SATELLITE TV SYSTEMS

victon2 · Member

SATELLITE TV SYSTEMS

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome Vicky, that was a bad experience indeed. I have been thinking of Satalite TV but decided to wait and see how my Saturn antenna goes when I set of next year to Townsville. 5 weeks on the road and 1 in Townsville will test it out. If you need any help or advice you have come to the right place, people here are great.

dorian · Guru

Can you provide more information on what you have?

Model numbers, dimensions, etc?

Are you receiving free-to-air or pay-TV?

Australian Government Viewer Access Satellite (VAST) service?

Aurora?

How do you aim the dish? Manually, or automatically?

goldcoaster · Senior Member

Hi Dorian,

We have a phoenix decoder box,70cm dish which is mounted on a tri pod,which we can put anywhere,as sometimes the site might have obstructions on it such as trees, walls etc which is why we haven't mounted it to the roof.

Takes me about 15min. to set up and locate Optus satellite. We bought it as a kit on ebay some 2 years ago for around $450. We receive about 6 free to air chanels through Optus satellite.Then we disconnect our phoenix box and hook up our pay tv box,all comes through the same satellite. To locate satellite we have a digital satellite finder which came with the kit,it attaches between the dish and your receiver box.You will need a compass which came with the kit because you aim the dish to the North,the tricky bit is the elevation which is where the satellite finder comes into play,as you move the dish up or down the pitch on the finder gets louder and louder until you hit the right angle.Then disconnect digital finder and connect lead directly onto dish and then your right to go. Hope this helps.

victon2 · Member

Hi Dorian

Bought the new dish from the shop in Streaky Bay in S A, and he purpose built it forme. I have an 80cm dish, with a tripod and it has a large range of adjustment. I have a Acutech decoder which locks onto the VAST systemand I can get up to 89 free to air channels. The best advice I could give you at this time, being still a bit of a novice myself, is to avoid any dish that has a built in triangular base, as they are extremely unstable, and that stability is the key to it all. The positioning is achieved by using a sheet he provided which gives the compass setting, elevation, and skew for virtually every town in Oz. It is put out by Hills. TRuly I was having nightmares with the old dish etc., but now it is pretty simple. Hope this helps.

Tony

dorian · Guru

Thanks very much to all for your feedback. BTW, I thought I had already replied to this thread, but I don't see my response. Better luck this time.

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

victon2 wrote:
Hi Dorian
Bought the new dish from the shop in Streaky Bay in S A, and he purpose built it forme. I have an 80cm dish, with a tripod and it has a large range of adjustment. I have a Acutech decoder which locks onto the VAST systemand I can get up to 89 free to air channels. The best advice I could give you at this time, being still a bit of a novice myself, is to avoid any dish that has a built in triangular base, as they are extremely unstable, and that stability is the key to it all. The positioning is achieved by using a sheet he provided which gives the compass setting, elevation, and skew for virtually every town in Oz. It is put out by Hills. TRuly I was having nightmares with the old dish etc., but now it is pretty simple. Hope this helps.
Tony

for anybody with a sat dish, who has not get a copy of the Hills info, here it is

http://www.aurorasatellite.com.au/Web%20page%20skews.pdf

80 cm dish is overkill in my opinion 66cm is all you would need and is easier to store on the bed of a caravan, however I do agree that the tripod is the way to go, not the dish on a frame that sit's on the ground.

A lot of those 89 channels are doubles, we only watch the normal digital channel's, not all the one's that have sub titles, and there are a few of those.

Here's another site that provide's a lot of info

http://www.vetrun.com/forums/index.php

-- Edited by _wombat_ on Sunday 11th of December 2011 03:55:25 PM

victon2 · Member

Thanks Wombat,

A lot of people will find the Hills Chart very useful, and you are correct, many of the 89 channels are double ups, but you can at least get your own states timing for programmes.

I would although disagree with you based purely from experience about the size of the dish. having now used both sizes. The larger one sets up easily as opposed to the small one which rarely set up at all.

