by bignick » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:48 pm
Hi
I drafted this reply earlier but couldn't log on. Some of the points have already been covered by Iceman, please excuse the repeated message........
I’ll try to answer as many questions as possible in one answer:
Island wide (sky with Subscription):
1.8m - This will bring in about 75% of the sky family pack (inc Sky 1)as well as Sky Sports 1,2&3 and movie channel 7&9! For most people this is okay!
I get these for c£250 installed
2.4m - This will bring in almost everything on Astra 2A, & B - Movies, Sports (inc eurosport & News) you may be lucky and get a couple of hours of Astra 2D but only if your location allows and the dish is good! These are c£400+ installed
BBC/ITV Reception:
In Paphos you require a 2.7m Prime focus dish fitted with an Invacom Quad LNB for Reception of BBC/ITV (minimum) Insist on a quality dish - DH is the only one worth having at that size. Be careful, some companies try and pass off Hungarian copies as American DH – get it in writing before you buy! Price is around c£600-700 (I am Limassol based so I don’t do to many of these)
In Limmasol you require a 3.0m Prime focus dish fitted with an Invacom Quad LNB for Reception of BBC/ITV (minimum) Insist on a quality dish - DH and Famaval are the only ones worth having at that size. Again, be careful of companies trying and pass off Hungarian copies as American DH. Prices for these dish start at around C£900 fitted with good LNB
East of Limmasol and North then you require 3.8-4.2m dish. There is little choice at this size. I think Jonsa is the only dish at 4.2m.
Prime Focus v’s Offset………
Up to about 2.4m the offset dish has the edge for signal gain, but after this the Primes are the only way to go. In fact after 2.0m I would tend to go for a prime focus. Offsets are good when setting up multiple LNBs for watching TV from different Satellites.
Which Digibox:
A digibox with a sensitive tuner will outperform others and may even mean you may not need quite as big a dish.
The pick of the bunch is the Pace 2600c1 – By far the best, but you pay a premium for them as they are getting scarce now
Pace 1000 ‘Javelin’ Minibox – Just as good as the 2600 but REALLY scarce and expensive as the caravan fraternity love ‘em because they run off 12v.
Panasonic TU-DSB40 – very good alternative to the 2600 and cheaper
Pace DS430n Quite good – Looks like the 2600 but isn’t as sensitive – check the number on the bottom, I know people that pass these off as 2600 units but they aren’t as good.
The silver Grundigs and Thomsons are pretty good too and again, cheaper.
The Amstrad DRX400 & 550 also perform pretty well
Of the sky plus units, only the Pace v3 is worth writing home about, though the v2 isn’t too bad either.
Sky overseas is NOT allowed, do not tell Sky you are overseas as they will cut you off. Do not accept one of their installation deals as you are required to have your digibox plugged into the Telephone line for the first year. If they find you haven’t then they will cut you off. There is various ways to get round the problems (normally a hell of a lot cheaper than using the local installer annual administration fees) but that is a different story
Hope that is of some help
Cheers
Nick
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