Satellite Tv, Who To Use ?

[raymp]

Motherinlaw wants me to get her a satellite tv system

I havn't got a clue who to get.

She tells me for 3000 baht she can get a satellite tv system with no monthly payments.

As far as i was aware all tv requires a monthly payment after installation.

My wife looked around and she told me 6000 baht .

I would appreciate some usefull advice on what satellite tv company to use and if in fact there is a package does not require monthly payments

[Crossy]

About 3k will get you a TrueLife box and dish, no monthly payment. Wifey has one in the bedroom to watch her soaps.

All the usual terrestrial channels plus other stuff which you can find on the True website (a site I avoid at all costs as it gives me a headache).

[MJCM]

Look up a company called PSI, they only have Thai Website. (Can't find the English).

My Mother in Law up country has a Sat system installed by them. It was a one off payment 3500 THB and no monthly payments.

Edit: // Forgot to add the link (Note Thai Only)

http://www.psisat.com/products.html

Edited May 5, 2012 by MJCM

[apetley]

3k bht sounds about right for a Thai only package. Wifey paid that for a small dish and decoder and no need for mothly payments.

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[raymp]

Great usefull information.

Thank you all

[mikewet88]

Or DTV thailand

http://www.dtvthai.com/index.php

[apetley]

Or DTV thailand

http://www.dtvthai.com/index.php

Yes that is the one wifey uses, small yellow dish. Like True the signal disappears during heavy rain.

She was told there is another 'better' option now for watching Thai tv but the name escapes me and uses an orange dish.

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[BuddhistVirus]

That orange dish could be IPMTV (http://www.ipmtv.tv/), similar to dtv. Around 80-120 thai channels featuring mostly tele products where a couple of guys talk to no end about some beauty products. Of course, the usual ch 3, 5,7, etc are included. Come dark clouds or heavy rain, signal is a goner.

[oggie911]

just get one of the bigger black dishes with a twin lnb connected to 2 sat boxes one for living room one in bed room. most thai channels free and works good in bad weather,most satellite sellers will sort you out,but shop around

[Lite Beer]

As said there are a few Thai packages around for that money.

A big black dish and a Dynasat box will get around 300 channels.

[krobert6]

I am going for aa PSI witt dual channels and 2 boxes for $4000

[americandragonslayer]

whats the best package to go with for us english speaking folks....as far as receiving channels in englishy.

[Pib]

Yeap, just go with a C-band system if your residence can mount the larger size dish required (i.e., approx 1.5M or more in diameter), point it at the Thaicom 5 satellite, you'll pickup hundreds of free-to-air (FTA) channels (few FTA channels are in English except for the western religious-type channels and a few others...but many, many Thai/other language channels), and rainfade will become a thing of the past compared to KU band systems which use the small dishes around 60-75cm in diameter like the TrueVisions/IPM/DTV dishes.

Regarding the settop boxes they have Over-The-Air (OTA) channel updating and non-OTA updating types. OTA updating means as TV stations change their broadcast frequency/parameters (i.e., frequency, symbol rate, polarity, etc) a OTA box will automatically get that updated information every few weeks to a month...it will vary from box manufacturer-to-manufacturer as to how often the OTA update occurs...but usually it's approx every month.

Many times when you get a "no signal" indication for a channel it's not because that particular TV station went off the air/went out of business, it's just they changed the frequency they are broadcasting on. With OTA this updated frequency info is automatically sent to your settop box during the approx monthly updates so you never know the channel actually changed frequency. Now, if you don't have a box which does OTA, then you must manually enter/save the new frequency/parameters to your settop box OR do use the boxes AutoScan/BlindScan feature to capture the channel(s) at its new frequency/parameters.

Now OTA is generally a good thing but a downside to many OTA boxes is when they update the channels the "channel order" you had setup will be set to whatever order is in the OTA update. Ex: say you had moved channel XYZ to channel number 12 where it was previously channel number 80. Ok, it will stay channel number 12 untill the OTA update occurs and then it is moved back to channel number 80 or whatever channel number the box manufacturer has established in the update. Usually whatever you may have also setup in your Favorites is also now gone/reset.

