True Satellite Tv

[givenall]

I am getting fed up with the True satellite TV, if it only works, 60 to 70% of the time, and the clued and rain kill the signal, I still have to pay for this expensive service.

I am looking for alternative to True, which can give me few English channels including news, like MSNBC, CNN, BBC, etc. Any idea?

[gotlost]

No satellite works 100% in rain or solar flairs (sun spots). That's a fact. So even if you come up with another satellite system you will sill have the same problem. I have True Vision and it cut out two times last night in the storm, it came back. There is only one system that would meet your requirement in Thailand and there is a debate as to its legality and that's Astro TV. You don't say where you are but you can not receive it in northern Thailand. Remember it is a satellite and you will lose it in storms rain and sun.

[garyh]

No satellite works 100% in rain or solar flairs (sun spots). That's a fact. So even if you come up with another satellite system you will sill have the same problem. I have True Vision and it cut out two times last night in the storm, it came back. There is only one system that would meet your requirement in Thailand and there is a debate as to its legality and that's Astro TV. You don't say where you are but you can not receive it in northern Thailand. Remember it is a satellite and you will lose it in storms rain and sun.

C Band does not have the issue with the rain it uses the large mesh dish, not sure what you can get on it though will know more when I get mine setup in month or 2. I know I will be able to get ABC Australia on C Band for free, very low on the horizon though at 13 degrees.

[halljimbo]

Got a spare ASTRO dish and receiver, only a couple of months old. You can have it for a good price if you want, it covers all Western channels for peanuts per month. I already have a full system. PM me for more details but you must be in Bangkok or South of Bangkok to receive the signal.

[thunder30101]

Find someone to repoint your dish, I have true and it rarely fails except in the worst storms and then only for a short time. Dish alignment is the number one problem in signal loss. I will admit the programming sucks but its the only reliable game in town.

[PatLogan]

I don't know which dish you guys are using with Astro in Thailand, but from my 8 years experience with Astro in KL, I would say it is much more sensitive to the rain than True (in Bangkok). It was very simple: I could know it was about to rain just with my decoder, as 5 minutes before the sky opened, my signal was already out. And that was from either personal dishes, or the large dishes the condo I moved in later was using.

As for the price, yes it is quite cheaper indeed...

[thrilled]

just get google tv when it comes out

[shaunoro]

I agree with Thunder.

Get the dish realigned by true,as it should only drop out during severe storms, not cloudy sky.

Not much free to air stuff on C band for my liking.

[gkinbkk]

We are going to cancel our True subscription in the next few days. There's no other description for it other than complete <deleted> AND expensive to boot. We are cable only here in downtown BKK so cannot do the same as my colleagues and pay 300b a month but get all the channels anyway (even at 300b a month the value is questionable)

Our alternative is to get Charoen or Happy cable for 250b a month to cover the Thai channels and Australia Network then stream the rest to various media players throughout the house from the internet in full HD.

For any live sports I can watch on the internet or pop down to a bar and watch it.

[brewsterbudgen]

I'm quite happy with Truevisions Platinum. To get every Premier League match, Ryder Cup live, NFL, MLB, NBA live, UFC, the golf and tennis majors is certainly good value for sports fans. The movie channels show some good movies (although sometimes so badly censored that they're unwatchable, but that's not True's fault) and the various documentary channels (Nat Geo, History, Discovery, Animal Planet plus the 3 True Explore channels) are great. CNN and BBC are a little tired and repetitive but good for breaking news (although it winds me up, I'd love to have Fox News) and the BBC World Service on the radio is a bonus. There are a number of junk American entertainment channels that provide light relief (Two & a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Top Model, Ugly Betty etc.) although I miss BBC Entertainment.

So, all in all, I'm not moaning about Truevisions.

[Pib]

To the OP, your dish must not be aligned very well and/or the dish is being partially blocked by an obstacle such as trees, another building, etc. You might have a bad/weak LNB or set-top box, but chances are both are still good since you are getting some signal. Don't know what part of the world/Thailand you are in, but here in Bangkok I only lose the TrueVisions signal for a few minutes during heavy rains.

.

