Multichoice's DStv is boring, boring!
Alex Chapman
After spending an absolute fortune on a satellite dish and
other paraphernalia, and after enduring endless hours with
pictures freezing, jerking and squawking, I'm ready to throw
this DStv crap back at Multichoice.
Can anyone else with this system honestly say that it was
worth the money? They promised me "more than 25 channels".
What they did not tell me was that a small pile of shit
smells just as bad as a big pile of shit. I bought DStv
because I was getting sick of MNET's programs (not to
mention the SABC). What I found was that MNET was the
"best" program on this DStv box. The rest are just there
so that Multichoice can say "we have more than 25 channels".
Let's face it, The Discovery Channel looked good at first,
then you discover that they repeat all the programs every few
months. Sometimes there is a reasonable old movie on TNT, and
the X games are amusing on ESPN, but is it worth the price?
If you like news, well you get five news channels - but
who the hell is entertained with European Business News?
Last time I looked, we don't even live in Europe. Two
music channels (three are listed in the guide, but I can't
find BET - the Black Entertainment TV), but VH-1 shows
more DStv's "will continue shortly" sign, than any music.
Then you get Rhema Bible Network for four hours on a Sunday
morning, Hallmark with its B grade moving pictures (complete
with subtitles), Movie Magic which is nothing more than MNET
in different time slots, SelectTV with not one actor I
can recognise, SciFi which shows nothing but 1950's black and
white horror, and now they have just switched on the Warehouse
Channel - now I have to pay a subscription to watch adverts!
Where is the entertainment? Every night I scan their TV guide
and it's lots and lots of crap! Never any decent movies, no
shorts except the nonsense on SciFi (no Star Trek at all),
not even a stupid soap opera for the girl friend! If I could
speak Hindi, I could pay 49 Rand more a month for ZEE TV, or
if I could speak German I could pay a whole lot extra for
the DW channels - but I don't.
When I call their customer service centre, they ask me "what
am I talking about? We have lots of nice radio channels!" I
thought that I was getting DStv when I bought this rubbish,
not DSradio!
Lets hope that the new channels proposed by the SABC are going
to offer something ENTERTAINING, but judging by *their* past
performance, I'm very pessimistic. Pity I just rushed out and
wasted so much money on this DStv system.
Michael Cookson
Alex Chapman wrote:
A> After spending an absolute fortune on a satellite dish and
A> other paraphernalia, and after enduring endless hours with
A> pictures freezing, jerking and squawking, I'm ready to throw
A> this DStv crap back at Multichoice.
Sheez Alex, calling M-Net's equipment "crap" could cause them
to send you legal papers - they've done it before when people
say disparaging things about them on the 'Net.
A> Can anyone else with this system honestly say that it was
A> worth the money? They promised me "more than 25 channels".
A> What they did not tell me was that a small pile of shit
A> smells just as bad as a big pile of shit. I bought DStv
A> because I was getting sick of MNET's programs (not to
A> mention the SABC). What I found was that MNET was the
A> "best" program on this DStv box. The rest are just there
A> so that Multichoice can say "we have more than 25 channels".
I don't think the current MultiChoice bouquet is worth the
outlay of R 7000.00 (R 5000.00 capital + R 2100.00 a year
subscription). Most of the channels currently being flighted
are available free-to-air in Europe.
A> Let's face it, The Discovery Channel looked good at first,
A> then you discover that they repeat all the programs every few
A> months. Sometimes there is a reasonable old movie on TNT, and
A> the X games are amusing on ESPN, but is it worth the price?
Discovery and Sci-Fi are both disappointments. Sci-Fi can't
even get the rights to broadcast the original Star Trek
series until 1998!
A> If you like news, well you get five news channels - but
A> who the hell is entertained with European Business News?
A> Last time I looked, we don't even live in Europe. Two
A> music channels (three are listed in the guide, but I can't
A> find BET - the Black Entertainment TV), but VH-1 shows
A> more DStv's "will continue shortly" sign, than any music.
There are supposed to be six news channels, but MultiChoice
seem to be having problems getting CNBC. But who needs *SIX*
news channels - I only have two eyes! I was also told (by
MultiChoice) that they don't have the "rights" to some music
videos shown on VH-1, so they have to "blank them out". At
least the SuperSport Channel does show the F1 Grand Prix
*LIVE*, and without adverts - but this does not justify
the price of the package.
