Just a quick question about the channels we can pickup from Australia over here in New Zealand. Is it only SBS 1/2 or are there other free channels, anything from Freeview AU?
Is there a dummy's guide to getting Aussie TV in NZ somewhere?
For example, I'm in Auckland so know it's possible here, and would like to know what hardware would be required, places I can go and purchase, how much it would cost, and can I use existing unused Sky dish, etc
digitaldvd: You need a 60cm to 76cm dish be warned before you start dishing out money that these services are not there permanently sooner or later they will go
So far, it's been "later".
The minimal additional outlay (maybe another $20 for a bigger dish; maybe another $10 for a dual output LNB) would pay for itself in a week through access to SBS alone. There is about as much decent programming on SBS 1 and 2, and in HD to boot in the case of SBS 1, with far far fewer ads, than there is on all of NZ Freeview, even though a large chunk of bandwidth is used for news (and it is real news, not "Stop press - kitten caught up tree - film at 11".
The situation is a bit different with the Nine offerings. For the most part they are ad-riddled to the point of being unwatchable, and don't warrant the additional cost of a DVB-S2 receiver.
It's all a matter of opinion though - that's just mine.
So in summary, for my own dummies guide, I could set up watching up to 5 Aussie channels using the existing unused Sky dish with a DVB-S2 receiver. Is it that simple?
One "gotcha" is that those channels are vertically polarised, so you need an LNB that allows reception of these. Most do. Another way of tripping up there is that if multiple boxes share a feed from an LNB via a splitter (rather than a multiswitch), any receiver tuned to a horizontally polarised service will prevent any other from receiving a V polarised service.
Best receiver? Vu+ Duo as far as I'm concerned.
Cheapest? No idea, but I wouldn't trust any of them.
P.S.
I'm not sure if it's been explicitly stated, but you don't need a DVB-S2 receiver for SBS, even in HD; DVB-S is all you need. For the Nine services, DVB-S2 IS required.
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