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Satellite TV Anime (Europe) |
There are two things you should know about analog satellite equipment - one, that the analog signals are being phased out and will all go in a few years, two, because of this the equipment is no longer being manufactured and is available secondhand at give-away prices. So this FAQ is aimed at people who have been offered some unwanted kit by a friend or relative. Revised 1999, tidied 2010.
Q>Where is the anime?
A On Astra, also Eutelsat 13 deg. E, 16 deg.E, Turksat 42 deg. E (see Channel list)
Q. What hardware do I need to receive these anime programmes?
A. Any basic analog ex-Astra receiver outfit (box, dish, dish-mounted pre-amplifier, & cable) will get you started. It's not necessary to have a decoder. It's very useful to have teletext, and a PAL video recorder with SP (and LP). Ideally, you want a dual-satellite installation for ASTRA 19.2 E and EUTELSAT 13 E. Note that Eutelsat have (Nov. 1998) just installed two more powerful "birds", thus greatly increasing the probability that you can get their programmes with an Astra-sized dish.
Q: I don't have a satellite receiving outfit. How much will it cost to buy one?
A. You shouldn't need to pay more than a nominal amount especially if you collect the complete ex-Astra obsolete analog kit (dish, receiver and some cable). Remember, people are binning this kit because hardly anybody wants it now. Note that , unlike the Sky digital boxes, receivers supplied for the former Sky analog service will work quite well with other satellites. You may even get a multi-satellite capable receiver for £10.
If you have to buy a dish, consider that you may want to use it with a digital reciever later. You should purchase a dish one size bigger to allow for this (e.g. 80 cm instead of 60cm). A good dealer will know exactly what is wanted to realize your requirements. Other useful receiver extras include channel-selecting timed recording (available as yet on very few digital receivers), and automatic motorized positioning.
Q. What size dish will I need?
This depends on several factors: your location, the satellites of interest, and the quality of your receiving equipment. As a guide, in south-east England a 60 cm dish is good for anything from Astra 19 deg E, and a 80 cm is good for digital and most analog signals from Eutelsat 13 deg.E. An 80 cm dish (which costs only about £20 more than a 60 cm) is a popular size for twin-satellite or multi-satellite in SE England. In short, you need a dish either the same size as an old Sky Astra dish, or 20cm bigger. If in doubt, err on the large side as this will compensate for a multitude of problems such as rain, long cable runs, dual feed operation, ageing LNB's, and misalignment.
Q: How much does installation cost?
A: About £50 for an Astra dish, from £150-£250 for motorized.
Q: Can I install it myself then and save £50?
A: If you've just collected a free ex-Astra kit, you'll probably be keen to install it yourself, but be warned that this is a task best left to expert handymen only! This sort of technical task is simple if you have the knowledge, and a van full of cable, clips, bolts, ladder, power tools, satellite meters, etc etc. But if you haven't, leave well alone! Just buying the cable and supplies will eat up half of your £50, and you could make a bad installation, cause thousands of pounds worth of property damage, infringe planning regulations, and even severely injure yourself. Anyway, it could take you so long to get it right that you could have earned the money to pay the man. A professional can attach a fixed ASTRA dish to a brick wall in as little as half an hour.
Q: I can't tune my (analog) receiver to some channels. What's wrong?
A: If your analog receiver is several years old, it may be unable to receive any signals from the lowest frequency Astra satellite transponders. There is an answer if you're desperate: all you have to do, if you are otherwise satisfied with your receiver, is to buy a "Global ADX frequency shifter" for £19.99, and attach it to the back of your receiver following the simple instructions. Basically, this shifts the new signals, which hopefully pass through your LNB. to a band 500MHz higher, where you can find them and tune them in on some spare channels. I've got one and it works very well. The other answer, of course, is to get a newer receiver and an "enhanced" LNB. Be aware that a lot of the old Astra receivers used 10.000 GHz LNBs which are now very obsolete.
Q: Do I need a decoder?
A: Not really. There seems to be all the anime most people could find time to watch on the clear Astra and Eutelsat channels. A Videocrypt decoder (which is integrated into most modern receivers) is now of little use, except for soft-decrypting channels such as our Channel 5, which in most areas is best received in this way rather than with a terrestial receiver.
Q: All this seems too complicated. I'm not technically minded. Do I have to be?
A: Hopefully not. Most of these used outfits will pick up something if you select a channel or two with the dish pointed in the right direction. Unlike many digital receivers, they can be tuned up without the dish being active.
Q: Can I adapt my fixed dish to get more than one satellite? A: There are various answers:
a) If you really want a decent watch-the-world multisatellite outfit, given that such a system and a Astra system have almost no components in common, the best thing to do is to dispose of your fixed outfit and start anew. The components for a multisatellite system used to be quite expensive, with typical prices of £500 for a high performance dish kit, and £100+ for a quad band LNB. More recently, with satellite parts being mass produced for ASTRA, much cheaper components such as 80cm pressed metal dishes, 40mm neck Universal LNBs, and receiver/positioners that cost little more than ASTRA receivers could be had at ever-decreasing prices. Systems put together with these components perform quite well.
