Captain Jack
Burnt out human
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2006
- Messages
- 11,808
- Reaction score
- 7,991
- Points
- 113
- My Satellite Setup
- See signature
- My Location
- North Somerset
As I have a bit of experience with some pay TV, I thought I'd write a little review.
First up: Viasat Latvia
Satellite: Astra 4a/SES-5 @ 5E
Dish size required: Highly dependent on location. In Bristol, a good 1m dish is enough to receive Astra 4A, which is where the majority of channels are. Signal drops in the evenings by around 1.5dB but generally stable. SES-5 is not possible here even with a 1.8m dish, so some HD channels are missing.
Encryption: Videoguard/NDS (mainly paired)
Receiver: Pace HD. A nice little box, responsive with full EPG but somewhat "dark". The theme is very black with white text. Has ability to control a simple DiSEqC 1.0 switch, which, with some trickery, can drive a 36V motor via a VBox.
Channel line-up: A good mix or Russian, English and Baltic (mainly Latvian) channels. You get most Viasat Film channels plus all of TV1000s (yes, they still exist), documentaries (Viasat's own as well as NG/Discoveries), general entertainment (TV3's, 3+, Russian STS/TNT/NTV/Pervyj Kanal), music (MTV mostly), children's fare, sports (Viasat's own only) and some adult stuff.
Image quality: Most channels are still in MPEG-2 but picture quality is pretty good. Very little blocking on fast moving scenes but can appear a bit 'washed out' sometimes.
Languages: Most channels have selectable audio tracks between original and dubbed/voice overs.
Cost: 23 Euros per month for full SD package
Where to get it: Rather tricky without knowing someone in Latvia. A few dealers sell it but at hugely inflated prices.
First up: Viasat Latvia
Satellite: Astra 4a/SES-5 @ 5E
Dish size required: Highly dependent on location. In Bristol, a good 1m dish is enough to receive Astra 4A, which is where the majority of channels are. Signal drops in the evenings by around 1.5dB but generally stable. SES-5 is not possible here even with a 1.8m dish, so some HD channels are missing.
Encryption: Videoguard/NDS (mainly paired)
Receiver: Pace HD. A nice little box, responsive with full EPG but somewhat "dark". The theme is very black with white text. Has ability to control a simple DiSEqC 1.0 switch, which, with some trickery, can drive a 36V motor via a VBox.
Channel line-up: A good mix or Russian, English and Baltic (mainly Latvian) channels. You get most Viasat Film channels plus all of TV1000s (yes, they still exist), documentaries (Viasat's own as well as NG/Discoveries), general entertainment (TV3's, 3+, Russian STS/TNT/NTV/Pervyj Kanal), music (MTV mostly), children's fare, sports (Viasat's own only) and some adult stuff.
Image quality: Most channels are still in MPEG-2 but picture quality is pretty good. Very little blocking on fast moving scenes but can appear a bit 'washed out' sometimes.
Languages: Most channels have selectable audio tracks between original and dubbed/voice overs.
Cost: 23 Euros per month for full SD package
Where to get it: Rather tricky without knowing someone in Latvia. A few dealers sell it but at hugely inflated prices.
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