I guess at least the subject and some of the answers here will help some travellers

Cheers

Tony

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

victon2, you may like to look here, another topic in the techies section

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t46237680/how-much-power-does-a-vast-box-use/

Delta18 · Guru

victon2 wrote:

I would although disagree with you based purely from experience about the size of the dish. having now used both sizes. The larger one sets up easily as opposed to the small one which rarely set up at all.

Cheers
Tony

Tony, I think a lot of your problems with the small dish setup came about because - according to your first post - you were not supplied with a decoder! I am curious how you actually got anything. Did you plug your dish straight into the tv?

Cheers Neil

dorian · Guru

Here is a list of "Free-To-Air Satellite Channels Available In Australia":
http://www.satplus.com.au/files/satellite_fta_list.pdf

-- Edited by dorian on Sunday 11th of December 2011 07:31:35 PM

Brisat · Member

G'Day, just a few things that may need a bit of correction.
The mob in Perth are gaining a bit of a reputation for stuff that doesn't work or is difficult to work with. Both myself and the supplier and quite a few other installers/sellers
of satellite TV equipment around the country have sold hundreds of the Minimax dishes. The one from Perth is a cheap imitation. Currently the only Set Top Box that is VAST
authorised is the Altech UEC dsd 4121. The latest version has PVR facilities and is $70 dearer than the standard one. Dish sizes are a difficult topic, a 75 cm dish appears to be the best for both storage and reception. I have a 35 cm dish and one of my customers also has one of these. I have no trouble whatsoever getting the VAST channels with this and Tom has no trouble in an area from Brisbane to Iluka and out to Dirranbandi. Because someone gets a bad bit of kit it doesn't mean that all the same sort of stuff is NBG. I have a modification for the Wingard thingie which some like, some don't. It works quite well and does away with the need for a booster. However there are no doubt many other similar types of modifications available, knowing where to get them is the trick here.
Anyway, I am available to dispel some of the old wives tales and urban myths and just bull**** surrounding the use of satellite TV, so if you need answers I will do my best to explain.
While I know enough about this stuff to have my own business doing it and am an authorised digital person, I am not here to promote that.
One day soon you will find my ad on here so that will do. Sensible questions will be answered to the best of my ability, stupid questions and trolls will be ignored.

dorian · Guru

What does VAST "authorisation" entail? If a box isn't authorised by/for VAST, what am I missing out on, and what pitfalls, if any, do I have to watch out for? Is it just a case of generic versus branded?

Is the DSD4121 a Linux based unit, and if so, is there any development activity in the Linux community? Am I able to obtain a service manual for this device, and will I be able to upload firmware updates myself? I don't wish to be a captive customer, so I want to do as much as possible myself.

Why would people opt for a tripod mounting instead of on the caravan or motorhome? The tripod weighs about 4.5kg, so wouldn't a pole mount be preferrable if only for this reason? Then there's the theft aspect, and clutter on the ground.

Will the PVR feature work with an ordinary pen drive?

Brisat · Member

G'Day Dorian, authorisation is normally done via the internet, get the travellers page up {www.mysattv.com.au/travellers.aspx}, fill in all the details and click on submit, between 30 secs and some hours for this to work. If you don't get it authorised you will only get ABC 3 kids show You can not mess with the box, no user friendlies in there and it updates over the air All people are different and prefer different things, some like tripods most use the Minimax and the odd one uses a drawbar mount. Some others are happy paying up to $6000 and getting an automatic roof mounted dish. So far no one has told us that their dish has been nicked. Your definition of clutter may not be the same as mine, the dish goes on the ground by the drawbar and is out of the way there or some people put it up on the roof of the van or car.

