Real NEWBIE in the middleast! - ABA DSS

oscarlimatango · January 25th, 2009

so i m a newbie and hope some of u more experianced guys can shed some light on me. i think i have done some basic research on making this thing work. However i have some really basic questions since i am in the middleast and i cant find any region specific forums.

This is the situation i have: I live in a building that already have three dishes installed. I know they have nilesat, hotbird and arabsat. I am using a really old reciever which i know i cant upgrade.

so my questions are:

I need a new reciever that is well supported in the middleast and that is not a clone. Any advice on which one to buy would be really nice.

Some sat guru came to my place and try to sell me a reciever with a card slot and told me that i needed a reciever with a card slot if i wanted FTA. How true is that?

Any help would be appreciated. Since i just got paid so my hands are itching to get started on this new hobbie!

thanks in advance!

**boboisno1** · January 25th, 2009

Hello and welcome. This forum is for the North American sats and we might not be of much help to you, sorry.

**s2byus** · January 25th, 2009

Welcome to ABA.
You should be able to find some local forums in your country or area.
There should also be some dealers and shops selling dishes and receivers.
I belive the most reputable brand names for receivers in your area would be Dreambox and Topfield.
It would be most dificult, probably imposible, to get any subscriber transmissions as there is no any significant third party coding activity for Europe and Middle East, like it is for North America.
But you would be able to receive any true FTA channels, depending on the specific location and dish aiming.

**monoxid** · January 25th, 2009

Hello and Welcome to our ever growing family. Enjoy your stay.

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Providian623 · January 25th, 2009

Welcome,

I spent three years in Iraq and used a Dreambox FTA reciever while there. Nilesat has FTA english programing as does Hotbird. Any FTA reciever will work. You'll need a Universal LNB with circular polarization. I was buying them for $15 US from the locals. There are a ton of websites offering information on Hotbird, Nilesat, how to recieve the BBC, etc. Just do a search.

The Dreambox was code programmable. Most FTA recievers are. No need for a card unless you are going to recieve Showtime, Orion programing, etc., and then you need their propriatary recievers and a subscription. Yes, there are several subscription services available out of the middle east. They are comparable to DirectTV and Dishnetwork in the US. I had a Showtime Arabia subscription as well as my FTA and recieved 42 English channels. Depending on the package you purchase you can recieve english, arabic, sport channels, etc. I used to watch baseball and american football live all the time, although I had to do so at 3am because of the time change.

FTA is really neat in the middle east because of the extremely clear views of the sky for sat pickup and the slew of channels. Much much more than we have available in the US and Canada. You can set up a motorized dish or a couple of dishes with a switch and watch Hotbird, Turksat, Arabsat, Nilesat, and even some of the African Sats at the same time.

My house on the base looked like an antenna farm, but I recieved it all. The Army thought I was working for one of the intelligence services, LOL. If memory serves me correctly, I recieved around 2,700 channels from Hotbird alone which is really 5 Hotbird sats in close orbit to each other. About 1/3 were scrambled, about 1/3 were european programing, and about 1/3 arabic. There were around 400 radio channels available on Hotbird as well. ABout 75% were in the clear and stereo. Great tv & radio!

There is a balance of channels transmitting in either NTSC or PAL. Most of the recievers will convert the signal for your tv, but the newer televisions for sale in the middle east will automatically convert the signal to whatever is predominant for your country.

The best sats to watch with the strongest signals for FTA are:

Hotbird
Nilesat
Arabsat
Turksat

There are a batch of others with varying signal strengths. Some are spot beamed, but most, like Hotbird, are aimed at both europe and the middle east.

Like I said earlier, an inexpensive reciever will do the trick and there a bunch of them for sale in the middle east.

Good luck and hope this was helpful.

**bigevil69** · January 25th, 2009

welcome aboard friend
everyone here is willing to help you free
but to get the most out of the best site you will need to
upgrade your membership and you can do that by clicking the link in my signature

**painterguy14** · January 25th, 2009

Hello & Welcome to Aba!!!!!!

oscarlimatango · January 26th, 2009

Thanks for the reply guys. The guy that came to sell me that reciever had a slot and he also had like a card inserted in it. He basically went on a website, downloaded an update and loaded it into the reciever and I could easily get Showtime. I believe it was through HotBird. I know that there a various updates on the web for recivers, what i want to know is if i should buy a sloted reciver or a non sloted one to get showtime and other channels.
and i really cant go to the roof and mess with the dish since it is maintained and owned by the building and i am not allowed to install any dish myself. so i am kinda stuck with the birds that i have! so if any could just tell me if i can do what i am thinking without shelling out alot of money, it would be great. and yeah the guys at the satellite stores over here charge alot because they want to sell me the update as a package thinking that they are smart! .

thanks again!

**s2byus** · January 26th, 2009

There should be actually 4 types of receivers:
1. Subscriber receivers with no card slot.
2. Subscriber receivers with a card slot, that have a card with the information pertaining to the package one is subscribed to.
3. FTA receivers with a card slot. Prepaid cards that can be acquired for getting certain programs or packages for limited time.
4. FTA receivers with no card slot.

Unless you want a subscription and aquire it with an authorized provider, I would be very careful for not being sold a subscriber box that may become unusable the next day you paid for it.
My first preference would then be an FTA receiver with a card slot, but only after making sure it is indeed suited for getting the FTA programming - without a card.
The second priority would be the FTA receiver without a card.
In any case, before buyng anything I would first check:
What satellites are available with the installed dishes and what FTA programs are available with that satellites.
Also if the connection point within the appartment is directly accessing the dish signal, or a dedicated interface box would be required and if so what it would involve.

oscarlimatango · January 26th, 2009

Thanks for the reply...i was in the process of posting the same question in the Asian section of the forum.
I think i would want to go for one with a card slot, however, i am not sure which ones are good...Any suggestions?

The channels that are scrambled are Star Channels. I know i can also get showtime and national geo and discovery and all that because i saw the demo the other day. But the sales man would not give me any other information.
I think there is a dedicated interface device installed becasue there are other apatments in my building that is using the same dish.

Thanks in advance for the reply/

**marty napier** · January 26th, 2009

Hello and welcome to aba

**Landscapeman** · January 26th, 2009

Lyngsat makes a receiver for Europe with a card slot. Heard good things, but never seen one. Sonicview and Viewsat makes a great receiver but some models will not have a card slot. Good Luck

Providian623 · January 26th, 2009

What country are you in?