Cheap Satellite System

[husky]

There is an outfit that adversites and has an sales office on the 3rd floor of Duk Com in South Pattaya, Sun-Channnels. They are about 1/3 the cost of the competition (to install a 300 channel movable satellite system) as far as I can tell and am wondering from anyone who has dealt with them how the equipment, service and reception is.....

[monty]

These cheap systems use the very basics of equipment, only allowing you to receive the FTA channels (which basically are crap, especially with channels like BBC world going the encrypted way).

Biggest drawback is the complete lack of any upgrade path!

If you would for example get hold of an official subscribtion card of any pay-tv provider, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it!

Unless you are Indian, Hindi or Chinese (the majority of the people located under the satellites visible from here) there is not much usable out there...

[patsfangr]

These cheap systems use the very basics of equipment, only allowing you to receive the FTA channels (which basically are crap, especially with channels like BBC world going the encrypted way).

Biggest drawback is the complete lack of any upgrade path!

If you would for example get hold of an official subscribtion card of any pay-tv provider, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it!

Unless you are Indian, Hindi or Chinese (the majority of the people located under the satellites visible from here) there is not much usable out there...

I agree with Monty with regard to the "cheap" systems, Husky. If you want a fairly good selection of English language programming, with quite a bit of American TV and movie programming, your best bet is to make the ONE TIME investment for a satellite system that will get you the Agila satellite from the Phillipines.

Your programming includes HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, and 21st Century Channel, which are all movie channels. The American TV program channels available are AXN (best of them), Star World, and ETC. From those 7 channels you can nearly always find something to your taste.

The negative is that, since the satellite is over the Phillipines, the signal is not exceptionally strong. During the daylight hours, for example, some of the above mentioned channels are too broken up to be an acceptable view. They are all usually strong in the evening however.

My provider for the satellite was SAMART. I chose them over some others because of there experience and service. However, they are more expensive than most. But keep that "one time expense" factor in mind. It's up to you whether it's worth the extra money. But for me, a confirmed TV/movie nut prior to moving here from the USA in April, it's well worth it.

George

[husky]

Another costly mistake easily avoided. Thanks for the info mates!

[Phil Conners]

These cheap systems use the very basics of equipment, only allowing you to receive the FTA channels (which basically are crap, especially with channels like BBC world going the encrypted way).

Biggest drawback is the complete lack of any upgrade path!

If you would for example get hold of an official subscribtion card of any pay-tv provider, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it!

Unless you are Indian, Hindi or Chinese (the majority of the people located under the satellites visible from here) there is not much usable out there...

I agree with Monty with regard to the "cheap" systems, Husky. If you want a fairly good selection of English language programming, with quite a bit of American TV and movie programming, your best bet is to make the ONE TIME investment for a satellite system that will get you the Agila satellite from the Phillipines.

Your programming includes HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, and 21st Century Channel, which are all movie channels. The American TV program channels available are AXN (best of them), Star World, and ETC. From those 7 channels you can nearly always find something to your taste.

The negative is that, since the satellite is over the Phillipines, the signal is not exceptionally strong. During the daylight hours, for example, some of the above mentioned channels are too broken up to be an acceptable view. They are all usually strong in the evening however.

My provider for the satellite was SAMART. I chose them over some others because of there experience and service. However, they are more expensive than most. But keep that "one time expense" factor in mind. It's up to you whether it's worth the extra money. But for me, a confirmed TV/movie nut prior to moving here from the USA in April, it's well worth it.

George

My signal is getting worse and worse, some channels are viewable some of the time, for example Discovery channel, but others like HBO we haven't seen for months. I already had a poke at the dish and I don't think it's out of alignment. Perhaps water in the cable or whatever. I have a 7.5' dish which the installer insisted would ensure a good picture under all circumstances except during rain.

I'd be curious to know if anyone can confirm the signal has deteriorated or it's just my rig that needs fixing.

I used to use the guys who were first on Pattaya Tai, near the Buakao market who later moved to the Sai 3/Pattaya Klang intersection but I don't have any confidence in those guys actually knowing what they're doing anymore -- anyone has the number/address to Samart?

[geoffphuket]

I was just reading a web site for this http://www.mlesat.com/Agila.html. It looks like the footprint should give a good signal over Thailand.

Does anyone know of an instalation company in Phuket and an approx' cost ? I'm interested.

[monty]

Take a good look!

The channels you're interested in are on the Ku-band, of which the footprint does not cover Thailand (the lower of the two footprint pictures)!

However, designing the directional antennae used on the Ku-band is a bit of black magic, even for the designers...

As a result of that we have quite some stray signal over here, which should make the signal receivable in Phuket with a dish of at least 10 feet.

It will be a bit weak though, and almost guaranteed dissapear completely when rainclouds obstruct the view of tha Agila satellite...

[scotsman]

These cheap systems use the very basics of equipment, only allowing you to receive the FTA channels (which basically are crap, especially with channels like BBC world going the encrypted way).

Biggest drawback is the complete lack of any upgrade path!

If you would for example get hold of an official subscribtion card of any pay-tv provider, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it!