-- Edited by Brisat on Sunday 11th of December 2011 09:22:13 PM

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

Brisat wrote:
G'Day Dorian, authorisation is normally done via the internet, get the travellers page up {www.mysattv.com.au/travellers.aspx}, fill in all the details and click on submit, between 30 secs and some hours for this to work. If you don't get it authorised you will only get ABC 3 kids show You can not mess with the box, no user friendlies in there and it updates over the air All people are different and prefer different things, some like tripods most use the Minimax and the odd one uses a drawbar mount. Some others are happy paying up to $6000 and getting an automatic roof mounted dish. So far no one has told us that there dish has been nicked. Your definition of clutter may not be the same as mine, the dish goes on the ground by the drawbar and is out of the way there or some people put it up on the roof of the van or car.

Hi Brisat,

welcome to gn, great to have you here.

have a look here for linking, scroll to the 1st topic

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t45282231/how-to-link/

dorian · Guru

Thanks for all the feedback.

I've been trying to follow up the links, but mysattv.com has been quite frustrating. The "enquiries" link at the web site only accepts enquiries from existing SmartCard owners, and the telephone contact results in a recorded message telling me to phone back during weekdays after 9AM. Well today is Monday and the time was 9:50AM ...

Furthermore, I find it annoying that the registration form only allows for one choice of decoder (ie no choice at all). The web site suggests that the UEC decoder and smartcard are bundled together, so I'm wondering how other people have managed to unbundle the two. Moreover, if this is a government initiative, then it seems to me that restricting users to essentially one approved supplier is highly improper. I thought monopolies went out with Telecom.

Another thing that I find disappointing is that pay-TV and free-to-air services cannot easily be accessed via the same set-top-box. It seems silly to me to have to carry around two STBs when one should do. Not that I watch pay TV anyway ...

Still another thing that I find strange is that the VAST system is being "rolled out" over several years. It's not as if we're rolling out fibre optic cable, so why doesn't everyone get satellite access at the same time, ie now?

Regarding the Hills dish positioning sheet, I found several web sites that provide online dish positioning calculators:
http://www.satlex.de/en/azel_calc-params.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/AudioVisualTV/SatelliteTV/SatelliteCalculator.php
http://www.satsig.net/ssazelm.htm

Unfortunately they all produce skew values that don't match the Hills guide. The elevations are also about 3 degrees lower. Strange ...

I thought I'd include the following links. Some people may find them useful.

http://www.lyngsat.com/optusc1.html (Optus C1 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optus156.html (Optus C1/D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd3.html (Optus D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd2.html (Optus D2 at 152.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html (Optus D1 at 160.0°E)

Optus Satellite Network:
http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/About+Optus/Network+Coverage/Satellite+Network

Unfortunately, clicking on the coverage maps at the Optus URL results in Javascript errors in my browser. Does anyone else have the same problem?

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 12th of December 2011 01:33:39 PM

dorian · Guru

Thanks for all the feedback.

I've been trying to follow up the links, but mysattv.com has been quite frustrating. The "enquiries" link at the web site only accepts enquiries from existing SmartCard owners, and the telephone contact results in a recorded message telling me to phone back during weekdays after 9AM. Well today is Monday and the time was 9:50AM ...

Furthermore, I find it annoying that the registration form only allows for one choice of decoder (ie no choice at all). The web site suggests that the UEC decoder and smartcard are bundled together, so I'm wondering how other people have managed to unbundle the two. Moreover, if this is a government initiative, then it seems to me that restricting users to essentially one approved supplier is highly improper. I thought monopolies went out with Telecom.

Another thing that I find disappointing is that pay-TV and free-to-air services cannot easily be accessed via the same set-top-box. It seems silly to me to have to carry around two STBs when one should do. Not that I watch pay TV anyway ...

Still another thing that I find strange is that the VAST system is being "rolled out" over several years. It's not as if we're rolling out fibre optic cable, so why doesn't everyone get satellite access at the same time, ie now?

Regarding the Hills dish positioning sheet, I found several web sites that provide online dish positioning calculators:
http://www.satlex.de/en/azel_calc-params.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/AudioVisualTV/SatelliteTV/SatelliteCalculator.php
http://www.satsig.net/ssazelm.htm

Unfortunately they all produce skew values that don't match the Hills guide. The elevations are also about 3 degrees lower. Strange ...