Regarding my remark about the signal being blocked by an obstacle, everyday while driving around Bangkok I see a lot of dishes mounted on the side of buildings/homes which I find amazing any signal is being picked-up since the dish is partially (maybe fully) blocked by an adjacent building, up towards a highway overpass, etc. It appears the dishes are pointed in the right direction and elevation, but they are just partially/fully blocked by a nearby obstacle/structure. I know the parabolic shape of KU band dishes (i.e., little taller than than wide) like TrueVisions uses visually looks like it's pointed up at approx a 45 degree angle but is electrically looking up at 60 degrees if properly aligned elevation wise.....But evening knowing this, the dish's line of sight is definitely partially/fully blocked when considering either 45 or 60 degrees line of sight....I guess some signal is getting through somehow by reflection off adjacent structures. And most of these times these dishes are being installed by TrueVisions concessionaires who know in many cases they don't have much choice in where to install the dish, especially for apartment/condo's, but they are going to be installed regardless as they can't make any money unless the system is installed. Heck, they might not even mention any possible weak reception due to nearby obstacles until you start calling them due to weak signal "and then" they start pointing out the obstacle problem and they thought you knew already...you'll just have to live with it. Now, this would really apply to any satellite dish installer whether it was TrueVisions, Dtv, IPM, etc. And just switching to another satellite TV service ain't going to make an signal reception difference if their dish gets mounted in the same location, because the dish is still being blocked.

Recommendation: confirm your dish is aligned properly. If the dish is being blocked, see if you can have it moved to an unobstructed line of sight. You can do the alignment yourself if you can "easily and safely" get to the dish. It's easy to figure out which bolts to loosen on the dish mounting bracket to make slight horizontal and vertical dish adjustments....use the signal valve/reception menu selection on your receiver to peak the power level as you make very slight movements of the dish left and right, up and down. Your dish is already fairly close to be aligned since you picking up some signal, but just a few degrees in alignment can easily gain you a 6-10 db signal gain (which is a lot) from my personal experience (of course I'm assuming the dish's alignment is not optimized). Only make one dish adjustment at a time(either up or down or left to right, but not both at the same time) and take a new signal reading. Please note the signal power/value reading will probably be in "minus" db/dbm and a "lower" number, say a -30 dbm, is a stronger power/signal level level than a -31 dbm Whether you end up with a -20 dbm, -30dbm, -XX dbm reading varies from system to system due to signal reception location, how long your RG6 cable runs are, accuracy of the receiver's power measurement system, etc. You can use any channel for the signal level adjustment. You are just shooting for the strongest signal level. Good luck.

[dominique355]

If I am not mistaken, the dish supplied by Truevisions is 55 cm in diameter.

Does someone know if a larger dish, say 90 cm would cure the problem or improve the signal?

And who would be able to furnish/install such a larger dish with the existing LNB?

[garyh]

If I am not mistaken, the dish supplied by Truevisions is 55 cm in diameter.

Does someone know if a larger dish, say 90 cm would cure the problem or improve the signal?

And who would be able to furnish/install such a larger dish with the existing LNB?

Yes the same LNB will work, you could even go to 120 cm, the surface are is about 6 times greater than the 55 cm.

Edited September 29, 2010 by garyh

[Pib]

The True dish is a 75cm solid dish. See attached thumbnail for specs. You can use a 5.5ft to 6ft C-band type mesh dish and get about an additional signal dish gain of approx 6 db (a total dish gain of around 45 db on the C-band dish vs 38 db on the 75cm dish) according to the dish specifications. But considering other dish/signal factors you end up getting about a 4db gain to your receiver. Now a 4 db gain is a good gain, as a 3db signal gain is effectively doubling your signal power input.

I bought a combo/intergrated C-Band/ & KU-band LNB (approx 900 Baht) and mounted it on my 5.5 ft C Band dish. This eliminated about 80% of my KU band/TrueVisions siganl rainfade problems. Before here in Bangkok it was not uncommon for me to have signal rainfade/loss of TrueVisions signal for 15-30 minutes during a heavy rain storm; now I only lose the signal for 2-5 minutes during heavy rain....and during moderate to light rain I don't lose the signal at all.

Putting the KU band LNB on my C band dish made a definite difference and I didn't have to spend approx 3000 baht for a 120cm solid dish and that would nott have provided any more KU-band gain than my 5.5ft (1.7m) C band dish. I only had to spend approx 100 baht for some additional RG6 cabling plus the 900 Baht combo LNB...I was able to install the LNB myself. But if you don't have a C band dish, can't easily get to it, etc., buying a separate 120 cm solid dish to replace the TrueVisions 75 cm dish should get rid of the great majority of your rainfade assuming the dish has a clean line of sight to the satellite. You could use the current LNB off the the 75 cm dish. Basically you are just swaping out the dish, not the LNB or cabling.

