Which receiver for satellite dish

[Peter Weilbacher]

Hi all,

not having a clue about TV via satellite, I have a fairly basic
question. If this is too basic for this group, feel free to point me to
a good FAQ.

We recently bought a house and this way inherited a satellite dish. See
picture of it at
Loading Image... [115
KiB]

As far as my limited understanding goes, we need a satellite receiver
which converts the signals to something which the TV understands. Can we
just buy any receiver or does it have to be a specific model which
exactly fits the dish? What info do I need?

We were also hoping to be able to received German (and possibly Polish)
TV. Does anybody have any experience or recommendations there? Or should
I better ask in German usenet (where they probably don't know about
British dishes)? A search on the web gave me the info that I could all
the important German TV stations (both analog or digital) from the Astra
satellites at 19.2 deg.E.

[Wrightsaerials]

Do you wish to subscribe to Sky?
Bill

[Peter Weilbacher]

Post by Wrightsaerials
Do you wish to subscribe to Sky?

Not really, I already pay enough for the TV license... Is this dish
_only_ usable with Sky?

[RainbowChaser]

Peter,

That looks like a mini dish that normally points at 28deg East.

If you want the German channels you need to point a bigger dish (60cm in
South, 80cm in North) at 19deg East. All the major channels are free in
analogue.

You should be able to pick up the old analogue gear fro a few quid these
days, you do not need a decoder all the channels are free to air.

R.C.

Post by Peter Weilbacher
Hi all,
not having a clue about TV via satellite, I have a fairly basic
question. If this is too basic for this group, feel free to point me to
a good FAQ.
We recently bought a house and this way inherited a satellite dish. See
picture of it at
http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~weilbach/Satellitenschuessel.jpeg [115
KiB]
As far as my limited understanding goes, we need a satellite receiver
which converts the signals to something which the TV understands. Can we
just buy any receiver or does it have to be a specific model which
exactly fits the dish? What info do I need?
We were also hoping to be able to received German (and possibly Polish)
TV. Does anybody have any experience or recommendations there? Or should
I better ask in German usenet (where they probably don't know about
British dishes)? A search on the web gave me the info that I could all
the important German TV stations (both analog or digital) from the Astra
satellites at 19.2 deg.E.
--
Greetings, Please reply in newsgroup, I rarely

[Ant]

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 09:59:49 +0100, "RainbowChaser"

Post by RainbowChaser
That looks like a mini dish that normally points at 28deg East.
If you want the German channels you need to point a bigger dish (60cm in
South, 80cm in North) at 19deg East. All the major channels are free in
analogue.

Although all the analogue channels are simulcast on digital at the
same position - so it would probably be more cost-effective to use the
existing minidish, re-align it to point at Astra 1, and then attach a
generic free-to-air digital reciever (cost about £99).

You don't need anything like such a big dish for digital as analogue,
and under most circumstances a minidish is just fine for digital
services from either Astra 1 or 2.

[Peter Weilbacher]

Post by Ant
You don't need anything like such a big dish for digital as analogue,
and under most circumstances a minidish is just fine for digital
services from either Astra 1 or 2.

Thanks all for your replies. I think it's too much hassle for me to
mount a new (and larger) dish, even if I could have an analogue setup
for less money.

Now at least I feel informed enough to go into a shop and see what they
have -- before buying cheaper online anyway. :-)

[Ross]

Hi Peter

Post by Peter Weilbacher
not having a clue about TV via satellite, I have a fairly basic
question. If this is too basic for this group, feel free to point me to
a good FAQ.
We recently bought a house and this way inherited a satellite dish. See
picture of it at
http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~weilbach/Satellitenschuessel.jpeg [115
KiB]
As far as my limited understanding goes, we need a satellite receiver
which converts the signals to something which the TV understands. Can we
just buy any receiver or does it have to be a specific model which
exactly fits the dish? What info do I need?

You understand correctly. You can attach any decoder to the dish.

The dish can be pointing at one of several orbital slots where the
satellites are parked. The 3 most likely orbital slots are 13E
(Hotbirds) / 19E (Astra 1) / 28E (Astra 2)

28E carries UK programming - mainly Sky pay tv, but the BBC is in clear
now.

19E carries loads of German programming - analogue and digital.

13E carries a weird and wonderful assortment of channels, quite a few
Polish stations, and everything from Arabic to Vietnamese.

Post by Peter Weilbacher
We were also hoping to be able to received German (and possibly Polish)
TV. Does anybody have any experience or recommendations there? Or should
I better ask in German usenet (where they probably don't know about
British dishes)? A search on the web gave me the info that I could all
the important German TV stations (both analog or digital) from the Astra
satellites at 19.2 deg.E.

Any cheap satellite receiver (analogue or digital) will get you loads of
German channels from 19E.

You really need a dish pointing at 13E for the Polish stuff.