Satellite

[ZappaRocks]

I put this on my facebook page so thought I would add the full update as I haven't been on here for a while

Many newbies to the island are unaware of the Nilesat satellite, it's free to air and any cheap dish and box will do. I have other customers not using their sat box who don't realise many channels haven't vanished but simply changed frequency, it's for this reason I always recommend doing an auto scan every six months or so, something anyone can do themselves. Even for those with the internet it's still handy as a good backup with modern 24hr film channels, mostly American content. So if you have it rescan and add these to the favourite list.

Dubai One, also now in HD a mixture of films and series, all English
Kuwait TV 2 HD, films, series, including Aussi reality shows, English
Mickey TV, cartoons and kid's film, many in English
Scare  TV, horror and thriller films
MBC 2, 24hr films, all English
MBC 3, kids films, series, sometimes in English
MBC 4, series, films, mixed language including English
MBC Max, 24hr films, all English
MBC Action, series, sport and films, nearly all English
Mix Holywood, 24hr films, all English

News channels, all English
BBC World
CNN
Press TV
NHK
Al Jazeera
France 24

Sports, normally in the language of the country of the sport shown
AD 1,2,3 and 4 HD

Dubai Racing 1, 2 and 3, events and shows concerning horses, dogs and even camel racing
Dubai Sports 1, 2 and 3
Depending on dish size and whether it is focused on west or east Africa, there are other sports channels too but seem very regional, none have premiership fta

Worth mentioning the other sats which are the BBC Satback system which just has the main British channels but the box bought here can be expensive and requires a large 1.2m dish

Or just the fta channels that don't need a Sky box on the Astra 28.2 sat with a 80cm dish minimum

Hope this helps

[spitfire58]

Hi ZR,
Thanks for the update. Can you explain (for the uninitiated) what equity would be required to watch the regular U.K. channels out her & what extras are available with the same gear & then what other sources are available & what equipment would be required. As you are aware, Internet is not good in many areas & I am sure (me for one) many people would be interested/keen on alternatives that dispensed with Internet requirement. Thanks in advance . . Ron

[ZappaRocks]

Hi again Spitfire, the only possible way to get BBC from satellite is from the Satback Intelsat 907, the only box I would recommend is the Technomate 5402 M3 from ebay which you can get one for about £90, the M3 is latest and I'm sure a faster version. To buy one here is around 240 euro. The dish needed is a 1.2m using a black inverto ultra lnb, again much cheaper of ebay.

Channels are BBC 1, 2 and 4, CBBC, CBeebies uk, BBC News, parliament and the red button for sports
ITV, Ch Four, More Four uk, Five and also regional BBC ones from Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland
All the main channels have HD versions, also BBC radio 1 to 6, 1 Xtra, 4 extra, Asian, World service, 5 live sports,

[Archer]

Thanks for that info. What is the picture quality like and is it susceptible to the weather (calima)? And could any satelite engineer set it up?
Cheers for all the info.

[ZappaRocks]

If you also mean the BBC system, perfect on the HD channels but the rest are good too, never heard of any problems with calimas and any engineer can install it as long as he's fussy about peaking it perfect

[fourthwisemonkey]

Pretty sure zappa would agree with the following:
Assuming the requirement of ´standard UK channels´means BBC1,BBC2,ITV,C4,Five

The Intelsat 907 satellite does carry the above channels in HD along with BBC national radio (plus BBC3,BBC4,BBC News and E4). This is commonly referred to as Satback. This satellite is located in the sky at 27.5 degrees West. As stated in other post this requires a 1.2mtr dish, good quality LNB and very precise alignment. It also requires a satellite receiver box which can be programmed (flashed) to enable it to descramble the signal (the signal is not meant for public use and so is scrambled - the codes did change often but have not changed now for a long time) Expect to pay 350â,¬ or more (the receivers tend to be dearer than bog standard ones and retail from about 125â,¬ over here)

What most people in the UK/Ireland would call sky and Freesat (ie Sky programs and BBC,ITV etc) via satellite are broadcast from the ASTRA 2 series of satellites at 28.2 degrees east. (3 satellites in total). These satellites have a european beam and a UK/Ireland beam. BBC etc are on the UK/Ireland beam and that would require a very large dish (minimum 4.5 metres up to about 6 mtr) so to get BBC,ITV from the ASTRA satellites would cost you in excess of 25,000â,¬. The european beam does have a lot of the sky subscription channels on it (lots of subscribers using sky boxes abroad). The european beam can be received on dishes from 80cm (would recommend 1 mtr for reliability). The non subscription channels can be used on any basic satellite receiver (30â,¬ upwards) and the cost of the dish obviously a bit cheaper than would be for the Intelsat system.