A> Then you get Rhema Bible Network for four hours on a Sunday
A> morning, Hallmark with its B grade moving pictures (complete
A> with subtitles), Movie Magic which is nothing more than MNET
A> in different time slots, SelectTV with not one actor I
A> can recognise, SciFi which shows nothing but 1950's black and
A> white horror, and now they have just switched on the Warehouse
A> Channel - now I have to pay a subscription to watch adverts!
Don't forget the Parliamentary Channel, which constantly says;
"In Recess"... Another thing which irks me is the switch on
and switch off times of these channels. I have done tests, and
despite MultiChoice's claim of 22 channels, there have never
been more than 17 different channels available to me at any
one time. It seems that their transponders only support a
certain number of channels at any time, so they constantly
turn one off and switch on another, like a juggling act. :-(
A> Where is the entertainment? Every night I scan their TV guide
A> and it's lots and lots of crap! Never any decent movies, no
A> shorts except the nonsense on SciFi (no Star Trek at all),
A> not even a stupid soap opera for the girl friend! If I could
A> speak Hindi, I could pay 49 Rand more a month for ZEE TV, or
A> if I could speak German I could pay a whole lot extra for
A> the DW channels - but I don't.
Radio 702 suddenly also seems to have been "disowned". Last
month's guide said that it was not part of the bouquet. I
have a letter to me from Mr Hans Hawinkels dated a year ago
(it came with my M-Net subscription on 11 July 1995), in
which it claims that Radio 702 would be part of the bouquet -
it never was.
A> When I call their customer service centre, they ask me "what
A> am I talking about? We have lots of nice radio channels!" I
A> thought that I was getting DStv when I bought this rubbish,
A> not DSradio!
The one redeeming factor is that the the audio is good...
A> Lets hope that the new channels proposed by the SABC are going
A> to offer something ENTERTAINING, but judging by *their* past
A> performance, I'm very pessimistic. Pity I just rushed out and
A> wasted so much money on this DStv system.
Maybe it will improve (it can't get much worse) when some real
competition arrives. The Showtime Networks made my mouth water
for 10 days when they were doing tests. All the DStv bouquet
needs in order to "fix" it, is a channel like Showtime Network's
TV LAND and THE MOVIE CHANNEL. Unfortunately I don't think that
M-Net have the rights to broadcast Paramount material into South
Africa. The basic problem with DStv is too much quantity, and
not enough QUALITY... Too bad. :-(
- Mike.
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Theys Radmann
Alex Chapman wrote:
>
> After spending an absolute fortune on a satellite dish and
Can anybody explain to me this "new" TV service in SA ? Reading this
article I can again confirm the braindamaged philosophy of SA public
service utilities, at least what media is concerned:
1. You pay for channels you normally get for free (like DW)
2. You are limited access at the supplier's will.
3. You pay separate license for services you may not use (like SABC).
I don't know how this works (I left SA in 1994). Here in Chile we get 60
channels through cable (which his obviously fed by Satellite), and I can
recognise many of them in Alex' posting. I understand that, if you get
the proper equipment (dish, converter and all that), you need not pay a
penny for subscrption to watch the 'open' channels (most of them European
public broadcasters). This subject interests me because in Chile we will
get Direct Satellite TV Services soon, as they will eventually replace
cable, leaving the latter mainly for interactive services and ISDN
(shame!).
Cheers
Michael Cookson
Willem van Krimpen wrote:
> > Alex Chapman wrote:
> > Can anyone else with this system honestly say that it was
> > worth the money?
>
> To me it was, but only by a small margin.
> I am disappointed in many aspects of "this system" but the
> few good points make it worthwhile for me. This is a personal
> judgment and I can very well imagine that others find "the system"
> a waste of money.
>
> The few good points that make it worth while for me are:
>
> 1) a temporary escape from South Africa and the (biased) local
> view of local and international events
You can get the BBC and CNN after hours "for free" on SABC 1
and SABC 2.
> 2) a good picture quality (most of the time)
I disagree totally. It can be better if you live in an area where
you get marginal terrestrial reception, but a decent analog
satellite TV picture simply blows away anything I've seen on
MultiChoice's DStv. The MPEG 2 compression is a lossy compression
technique, and it's obvious that picture quality will suffer.
> 3) choice (however limited, see below)
> 4) KTV and cartoon network which entertain my 3 year old
> when it suits us.
The one thing about DStv is the Cartoon Network - I watch it
more than any other channel. Tom and Jerry are great! It's a
pity I don't have kids - and the Cartoon Network is not the
reason I got DStv - I wanted ENTERTAINMENT...