These days, you can buy an impressive analog multi-satellite outfit secondhand for under £50 - if you still want one.
This is the wrong time to be spending a lot of money on analog satellite equipment: buy cheap and wait for the next generation of digital receivers.
b) If you want two, or maybe 3 satellites very close in the sky, you can get away with having extra LNB's attached to your fixed dish. (The dish size may need to be uprated, though with the new "birds" installed Nov 1998 this is less likely). For anime, a twin-sat setup for 19.2deg.E/13deg. E offers the most anime per pound spent. Bearing in mind that the dish may need to be sized up for the weaker signals, the extra cost is from about £75.
c) Many dealers will offer you motorized upgrades for a fixed dish, for about £100 - £150+, but be sure to ask exactly what they are offering. It may just be manual positioning, not automatic. What you want is something that automatically goes to the right satellite when a channel is selected, eg. by a channel event timer. These upgrades can give a quite useful motorized system, of similar performance to the cheaper multi-satellite outfits. (My upgrade with a Pace MSP200 positioner cost about £175).
d) Install a second fixed dish. This seems a popular option, mass-produced dishes being cheap; and a second receiver is unlikely to be required. You will need planning permission for two dishes, or one dish over 90cm, on the same property (or just mount them somewhere out of sight). (One of my neighbours has three dishes and nobody seems concerned).
e) If the neighbours have dish phobia, note that soon, with satellite powers increasing, a movable 60cm dish in the south-east UK will (from Nov 1998) suffice to receive the majority of analogue and digital transmissions from ASTRA and EUTELSAT as well as the SKY digital satellite at 28.5 deg. E. Even smaller dishes may give good results, if you pay a large premium for a precision engineered product.
With so many anime channels at 13degE and 19 deg.E (Astra and Eutelsat) it may be that the extra cost and complication of a motorized system is less of an attraction, (unless you positively require the channels from the outlying satellites, or are offered a complete system cheaply, of course).
Q: I managed to get a French channel, but it's all in black and white. What's wrong? What's this SECAM?
A: The French colour system is incompatible with British PAL TV's. So you need a multistandard (SECAM) TV or a SECAM/PAL converter box, costing about £90. (If you own a multistandard VCR, it wouldn't hurt to read the handbook...)
Q. Is it worth getting a motorised (multisatellite) system? A. Not for anime; unless you are offered an analog motorised system very cheap. [Note that I have given a different answer in the Digital section!] But some people find that finding obscure satellite channels is a fascinating hobby in itself. The number of extra "clear" analog channels is distinctly disappointing, but you will be able to access dozens of D2MAC or Syster encrypted signals on various satellites. If you do go for it, make sure you end up with a fully automatic system, ie one that can wake up via timer, find a channel, find the satellite, record, and shut off. And get the 36 volt power type, they work a lot quicker than those powered by the LNB cable. If you had a Pace analog receiver, then there was only one choice: use the MSP200 positioner, it was the best, and interfaced seamlessly with their receivers. It's not worth cutting corners just to save a few pounds. If you're D.I.Y. upgrading, I strongly advise that you visit a dealer and buy a mount over the counter after discussing your requirement. Even if it costs more, you are more likely to get the mount & adapters that mate with your dish, and install without problems. Mail order of other parts should not be a problem. Be aware though that most digital receivers use an entirely different system for motorising dishes, so bear that in mind before you spend money on motorising an analog setup. You will probably convert to digital during the life of your dish and mounting. Some of the more expensive digital receivers have integrated 36 volt positioners that will connect directly to the 36 volt motorized mount commonly used for analog equipment. Alternatively, you could retain the use of a separate manually controlled positioner box, or buy (for about £100) a box to interface between a low-cost digital receiver and the 36 volt motorized mount.
Q. Any disadvantages to motorised systems?
A.Contrary to the impression given by all the satellite magazines, there are disadvantages other than the cost. Compared with the silent and instantaneous selection of a 2-sat. setup, the motorised system is slower, noisy, less reliable, and prone to unwanted dish movements. For instance, if you have programmed a daily time recording, the dish will move at the weekend unless you figure out a way to disable it. The noise isn't a joke; some of the motor arms can be heard hundreds of feet away on a quiet night. Also, the dish movement trips up the AFC on some receivers so that the picture on the first channel selected for that satellite may be severely affected.
Do I need a timer in the satellite receiver?
A: You do if you want to record from more than one satellite channel (or indeed more than one satellite) while you are out. If you don't, just leave the receiver on and rely on the VCR timer. (Don't use the satellite timer unless you have to, as it's another potential source of errors and disappointment.)
Q: Why don't I put the dish somewhere accessible and push it a few degrees horizontally by hand to get Hot Bird etc?
A: Nice idea in theory. In practice, unless you can see the result of moving the dish as you do it, or set up some accurate scales and pointer, you just won't try it and risk losing your favourite Astra progs. Unfortunately, unless you are a wizard at home mechanics, there is no way of remotely moving the dish a few degrees that doesn't cost nearly as much as a proper motorized upgrade.