Now that I have sucessfully organized a decent TV and a home theatre for our family in Sikhio, I am stuck with a task that I accidentally thought was easy: I need a new Satellite Receiver with HDMI connectivity tothe receiver. It must receive free Thai channels and should be upgradeable to HDTV Channels (for which one has to pay obviously). It is not so important how many English Speaking channels it may receive.

Searching the net I found something called "Open Box S10 IR HD PVR" and a "Dreambox" might as well suit. Installed is currently a "SUN BOX" as is the dish.

The problem is that I cannot locate a dealer that is willing to ship the thing or a dealer that is near to Sikhio (incl. Nakhon Ratchasima). The new TV came from Cdisount and the Home Theatre from Lazada. Both do not seem to have Sat Receivers at all. Then there is directtoshop.com (homepro), they have some but only low class models.

Does anybody know a Sat-Receiver specialist that would accept orders and payment from Switzerland and deliver within Thailand or a shop in Korat which we could then visit (The Mall ? - unfortunately impossible to explore via internet).

Thanks a lot for some suggestions.

In what way are the locally-available DVB-S2 HDMI sat receivers low-class?

CTH, DTV, GMMz, IPM, SUN and TrueVisions (...even the AJ brand) have DVB-S2 set-top-boxes that will receive the Free-To-Air/FreeView (FTA/FV) unencrypted SD (and HD if capable) channels delivered over the Thaicom 5/6 Satellites. You'll receive around 47 FTA/FV channels using a Ku-Band (45cm-90cm dish) and 170 - 240** FTA/FV channels using a C-band (1.5m - 1.8m dish) [**depending on the size of the dish]

The DVB-S2 Satellite set-top-boxes can also be set to receive and display additional FTA/FV free channels available on nearby asian satellites with the proper support equipment.

For example, I currently I have an IPM HD box that views all the FTA Thai Programming from Thaicom 5/6 and NSS 6. I just flip through the channels and the DVB-S2 satellite receiver tunes the proper satellite feed electronically.

The nice thing about DVB-S2 is that most of the set-top-boxes can be swapped out for another vendor if needed (as each of the major players offer their own subscription packages and the encrypt channels can only be decrypted using compatible set-top-boxes).

Many larger villages in Thailand will have at least one shop that can sell you and set up the dish and cable to the desired location(s) in your residence. While "Truevisions" receivers must be purchased through Truevision, the other receivers can purchased through the local shop, larger local retailer, online from Lazada and sometimes through AliExpress.

As said many ota tuning models available everywhere. Lazada can supply both GMMz HD and PSI HD modules as have bought both.

These are both plug and play units and what most people use for Thai Satcom5/6 channels. They both cover Ku and C-band so will work with either type antenna (but you have a lot more channels and no rain fade using C-Band and the antenna is not that large at 1.5m or so.

Both systems provide the free channels/there own/and subscription to others including CTH (which has the lock on sports currently). I prefer the PSI HD as smaller but remote keys larger and display seems better and unit a bit more sensitive for low signal levels.

Thank you RichCor and lopburi3

I will look into your suggestions. What I meant previously with "low class" was a receiver that does not even has HDMI output in order to be switchable by the receiver. And RGB and FBAS connections would not be able to transmit a HD picture anyway.