> 5) EBN which is more "less American" than really "European"
> and has a positive undertone to its programs providing a
> fresh contrast to the usually negatively biased other news
> services (specially the local one)
I can't stand European Business News - there is *nothing* on
that channel worth watching IMHO, and anyway, where is the
ENTERTAINMENT?
> 4) digital radio.
I thought we were buying a TV channel. DMX does not play the
music I like - I've never heard any Dylan or Leonard Cohen -
different strokes...
> While I am disappointed about:
I agree with all your gripes, but I might be able to help with
this one:
> 1) Marginal signal strength. The signal is only just enough to
> satisfy the decoder, a small drop in signal strength causes
> problems. If a 0.9 m dish is insufficient, MultiChoice should
> have advised (potential) subscribers to use a 1.2 m dish.
> Compared with the other costs the price difference is very small.
The problem may not be your dish size. I've seen "acceptable"
reception (in "non-raining" weather) with a 60 cm dish. The DStv
IRD will either decode the picture or not. Unlike analog satellite
TV where the picture develops sparklies and/or darklies as the
signal strength decreases, digital TV will simply work or not.
The biggest factor in signal attenuation in Ku-band satellite TV
is precipitation. Also, it's not how hard it's raining but actually
the size of the raindrops (C-band does not suffer to the same
degree with this "dilemma"). If you are losing DStv signal in
heavy rain then that is "normal" if your dish is small. I
personally use a 1.2 metre dish for my home viewing, and I've
*never* suffered from rain-outage - and I've been testing DStv
since early November 1995. The only other thing which will
cause an outage (no matter what size the dish) is a solar-out,
but it's unlikely that that's causing your problem, as it only
will last for a few minutes, for a few days, twice a year.
All else being equal, you should not experience a "small drop
in signal strength" unless Orbicom are playing with PAS-4, or
it's raining. So, it sounds to me that your LNB's local oscillator
frequency may have drifted, or it may have never been set
correctly in the first place. The LO frequency drift is usually
noticeable with changes in temperature, and this sounds more
like the problem as you describe it. Unless your LNB is faulty,
its quite easy to fix, and/or determine if this is in fact your
problem. If your LNB is a Cambridge (one of the most common
fitted in SA), it's common knowledge that about 5000 faulty
ones were imported - with LOs which were prone to drift.
Assuming that you are using one of the "common" ones, your
LNB's LO frequency should be 11.475 GHz. It does not matter
if it is not, this following test will also work for any LO
frequency, just adjust accordingly.
Although the manufacturers try their best to set the Local
Oscillator frequency of their LNBs to the figure stamped on
the outside, they don't always get it spot-on. In fact every
LNB I try, I find that the LO is always slightly out. So,
your IRD could in fact be set to a L-band frequency which is
borderline, and you could be losing signal when the LNB
changes slightly. Both the Panasat and the PACE IRD's have
a 10 MHz window for their L-band, and the idea is to set the
frequency of your LNB in the centre of this window. Try the
following:
1) Press "menu" on the remote.
2) Press "6" - Installation.
3) Key in the PIN, and then press OK/Select - 9949.
4) Press "1" - LNB settings.
5) Press "2" - LNB frequency.
You should now have four options available to you. Three LNB
LO frequencies are pre-set, and number 4 is available for
custom use. Usually (most of SA), has box number 3 checked -
an LO of 11475 MHz. If not, check which frequency is selected
and work around that number.
6) Press "4" and select/ok.
7) You must now enter a new LO frequency to determine your
LNB's actual LO frequency and then set the IRD's window to
the middle of that frequency. Take the frequency that *was*
selected, and type in a new frequency slightly higher than
the original. Just go up one MHz or so - i.e. if your LO
was set to 11475, type in 11476, and select/ok.
8) Make sure that the number "4" box is now checked.
9) Press EXIT twice.
10) Press "2" - signal strength.
11) You now need to see if the IRD is still picking up the
DStv bouquet. The signal strength "fine" setting should be
still extended to the right. If not, you have adjusted out
of range - now note the frequency you typed in at that
point, and prepare to try the other limit.
12) Go back to step 4 (in this list) and change the LO
setting in step 7 until you have found *both* the upper
and lower limits of your LNB's LO frequency which are
acceptable to the IRD. Find the lower limit by adjusting
the frequency downwards - of course.
13) Set the LO frequency to the middle of these two limits.
14) Check that your signal strength is still okay (step 10).