You can buy the larger solid dishes at various places. Here's at link to 9Sats a satellite TV parts store in western Bangkok...a 120 cm solid dish there currently costs 2,700 Baht....have your Google translate turned on to best view the site. Cheers.

http://9sats.com/pro...at=50.52&id=156

[samuijimmy]

I am on Astro, in Samui, yes lately has been problems with heavy rain, but no worse than True was... just got better channels & sound quality, generally. HD is first to go... Also set up through HDMI cable to external speakers... quite a difference!

I called my techy guy to see if larger dish would help, he said no, but then phoned me back to say, that "Signal get better next week" ....

I did not quite understand why, but know when he's in the neighborhood he'll stop by & explain (he's a bit hard to understand on phone!)

To PatLogan in KL the dish I have is green.... out of curiosity what do you guys pay down there? Perhaps worth a trip to get subscription on card next year ? Just take the card down to Penang to an Astro office...?

Here it is cheaper, worked over 3 years, than True Visions.

[PatLogan]

To PatLogan in KL the dish I have is green.... out of curiosity what do you guys pay down there? Perhaps worth a trip to get subscription on card next year ? Just take the card down to Penang to an Astro office...?

What I used to pay you mean, I left about 2 years and a half ago. At that time I was paying about 100MYR/month to get the channels I wanted, quite equivalent to Gold Package here I'd say. It is actually a bit complex to sort out the cost as they have mini package, family package, etc etc. But at that tiem they did not have (and I think they still don't have) the HBO packages, and there were only 3 movies channels (HBO. Star Movies and Cinemax). That is if you don't count the Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and Malay movies channels of course

[garyh]

I am on Astro, in Samui, yes lately has been problems with heavy rain, but no worse than True was... just got better channels & sound quality, generally. HD is first to go... Also set up through HDMI cable to external speakers... quite a difference!

I called my techy guy to see if larger dish would help, he said no, but then phoned me back to say, that "Signal get better next week" ....

I did not quite understand why, but know when he's in the neighborhood he'll stop by & explain (he's a bit hard to understand on phone!)

To PatLogan in KL the dish I have is green.... out of curiosity what do you guys pay down there? Perhaps worth a trip to get subscription on card next year ? Just take the card down to Penang to an Astro office...?

Here it is cheaper, worked over 3 years, than True Visions.

If they are playing around with there signal we might be lucky and get it further north than Bangkok.

[selftaopath]

No satellite works 100% in rain or solar flairs (sun spots). That's a fact. So even if you come up with another satellite system you will sill have the same problem. I have True Vision and it cut out two times last night in the storm, it came back. There is only one system that would meet your requirement in Thailand and there is a debate as to its legality and that's Astro TV. You don't say where you are but you can not receive it in northern Thailand. Remember it is a satellite and you will lose it in storms rain and sun.

Sorry but I really can not understand what sun/clouds etc have to do with TV reception. Some of my thinking is: GPS is vie satellite, NASA communication or (spy) surveillance etc. is vie satellite right? This AM True said there would be interruptions due to " sun outages." ????? LOL Again I suppose my ignorance of this tech is evident.

Keoki (living in Rooster country).

[samuijimmy]

To PatLogan in KL the dish I have is green.... out of curiosity what do you guys pay down there? Perhaps worth a trip to get subscription on card next year ? Just take the card down to Penang to an Astro office...?

What I used to pay you mean, I left about 2 years and a half ago. At that time I was paying about 100MYR/month to get the channels I wanted, quite equivalent to Gold Package here I'd say. It is actually a bit complex to sort out the cost as they have mini package, family package, etc etc. But at that tiem they did not have (and I think they still don't have) the HBO packages, and there were only 3 movies channels (HBO. Star Movies and Cinemax). That is if you don't count the Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and Malay movies channels of course

Thanks for the reply here PL.

On the chart list I have with Thai prices of set up & choice of channels etc.

They list having HBO HD (channel 431) Regular HBO, Cinemax, & Star Movies. I actually did not take the movie package this year. I had to hold the money line some where!

So I basically have the "gold package" less sports & movies. But like the fact Granada & the Aussie Network BBC, Algeezara, CNBC, Bloomberg are included,for some reason CNN is hit & miss. Nat Geo, History,(both regular & HD) Cartoon channels, plus a bunch more "foreign ones"... which you listed.

Thai Prices quoted on the sheet I have: (not the company I used) Set up 9900 baht, included dish decoder & new wiring. I actually paid a bit less.

