Newbie Questions

[Thebesh]

Hi Guys,

I've looked into dreamboxes before and being pretty technical (and enjoying a good project) I'm tempted to give it a go and try and save some cash with $ly. I apologise for some of the newbie questions and I'm not bad at doing my own research, but I just have some queries before I start to see if it's worth it.

1 - Are dreamboxes the best option for HD receivers? Is there pros and cons of other receivers? Is it worth the investment buying official or are the clones just as good?

2 - From what I read a motorised 1m dish is the best option, is this correct? My $ly dish is attached to side of house - guessing a motorised dish needs 360 degree rotation? Do most people sit them in their garden - bit worried about weather (high winds or snow) damaging dish.

3 - I've read some things about card sharing (maybe can't say much about this on here). If I was to keep a basic $ly service (I use them as my ISP and had no problems - I use my own router) then does that make life easier? Would I still be able to get the Sports and Movie channels with this?

4 - This is the most important aspect - Reliability! I've got a Media PC running MediaPortal on a Windows box and it runs pretty well (maybe needs the odd reboot). I don't want to bin my $ly system for a setup that is up and down and causes me headaches. i.e When I sit down to watch a movie or sports I don't want to have to deal with issues before, during or after it.

Sorry for the basic questions. I'm really intrigued by this and from looking through the forums there seems a really good community on here.

Thanks for reading and I totally appreciate all replies and info given.

[Shady]

nice to see you doing some research before buying. too often we have people here blindly buying boxes that they have no clue how to work and then expecting us to sort everything out for them.
first off.. edit your post and remove any references to $ly.. we dont use that name on these boards.
now to your questions...

1: Your're going to get a lot of conflicting advice as to which is the "best" receiver I personally would say that either the dreambox or vu boxes are the best, but it all depends on what you want a box for. Dreambox clones are as good as originals only 3 times cheaper .. ive heard some bad reports of certain vu clones.

2: If you want european sats then you'll need a large motorised or multi lnb dish. They do not need 360 degree rotation.






some sit them in their garden, some others have to wall mount them. and motorised CAN be a pain in high winds.

3: we dont talk about cs on these boards.. but general rule is dont use sly bb if you do..

4: If like you say, you enjoy a good project, then surely messing about with it when it goes wrong is a good thing?
I personally have had minimal problems with my set up.. the odd crash now and again that is fixed with a reboot. Others have been ready to bin the lot.. its a hobby first and foremost

[Thebesh]

Thanks for the advice Shady (ammended 1st post as requested)

I guess Ideally I want to have another setup running in conjunction with my current setup until I'm happy with it. I've got the FULL package with $ly and I only watch the football on the sports channels and although I like having the movie channels I don't think they provide value.

I think the new EPG is not bad on the HD boxes, but I like to tamper with things and I would like the ability to remove channels I never watch (which I'm sure I can do with a custom setup)

From reading these forums it seems there are a lot of good technical people on here. I work in IT for a living, so hopefully I can give something back.

[ramjet]

there is no point in trying to compare doing something legal like you do now with what isnt if you know what I mean ?

the sat game is a hobby and not a financial savings system

apart from that, read my comments in this thread http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...-setup-301108/

then I suggest a vu solo2 or vu duo, with internal hdd, a twin feed set of cables, one from the motor and one from your sly plus HD dish of one of the spare feeds

buy a darkmotor and a dish of say 88cm to 110cm, and an inverto ultra black lnb (single, twin or quad as required)

ideally make sure you have ethernet access at the proposed place for this new sat box too as it needs internet access (there are wifi or homeplug options to sort this out if necessary)

once all this is done you will get FTA channels from ALL satellites, some softcam channels and some biss channels from various satellites but NOT from 28 east

after that its what neither of us can talk about

these new boxes can also stream from the net so bbciplayer and itvplayer and other streamers can be used

you can also stream music, films and pictures from a nas or your pc or laptop too

the 24/7 epg is excellent on these vu or dream boxes too

lastly, you dont need 360 degree access, ideally you need line of sight from say 45e to 45w passing through due south, there are no satellites due north as they are all over the equator

[Thebesh]

Thanks RamJet

That is exactly the type of link I was looking for. For satellites I'm not down with all the terms and lingo yet, but as fas as PC's and Internet Connections go I'm on the ball with those and have solid knowledge on this.

I think your right - I will start off small and run both systems in parallel for a start. I love my TV (and I'm sure we all do) and the last thing I want is to have made a schoolboy error on the new setup and be unable to watch tv until it's fixed. At least keeping Sly box means I have premium service running as safety net.

Hopefully once I'm up and running I can find more about the naughty world of things we shouldn't be speaking about ;-)

[Shady]

well if youre into it and pcs etc, then a dreambox or vu will be good as they are basically linux pcs

[Thebesh]

Thanks for your help with this guys - defo pointed me in the right direction and I'm excited to get stuck in.

I'm not amazing with Linux, but I can just about get by (I'm a System Administrator by day, mainly Windows servers and Storage though). I know how to google problems, which is the bread and butter for my job, so I'm confident I can do this.

I dare say I'll be back to ask more questions. I'll obviously use the search function before I do - something I imagine a lot of people are incapable of doing.

Cheers guys

[southpaw]

well done thebesh , nice to see a newbie who`s willing to help themselves as appose to the one post spoon and bib brigade we mostly come across