Thread: South Africa - Help: I need information on FTA recivers that will work here

South Africa - Help: I need information on FTA recivers that will work here

Hi, I am in South Africa and would like to know of FTA HD receivers that will work in South Africa to pick up C Band and KU band or any otehr bands available. As you may or may not not know there is only one Satelite operator in South Africa called Multichoice who charge ridiculous prices and have very little good content. they broadcast with a iredeto and iredeto 2 encryption. i'm not sure if anyone knows of a receiver or pc card that can also decrypt this.

Also what is a CAM?

I'm new to all of this

Originally Posted by lukemab

South Africa - Help: I need information on FTA recivers that will work here

Hi, I am in South Africa and would like to know of FTA HD receivers that will work in South Africa to pick up C Band and KU band or any otehr bands available. As you may or may not not know there is only one Satelite operator in South Africa called Multichoice who charge ridiculous prices and have very little good content. they broadcast with a iredeto and iredeto 2 encryption. i'm not sure if anyone knows of a receiver or pc card that can also decrypt this.

Also what is a CAM?

I'm new to all of this

Lukemab,

CAM is a Conditional Access Module. Either a SMART card or a built-in electronic circuit or IC that can be programmed by the satellite provider to allow your receiver to access their encrypted channels.

When you subscribe to your pay sat TV provider (in your case, MultiChoice) they would transmit a signal down to your receiver and only your receiver would understand the instructions as the CAM would be coded with your receiver's serial number and other codes that they would set up when you purchased that particular receiver. Possibly something related to your account number and subscription choices (channels purchased).

Other receivers of the same make and model would ignore these "unlocking" signals because the codes transmitted only work for the CAM module and your specific receiver.

AcWxRadar

Originally Posted by lukemab

South Africa - Help: I need information on FTA recivers that will work here

Hi, I am in South Africa and would like to know of FTA HD receivers that will work in South Africa to pick up C Band and KU band

Lukemab,

In general, most FTA receivers will work equally as well in Europe, Africa, India as well as the U.S., South America and Canada. They are mostly designed to be somewhat universal in the firmware setups, but the hardware items are what may differ the most.

In Europe, the video output connections are generally what they refer to as SCARTs. I have no idea what that stands for off the top of my head, but your TVs and VCRs and DVD recorders would need to match the output format of the satellite receiver.

I believe that most FTA satellite receivers will be interchangeable in regards to the satellite technology. Europe and Africa would likely be using low and high band transmissions, so a univeral LNBF would be desired for whatever band that is utilized. This is NOT the case in the US, where we have very few low band signals, but the receivers almost all have that capability to adopt (access/utilize) it.

I have a very limited scope of knowledge on this subject, but I have asked a few questions here and there regarding receivers manufactured for overseas use like you are requesting and that is about the extent of the information that I got from them.

My answer is very vague, but I do believe that if your external hardware can be set up to match the receiver, everything else will work.

Radar

Long ago and far away in time and space I lived in rural Malawi. At that time there was no broadcast TV in Malawi. Hence, the only live TV was via satellite. I invested in a large dish and equipment and subscribed to M-Net. It was a little pricey, but that was all there was. How else could I watch Monday night football (on Tuesday morning)?

I know the pain of paying Multichannel. There is Free to Air. Sometimes when I am in Africa staying in cheaper hotels they will have a couple of satellite channels. I am sure they are getting them for free.

What I am getting at it really what it out there for free over Africa?

As far as your real question. I was just looking around the web for a different reason and was looking at Traxis receivers. I noticed that the Traxis 3500 uses a wide range of voltages and it also says something about NTSC and PAL. I will attach the webpage so you can check it out. (click below)


DBS3500

I am not endorsing this dealer or receiver. But, perhaps this will answer some of your questions.

Good luck.

While most satellite receivers are capable of operation worldwide, it is advised to purchase a receiver in your region for several reasons:

• Satellite list - If a receiver is purchased from North America the satellite list will most likely not include the satellites serving your region.
• Default Output - Three major television formats are used, NTSC, PAL and Secam. IF you are connecting the receiver to a multi-format TV, this will not be an issue. If you have a TV that only displays PAL and you connect a NTSC output receiver, it may be nearly impossible to see the menus to change the output to PAL.
• Firmware Upgrades - Firmware upgrades are often available for several regions on a receiver that is distributed worldwide. Often models appear to be the same, but distributed under different OEM labels. Firmware upgrades may work or render the remote / receiver inoperable!
• Connections - North American receivers usually do not have SCART outputs and terrestrial connections are F-type. This may make the receiver undesireable in your region as it would not support the standard TV connections.
• Power - Usually power issues are related to only the plug type. Most receivers feature SMTP power supplies that accept 50 - 60 hz, 90 - 240 vac sources. You could use a simple mechanical plug adapter or install a new correct plug and cord.

Great advice there Brian. It certainly applies, specially to a novice user. For a technical user, these issues can be overcome.

To the OP, if the signal is not encrypted, then any FTA receiver will work for you. You don't need to worry about CAMs or CI slots etc in the receiver.

Check the Fortecstar.com website. They have a lot of receiver models that they sell in Europe that may work for you. You could probably order it from one of their European or Middle Eastern dealers.

Originally Posted by Sadoun

Great advice there Brian. It certainly applies, specially to a novice user. For a technical user, these issues can be overcome.

To the OP, if the signal is not encrypted, then any FTA receiver will work for you. You don't need to worry about CAMs or CI slots etc in the receiver.

Check the Fortecstar.com website. They have a lot of receiver models that they sell in Europe that may work for you. You could probably order it from one of their European or Middle Eastern dealers.

I have had my eye on a European model that I read about in TELEsat magazine. The AB-COM IPBox 9000HD. These are not yet available to North American markets, but they are awesome for European users!

Lukemab, you might want to investigate the receivers from AB-COM or those from TopField.

Radar

Lukemab.
Certainly the best makes of receiver for you are the Topfield, Humax, and Strong. They all have models that include PVRs, Irdeto embedded card slots and or CAMs. The outputs will be SCART and RCA. Perhaps more importantly they all have excellent online back up for firmware.

Originally Posted by lukemab

South Africa - Help: I need information on FTA recivers that will work here

Hi, I am in South Africa and would like to know of FTA HD receivers that will work in South Africa to pick up C Band and KU band or any otehr bands available. As you may or may not not know there is only one Satelite operator in South Africa called Multichoice who charge ridiculous prices and have very little good content. they broadcast with a iredeto and iredeto 2 encryption. i'm not sure if anyone knows of a receiver or pc card that can also decrypt this.

Also what is a CAM?

I'm new to all of this

Lukemab, check out
this

Website you may find the help you need there.