True vision HD to GMMZ HD on Samui

[AlfGarnett]

Just had a chat with a Thai sales rep at BigC, True HD is quite an expense at 2500b per month, so thought I would listen to th spiel. Apparently the Gmmz hd box can use a True Vision HD receiver dish without any modification/adjustment, literally bin the True box and plug+play. Has anyone any actual experience before I invest a princely sum of 2999b ?

Thanks in advance.

Alf.

[Rooo]

Moving to correct forum for more info.

[John 1]

You will get Thai channels and various others channels for free but nothing you will watch in English language. I use it for 2nd TV so the wife doesn't interrupt my watching the car racing or football.

[Amusements]

I bought one if them yesterday from Tesco, as I am sick of waiting for CTH to ring me, to set me up. BTW; Tesco include a free mini box reciever too.

Regarding the dish, I have a black dish and had no problems with reception as it uses thaicom 5 C band and KU band plud NSS 6. So it should work with the true dish.

Setting up the reciver was plug and play. It downloaded and updated itself a couple of times, booted up and was all set up with all the right channels.

There is only one problem that you may have, and that is activation. The help line/support is an automated system that is 100% Thai. I got a young lady in Tesco to ring them for me, and Gmm rang me back with an English speaker when I got home. I activated the gold package and upgraded to platinum free for 1 month.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[SantiSuk]

It is my understanding that you can watch GMM with a True Visions dish with no adjustments. Their satellites are in very similar positions. I have GMM for my daughter's bedroom, which was previously in my lounge and was connected to an old True dish, sitting alongside a newer True dish. Background to that is that I had a pirated True box when I first came to Thailand. It didn't work well so I ditched it and got True to fit a proprietary one. They brought another True dish and left the old (identical) dish in situ - don't ask me why they chose to ignore the previous dish. Both dishes pointed and still do point in roughly the same direction.

So based on my experience and what I read on the football forums when GMM came out 2 summers ago I would conclude that you can plug and play.

However if it were me in your position I would either wait for someone to come on here saying that they have plugged and played into a True dish without touching the dish within recent weeks, or alternatively find a local satellite shop to sell you the GMM package and advise and/or physically check on the satellite connection. When I switched my system around a bit 4 months ago (acquired CTH and switched GMM to my daughter's bedroom) a local satellite installer did the re-fixing of my GMM connection and charged only 1,000 baht to come 20 clicks and do it plus some additional cabling cost. I don't think he touched the dish positioning but I can't be certain - he did use a signal meter and he may have tweaked the dish a few degrees. The important thing is that you are not going to need to move the dish from one location on the roof to another and you are going to be able to use the existing feed cabling from dish to satellite receiver box.

[lopburi3]

Thaicom 5/6 birds at 78 degrees and the GMM tuners can accept either C band or Ku band so plug and play for any antenna on those birds. At 2,999 baht this must be the Gold package included (note it is 2,500 baht plus postage from 9sat). So there will be more than free channels and the 1,500 baht per year Gold can be upgraded to the 4,500 baht per year full package (about 27 channels) for paying the difference in price (and first month is a free sample anyhow so no need to do immediately).

[wayned]

The GMM box will either work on the true dish, ku band, or the large black dish, C band. I have both and bought the GMM box and connected it to each one and it worked fine. You get less channels in "ku" band and are still susceptible to "rain fade". The channels that you get with the GMM box for free are significantly less than true, very few in English and minimal sports. I would check what channels are available and see if it meets your needs before you buy the box. My wife watches her Thai channels on the GMM box connected to c band without any problems but I watch true mainly do to sports; American, not English, so EPL is not important. I understand the if you want EPL the only option is CTH.

[AlfGarnett]

It's specifically for fox sports HD, and a few movie channels, so the Platinum Package is what I am looking at. As our True dish accepts HD signals, I assumed that it has some kind of upgrade ? That's why am a bit concerned that it may pick up terrestrial channels but need a reposition to get the HD channels. Unless I hear otherwise, I will grab a box from bigC (get a free additional box) in the next few days and give it a whirl and report back.

Am happy with True service but not the price and the constant repeats.

Regards

AG

[PoorSucker]

It's specifically for fox sports HD, and a few movie channels, so the Platinum Package is what I am looking at

CTH has them all, better than the True HD package for 899 baht/month.

You got the office in Lamai, go past buddies and 300 meters further, opposite the Kodak shop.

