I'm slightyl stunned that there isn't a common consensus about which satellite provider is best for westerners.

Having had many flyers dumped under my door I've noticed the Phillipines one seems to have ALL of the channels and at a cheap cost vs the other providers that have less and almost double the cost.

Having said all that I couldn't give a toss whats on the satellite so long as it shows me some damn AFL when the season begins.
So fellow expats, Aussies in particular which is the commonly acknowledged as the best?

Many people keep saying Dream but if what I compare is correct Phillipines have almost all the channels of Dream plus more.

Need to hook this up in the next 2-3 weeks and I'd love to just make a decision and be happy that its not going to screw up on me...immediately obviously it will at some stage.
But more crucially surely the aussies must know by know what the deal with the AFL is? its only 2 months away if that.

Or did I just make a tool of myself and people are about to tell me Philippine satellite is Dream.....oh dear

I think both are the same thing

They are.....

And you have 2 choices, completely cost dependent.

A hacked card that will die every month or so.
A "real" card brought in from the Phillipines....which rarely dies, but is much more expensive.

isn't there a difference between Thai and PI satellite? The PI satellite requires the bigger dish maybe, and some landlords (and the PSB) balk at the hard-to-hide 1M dishes? Does it also depend if you have a suitable wall facing East or South?

Pretty damn simple. I don't know really what you are getting at. Philipino is pretty much the only one to go with, SIMPLE.

approx 1200 to 1800rmb installed. Australia Network is on it, which has Aussie rules. 4 games a week. 1 x Friday, 2 x Saturday, 1 x Sunday, about 2 hours delayed.

again, think you are overplaying it a little, 99.9999% of people here have the philipino satellite, which is the small 30cm approx dish.

And for those people talking about "hacked" and "real" cards. It's all BS. There is no legal satellite TV here. Whether it is REAL or not, it's all illegal, so do you really give a sh1t whether it is a real card? It's all the same.

^ Au contrair my friend!

Granted, all dishes not authorized by the government are illegal.
And those are basically the ones we are talking about here.

There is a huge difference in cards....Hacked versus Real.

My Dream has had to have the card changed twice in 2 years.
Once when they changed the codes right before the World Cup
Pnce when they upgraded the satellite

Have friends who have gone through that 10+ times more in the same period.

^yup, some companies will sign you up for 'real' satellite service in the Phillipines and send the box to SH. Others just hack the boxes and use 'fake' cards which need to be programmed often (the sat. companies are trying to foil the hackers). Originally, the 'real' service, which is still illegal as Mat noted, was more expensive than the hacked service, but now the hackers are trying to sell their service at the same price as the 'real' service.

Its not always a comparison between real and fake cards. There are also normal fake and good fake. Orignally I used cards that needed to be changed about once every 3 months. I then paid more for a different card and it has not needed replacing for over 2 years. I doubt very much whether it is a real card. Will still be a hack of some sort.

hammerforlife wrote:Its not always a comparison between real and fake cards. There are also normal fake and good fake. Orignally I used cards that needed to be changed about once every 3 months. I then paid more for a different card and it has not needed replacing for over 2 years. I doubt very much whether it is a real card. Will still be a hack of some sort.

I have a subscription from PI so mine doesn't go down. But it costs over 2500RMB/yr. Can you give me your contact to get a hacked one that will last? Thanks in advance!

PureXTC88 wrote:

hammerforlife wrote:Its not always a comparison between real and fake cards. There are also normal fake and good fake. Orignally I used cards that needed to be changed about once every 3 months. I then paid more for a different card and it has not needed replacing for over 2 years. I doubt very much whether it is a real card. Will still be a hack of some sort.

I have a subscription from PI so mine doesn't go down. But it costs over 2500RMB/yr. Can you give me your contact to get a hacked one that will last? Thanks in advance!

Mine cost RMB 600 and as I said it has been great for over 2 years so far. Someone else asked me for the details too last week but because it has been so long since I have needed a new card the missus has lost the number. It doesn't help you much that the guy is called Mr Ding! I think the original connection was from someone on this site so maybe someone else can put you in touch with him or an alternative.

Ok so Dream/Philo it is. Now in terms of this real vs fake card arguments whats the price difference?
Also does anybody have any contacts of a good bloke that does real installations for fair prices?

Ok so I am very naive when it comes to satellite TV, I never had it before and the service we have in our apartment was organised by our landlord. The problem: it never works! So far this week it has only worked for one day out of four. The two religious channels still work so from what I've read in other threads this probably indicates we have a 'fake'/'hacked' card? We've spoken to the landlord about the sporadic service which he insists is normal. Should I be requesting a new card or am I over reacting? I appreciate your assistance oh wise satellite folk!