15) Press "4" - Manual Change Tuning.
16) When you get to this menu screen, just check that the
following defaults are still set correctly (anyone outside
South Africa, who receives the "DStv Africa Bouquet", or
"Showtime Network", *MUST* not change their settings - this
is for the SA DStv bouquet *ONLY*):
Frequency: 12517
Symbol Rate: 21850
Polarisation: HORIZ
FEC: 5/6
17) Press "5" - Retune with these settings, and select/ok.
18) The IRD will re-boot.
If you did find that you had to enter a number which was at
least 5 MHz out from the original settings, I can almost
guarantee that this was your problem.
> 2) The dual satellite TV standard which means that I must outlay
> another small fortune if I want decent picture quality SABC
> broadcasts.
Not necessarily. South Africa is presently waiting the importation
of a dual LNB (just two separate LNBs in the same box, sharing a
common feedhorn/trumpet), thus alleviating the need for a second
dish. You need this instead of just a "power splitter", because
of the fact that the AstraSat channels are vertically polarised,
and only one of the DStv's transponders are. So, with this new
LNB and another length of high frequency co-ax, the only other
thing you'll have to buy is an inexpensive (comparatively speaking)
analog receiver. If you get a half decent one (it must have
Wegener Panda (or compatible) audio options, and a few SCART
plugs), it should only set you back about R 500.00 to R 800.00.
Then we'll see what the SABC have in mind WRT a "decoder". If
they go for MultiChoice's IRDETO ComCrypt or Delta 9000+, they'll
have a problem with stereo and simulcast... Interesting
negotiations.
> 3) Operators who don't get the DSTV screens and local adverts to
> coincide with the provided slots.
I wrote (snailmail) to Hans Hawinkels (MultiChoice's CEO) about
most of your following gripes a while ago, but they never even
bothered to reply...
> 4) The frequent need to reset the IRD.
> 5) The loud squeaks which ruin otherwise good reception of
> classical music.
> 5) The segregated view that MultiChoice seems to have of society.
> It is nice to have the CHOICE to look at foreign language or
> otherwise different broadcasts SO NOW AND THEN which
> contributes to multiculturalism. I want to watch German and
> Hindi TV so now and then but don't want to pay disproportionaltely
> much more subscription fee for the few hours I might watch.
> I would love to have one or more French channels but even if
> they were available the same philosophy would apply. What I find
> most inconsequent is that terrestrial East-Net comes free with
> M-Net but is no longer available either terrestrially or by satellite
> if the M-Net by satellite option is chosen.
> 6) The lack of short entertainment. Movies are nice but I rarely find
> the time or the need to sit and passively watch for more than two
> long hours. I would like channels that I can switch on at any time
> watch a one-hour detective program and switch off again. Like
> the news channels. Select TV (or whatever it is called now) has
> some faint resemblance to what I mean but my tolerance level to
> empty headed English slang and canned laughter is rather low.
> The remaining 10% or so when they are not repeats are OK.
> Lovejoy comes to mind.
They need the TV LAND Channel... (and a lot more besides). I believe
that the SABC's entrance into the pay-satellite-TV market is going to
be very good for the industry, and the consumer will benefit from
the fact that MultiChoice are going to be faced with some competition.
M-Net domestic will have to improve its program fare, and the SABC
will have to blow me away with some ENTERTAINMENT if they want to
compete against the Nethold group. :-)
- Mike.
Willem van Krimpen
> Michael Cookson <mi...@dvert.com> wrote
> ...All else being equal, you should not experience a "small drop
> in signal strength" unless Orbicom are playing with PAS-4, or
> it's raining. So, it sounds to me that your LNB's local oscillator
> frequency may have drifted, or it may have never been set
> if it is not, this following test will also work for any LO
> frequency, just adjust accordingly.
Thank you for your advice, I caried out the LO frequency setting
procedure and found:
frequency signal strength signal strength
[Mhz] [% of scale] [% of scale]
11470 0 0 0
11471 28-32 24-30 42-48
11472 22-26 24-26 44-50
11473 26-30 22-26 44-50
11474 24-26 24-30 44-50
11475 24-28 24-28 44-50
11476 28-30 24-28 44-48
11477 32-34 24-30 42-50
11478 28-34 24-30 42-48
11479 28-32 24-30 42-48
11480 24-32 24-28 44-48
11481 0-28 22-24 0-46
11482 0 0 0
The frequency range was scanned three times, twice yesterday
while it was raining and one today without rain. For every frequency
the signal strength as percentage of the "fine tune" scale was
recorded. The centre frequency was 11476 MHz, not that far
away from the target. Maybe not quite significant the signal
strength peaked at 11477 MHz.
