Astra 19.2'E Free to Air Digital Channels

 Technical Section Page 17

Can I receive foreign programmes with a Sky Digibox?

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Some non-English programmes are already available from a standard Sky Digital installation. These are listed in your on-screen Electronic Programme Guide. If you can't find the language you want, read on..

The channels listed below could be received in year 2001 with a Sky Digibox connected to a 60cm dish aligned on 19.2'E with a "Universal" LNB. Tested in Cheshire, England. You can also get "other" channels if you point your dish at Hot Bird 13'E and at various other satellites, dependent on where you are located. By "point your dish" I could equally mean "fix an additional LNB (or two) with an extension bracket onto your existing 60cm dish (or larger) and align it so you can receive programmes from another satellite(s) in addition to Sky Digital at 28.2'E. See this page for a photo of the 80cm dish and LNB arrangement that I use in south Cheshire.

To switch between LNBs you can use our CS012 LNB switch or similar. N/A - use a manual A/B switch.

Note that the Sky Digibox is NOT user friendly OR reliable for receiving programmes from "other" satellites. However, it does provide a cheap way to try it out and, later, you might like to buy an ordinary (not Sky) digital receiver to connect to the second LNB instead.

Last updated on September 9, 2002
There's an up-to-date list HERE

The Sky Digibox has memory allocated for up to 50 "other" channels only. You can not use memory allocated for Sky EPG channels.

Unfortunately, this limit seems to decrease with every software upgrade and some receivers can't store any. Whether there's a fix for this, I don't know. The fix for insufficient memory used to be to delete all existing "other" channels and start adding again. Obviously you can't empty the memory if no "other" channels are listed.

You can try to store up to 50 "Other Channels" in your Sky Digibox, as follows:

Connect Astra 19.2E dish to the Digibox

• Press [services]
• Press [4] System setup
• Press [4] Add channels

  Enter a bouquet frequency as listed below and set the Symbol Rate to 27500 and the FEC to 3/4.

• Move the on-screen cursor to "Find Channels" and press [Select]
• Wait until list of programmes appears on screen.
• Press [yellow] button to store each desired programme.
• Press [Select] when you have finished storing programmes.
• Repeat this to add more programmes on a different frequency.

  To view a programme press [services] and [6] then use the arrow buttons to highlight the programme you want to watch or hear. Press [select]. If the programme is unavailable you can press [backup] to return to the programme list. Otherwise you must press the above button sequence each time you want to change programme.

  Note! Some channels change very often. The 19.2'E programme list, below, is out of date.

  This is meant to be an example of set-up parameters only.
  There's an up-to-date list HERE

Different parameters must be set for the following programmes:

Enter a bouquet frequency as listed below and set the Symbol Rate to 22000 and the FEC to 5/6.

For other satellite bouquet parameters, please look at the listings at the Lyngsat web site or in "What Satellite TV" magazine or in "TELE-Satellit" magazine. Don't ask me "what LNB, frequency, symbol rate, FEC do I need to get xxx" because I don't know. Don't ask me "what dish size will I need?" Look at the published satellite "footprints" to find out.

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