Dasher wrote:Ok so I am very naive when it comes to satellite TV, I never had it before and the service we have in our apartment was organised by our landlord. The problem: it never works! So far this week it has only worked for one day out of four. The two religious channels still work so from what I've read in other threads this probably indicates we have a 'fake'/'hacked' card? We've spoken to the landlord about the sporadic service which he insists is normal. Should I be requesting a new card or am I over reacting? I appreciate your assistance oh wise satellite folk!

If you can still get the religious channels then you need a new (fake) card. If your card is OK you should be able to access all the channels almost all the time.

Thanks so much for the info! Will call our landlord and ask for a new card.

Dream TV this year will make a some major changes to kill the hacked cards. So my advice is to get the receiver and the REAL card.

Eric@dreamsatellite.tv provides them. You will have much less stress when your REAL Dream TV card is still working when the clones cards get killed. Just pay the subscriptions it's not a lot of money and a lot less stress.

Australia Network may not always be available on Dream TV as Dream TV firstly is under bankruptcy protect which is whay they lost 14 channels last year.

Secondly Dream TV sys Australia Network is only there temporarily.

Dream TV this year will make a some major changes to kill the hacked cards. So my advice is to get the receiver and the REAL card.

Eric@dreamsatellite.tv provides them. You will have much less stress when your REAL Dream TV card is still working when the clones cards get killed. Just pay the subscriptions it's not a lot of money and a lot less stress.

Australia Network may not always be available on Dream TV as Dream TV firstly is under bankruptcy protect which is whay they lost 14 channels last year.

Secondly Dream TV says Australia Network is only there temporarily.

All providers can change channel lineups at any time.

CoffeeHawk_0 wrote:isn't there a difference between Thai and PI satellite? The PI satellite requires the bigger dish maybe, and some landlords (and the PSB) balk at the hard-to-hide 1M dishes? Does it also depend if you have a suitable wall facing East or South?

A one meter dish is not enough for the Thai satellite. South Africa DSTV needs a 1.8m

I use a 3m dish for Thai so that for my streaming customers I can keep signals even during the typhoons that come thru regularly.

A 3m dish! That should be easy to hide Have you got anything bigger?

angelus512 wrote:I'm slightyl stunned that there isn't a common consensus about which satellite provider is best for westerners.

I've noticed the Phillipines one seems to have ALL of the channels and at a cheap cost vs the other providers that have less and almost double the cost.

What provider is best depends on what content the end user needs. I have many customers who are not interested in sports and want the 75 non sports channles I have.

Many UK expats want British TV series from BBC Entertainment, BBC Prime and BBC Food, or SKY news. Some US expats want more US content which Dream TV DSTV And Truevisions all have.

Japanese clients of course prefer the Japanese Satellite.

You can get Australia Network online from some sites.

I see the issue of people wanting to have PAY TV without having to pay for it. Dream TV has about 30 English channels.

I have 100 on my streaming systems but they aren't cheap to obtain as they are PAY channels.

Cheap being relative some people will spend 2000RMB a month going out to bars and clubs and say they are having a great time.

Other people have other priorities and save as much as possible and live without TV at all.

Which satelite would be best for a "European" approach ... BBC-channels, Rai, German TV (VOX), maybe even BVN (Belgium/Netherlands) ??
Any www.sites that could enlighten me on tjis matter?? I a novice ... and not at all familiar with satelites ...

...

peekenjoo wrote:Which satelite would be best for a "European" approach ... BBC-channels, Rai, German TV (VOX), maybe even BVN (Belgium/Netherlands) ?? ...

The BVN channel is only available from the Thai UBC satellite package.
So you'll need a 1.8 m dish.

I wonder if the streaming services have become worth acquiring ?

I tried one provider some two years ago and I was not impressed with the quality. The set top box was based on Linux that had to be booted every now and then to keep it up and running. Most of the channels were converted from analogue to digital (i.e. using capture cards) and streamed. The quality of conversion was,I figure, the problem.

Any news on new services `? would be a savior for those living in the western side of the building and not getting access to eastern hemisphere where Agila 2 lies.

JD wrote:I wonder if the streaming services have become worth acquiring ? Any news on new services `? would be a savior for those living in the western side of the building and not getting access to eastern hemisphere where Agila 2 lies.

JD if you have read other threads you will see I provide a streaming service. We have many customers using this as they cannot have dish installs. The ADSL speed in Shanghai is fine for streaming from my systems.

You can test it for free just go to my forum link herehttp://forum.taiwansatellite.tv/viewtopic.php?t=354

There is s test report from others testing my systems in this thread below

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php? ... 4&start=50