I thought I'd include the following links. Some people may find them useful.

http://www.lyngsat.com/optusc1.html (Optus C1 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optus156.html (Optus C1/D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd3.html (Optus D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd2.html (Optus D2 at 152.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html (Optus D1 at 160.0°E)

Optus Satellite Network:
http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/About+Optus/Network+Coverage/Satellite+Network

Unfortunately, clicking on the coverage maps at the Optus URL results in Javascript errors in my browser. Does anyone else have the same problem?

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

dorian wrote:
Thanks for all the feedback.
I've been trying to follow up the links, but mysattv.com has been quite frustrating. The "enquiries" link at the web site only accepts enquiries from existing SmartCard owners, and the telephone contact results in a recorded message telling me to phone back during weekdays after 9AM. Well today is Monday and the time was 9:50AM ...

Furthermore, I find it annoying that the registration form only allows for one choice of decoder (ie no choice at all). The web site suggests that the UEC decoder and smartcard are bundled together, so I'm wondering how other people have managed to unbundle the two. Moreover, if this is a government initiative, then it seems to me that restricting users to essentially one approved supplier is highly improper. I thought monopolies went out with Telecom.

Another thing that I find disappointing is that pay-TV and free-to-air services cannot easily be accessed via the same set-top-box. It seems silly to me to have to carry around two STBs when one should do. Not that I watch pay TV anyway ...

Still another thing that I find strange is that the VAST system is being "rolled out" over several years. It's not as if we're rolling out fibre optic cable, so why doesn't everyone get satellite access at the same time, ie now?

Regarding the Hills dish positioning sheet, I found several web sites that provide online dish positioning calculators:
http://www.satlex.de/en/azel_calc-params.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/AudioVisualTV/SatelliteTV/SatelliteCalculator.php
http://www.satsig.net/ssazelm.htm

Unfortunately they all produce skew values that don't match the Hills guide. The elevations are also about 3 degrees lower. Strange ...

I thought I'd include the following links. Some people may find them useful.

http://www.lyngsat.com/optusc1.html (Optus C1 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optus156.html (Optus C1/D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd3.html (Optus D3 at 156.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd2.html (Optus D2 at 152.0°E)
http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html (Optus D1 at 160.0°E)

Optus Satellite Network:
http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/About+Optus/Network+Coverage/Satellite+Network

Unfortunately, clicking on the coverage maps at the Optus URL results in Javascript errors in my browser. Does anyone else have the same problem?

I'll try to answer some of your problems.

in regards to phone calls, mystatv is probally in Sydney.

At the current time there is only 1 decoder.

You cannot unbundle the Vast decoder, the card will only work in the decoder you purchase.

Pay TV have their own box, and the Vast one is not compatable with PayTV, however you can get a duel LMB and use the one dish for both.

The Vast system is for outback area's that are unable to get digital tv with a normal ariel, so if you need to register a vast seytem you MUST indicate that you are a traveller, (on the road all the time, even if you are not)

Have not tried your links yet, will come back later

you may want to look here

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t46496289/i-wantneed-a-satellite-dish/

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t42315580/satellite-dish/

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t45282231/how-to-link/

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you

victon2 · Member

Neil,

That was part of the problem. I was a complete novice and they did not tell me I needed a box, so of course I could not get anything. However even with the VAST system box, the small unstable dish was pathetic.

Cheers

Tony

dorian · Guru

Please allow me to explain the reasons behind some of my questions.

Some years ago I bought a $39 DVD player from Aldi. It still works to this day. Because it was so cheap, I thought I would have some fun with it. To this end I found some like minded individuals in an online forum. One thing we did was to hack the firmware and replace the "Tevion" background with our own customised versions. In my case I replaced the background image with a photo of a beach in Mauritius. But on a more useful note, I found an unused connector on the decoder board which intrigued me. I researched the chips and found several circuit diagrams and datasheets which suggested that this mysterious connector was in fact a USB port. Sure enough, after adding a USB cable and cutting a hole in the IO panel at the rear of the box, I was able to access multimedia content from both a pen drive and an external USB hard drive. At that time USB functionality cost quite a bit extra in higher priced models. The whole exercise cost me less than $5.

