New to US. Which FTA Receiver to buy?

[Puftas]

Hi Guys,

I moved to the US (San Francisco bay area) few months ago. I want to install a dish and receive 97° West (Galaxy) FTA channels.

Could you help me out which satellite receiver is available in the U.S.?

Back home (Germany) I used Dreambox and I loved the box. Unfortunately its not available on amazon.com.

Actually any Linux based sat receiver would be fine for my purposes.

Another question: How big should my dish be in order to receive a safe clean signal?

Thank you!

Regards

 

[Magic Static]

to the forum Puftas

I would recommend A GeoSat Pro MicroHD. A nice kit is available on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GEOSATpro-m...519079?hash=item1c304e40e7:g:aY4AAOxyQj9RJSWC

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys Puftas!!
Also you could probably drive to SatelliteAV and pick that up and save the shipping cost, with gas prices down.

 

[KE4EST]

WOW!!! Was just brought to my attention, and actually looked at that eBay listing better.
It was $199 and free shipping for years.
$350 with shipping is a big rip-off!!!
Keep looking.

 

[Magic Static]

I thought there was something odd with that listing. You are right! The suggested retail of all the components in the kit is way short of $300. SatAV must of made an error.

 

[Magic Static]

Don't take us wrong Puftas. While I'm dismayed at the new pricing for GeoSatpro products, that doesn't change their quality, just the value. That receiver has excellent picture quality for the SD channels on 97W.

 

[armadillo_115]

Maybe price is marked up because no MicroHD's are available right now? (And may never be available again) Just a thought

 

[Titanium]

Welcome to SatGuys!

Did you get rid of your Dreambox? If not, it certainly would be easy to add the 97w Galaxy 19 satellite to the list and Blind Scan.

As far as which receiver to buy... At this time the North American market has very few good choices. If you only plan on aiming a fixed dish at 97w, almost any DVBS2 MPEG4 STB on Amazon or EBay will do. Little need to be concerned with AC3/Dolby decoding as the channels use standard audio.

If you plan on motorizing for receiving multiple satellites, then make sure the STB decodes AC3/Dolby; otherwise, many channels may not have audio if your TV does not decode raw AC3.

Since the 97w channels are almost all Standard Definition 480i (interlaced) format, I would recommend a STB that uses an ALI chipset. The ALI chipsets have the best deinterlace processes and will display nice video on HD TVs.

Not going to recommend any specific STBs, but please run by us any STB that you are considering prior to purchase. Might save you some aggravation and frustration!


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[danristheman]

Linkbox is good option or older Manhattan 1933.