They set me up in two days.

[wayned]

Both GMM and True use the same satellite Thaicom5/6 as Lop stated above so no repositioning of the dish is required (as long as it is properly positioned to start with0.. I have the platinum package, cost 2155.15 / month and am happy with the reception with both CD and HD channels I am watching American football, live, as I type, Live Sunday Night Football, Redskins and Giants tied at 14. I watched NE beat Houston and Denver beat KC earlier, started at 0100. Arizona vs Phil and STL vs SF still to come, replay but first air.

When I first purchased the GMM box over a year ago I tried to contact them to see what was available, but they would not return emails and when I called their call center I was put on hold forever. Maybe they have improved but I gave up! My GMM box coast me 999 baht and everything is free, but no HD abnd very limited English.

[SantiSuk]

Alf is talking about the GMM Platinum Package (which at 417 baht* is significantly cheaper than the CTH package), not the True Platinum package.

If you are only interested in a rather limited range of movies and the usual dross US series plus the non-premium sports then GMM is probably the right package for you. CTH does have an appreciably broader choice of movies (a similar but different choice to that of True Gold package, but not as good as the very pricey True Platinum package) but its sports coverage in the English language (apart from football(/soccer)) is not much better than GMM's.

CTH is nonetheless a good proposition for English language speakers if you can stretch to the 962 per month baht package price* (reduceable if you take and pay for a longer term contract), whether you like the English football or not. The movie channels additional to those aired on GMM are Flash (similar to Fox Action Movies but not all action), Syfy and Thrill (contents of which you can guess at form the names). CTH also has a Good range of news/international programmes from UK, France, US, Japan and Australia. I particularly like Channel News Asia which is the only place you will pick up regular news in English covering Thailand along with regional SEA news plus magazine type programmes about SEA countries. I also quite like Nat Geo Music which has up to date rock, indie, pop videos - might just kick you out of your sixties/seventies/eighties rut!

*ThaiV members always wrongly quote the ex-tax price for CTH's service when lauding its cheapness - not surprising as Thailand seems to allow retailers to mislead the public in that way. The 417 baht GMM package price may well exclude 7% tax as well - not possible to tell from the website. UK law (and I am sure other developed countries) requires retailers to clearly quote the full price you will pay, which is much better for consumers

Edited December 2, 2013 by SantiSuk

[Amusements]

I was reading an article on BKP yesterday, and it was saying how GMM are going to expand the 10 HD channels to 40 next year, so that should be something to look forward to, as the current HD offerings are a bit limited.

[lopburi3]

HD is a function of the converter box - no difference in antenna and the same birds are used for transmission. As said GMM is not a good source for HD yet as few channels but then again most HD material is not much better than normal PAL transmission standards anyhow so if for soap/movie offerings it may not be needed for most viewing yet.

[taotoo]

Can anybody tell me what this video is about - do GMM ku band users now have to rotate their LNB to the 4 o'clock position?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-uQB6eNug

[AlfGarnett]

All installed yesterday, disconnected now as still have a few days to run on True HD. Missed the free Mini box promotion, but got 1200b free on Ais12Call instead. As a new box, Platinum package is 300b/month for a limited time too, maybe just a month, not too sure. At the moment, from what I saw briefly last night, the HD channels are not as crisp as True Visions, will have a mess around over the weekend to see if I can improve it. The box itself does seem a bit flimsy compared to True Hd Box, but at least I own it and don't have to rent.

Will update after the weekend.

Regards

AG

[lopburi3]

If you got the Gold package combo HD receiver the first month you get the Platinum package at no charge and after that will require you pay the difference between the Gold and Platinum for the one year validity of current package - after that the full price of either would be required.

[lopburi3]

Can anybody tell me what this video is about - do GMM ku band users now have to rotate their LNB to the 4 o'clock position?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-uQB6eNug

Do not believe this is anything new but some of the True dish LNB peaked for True did not receive Ku well on the alternate polarization channels used by GMM so needed adjustment. Not sure if this is still the case or not as use C-Band.

[taotoo]

Thanks!

[AlfGarnett]

Update, all going well, good reception and lots of channels. One gripe is not being able to see a menu with channel listings, hopefully will come in the future. Lots of people I have spoken to have gone out and purchased the HD box, all have been True subscribers and are happy with the price and content compared to True.

Regards

AG