Recommend a satellite receiver?

steirishrover

Hi all,

Bit of help needed, I have a mobile home and a friend of mine gave me one of those receivers and dish from aldi. So I set it up and everything turned out ok, but the receiver he gave me has 117 stations, most of the stations are all the same but different locations (eg. BBC Wales & bbc Scotland etc). Just wondering if I got a different/better receiver would I get more stations? (eg. Movie stations & other free to air)

The bloke in the mobile across from me gets 400+ stations on his player...

Also my reciever has no remote so I defo want to get a new one, I am not really techie so need any advice... Looking to spend no more than €40. I was looking on amazon but don't know which to buy or does anyone know where I can get one so I can get all these extra stations?

Thanks all

zg3409

The best and easiest to use receivers are called FreeSAT. This is not the same as the receiver you have which is a cheap free to air.

Receivers with the FreeSAT brand have the following benefits:
Channels all ordered properly, best channels first without loads of the same channels
7 Day TV guide on all channels
No shopping channels etc unless you want them.

Models with recording features can series link & pause like Sky etc.

The full short list of receivers is here:
http://www.freesat.co.uk

The cheapest is freesat non recording SD, which you could buy for 40 euro though I would not recommend it. Over time more and more channels will be HD, and some channels are only on HD boxes. A non HD box is not good value as it is obsolete already. For a few euros more you can get a box that will be good for 10 - 15 years. You can buy them online from Irish stores or direct from UK. Sometimes Amazon can be cheapest as they often have free shipping.

Another word of caution. Even though your dish may be working, it is important to set it to maximum signal. If the dish is not pointed 110% correctly some channels will not appear and others will keep freezing. It's worth moving the TV and box outside beside the dish and spending another 15 minutes getting maximum signal.

Cheap free to air boxes "lose" channels over time and if you do not re-scan every few months you may miss new stations and lose existing stations. FreeSAT boxes do not have this problem.

steirishrover

That's a great help, so I will keep an eye on amazon for a free sat with hd,

Cheers man

dodzy

steirishrover wrote: »

Hi all,

Bit of help needed, I have a mobile home and a friend of mine gave me one of those receivers and dish from aldi. So I set it up and everything turned out ok, but the receiver he gave me has 117 stations, most of the stations are all the same but different locations (eg. BBC Wales & bbc Scotland etc). Just wondering if I got a different/better receiver would I get more stations? (eg. Movie stations & other free to air)

The bloke in the mobile across from me gets 400+ stations on his player...

Also my reciever has no remote so I defo want to get a new one, I am not really techie so need any advice... Looking to spend no more than €40. I was looking on amazon but don't know which to buy or does anyone know where I can get one so I can get all these extra stations?

Thanks all

The "bloke across from you" has either a motorised dish or multiple LNB setup. Thats the only wat to receive 400+. Eitherway, the bulk of them will be tat or duplicates.

Out of interest, why is 117 channels not enough in a mobile home ?

steirishrover

dodzy wrote: »

steirishrover wrote: »

Hi all,

Bit of help needed, I have a mobile home and a friend of mine gave me one of those receivers and dish from aldi. So I set it up and everything turned out ok, but the receiver he gave me has 117 stations, most of the stations are all the same but different locations (eg. BBC Wales & bbc Scotland etc). Just wondering if I got a different/better receiver would I get more stations? (eg. Movie stations & other free to air)

The bloke in the mobile across from me gets 400+ stations on his player...

Also my reciever has no remote so I defo want to get a new one, I am not really techie so need any advice... Looking to spend no more than €40. I was looking on amazon but don't know which to buy or does anyone know where I can get one so I can get all these extra stations?

Thanks all

The "bloke across from you" has either a motorised dish or multiple LNB setup. Thats the only wat to receive 400+. Eitherway, the bulk of them will be tat or duplicates.

Out of interest, why is 117 channels not enough in a mobile home ?

Most of the 117 channels are all the same, think their is about 10+ BBC news stations from all different areas in UK. Same with the ITV stations as well....

In all I'd say their is only 15+ stations really on it if I took away all the copied stations. So would I be best off buying a free sat box?

Also if I want to get the Irish stations do I just need a digital aerial?

Johnboy1951

steirishrover wrote: »

Most of the 117 channels are all the same, think their is about 10+ BBC news stations from all different areas in UK. Same with the ITV stations as well....

In all I'd say their is only 15+ stations really on it if I took away all the copied stations. So would I be best off buying a free sat box?

Also if I want to get the Irish stations do I just need a digital aerial?

I have a cheap Lidl receiver and can receive all but the HD channels.
So I am presently missing very few channels that do not have an SD equivalent.

