Hi all you techies and experienced travellers out there.
I have an AutoSat2 dish and control hooked up to a SatKing DVBS2-800CA receiver, (VAST certified), in my motorhome.
This system easily aligns with the Optus C1/D3 satellite for excellent FTA TV anywhere in Oz.
1. I have a Foxtel, Foxtel Go subscription service at home, so can I access this via satellite while travelling?
2. I am wondering if my sat dish can be utilised to access other satellites to get other channels and/or internet connection, and if so, how?
I am aware of Starlink and it may be an option but is a bit pricey if added to our home systems. We are only part time travellers but putting together a possible long lap from Perth this year.
If anyone has any clues they would like to share could you answer on this forum or PM me please.
Any advice would be appreciated and well received.
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If the big fella had wanted you to ride a push bike, he would not have invented the internal combustion engine!
Hi Warren, we are full time travellers who have a foxtel IQ4 box, its a simple as putting a tri splitter on the cable from the dish, 2 to the foxtel box and 1 to the vast box.for most auto dishes.
Foxtel uses the Sat as Vast. I agree with you that starlink is too expensive and the costs get higher when you add streaming services like netflix etc even the FTA apps annoy me so I don't bother with them.
Our foxtel subscription plus our 2 phone plans are cheaper than the starlink fees, add to that some caravan parks have free wifi, that you can stream foxtel via foxtel go ( we were in a CP in Adelaide where we couldn't get sat service because of trees, we streamed foxtel for our entire visit.
Hi Essy 2021; The C1 sattilight as others have said is what the Vast service and Foxtell use and there are a lot of other services that use C1, but you would need another sattilight receiver in this case that would do the job . Your automatic would be pre programmed for that sattilight only and it may be able to programme it for other sattilights, but you would have to know in the direction you need to point it. That and your vast receiver is only programmed for the vast service channels only.
The only way around the problem would be a second dish of around 80 cm and a trypod stand to mount the dish on the ground. You of course would need another sat receiver and a very good sat meter to help you out. In my case we have a vast set up for our caravan and for the internet i have a smart phone and tether my lap top computer to phone. Works well and i can use it for the internet tv as well in my case. As for internet tv ( free view etc ) you could buy a cheap dongle or use your computer as i do for this and tethered it to your smart phone as well. The only problem would be is the amount of data that you would go through.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Monday 15th of January 2024 09:35:48 AM
I am no tech, not by a long way, but I think I may have a solution to my problem. Please pick the errors if you think I may be wrong, it would be appreciated.
Firstly, the C1/D3 sats broadcast VAST and Foxtel content.
I can install my Foxtel receiver from home into the RV. Connect it to the "Loop Out" on the VAST receiver, and connect to power.
Connect both via a remote HDMI switch to the TV. This way I can switch between the VAST and Foxtel receivers.
The AutoSat control identifies many satellites (pre-programmed) so I just need to point the dish to the appropriate satellite and then switch to the appropriate HDMI inlet (VAST or Fox).
If this won't work I can always read a book!
Comments or suggestions are more than welcome.
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If the big fella had wanted you to ride a push bike, he would not have invented the internal combustion engine!
Hi Essy2021, I think you are missing the point !! The foxtell receiver will only pick up the foxtell channels and can't be changed. The same goes with the Vast receiver, it is also only programmed for the vast service and both foxtell and vast would not work or lock onto other sattilights. The only way around the problem would be a 3rd sattilight receiver that you could use, but alot of them would not decode the encrypted channels. Switching between sattilight recievers and HDMI signals would be another problem.
One thing is that while most of foxtell channels are transmitted vertically , there are a number that use horizontal polarity. The difference is the feed voltage to your LNB. ( 14 Volts for verticall and 17 volts for horizontal. Vast use verticall transmittion. so if you were to be on a horizontal signal your vast receiver would not work. One way around the problem is to use a quad LNB ( not cheap either ) . This would allow you to run both vast and foxtell together and you would only have to worry about the HDMI side of things.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Tuesday 16th of January 2024 09:23:23 AM
The problem with this is while it works fine,providing that the foxtell box is on channels that are on a vertical transmittion from the sattilght ( 14 Volts ). But for a horiziontal transmittion the foxtell box puts out 17 volts, some of the move channels and pay per view are used in this case. This 3 volt difference is what the lnb use to transfer from a vertical signal to a horizontal signal and back again. The change of voltage and you would lose your vast signal and the reason why for this type of installation i would use a quad lnb these lnb's have 4 coax cables and would allow 2 of the cables to go to the foxtel receiver, the third would co of course to your vast receiver, and the last one could be a spair or use with a sattilight meter dueing setting up and alighnment of the dish, or even a second vast receiver . The other way would be to use a multiswitch between the quad lnb and the vast/foxtel receivers. This would also work ( some switchers also have a VHF/UHF input as well and this would allow to mix free to air signals and sattilight signals down the same coax cable, but we are talking mainly for a professional installation.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 18th of January 2024 11:40:00 AM
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 18th of January 2024 11:44:48 AM
The problem with this is while it works fine,providing that the foxtell box is on channels that are on a vertical transmittion from the sattilght ( 14 Volts ). But for a horiziontal transmittion the foxtell box puts out 17 volts, some of the move channels and pay per view are used in this case. This 3 volt difference is what the lnb use to transfer from a vertical signal to a horizontal signal and back again. The change of voltage and you would lose your vast signal and the reason why for this type of installation i would use a quad lnb these lnb's have 4 coax cables and would allow 2 of the cables to go to the foxtel receiver, the third would co of course to your vast receiver, and the last one could be a spair or use with a sattilight meter dueing setting up and alighnment of the dish, or even a second vast receiver . The other way would be to use a multiswitch between the quad lnb and the vast/foxtel receivers. This would also work ( some switchers also have a VHF/UHF input as well and this would allow to mix free to air signals and sattilight signals down the same coax cable, but we are talking mainly for a professional installation.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 18th of January 2024 11:40:00 AM
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 18th of January 2024 11:44:48 AM
To me what you are saying is contary to what is actually happening, our vans dish has a quad LNB so no issues, but when we visit our son in Sydney his unit has a single cable Foxtel feed, connectiong the IQ4 and previous IQ3 boxes we use a dual splitter, to connect the 2 dish imputs like diagram.
We get all the channels in our package along with the record and watch different channels at the same time.
Yes you are lucky that would work untill you choose a foxtel channel that had a horizontal polarity. As i said these are mainly pay per view channels and a couple of the movie channels i think. Of course you would not have problems with your dish on your caravan. You already have a quad LNB installed, so no problems.
Thanks for the pic Graham. My iQ box is currently connected to internet but also has 2x aerial inputs.
I assume these would be connected from the splitter as you mentioned from the satellite infeed, the other to my VAST box?
From there would I then need to setup Foxtel through the satellite connection using my current subscription?
I tried reaching out to Foxtel via a chat online and got an answer that this cannot be done, with no explanation. I am not sure this is correct by all accounts from other travellers like yourself.
Any help appreciated.
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If the big fella had wanted you to ride a push bike, he would not have invented the internal combustion engine!
Essy2021 wrote:I tried reaching out to Foxtel via a chat online and got an answer that this cannot be done, with no explanation. I am not sure this is correct by all accounts from other travellers like yourself.
Foxtel do not approve of you using your subscription mobile. They expect you to use it at your registered address. Now you realise that, are you surprised at the answer you got. You did not identify yourself, did you?
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
Warren, travellers have successfully used their subscriptions as they travel. What I was alluding to is you will not get any assistance from Foxtel to do this.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
