Eurosport, Discovery and National Geographic FTA on Astra 2?

PJTierney

Hi again guys.

Just want to thank everybody that helped me out with setting up my Technomate 3000-D (FTA) in the other thread I posted here recently. I've been able to get all the basics (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.) + various other channels.

Now for the tricky part:

I'm looking to add the following channels

• Discovery Channel
• National Geographic Channel
• Eurosport

..all in English language. My satellite dish is currently pointed towards the Astra 2 satellites at 28.2E, and since it's not a motorised dish, I don't plan on moving it any time soon.

I found that while I had the dish pointed in a different direction (towards Astra 1), I was able to pick up the aforementioned channels, but none of these came up when I added channels after aligning the dish to Astra 2.

I'm using a Technomate 3000-D FTA reciever, with no slot for a card, so I won't be getting any encrypted channels. After a quick search I found the following list: http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.2E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear&cl=eng and the following for the nearby Eurobird: http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.5E-fta.php

None of the channels are on either, so I assume it's safe to say that unless I move the dish again, I'm not getting those channels for now?

Thanks in advance for replies, sorry if I come across as a complete idiot

fat-tony

I've been following your other thread on your initial setup woes - thanks to Apogee's help you're now finally pointed at Astra2:D
I'm afraid the Discovery and Nat Geo channels are pretty much all encrypted as part of pay packages on most satellites. Eurosport is available FTA (in German only) on Astra 1 (19.2 east).
You could add a second LNB to your setup and align that on Astra 1, but you would need to add a diseq switch to allow your receiver select the appropriate LNB. But that's probably a whole other project!

ps - you would already be receiving signals from Eurobird 1 at 28.5 east - the dish reception would cover the Astra 2 satellites and Eurobird at the same time.

PJTierney

Thanks mate. The Discovery Channel I had before was Dutch (English audio with Dutch subtitles), while Nat Geo was in English, and I had both English language and German language Eurosport. I'm guessing that on the Astra 2/Eurobird 1 they're encrypted for Sky Digital though.

Would I be right in assuming that the channels listed above are the only ones I can get right now, or are there some notable channels listed above that I cannot get?

Pal

When you move the dish to Astra 1, you lose all the Astra 2 stuff.

And vice versa.

As fat tony explained, you need a disecq switch to get both at the same time.

If you want free Eurosport, then only the German one is available.
The free English one is gone.

There are many other 'notable' channels out there but unless you get a disecq or a motor then forget it.

PJTierney

Yeah, I figured that switching to Astra 1 means losing Astra 2, so I guess the channels mentioned are going to be sacrificed for the greater good (50-100 English channels instead of 5). And yeah, I noticed yesterday (before I moved to Astra 2) that certain channels that were previously free now had the $ symbol beside them.

Thanks for the explanation anyways

Pal

it doesn't really work like that.

many channels can change language , mostly movies and sports.

the broadcaster often gives you a choice.

go to the PIDS in technomate and increase the APID by one. that should switch to English.

On TM it tells you the number of languages per channel.

Theres actually a bit more to it but you should get my drift.

PJTierney

Pal wrote: »

it doesn't really work like that.

many channels can change language , mostly movies and sports.

the broadcaster often gives you a choice.

go to the PIDS in technomate and increase the APID by one. that should switch to English.

On TM it tells you the number of languages per channel.

Theres actually a bit more to it but you should get my drift.

Cheers. Still though, unless I can pick up these on Astra 2 I'm gonna leave them, since I don't want to have to go up the ladder and move the dish every time I want to switch to Eurosport

downwiththatsor

Hey there,

I picked up a second sky dish and mounted and tuned it on astra1, with a cheap diseqc switch from ebay i have german eurosport on my humax.
Its not a big job to do really and can be cheap. Used to get the english audio on eurosport.com but unfortunately its not working lately.
As i am into cycling Eurosport is a must, have read somewhere that the english audio track on Hotbird 13E eurosport is not encrypted although the video is, can a technomate or similar tune the audio pid only?

Best of luck with any future projects.

Pal

yes

downwiththatsor

Thanks Pal, any idea whats the most basic technomate receiver that could do this unencrypted audio only tuning?
Regards