basic questions

[codecrank]

Hi,

I apologize if this has already been answered... I currently live in the midwest and I just acquired a BEV 3700 receiver and I need some pointers with the equipment needed. I have a pretty decent understanding for satellite equipment, vsat or dvb, so you don't have to dum it down too much

1) smartcard : a relative living up north will be sending me a new nagra3 card for "his" additional receiver. I'm ok here , right ?

2) dish , I have a spare round DTV dish i want to use. would that be ok ? do I need something larger ?

3) lnb , this is where i am totally confused by what i read so far... Do I need 1 or 2 ? what kind ? does it depend on the channels i want ? are dish network LNBs still compatible ? when looking on ebay or google shopping, i see a lot of "legacy" lnbs . if they don't work with any signal anymore , why are they still for sale ?

4) satellites, would I need to point my dish to nimiq 1 or 4 ? looking at lyngsat , looks like all the channels in the basic packge are on nimiq 1.

I know, lots of newbie questions. but this expat is really missing his canadian tv... I'll make a nice howto that can be stickied once i get it all going

Thanks !

 

[Jumbo Dumbo]

Hi,


1) smartcard : a relative living up north will be sending me a new nagra3 card for "his" additional receiver. I'm ok here , right ?

Thanks !

Account stacking (sharing) is illegal.

 

[joshuals]

4) satellites, would I need to point my dish to nimiq 1 or 4

I'm not a Bell customer, so I won't waste much of your time, but you may be out of the footprint for Nimiq4. See the sticky thread above where a map has been created based on posters' input.....

 

[Slartibartfarst]

1) smartcard : a relative living up north will be sending me a new nagra3 card for "his" additional receiver. I'm ok here , right ?

No, unless the Card is specifically for THAT receiver it will NOT work. The 3700 is a very old model and unless it was running with the last generation of Card the new ones are not shipped out be Bell for them. Also as posted, account stacking is against Bell TV's rules, along with reception in the US.

2) dish , I have a spare round DTV dish i want to use. would that be ok ? do I need something larger ?

An older Direct Dish and LNBF will work fine, providing you are within the footprint for the signal. Depending on footprint a larger Dish might be required.

3) lnb , this is where i am totally confused by what i read so far... Do I need 1 or 2 ?

Depends if you want reception from 1 or BOTH Sats.

3)what kind ?

Legacy, DP or DPP, depends on how exactly you want to wire the house.

3)does it depend on the channels i want ?

Yes.

3)are dish network LNBs still compatible ?

Yes.

3)when looking on ebay or google shopping, i see a lot of "legacy" lnbs . if they don't work with any signal anymore , why are they still for sale ?

Who said they no longer work.? It is still standard practice within Canada for Bell TV Installations to be carried out using Legacy LNBF's and Switch's.

 

[codecrank]

Thanks all for the replies,

I understand that it would be against bell policies. I'll take my chances.

As far as the receiver goes, we called bell and asked them what we would need if we bough a used receiver in a garage sale. the rep that depending on the card in it ( nagra2 or 3 ) they would activate it over the phone or send us an activated one.

Looking at lyngsat and other resources on nimiq satellites, looks like i'm in luck, nimiq1's footprint is huge, and carries all the channel i would be accessing.

 

[QCK]

If all you need is 91W then you should be ok until the summer of 2012 when Nimiq 6 is launched @ 91W. They will probably change the footprint like they did with Nimiq 4 @ 82W once it is up and operational.

 

[Slartibartfarst]

Nagra 3 Cards start with S06*****, although a few start with S0459*****.

With the cost of a new receiver being as low as $100 that might be less trouble in the long run.