As mentioned the Nilesat satellite has some reasonable english channels on it (but not the prime channels BBC etc) This satellite is located at 7 degrees west and only requires a small dish to recieve and a bog standard receiver as well.

Each satellite does require its own dish....under certain circumstances you can receive the signal from 2 satellites on the same dish ie Astra1 at 19 degrees east and hotbird at 13 degrees east.(6 degrees apart so can be done) ..require 2 lnb´s (one for each satellite)

Satellite receivers can be used on just about any satellite and can connect up to 16 dishes to one receiver. Example my current system has one receiver and I pick up channels from Intelsat 907, Astra 2, nilesat (the 3 above) and also Astra 1, Hotbird and Hispasat. (the last 3 mentioned have very very few english language channels unless you have a subscription)

TV via the internet aka IPTV. These systems generally have all the UK channels as well as all the sky channels. They provide catch-up facility and also a movie section usually for watching all the latest cinema releases. These are subscription services and can be a bit hit and miss until you find a reliable provider (basically who is not likely to be shut down anytime soon). For these systems you require an iptv box (or good android box with the appropriate emulator on it). They do work at their best on a good internet connection of 6 Meg upwards (more is better but the main pre-requisite is that the connection is stable ie 6 meg  24/7....would recommend at least 10 meg though (they work great on my fibre connection  )


For a satellite system I would always recommend using an installer that knows exactly what they are doing (not some bloke who can chuck a dish up for you who you met in the pub) and who aligns the dish with a proper meter etc (not some tinpot 50â,¬ meter from china) and who will also tell you exactly what channels you will receive but who will also tell you that no system is forever (like i said the intelsat system a few years ago changed the codes every few weeks.....some installers were then charging to give out the new codes). Do not go for the cheapest equipment (especially dishes as the cheaper ones will rot quicker or distort in the wind). Also be aware that when it rains over here it usually comes down heavy....you will lose the signal in the rain unless you massively (and expensively) over engineer the job and even then it will go off if the rain is heavy enough so be realistic.

Decide exactly what you want. Do you want the soaps and the traditional stuff offered up by BBC and ITV etc or do you just want a bit of english language programming with movies and series.

Sorry cannot give you a complete breakdown on pricing as equipment prices vary as to what is in stock etc (and what supplier). Zappa might be able to give you ball park figures. (I do not really have time to do installations etc and so am a bit out of touch with the prices).

Hope this helps explain things a bit better

[fourthwisemonkey]

Re loss of signal on intelsat...never had problem due to calima. Only loss of signal should be during the 2 equinox where signal will be lost for a max of 10 mins.

[fourthwisemonkey]

+1 on the technomate tm5402M3
I have used cheaper boxes ( technomate not available for the price of the job !!) The cheaper boxes do work but probably best recommendation is that is that I have a technomate 

[ZappaRocks]

Just don't go near a Sab, cheaper but too many problems and the Technomate has internet connectivity too if you wanted better use of some of the other satellites you mention using C lines

[spitfire58]

Thanks to ZR & FWM for some very useful information 😁😁

[Archer]

Thanks. We use 4g for most of our tv, but would like another option. Thanks. May give Nilesat a go.

[ZappaRocks]

I was going to respond to your thanks but this seems to be one of the few forums without the means to do so without actually writing it out, maybe a thought for the admin? So anyway thanks for the replies

If you do have the Astra system the dish can be moved to Nilesat and the box retuned or have both by adding a small 60cm to the Astra system

[mesaverde]

Hi can someone let me know the contact details for the Caleta based satellite tv company (is this the same guy as zapparocks?) many thanks

[ZappaRocks]

Hi my number is 680883544, I'm called Denby, strange name I know, anytime, any day

[keithtx]

Hi ZR think it would be difficult for me to bring a 1.2m dish from the UK (coming out on Ryanair) can you give me an approx price incl lnb (unless I'm better getting the lnb the UK?)

Thanks

[ZappaRocks]

The 1.2m is roughly around the 100 euro mark but I have been told recently that the BBC satback system is due to be turned off by the end of the year, though bear in mind rumours of this sort are common. If it is for the BBC then an inverto ultra black is a must.

If it is for a Skybox on Astra 28.2 then any should be fine though the inverto is still better and cheaper of ebay than buying one here

[keithtx]

Thanks ZR. Think I'll wait to see what happens to the satellite

[ZappaRocks]

The latest news is a Russian mission extension vehicle has been sent up and refuelled Intelsat 901 and moved it into place for the Satback service to continue but info is sketchy