Willem van Krimpen
> Michael Cookson <mi...@dvert.com> wrote
> ...All else being equal, you should not experience a "small drop
> in signal strength" unless Orbicom are playing with PAS-4, or
> it's raining. So, it sounds to me that your LNB's local oscillator
> frequency may have drifted, or it may have never been set
> if it is not, this following test will also work for any LO
> frequency, just adjust accordingly.
Thank you for your advice, I caried out the LO frequency setting
Michael Cookson
Willem van Krimpen wrote:
> > Michael Cookson <mi...@dvert.com> wrote
> > The problem may not be your dish size. I've seen "acceptable"..
..
> > LNB's LO frequency should be 11.475 GHz. It does not matter
> > if it is not, this following test will also work for any LO
> > frequency, just adjust accordingly.
>
> Thank you for your advice, I caried out the LO frequency setting
> procedure and found:
>
> frequency signal strength signal strength
> [Mhz] [% of scale] [% of scale]
> 11470 0 0 0
> 11471 28-32 24-30 42-48
> 11472 22-26 24-26 44-50
> 11473 26-30 22-26 44-50
> 11474 24-26 24-30 44-50
> 11475 24-28 24-28 44-50
> 11476 28-30 24-28 44-48
> 11477 32-34 24-30 42-50
> 11478 28-34 24-30 42-48
> 11479 28-32 24-30 42-48
> 11480 24-32 24-28 44-48
> 11481 0-28 22-24 0-46
> 11482 0 0 0
It does not look like LNB local oscillator frequency drift
is your problem. :-(
> The frequency range was scanned three times, twice yesterday
> while it was raining and one today without rain. For every frequency
> the signal strength as percentage of the "fine tune" scale was
> recorded. The centre frequency was 11476 MHz, not that far
> away from the target. Maybe not quite significant the signal
> strength peaked at 11477 MHz.
I find it alarming that the *maximum* signal strength you managed
to achieve was only 50%! I assume that you are referring to the
percentage that the blue bar was extended to the right across
the screen?
On my home system (1.2 metre prime-focus dish), this bar has never
even fallen below the 80% mark - and that was in heavy rain! Usually
it flickers at 100% In order to compare apples with apples here,
we should determine that you have the same software upgrade as
me. With the "old" software this "fine tuning" bar just read
a sample signal strength, and unless there was a big change in
strength, it simply did not move.
Do the usual; "menu", "3" - information, and "1" - IRD status:
The second line from the bottom gives you your software version,
it should say:
Software: v1.2.01.d M 27/05/96 (L-6)
If this is the same as mine, it could be that your dish and/or
LNB may be out of alignment.
The LNB's skew (rotational position of the LNB in relation to
the dish) can easily be checked. When installing an offset
dish for the first time, I temporarily just set it at an
angle of about 45 degrees to ground level, but this is far
from accurate. Choose a channel that uses one of MultiChoice's
horizontally polarised channels, like the BBC. Press "menu",
"3" - information, and "3" - signal detection. Note the reading.
Don't change the the channel to a vertically polarised channel
like EBN, when conducting the following test.
Loosen the collar that clamps the LNB, and twist it slightly,
while keeping an eye on the signal strength (you'll probably
need a cell phone and someone to help you). Turn the LNB until
the signal gets to its lowest point, twist it the other way, and
tighten it in the middle between the two limits. Check that the
BBC and EBN give similar signal strengths, otherwise your LNB is
probably cock-eyed.
If this is not your problem, then your dish is probably not
aligned correctly. Without a proper signal strength meter, you
can just wobble the dish about until your IRD's signal strength
gets to maximum. Remember, you have to perform all of the above
antics without your body getting between the dish and the
bird... I also assume that your dish has a completely
unobstructed view of PAS-4, and your high frequency co-ax does
not have a run longer than 40 metres - otherwise I've just wasted
a lot of Internet bandwidth here. ;-)
LNB skew is *very* important when using the dish for viewing the
new SABC Astrasat channels. If your skew is out, the SABC 1 & 2
channels will interfere with Astrasat Sport and Plus respectively.
This is simply because the Astrasat channels use the same frequency
as SABC 1 and 2, but they just change their polarisation by 90
degrees.
- Mike.