So, what to do. Well, either just use what channel order comes with the monthly OTA update knowing that as channels are added, deleted, moved around that the channel order will change somewhat...that favorite channel you use to watch at channel 35 many now be channel 36, 33, 99, etc. But usually the OTA updates don't change the order too radically, with no-to-little change for the more popular Thai channels.

If you get a OTA box I would recommend you get one where you can Enable or Disable the OTA update feature....I sure know my Thai brother-in-law now wishes he had bought boxes with this Enable/Disable feature as he is the type that likes to set the channels in a certain order and as some channels change their frequency/parameters he will just enter the updated data manually or do a Blind/AutoScan which captures the channel, and then he just moves it to the channel position he wants. He also like to rename some of the channels. He bought OTA PSI boxes which don't have the Enable/Disable OTA feature; it's always on. But PSI probably has boxes where the OTA feature can be Disable or Enabled.

I'm like my in-law in that I like to set my channels in a certain order, retitle some channels to make them more descriptive, and just periodically/as needed update manually or use the Auto/BlindScan feature. I always use Auto/BlindScan as I don't have to do any web searching to fine out what the new frequency/parameters are and then enter this info. With Auto/BlindScan which comes in most all current boxes sold it takes just a few minutes to scan the satellite(s) and then just adds any "new" channels (i.e., like ones with updated frequencies/parameters) it finds to the end of your current channel list.....it don't nuke/overwrite your current channel order or Favorits..then you can move these new/updated channels to whatever channel order positioning you want.

But many people don't want to hassle (or don't know how...it's easy) with manual/auto-scanning updates and just opt for OTA and live with the channels numbers possibly changing around somewhat after every OTA update. Now, I've never seen any of the OTA updates by any box manufacturer change the order number of the major Thai channels like channels 3, 5, 7, etc., so it's not a big deal to folks who just watch the major Thai channels. But as mentioned, if you are the type that likes to setup a specific order of all/most your channels and the OTA update even nukes your Favorites setup, then a box with OTA which can not be disabled can be frustrating. You soon get tired of moving all your channels to a certain order only to have it nuked/reset approx every month with the OTA update.

Heck, I've got five C band boxes (some DynaSat boxes about 3 years old) running in my 4 bedroom home (only two boxes are used almost daily...the others occasionally) and they do not have the OTA capability. Now doing a periodic Blind/AutoScan on all five boxes and then moving the new channels into my preference of order could get old real fast....it fact it did. However, now I only do a periodic Blind/AutoScan on "one" box every six months or so to capture all current/new channels; then I just hook all the other boxes up to this updated box with a little 3-wire null modem cable (cost 20 baht at 9Sats in Bangkok) and mirror the updated (Master) box to the other (Slave) boxes using the Software/Channel Upgrade feature built in the boxes....most boxes have this feature....just takes a few minutes...and you don't need any computer as the Master box just updates the Slave box. Then every box in my house is "identically" the same channel order wise for the approx 250 channels I pick-up. Heck, since I installed my mother-in-law's C band system and used the same DynaSat boxes, on our first visit to her place after I did a periodic update on my boxes I will take along one of my boxes and the null modem cable and update her two boxes to mirror ours...my wife is always calling the Mom and recommending dear ol' Mom she checkout some channel XYZ like channel number 121...since the channel order of our boxes are the same then the dear ol' mom just switches to that channel to see what the daughter is talking about.

OTA is a good thing...I would just recommend you get settop boxes which have a OTA Enable/Disable feature for maximun flexibility in how you like to manage your channel order, Favorites, etc. It will vary from individual-to-individual and from situation-to-situation as to how important this Enable/Disable OTA feature is. Cheers.

[Rinrada]

Got an IPM system Dish and Info sat setup for about 3K and no fees which gives us mostly Thai channels and the daily news from Somalia (about 500 in total) ...dear dear...

OK for now but need the Beeb /CNN/Bloomberg in future

[astral]

That is par for the course in most locations.

Lots of channels, but very few worth watching...................

Most good English channels are encrypted so you need a card.