Unless you are Indian, Hindi or Chinese (the majority of the people located under the satellites visible from here) there is not much usable out there...

I agree with Monty with regard to the "cheap" systems, Husky. If you want a fairly good selection of English language programming, with quite a bit of American TV and movie programming, your best bet is to make the ONE TIME investment for a satellite system that will get you the Agila satellite from the Phillipines.

Your programming includes HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, and 21st Century Channel, which are all movie channels. The American TV program channels available are AXN (best of them), Star World, and ETC. From those 7 channels you can nearly always find something to your taste.

The negative is that, since the satellite is over the Phillipines, the signal is not exceptionally strong. During the daylight hours, for example, some of the above mentioned channels are too broken up to be an acceptable view. They are all usually strong in the evening however.

My provider for the satellite was SAMART. I chose them over some others because of there experience and service. However, they are more expensive than most. But keep that "one time expense" factor in mind. It's up to you whether it's worth the extra money. But for me, a confirmed TV/movie nut prior to moving here from the USA in April, it's well worth it.

George

My signal is getting worse and worse, some channels are viewable some of the time, for example Discovery channel, but others like HBO we haven't seen for months. I already had a poke at the dish and I don't think it's out of alignment. Perhaps water in the cable or whatever. I have a 7.5' dish which the installer insisted would ensure a good picture under all circumstances except during rain.

I'd be curious to know if anyone can confirm the signal has deteriorated or it's just my rig that needs fixing.

I used to use the guys who were first on Pattaya Tai, near the Buakao market who later moved to the Sai 3/Pattaya Klang intersection but I don't have any confidence in those guys actually knowing what they're doing anymore -- anyone has the number/address to Samart?

I am in east pattaya and no problems with hbo in the evening so I would get your sat checked.

[binnsy]

what is the average cost for sat tv in thailand per month and whats the cost for instellation?

[geoffphuket]

Take a good look!

The channels you're interested in are on the Ku-band, of which the footprint does not cover Thailand (the lower of the two footprint pictures)!

However, designing the directional antennae used on the Ku-band is a bit of black magic, even for the designers...

As a result of that we have quite some stray signal over here, which should make the signal receivable in Phuket with a dish of at least 10 feet.

It will be a bit weak though, and almost guaranteed dissapear completely when rainclouds obstruct the view of tha Agila satellite...

Cheers Monty, that's that idea blown away then - I'll stick with Thai television and Thai Visa

[barryofthailand]

The only time you should be having a problem is when clouds move in. This greatly affects the signal on the KU band, but if you have a motor on your dish you can make a slight adjustment that will fix this problem most of the time.

Barry

[geoffphuket]

I haven't the room for a ten foot dish. Is there another Satellite up there with a similar program line up, or is a move to the Phillipines necessery....I don't want UBC, Thank you

[monty]

I think you might be able to get Astro with an 80cm dish in Phuket, since you're pretty close to Malaysia. It's receivable up higher North but only with bigger dishes.

Prices and programming can be found here:

http://www.satthai.tv/satellite_n_site/astro.htm

Westerners would be taking the 5 minipackages combined with movies at 13880 Baht/year (1160/month) making it some 500 Baht/month cheaper then UBC!

[djinn]

Take a look at http://www.jsat.tv/

They are not the cheapest but they have good service

I have now Agila and Multichoice (2 dishes)

Once I went to Samart,my Agila dish was not aligned due to strong wind (I am on seaside)

They tried to sell me their s..t saying Agila had lowered signal so my dish was too small

jsat came one week laterand OK.So I suggest to forget samart

[grtaylor]

Does anyone know - if I buy a dish and decoder which is "UBC-ready" for my place in Pattaya (Samart, for example), can I take my UBC card (digital cable, not satellite) from my decoder at my apartment in BKK with me when I go at weekends, and use it there also?

Thanks,

Graham

[CaptainFly]

I dont believe the signal is getting worse. I designed satellite systems and can offer a bit of advice on the subject. Water or condensation in the cable could cause a problem but its usually a connector issue. Disconnect the cable and clean the contact with fine sandpaper. If you have a single conversion LNA then you probably have the PL 259 type connector which will clean itself if you plug and unplug a couple three times. There also should be a signal strength meter on your receiver so you can fine tune the dish. Its a simple thing to do as with Astro here in Malaysia as they have a setup for the dish and shows signal strength.

Hope this works for you and worse case is you just replace the cable as its cheap.

Im building a house in Northern Thailand and attempting to receive Astro Ku band using a 10 foot dish as the small supplied dish has no chance at 17 degrees North. If anybody has attemped this I would be happy to hear your results.

Thanks

[PattayaParent]

There is an outfit that adversites and has an sales office on the 3rd floor of Duk Com in South Pattaya, Sun-Channnels. They are about 1/3 the cost of the competition (to install a 300 channel movable satellite system) as far as I can tell and am wondering from anyone who has dealt with them how the equipment, service and reception is.....

If you look at the Sun Channels webite they list the 300 channels you can receive so you can check whether they are worthwhile for you. Which my guess is not unless you speak an Indian language or Urdu.