The packages listed on my sheet: Run from 10,000 baht without mini package, to 4 mini package and every thing 22,800 baht per year... Plus music channels. (Actually True's Music channels are better choice) This is where I think it is better to head down & get the decoder card renewed/topped up, in Malaysia next year?

Astro lately, keep making announcements to leave the decoder on as they are "updating services" so perhaps when this is done things will get better again?

I think anywhere in the world, on Satellite or Cable, they create these packages , in hopes you'll get the next package up!

[PatLogan]

Thanks for the reply here PL.

On the chart list I have with Thai prices of set up & choice of channels etc.

They list having HBO HD (channel 431) Regular HBO, Cinemax, & Star Movies. I actually did not take the movie package this year. I had to hold the money line some where!

So I basically have the "gold package" less sports & movies. But like the fact Granada & the Aussie Network BBC, Algeezara, CNBC, Bloomberg are included,for some reason CNN is hit & miss. Nat Geo, History,(both regular & HD) Cartoon channels, plus a bunch more "foreign ones"... which you listed.

Thai Prices quoted on the sheet I have: (not the company I used) Set up 9900 baht, included dish decoder & new wiring. I actually paid a bit less.

The packages listed on my sheet: Run from 10,000 baht without mini package, to 4 mini package and every thing 22,800 baht per year... Plus music channels. (Actually True's Music channels are better choice) This is where I think it is better to head down & get the decoder card renewed/topped up, in Malaysia next year?

Astro lately, keep making announcements to leave the decoder on as they are "updating services" so perhaps when this is done things will get better again?

I think anywhere in the world, on Satellite or Cable, they create these packages , in hopes you'll get the next package up!

You are most welcome

Well in the 1000 MYR I was paying I also had AXN, Discovery (but not all them, TLC, Turbo etc i had to pay extra for it, as for E! and AXN Beyond).

I was actually in KL these few days, and I go down there pretty often. I might check out the prices again next time, directly at a counter. I will see how True goes, and if in one year I am not happy. I will consider switcingh to Astro (plenty of friends down there you can subscribe for me), but I kinda doubt it. Again, I have had Tru for only 3 months, but I enjoy the programmes way more than I enjoyed Astro and I have way less rain related issues...

Edited September 30, 2010 by PatLogan

[Pib]

No satellite works 100% in rain or solar flairs (sun spots). That's a fact. So even if you come up with another satellite system you will sill have the same problem. I have True Vision and it cut out two times last night in the storm, it came back. There is only one system that would meet your requirement in Thailand and there is a debate as to its legality and that's Astro TV. You don't say where you are but you can not receive it in northern Thailand. Remember it is a satellite and you will lose it in storms rain and sun.

Sorry but I really can not understand what sun/clouds etc have to do with TV reception. Some of my thinking is: GPS is vie satellite, NASA communication or (spy) surveillance etc. is vie satellite right? This AM True said there would be interruptions due to " sun outages." ????? LOL Again I suppose my ignorance of this tech is evident.

Keoki (living in Rooster country).

A lot depends on the satellite frequency, power level, and modulation protocol being used to transmit the signal. High frequency signals like KU band frequencies (around 12GHz like TrueVisions uses) have a much shorter wavelength due to their higher frequency; a wavelength so short it can be easily absorbed/deflected by rain and even heavy clouds. C band frequencies are around 4GHz and GPS signals around 1.3GHz...rain/clouds has little effect due to their lower frequency/longer wavelength....plus, with GPS you are probably picking up signals from more than one satellite. And when it comes to govt communications/surveillance satellites these are specialized systems usually operating at classified frequencies/modulation schemes with whiz bang ground stations that can pickup even the weakest signal...pickup a cell phone call from Mars (grin).

Regarding the solar outages, this basically occurs during spring and fall for about 10 minutes during certain days, which can cause interference with a satellite's signal reception on the ground or even cause complete outage for a short period. Basically, the sun's path causes it to line up right behind the satellite and then the sun's solar noise being received by the ground dish is greater than the signal coming from the satellite. Kinda like a lunar eclipse where the sun lined up directly behind the moon. Maybe the 2nd thumbnail below is worth a thousand words.