I suggest you re-align your dish and rescan.
I think it likely you are not set up correctly and this is why you are missing channels.

You might find there is no need for a replacement receiver.

Doodah7

zg3409 wrote: »

The best and easiest to use receivers are called FreeSAT. This is not the same as the receiver you have which is a cheap free to air.

Receivers with the FreeSAT brand have the following benefits:
Channels all ordered properly, best channels first without loads of the same channels
7 Day TV guide on all channels
No shopping channels etc unless you want them.

Models with recording features can series link & pause like Sky etc.

The full short list of receivers is here:
http://www.freesat.co.uk

The cheapest is freesat non recording SD, which you could buy for 40 euro though I would not recommend it. Over time more and more channels will be HD, and some channels are only on HD boxes. A non HD box is not good value as it is obsolete already. For a few euros more you can get a box that will be good for 10 - 15 years. You can buy them online from Irish stores or direct from UK. Sometimes Amazon can be cheapest as they often have free shipping.

Another word of caution. Even though your dish may be working, it is important to set it to maximum signal. If the dish is not pointed 110% correctly some channels will not appear and others will keep freezing. It's worth moving the TV and box outside beside the dish and spending another 15 minutes getting maximum signal.

Cheap free to air boxes "lose" channels over time and if you do not re-scan every few months you may miss new stations and lose existing stations. FreeSAT boxes do not have this problem.

Fantastic post which should be stickied and surrounded by flashing lights.

A Freesat HD box is the ONLY solution for those that want a Sky-free satellite service in their home. Any other box that only shows 'Now' and 'Next' on the EPG and where you have to almost contantly re-scan is a waste of money at this stage. And certainly, a SD-only box is a complete false-economy purchase if only for the wealth of sport that will be available on the BBC for the next month: Euro 2012, Wimbledon and the Olympics (24 temporary HD channels!!!).

Amazon have plenty of options for Freesat at present.

dodzy

steirishrover wrote: »

So would I be best off buying a free sat box ?

Yes, preferably a HD variant.

steirishrover wrote: »

Also if I want to get the Irish stations do I just need a digital aerial?

If you have a saorview capable TV, yes. If not, then you will need a saorview (irish channels) box to compliment the freesat (english channels) box. There are no true combi Freesat & Saorview boxes available.

Your €40 budget, however, will have to be revised if you were to chose to go with the above options though:o

steirishrover

Great lads, thanks for all the advice

zg3409

steirishrover wrote: »

Most of the 117 channels are all the same, think their is about 10+ BBC news stations from all different areas in UK. Same with the ITV stations as well....In all I'd say their is only 15+ stations really on it if I took away all the copied stations.

If your dish is aligned and if you can do a full re-scan (which you may not be able to do without the remote) then you should get most if not all channels worth watching.

With either box you should be able to get:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels

which is about 20 good channels, a few news and music channels and loads of stations that repeat old shows and movies.

So would I be best off buying a free sat box?
Also if I want to get the Irish stations do I just need a digital aerial?

This is an entirely different question. In summary for a 40 euro budget you need to forget the Irish channels.

For a 120 Euro budget you could get a combined box (called a combo) which does both. These are not recommended, and every 3 or 4 months you would need to rescan and sort channels or download a channel list to a USB stick and re-save channels.

Ideally (for those not into recording) you would buy a Freesat HD box (90 Euro), a Saorview box (50 euro), and an outside aerial and coax (20-60 euro ). This would give you no need to delete channels etc. and fully compatable equipment.

If your TV is more than 10 years old then paying 50 euro for a Saorview box is not good value as TVs with Saorview built in are not that expensive. You could bring the boxes from the mobile home back home so at least you would get more use out of them.

steirishrover

They are not saorview compatible tv's that we have in the mobile...

I was looking at this player, i just need the basic for down in the mobile home, so would this be any use?

I am also wondering, i have a old sky dish out the back in my rented apartment, would this box also work for my apartment or again would i better off getting something better?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premier-TV-1158-Freeview-Receiver-upto1080i/dp/B006VAZ5TY/ref=sr_1_88?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1338899515&sr=1-88

zg3409

steirishrover wrote: »

I was looking at this player, i just need the basic for down in the mobile home, so would this be any use?

That is a FreeVIEW not FreeSAT box. If really on a budget get a secondhand FreeSAT non HD box.

I am also wondering, i have a old sky dish out the back in my rented apartment, would this box also work for my apartment or again would i better off getting something better?

Yes. If the dish is not too rusty it should be already pointing the right way and will work. If you intend moving the dish to install it at another house a new dish and LNB is only 30 euro.