Free-to-air digital satellite

[kevinod]

Hey all,

got me a nice big mortgage, (moving in any day now) so eager to avoid as many bills as I can. I'm looking at getting a digital satellite receiver so I can pick up the free channels available. A guy here recommended a dreambox (apparently no not the sega game console from years ago ).

Anyone have one of these, or know anything on the subject?

[CJ]

Either Aldi or Lidl often sell these all in one systems - worth keeping an eye out on that front. Good luck in the new gaff by the way

CJ

[pergau]

I don't think that you can get freeview signals here - you need a bigger dish so you'll be stuck with the free to air channels (aka the crap ones)

[kevinod]

My brother was in a shop in town who could sell a Sky box with dish, no subscription and you could see the free channels with it, so I think it should do the trick... bought a receiver off ebay that can record up to 40 hours, sounds like a Sky + box, so going to give that a go when it arrives, hopefully I'll be in business.

[CJ]

you could see the free channels with it, so I think it should do the trick...

IIRC, the channels that you can get are pretty sh!te, my mate setup his old Sky box upstairs after upgrading to Sky HD, the only channel worth looing at was ITV. I'm sure theres a list on the web somewhere specific to free to air channels available on the Skybox.

CJ

[Richard Ellis]

My Friend is from Cyprus, he's over here studying for the past couple of years. He bought a dish and a box from Zintec systems in Tallaght (greenhills road), and brought his "IRDETO" card with him from cyprus.. In addition to his greek channels, he has 4 Really good sport channels (supersport 1 to 4), 4 "filmnet" channels which are decent, and about a million... errm.... adult channels, not that they'd be any use. It's the "hotbird" satellite that it reads off. think he paid €200 for the lot.. once off payment, no subscription or anything.

Zintec systems on the greenhills road might be worth a look, see what they can do for you.

[kevinod]

Doh, thing in ebay turned out to be a terrestrial receiver, despite being in the satellite receiver category. Luckily enough the guy hasn't sent it yet so I'm hoping he'll do the right thing and give me a refund.

So, I'm back looking, but apparently one of the local shops told the bro they'd sell a sky box without subscription or dish for about €119 so I'll prob go with that option methinks.

[CJ]

I've been looking into this Dreambox business, looks very interesting. Seems its runs a Linux kernal on a PowerPC CPU, you can get different kernels that allow you decode digital signals from the likes of NTL etc (assuming you have the basic install in place. Not legal but interesting nonetheless:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/452439

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/480721

Also of interest:

http://www.world-of-digital.com/DBOX/DBOX_2_FAQ_V1.htm

CJ

[kevinod]

Ya, I was looking at those, but they're expensive enough, so for now I got that box for €119 and I think I'll put the few quid towards getting a bigger dish with a motor for now.