Selected Lidl/Aldi Sat box posts

Hi,

The only way to view RTE 1 &2, TV3 and TG4 on satellite is by use of a Sky Digibox and a subscription.

mj

Silvercrest don't exist. It is a comag.

Yeah a lot of the radio on Sat is free. The only encrypted ones are the music choice radio channels.

Vas_Guy wrote:

As a novice would I be right in saying that the first thing to do is mount the dish in a southern facing direction and use the satellite finder to find the position of the Astra 2D satellite and evaluate the dish to this position?

sounds like a good way to start

See Item 7 on this link

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+align+a+satellite+dish

If its Astra 28.2E you want (bbc/itv/sky news etc) then when facing the dish the bottom of the lnb (where wire connects) should skew to the left. You will have to play around a bit to get the best signal.

Hispasat can be done on a metal dustbin lid in Cork, just do not expect the Americas beam anywhere east of the Azores.

Bond-007 wrote:

Which is the better system to buy, camping or the fixed one?

Right I could give you the pedantic answer or a helpful one.
Pedantic answer just to get it out of the way, if you intend using it for camping then obviously the camping kit, if not then the other one.

Basically the differences between the 2 kits AFAIR as follows

Camping

---

Mains
Receiver SL65/12.................. ........SL65
12volt ........................................mains voltage
Tiny size (paperback novel) ............Standard size
No RGB out ..................................RGB out
No RF out ....................................No RF out (ignore the adverts)
Dish 35*37cm ...............................80cm
various mounts .............................Standard pole mount
carrying case ...............................none
Lidl price 99 (previous Aldi price 80) ..79

Both receivers appear to offer same specs otherwise, similar to most FTA receivers with RF out being the main feature lacking that might be a requirement for some people.
TBH dish size is the only significant factor between them.
I havent seen the current 80cm dish offered but if like previous offerings I am sure it is not the most sturdy, but should work nonetheless. Probably not really suitable for multiple lnbs without some extra diy support.
The small camping dish is small but will work reasonably adequately for Astra28 in places of good signal strength (East Coast etc) but you will have little or no margin for bad weather etc so unless you are considering using it for camping or absolutely have no room to accomadate a larger dish then you should really go for the larger size (and cheaper).

I bought the Aldi camping kit a few months back and despite what some who never seem to have owned them may say I like it. Nice menu, easy to use, intuitive if you ignore the poor manual, very small size, no heat, diseqced to 4 dishes very quick with no noticeable delay between sats. Also seems more sensitive than some receivers, giving a stable picture on a weak signal when they were breaking up, or handling higher SR rates.

My impression is that many people once they get the hang of and hooked by satellite on these cheap no frills systems then look to more accomplished/advanced systems later so in that regard they do appear to make a good introduction to the subject.

To_be_confirmed bring in your receipt and give them a try, Ive found them to be fairly ok in these regards. You could say you were waiting for someone to install it and they found the part was missing and wasnt opened till then.

Well done Jasin, as I said patience, and now look how far youve got, Ill be asking you for tips.:)

Another aspect to be careful about is scanning in channels under the wrong satellite name. If your dish is pointed at Sirius, but you do a scan of Astra2, you could end up with a mash up list of channels from both satellites listed under the one Satellite name. This would get very confusing. You would not be sure what satellite you were pointed at. Of course you would only be able to view those from the satellite you were pointed at, the rest would be blank, but youd have to check frequencies to see what sat your on.
If it happens, it is easier to delete the whole list for that sat, then rescan afresh.

1. The manual mentions ASTRA 1 19.2E and ASTRA 2 19.2E so presumably the latter is a typo and should be ASTRA 2 28.2E?

looks like a typo alright

2. From reading other material here and elsewhere it looks like it's possible to use a single dish and LNB (and no motorised setup) to receive from both the ASTRA 2 28.2E and Eurobird 1 28.5E - is this correct?

it is possible but you are reducing the signal streangth from both satellites , but it is possible


3.The manual does not list Eurobird 1 as one of the pre-programmed satellites so does this matter in relation to the previous point and, if not, will things just be picked up automatically once the dish is aligned (elevation, azimuth and skew etc.) correctly and some sort of scan process carried out?


Eurobird 1 is at the same angle ass Astra 2, so as long as you have the transponders programmed in you will be able to scan for chanels broadcast on Eurobird 1


4.The manual says that software updates can be done from ASTRA 1 19.2E or via RS232. Does this update the receiver firmware which controls the user interface etc. or something else (e.g. just channel details etc.)? Is it important to do such an update straight off or on a regular basis? If you never point at ASTRA 1 then how do you do it via RS232?


its extremely rare that a satellite will upgrade software for the stb (set top box), but it is worth a try every 6 months or so, and yes it does/is supposed to update firmware, no it isnt important to update firmware(unless you want to customize the stb)

if you want to update firmware(not recomended if you dont know what you are doing) you need a null modem serial cable, a computer with rs232 port, software to transfer and backup firmware/channel list etc and the updated firmare (usually found in the manufacturers website)...


the only reason i have my stb hooked up to the computer is just for ease of programming and sorting channel lists (takes 2 minutes to do on the computer and 1 min to transfer to stb, whereas it takes up to 15 minutes to organise through the stb alone