Satellite Television In Phuket

[Ping]

I was reading through this old thread:

and noted discussion of access to DSTV. Since (as far as I'm aware) this is no longer available, I was considering looking at an Astro subscription.

I note that http://www.phuket-satellite.com/ seems to provide this service. Any comments on their service or any other good satellite service providers in Phuket? As to Astro, what is the quality of the feed, particularly the HD channels? I have a concern that the house I'm renting (as of 1 March) may not be able to see the satellite, since there is a hotel building to the south east and the hill to the east (I'm off Nanai). (Other directions are clear.)

Any information would be highly appreciated.

(Mods: I have placed this thread in the Phuket forum [rather than the technical forum] because local [Phuket] knowledge is the key factor.)

[LivinLOS]

Cant say about your dish but Astro is great, superior to UBC in almost all ways, only lacking of course the Thai TV.

Plus of course its accessible via 'other' means..

[Ping]

Thanks LiL, I thought it may be. May be worth me taking a run down to Chalong... Are you getting a decent HD signal?

[LivinLOS]

Thanks LiL, I thought it may be. May be worth me taking a run down to Chalong... Are you getting a decent HD signal?

Am now up north and out of its signal range. Plus the box I was using wasnt a HD box.

I hear up north we can get vietnamese TV with lots of HD but done know anyone who provides the service for vietnamese access. I should hook up a DM800 HD box for the UBC 2 channels tho.

[Ping]

Apparently, an ASEAN policy (LOS, of course, being a member nation) is that all analogue TV is to be phased out between 2015 and 2020. That should mean that LOS should be getting its act together now, but TiT, so they probably won't do anything for at least another three or four years. I do note that currently, no televisions in LOS can be purchased with inbuilt DVB tuners, and there probably would be two main reasons: 1 - the standard is not yet known, 2 -even if the manufacturers guessed at DVB-T, there is no current demand/content, so they can sell their analogue tellies now and then make a killing with sales of new DVB tellies when the standard is confirmed.

What amazes me is that there is bugger all real cost difference to the manufacturer in taking an educated punt on providing a hybrid DVB-T and analogue tuner on their B100K+ 3D LED tellies, so greed comes quickly to mind...

[woodyleonhard]

Apparently, an ASEAN policy (LOS, of course, being a member nation) is that all analogue TV is to be phased out between 2015 and 2020. That should mean that LOS should be getting its act together now, but TiT, so they probably won't do anything for at least another three or four years. I do note that currently, no televisions in LOS can be purchased with inbuilt DVB tuners, and there probably would be two main reasons: 1 - the standard is not yet known, 2 -even if the manufacturers guessed at DVB-T, there is no current demand/content, so they can sell their analogue tellies now and then make a killing with sales of new DVB tellies when the standard is confirmed.

What amazes me is that there is bugger all real cost difference to the manufacturer in taking an educated punt on providing a hybrid DVB-T and analogue tuner on their B100K+ 3D LED tellies, so greed comes quickly to mind...

If Thailand does follow ASEAN, it'll open up a lot of "white space" bandwidth - which could be used for all sorts of fast Internet access schemes, including very widely distributed WiFi (see, i.a., http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/fcc-moving-forward-with-super-wi-fi-proposal/ )

Considering all the, ahem, luck we've had with the government managing the 2.1 GHz spectrum, I wonder if anybody's even thought about the TV band white space....

[Ping]

We can only live in hope, Woody.

And just to correct a mistake, I have found that Sony does, indeed, include a DVB-T tuner on its 3D televisions, but not its non-3D models (not even the high end ones), so it is possible that some other brands may do so as well on some of their models. It still begs the question of why Sony and others do not include this capability on all their models, given that the additional cost is peanuts.

[phuketcowboy]

Hi t o Livinos and others i need your help....?

I am living near Thalang and already have a moveable dish with a dynasat receiver...i have looked at all the words on UBC..i am not going that way, but i would appreciate any ones advice on maybe ASTRO satellite, i think thats what all you guys talked about,.

I have no internet cale or dreambox. but my receiver from Dynasat can accept smartcards.

Any advice on how i can go about looking at ASTRO satellite

Now i can get Singapore , Italy, Russia, Bbc Australia, China India and of couse Thaicom 2/5,

However i want something like UBC used to be but better. I want to also watch discovery channel that Thaicom 3 has ..

I know its a big ask ..so can i put it to you very learned gentlemen please and thanks in advance