Manufacturers will often design one product that has everything, and then cripple its firmware to artificially create lesser performing products to be sold into the lower end of the market. If the end user is aware of this, then sometimes it is possible to update the firmware of a low-end product to regain the full functionality of the high-end version.

When I was reading the instruction manual for the UEC decoder, I noticed that the Ethernet port was described as "currently disabled in this version", and the USB port was described as "connects to USB device (for software upgrade)". It seems to me that either port could be used for attaching an external storage device such as a PVR, if one could find a way to enable them.

Elsewhere in the manual is a reference to software components which are licensed under GPL and LGPL licenses.

Here is a link to the source code:
http://www.uec.co.za/DSD4121/License.html

As you can see, the box is indeed based on an embedded Linux OS. Therefore I suspect that some capable person may be able to add extra functionality (such as a PVR) to the decoder for no additional cost. In fact I'm wondering whether the $70 price difference for the current version is merely a firmware update, without any additional hardware.

Wombat, to answer your question, I am in Wollongong, so mysattv is in the same time zone. Thanks for the offer of help, but I am in the very early stages of research and haven't actually bought anything. I'm planning on one day becoming a solo grey nomad, but I don't know when. That will be decided by fate.

victon2 · Member

I think I opened a can pf very large worms here with this subject. I have now thanks to you all have got a hell of a lot more idea what I am doing than I had before. More importantly a lot of other travellers have joined in, and I am sure have learned like I have, and have links to all sorts of information.

So thanks to you all for your input and advice. Travel safe!!!!!

Tony

rosco · Senior Member

_wombat_ wrote:
dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you

Hey Wommy, how about nipping over to Newcastle and helping me with mine...

Ross

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you
Hey Wommy, how about nipping over to Newcastle and helping me with mine...

Ross

rosco, I'm in WA so just send return air fare and I will be over to see you biggrin biggrin

dorian · Guru

The following forum appears to be quite comprehensive:
http://www.austech.info/satellite-television/

They cater to experts and novices alike.

FYI, here are instructions that show that, with appropriate hardware, it is possible to combine Austar pay TV and Aurora FTA services in the one receiver using two SMART cards:
http://www.auspaytv.com/info/uec-help.htm

As stated by Wombat, the VAST smartcard is "married" to one decoder box. As such, I would be very unhappy with it. The people at austech generally don't like it, either.

rosco · Senior Member

_wombat_ wrote:
rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you
Hey Wommy, how about nipping over to Newcastle and helping me with mine...

Ross
rosco, I'm in WA so just send return air fare and I will be over to see you

Yes I know you're in WA Wommy, you told me that before. But hey, its not far across the Nullabor, is it?

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you
Hey Wommy, how about nipping over to Newcastle and helping me with mine...

Ross
rosco, I'm in WA so just send return air fare and I will be over to see you
Yes I know you're in WA Wommy, you told me that before. But hey, its not far across the Nullabor, is it?

it's quicker by plane biggrin

JRH · Guru

_wombat_ wrote:
rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
rosco wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
dorian, where do you live, just suburb and state only, if I am close I can come and sort it for you
Hey Wommy, how about nipping over to Newcastle and helping me with mine...

Ross
rosco, I'm in WA so just send return air fare and I will be over to see you
Yes I know you're in WA Wommy, you told me that before. But hey, its not far across the Nullabor, is it?

it's quicker by plane

But not as much fun as driving over.

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

you are right JRH, but rocso wants to watch the news tonight biggrin biggrin and he want's help with his dish biggrin biggrin

Brisat · Member

G'Day Dorian, you have to take a lot of stuff on Austech with a large lump of salt, not just a grain.
VAST authorisations are in Townsville and are subject to Qld time, 1 hour and 20 years behind.