden install is not only easier, but allows for maintenance, changing LNB, cabling, and re-alignment, if the bad weather afects your system, but most have to intall on a wall.

 

[Analoguesat]

If you want channels from all over the world then a small dish aimed at Hotbird 13E connected to a reasonable receiver will give you access to dozens of free services from locations as diverse as Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, Afghanistan, much of eastern Europe & a good few African stations.

Please note few of these channels carry English language soundtracks.

If you want the equivalent of National Geographic, Discovery etc, then they are carried on pay tv services - many of which are just as expensive as the Sky service you want to ditch, and many others of which are a good deal more expensive as subscriptions have to come through middle men dealers.

If you want the same level of channels as Sky UK gives then stick with Sky!

 

[gibertini]

if you are willing to put the work in and read around the WWW then there is a wealth of programming available for a decent outlay. a Technomate TM5402HD receiver,darkmotor,1m orbital dish,inverto black ultra lnb and wall mount(t+k+pole) installed by a proffesional installer will come in under £400 but if you are pretty good at D.I.Y and have the required tools of ladders,hammer drill,2 10mm masonary bits,spirit level,13mm spanner/ratchet,ajustable,hammer,pvc tape ect and read the many guides and then have patience in bucketfulls you can install the gear yourself(use a friend to help you) and save about £100 to £120(DO NOT attempt this if not 100% certain/confident and SAFTEY comes 1ST). once installed there are thousands of FTA channels from around the worrld and if you use 3rd party "patched software" on your stb with certain files there are also a couple of hundred channels more aswell. theres also the LAN side of things which we cant discuss on here. i think you will be amazed at what is out there once you have a motorised dish from 30 or so satellites without paying Sly a penny

 

[Harry_England]

Thanks for your replies and i get what lot are trying to say basically i'll get the free channels like freeview ones andother countries aswell but for skysports, i'd need a server to get them and the risk is someone saying they do servers but just take my money and never hear from them again. i guess the limit is 1 meter dish size i need then. Whats the best 1m dish to get? to you 'Mickha' what will pointing a dish at 42E to 30W get me? im guessing european channels? to 'Analoguesat' if i point a dish at Hotbird 13E, i'd get channels from all over the world? is it possible to point a dish at 42E to 30W and Hotbird 13E? and to 'gibertini' is getting the set up said (a Technomate TM5402HD receiver,darkmotor,1m orbital dish,inverto black ultra lnb and wall mount(t+k+pole)) the best of its kind or is it a cheap starter set? Im from birmingham, england and my garden faces south so thats a plus. Thanks

 

[Mickha]

42E to 30W include a lot of satellites, and channels, far too many to list.
Check sites like Lyngsat.com, Flysat and kingofsat.net to see tha amount of satellites, and possible channels, available.
Since the demise of cards, and cams, to open channels, after providers improved their encryption, a lot of servers have sprung up, offering card sharing, if you search the internet for C Lines, and CCCam, you will soon learn how these things work.

 

[Analoguesat]

^^

And just remember more than one member here has been burned by dodgy card server sites. Often by the site taking the money in advance then providing a very poor service with heavily overloaded cards leading to slow key updates and interrupted viewing.

And to be honest if you get your fingers burned you wont get any sympathy from anyone on here - we only ever recommend purchase of legitimate subscriptions.

There is also the outside chance of HM Police coming to visit - more than one commercial card server has been busted by the law and their customers prosecuted

 

[gibertini]

@Harry_England , the kit i recommended is decent quality stuff without breaking the bank and will get you most of whats out there. forget dodgy cardservers atm as there are alot of fta channels and channels/feeds using b.i.s.s. with the info all over the WWW if you just look. satellite tv is a hobby and as such you have to put the work in but i can watch movies,sports inc epl football, PPV events and all other manner of programming without a cardserver in sight.

 

[Harry_England]

Thats good with the 42E to 30W to point the dish and get channels but im guessing thats european channels? And just freeview ones like i wont be getting skysports or movies? Yeah i see your point about being ripped off. and gibertini like i previously stated with the set you told me to get will i be getting just freevuew channels or others like sksports etc.?

 

[gibertini]

its possible to do what you want but we cannot go into it...you will get the freesat channels on astra2 and foriegn ones from other satellites but as i said you can get movies in english,epl football,discovery,national geographic channels ect ect. i have the full sly service and always have had over 15 years in one form or another but always find myself watching foriegn tv as sly is adverts,adverts and adverts followed by repeats,repeats and repeats. if you just want cheap tv on a sly type system then try cancelling your sub to see what offer they give you to stay with them. satellite is a hobby and id have it if it was just fta/feeds but thats me. do a great deal of reading and if you need any help with the technical side just ask

 

[Riverblue]

You will be able to get Freesat on your existing Sky dish set up. This will give you 161 tv channels at the moment & 37 radio stations, no sports except for the usual BBC/ITV stuff, all you need is a Freesat receiver, basic HD box about £60, and away you go, no more subscriptions. If you want Premier League football/more modern films etc, similar to your Sky set up, then you'll need either;
1)A motorised dish tracking the arc to pick up a multitude of satellites, various ways of doing this. Quite complicated and probably the most expensive way, but the most variety.
2)A toroidal fixed dish focused on a single central satellite with multiple lnbs picking up a multitude of satellites. Equally complicated and expensive, slightly less variety.
3)A fixed dish focused centrally on a single satellite with a multiple lnbs on a special holder adjusted to pick up a small selection of satellites, say 13E,16E,19.2E & 23.5E. Slightly easier, a bit cheaper, but less variety.
4)A fixed dish pointing at a single satellite, 13E or 19.2E probably being the most popular.Easier & less cost but a more limited variety.
You will of course need a suitable receiver and cabling/switching with all of the above.
All of the above CAN be done by a beginner, but you would need to be a capable sort of person with the right tools, all the info is here on this site somewhere, you just have to do some searching and reading. If you get stuck, there's always help available on here, just ask. Or installed professionally, of course, there are lots of installers on here.
Just to note, none of the above will offer you the same as Sky, but you can get a lot of what you want, you'll just have to work at it. This 'hobby' is not one where once you're set up and going, you can sit back and relax. There will always be something that needs retuning, parameters need changing, something needs tweaking/adjusting etc, I hope you get the idea. If you don't mind all that then I'm sure you will enjoy it and get what you want.