What Satellite dish to get?

the_syco

Hello all,
My father is getting rid of the NTL soon, and is looking into getting free-to-air satellite.

The back of the house points south-west, and there's nothing really in the way, so should get a clear signal. I'm wondering does anyone know of any good satellite installers in or nearby Leixlip, Co. Kildare? Or would it be better to do so myself? Pretty sure the Sky dish has the max amount of things (LMBs?) on it, so can't really use that, I think. We'll be keeping the Sky dish, as my dad can't go without watching the golf, but I'm wondering can we get the golf on a free-to-air channel?

byte

HOw many cables are currently going into the Sky dish LNB? It could be possible to upgrade it to quad-output if you only have a single, or indeed, you can upgrade it to an octo LNB, which as the name suggests, allows up to 8 connections.

There's no decent FTA golf that I'm aware of, but I'm open to correction. If you already have Sky, I presume the FTA box would be for another room?

stuff.hunter

hi, 80cm dish with monoblock lnb (pointed on Astra1 19.2E and Hotbird 13E) will give u loads of fta channels

polyfusion

Only chances really of getting the golf is through a feed, for example, the recent PGA championship was available as a feed on 10E IIRC. Everywhere else is going to be encrypted for golf.

If you already have Sky, what else do you want to be able to get? There isn't a whole lot of English language programming on satellites other than 28E. Lots of German, Italian, some French, Polish and Spanish though, so you'd really need to know what language you want to get so you know where to point the dish. Unless you want it to turn into a hobby, in which case you're looking for a motorised set up with (realistically), at least a 1m dish.

Kashkai

Do it yourself syco and save the yo-yos. There are lots of guys on here who were satellite virgins but thanks to some helpful coaxing from the experts, we lost our cherry and now are real men who know how to erect our ...........dish (what did you think I was going to say ) and point it in the right direction.

If you need any advice on setting up your own dish, post here and you'll be inundated with replies.

BTW, imo you're better off investing in a new dish as the standard SKY dishes are cheap crap that break easily. My parent's are on their 3rd SKY dish in 5 years as high winds keep on breaking the mounting arm etc. I keep on trying to get them to let me do a fresh freesat installation for them but my father likes his National Geographic/History channels etc.

homer911

The BBC interactive/red button channels are usually good for Golf coverage - these are available on all FTA or Freesat boxes

polyfusion

homer911 wrote: »

The BBC interactive/red button channels are usually good for Golf coverage - these are available on all FTA or Freesat boxes

But only if they're also showing it on BBC1/2. I think the only golf the BBC are showing these days are the British Open, and one of the other majors, IIRC, and maybe Scottish/English Open. No Ryder Cup, European or US tour championships. You'll either need a subscription, or find a feed (or something else).

KonstanDKAY

hey does anyone want to help a noobie -need some advice
1) on mounting dish on back of his house? where can i get components etc?
2) best deal on dish and freeview box on intranet for a house near dublin city?

thanks

John mac

have a look at the stickies

the_syco

byte wrote: »

HOw many cables are currently going into the Sky dish LNB?

Not to sure. There's a sky plus hd box in one room, and there's another sky plus box (multiroom, me thinks) in another.

byte wrote: »

I presume the FTA box would be for another room?

Yes. Is it possible for people to watch different channels from each other, in different rooms, if we have FTA? Something along the lines of Sky's multiroom.

polyfusion wrote: »

If you already have Sky, what else do you want to be able to get?

At the moment, there are 4 people in the house. One has a multiroom in her room, my father would watch the sky in one of the other 3 rooms (sky is hooked upto a splitter box). NTL is plugged into all rooms. My father is loking into turning off the NTL €300 a year sub, and just plugging in a FTA satellite.

So, when the two sky boxes are being used, the me or my mother may want to watch TV, and that's where the FTA box comes in: we could use it to watch programs with. Also, my mother likes listening to music, so she'd use the FTA box for that (dislikes the sh|te played on the radio).

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Do it yourself syco and save the yo-yos. There are lots of guys on here who were satellite virgins but thanks to some helpful coaxing from the experts, we lost our cherry and now are real men who know how to erect our ...........dish (what did you think I was going to say ) and point it in the right direction.

If you need any advice on setting up your own dish, post here and you'll be inundated with replies.

That's kind of the plan. I have a month to supply my father with the plans, and we'll most likely put it up ourselves if we can.

stuff.hunter wrote: »

hi, 80cm dish with monoblock lnb (pointed on Astra1 19.2E and Hotbird 13E) will give u loads of fta channels

I'm hoping that these are in the south west direction, or which direction would these be located?

=-=

BTW, how big are the sky satellites? Just as a reference to how big the meter dishes would be.

polyfusion

the_syco wrote: »

Not to sure. There's a sky plus hd box in one room, and there's another sky plus box (multiroom, me thinks) in another.


Yes. Is it possible for people to watch different channels from each other, in different rooms, if we have FTA? Something along the lines of Sky's multiroom.


At the moment, there are 4 people in the house. One has a multiroom in her room, my father would watch the sky in one of the other 3 rooms (sky is hooked upto a splitter box). NTL is plugged into all rooms. My father is loking into turning off the NTL €300 a year sub, and just plugging in a FTA satellite.

So, when the two sky boxes are being used, the me or my mother may want to watch TV, and that's where the FTA box comes in: we could use it to watch programs with. Also, my mother likes listening to music, so she'd use the FTA box for that (dislikes the sh|te played on the radio).


That's kind of the plan. I have a month to supply my father with the plans, and we'll most likely put it up ourselves if we can.


I'm hoping that these are in the south west direction, or which direction would these be located?

=-=

BTW, how big are the sky satellites? Just as a reference to how big the meter dishes would be.

Sky dishes are usually 60cm. It's nice to have a bit of help when trying to put up a 1m dish, even at ground level!

dishpointer.com will help you with directions to the relevant satellites.

Your dish probably has a quad, and all four points are probably in use.

It is possible for people in different rooms to watch different channels, but your LNB(s) need to have enough outputs to cater for each receiver. Eg, if you want to keep the Sky you already have, and want to add another 2 FTA boxes, only watching the free channels at 28E, you'd need to replace the LNB on your dish with an Octo (has 8 connections).

If you decide you want to try motorised, then you'd need a dedicated dish and receiver for that; you won't be able to effectively use a quad or octo with a motorised setup.

Looks like you have a lot of planning ahead. You'd first of all need to determine if you want to get satellites other than the Sky one (28E), and then take it from there. You can find what's available on the satellites at Lyngsat.com or flysat.com. Usually the channels are colour coded as to whether they are FTA, encrypted, part of a package, etc.

And you won't get the Irish channels through satellite without a Sky subscription.

byte

Yeah, polyfusion is spot on.

If you just want English language channels (BBC, C4, etc), handiest route is just to swap the quad LNB you have for an Octo (cheap on eBay).