Right now for us folks in Thailand receiving satellite TV signals from Thaicom5 which transmits TrueVisions KU band signals, C band signals, etc., we are in the fall solar outage period which is the strongest from 26 Sep thru 2 Oct. The outage occurs around the 1:45pm to 1:55pm each day, where you can lose some of your signals/channels, receive poorer quality signals, or maybe lose all your signals/channels. This happened to me while watching C band two days ago, when I lost all channels except the strongest channels of 3, 5, and 7. See the 1st thumbnail below for the dates/times in the Bangkok area when you might experience some satellite reception problems...it will vary by a few minutes depending on your location in Thailand....use the calculator at this weblink to calculate your exact times for the ThaiCom5 78.5E satellite. http://www.satellite...alc/SUNcalc.htm

[Pib]

Today I decided to monitor/watch the solar outage affect my C band and KU bands by monitoring my receiver's Signal Strength and Signal Quality level indicators. On my 1.7M C band dish here in Bangkok, which I have both my C Band and KU Band LNBs mounted, you could see the C-band Quality Level indicator start to drop around 1:35pm...at about 1:44pm the Quality Level had dropped to around 10-15% and almost all of the C band channels were gone with the exception of the strongest channels/signals on Ch 3, 5, 7, 11, & TPBS Bangkok. I still had a solid reading on the Signal Strength indicator, but as mentioned the Quality Indicator level had dropped greatly. I continued to watch the Signal Strength and Signal Quality level indicators and by around 1:50pm the Signal Level indicator also dropped greatly and was down to zero signal strength (which on my particular receiver is indicated by a level of 50...your receiver could be different) and the Quality Level was bouncing between 0 to 5% for all but the strongest channels mentioned above which hung in there, but the Signal Quality level did drop significantly on them also but not enough to kill the channels.

Switching to KU band and using a different receiver box (one of the TrueVisions issued boxes) with only a Power Level level indicator (no Quality Level Indicator) I still had all the TrueVisions signals/channels and the Power Level was still good...but I expect the signal quality level was down significantly also, but not enough to affect the signal quality on the TV. But from my experience last year there were on one or two days where the solar outage actually affected many of by TrueVisions KU band channels for 2 to 3 minutes, but that was also when I still had my TrueVisions KU LNB mounted on the TrueVisions 75cm small solid dish. As mentioned in one of my other posts, I know have a combo/integrated C/KU Band LNB mounted on my C Band dish...gets stronger KU band reception this way.

Around 1:55pm the C band Signal Strength and Quality started coming back, as did the channels. By 1:59pm all the C band channels had returned.

Interesting phenomenon to monitor....probably more easily seen on C band than KU band depending on your dish setup/size.

[samuijimmy]

Thanks for the reply here PL.

On the chart list I have with Thai prices of set up & choice of channels etc.

They list having HBO HD (channel 431) Regular HBO, Cinemax, & Star Movies. I actually did not take the movie package this year. I had to hold the money line some where!

So I basically have the "gold package" less sports & movies. But like the fact Granada & the Aussie Network BBC, Algeezara, CNBC, Bloomberg are included,for some reason CNN is hit & miss. Nat Geo, History,(both regular & HD) Cartoon channels, plus a bunch more "foreign ones"... which you listed.

Thai Prices quoted on the sheet I have: (not the company I used) Set up 9900 baht, included dish decoder & new wiring. I actually paid a bit less.

The packages listed on my sheet: Run from 10,000 baht without mini package, to 4 mini package and every thing 22,800 baht per year... Plus music channels. (Actually True's Music channels are better choice) This is where I think it is better to head down & get the decoder card renewed/topped up, in Malaysia next year?

Astro lately, keep making announcements to leave the decoder on as they are "updating services" so perhaps when this is done things will get better again?

I think anywhere in the world, on Satellite or Cable, they create these packages , in hopes you'll get the next package up!

You are most welcome

Well in the 1000 MYR I was paying I also had AXN, Discovery (but not all them, TLC, Turbo etc i had to pay extra for it, as for E! and AXN Beyond).

I was actually in KL these few days, and I go down there pretty often. I might check out the prices again next time, directly at a counter. I will see how True goes, and if in one year I am not happy. I will consider switcingh to Astro (plenty of friends down there you can subscribe for me), but I kinda doubt it. Again, I have had Tru for only 3 months, but I enjoy the programmes way more than I enjoyed Astro and I have way less rain related issues...

Which area are you in? PL...

Yes got AXN & Discovery as well!

I caught my techy guy today, and asked about the "update" to service next week, he drew a diagram of three circles. Receiver box & satellite and another circle in the middle.... what ever that is, should improve the service! So we'll see what happens, next week with "piggy in the middle"!!! ....

Tonight channels seem to be all OK, but not much rain at moment!

Be interesting to get idea of current prices down there....