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Looking to subscribe to cable/satellite, used to be provided by DIC but have move out of their jurisdiction (Etisalat "world" now).

What's best choice in your opinion(s).

Thanks in advance.

The best really is peasent vision, showtime, orbit, evision all aren't worth it imho and fricken expensive, with free to air, you get BBC world, Al Jazeera English, One TV, MBC 4,2 and their new action channell. You get local news as well as international and not great but pasable entertainment,when you factor in the price (free) it is the best way to go.

My two fils. better to spend your money on a better internet connection and download what you want to watch.

1. DSTV from SA, but go direct through Joburg instead of locally from the rip off Jinglies. I still can't understand why some people keep on handing over thousands of dirhams to these assholes everytime the tv stops working.

2. UK satellite (sky or free-to-air) using a slingbox.

3. Discount Showtime, ART and or Orbit subscription.
There are a few other threads for the Jinglie version, but once again there is no guarantee that it won't stop working every few months and they will want more money.

I get a feeling of pleasure everytime I turn the TV on and think that I am not getting ripped off by some local company.

I liked Orbit for Sky News and BBC Prime, but under pressure from the anklebiters, switched to Showtime for the cartoons! Got Emmerdale and Coronation Street now Does the slingbox work here? And there's another similar thing - can't remember what it's called.

I know how you feel. I have tried all three providers and now have Showtime, ART and Nova.

And slingbox does work from the UK.

Concord wrote:Looking to subscribe to cable/satellite, used to be provided by DIC but have move out of their jurisdiction (Etisalat "world" now).
What's best choice in your opinion(s).
Thanks in advance.

I believe you have not many choices, depends on what program you want to watch (sports, news, kids, etc), then see if those programs are available in the packages.
I've been using e-Vision's Showtime mostly for American TV series/commedy channels (plus a la carte Jazeera Sports +1 & +2 for watching football matches such as Italian Serie A & UCL). And almost everyday from morning till night is blocked by my daughter who watch only Nickelodeon or e-Junior channel.

1. DSTV from SA, but go direct through Joburg instead of locally from the rip off Jinglies. I still can't understand why some people keep on handing over thousands of dirhams to these assholes everytime the tv stops working

Have you used DSTV, do you receive all the channels or only selected?

Thanks

Sorry, I don't use DSTV.
Not sure what you are asking.
You should receive the same channels as everyone else.

dumb question but,

is the slingbox to be located in dubai or a the place where you have the tv programs (home). wasn't clear to me.

No, good question.

In the UK you will have a satellite receiver, slingbox and broadband connection.
The satellite receiver will most likely be sky, or the free-to-air one.
Instead of going to a tv, this goes to your slingbox.
The output from the slingbox goes to the broadband connection.

In dubai you need a pc connected to the internet. This is used to login to the slingbox.
A window on the pc will then display the image from the satellite receiver.
You can either use the vga output from the pc to connect to a flatscreen lcd/plasma tv, or if you have a laptop, you can use it's s-video output to a standard tv.
You can control the satellite receiver using the pc in dubai to change channels etc.

This idea might even be legal, although most internet service providers do not like their users doing this.
The problem is that if too many people do it, etisalat's broadband connection will be severely loaded down and won't be able to cope.

Yeah, I don't see Etisalat being too happy. Do you know anyone who's actually managed to set one up?

Just to add to what Benwj wrote, should you have a tivo at your home in the US, if set up correctly you can control your Tivo through the sling box, for North Americans that works out a bit better because of the time zone differences.

You may also wish to view this thread, gives a bit more info.

http://www.dubaiforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10269

fayz wrote:The best really is peasent vision, showtime, orbit, evision all aren't worth it imho and fricken expensive, with free to air, you get BBC world, Al Jazeera English, One TV, MBC 4,2 and their new action channell. You get local news as well as international and not great but pasable entertainment,when you factor in the price (free) it is the best way to go.

My two fils. better to spend your money on a better internet connection and download what you want to watch.

Fayz, quick question - how do you get the free to air TV? Is it a simple matter of plugging into the wall aerial and away you go?

We don't have TV at the moment (but have aquired a truckload of DVDs since arriving) and am starting to miss the 'background noise' tv can provide.

Coops, Free to air TV (aerial) is probably no longer available.
You used to be able to get Channel 33 (Dubai One) and MBC on it but I think that they have gone to only satellite now.

So to answer your question,
you need a satellite dish (usually provided on apartment blocks) and a receiver.
Then its a simple matter of plugging the receiver into the wall and the receuver into your TV, and away you go.

sauron wrote:Yeah, I don't see Etisalat being too happy. Do you know anyone who's actually managed to set one up?

I know one guy doing it from the UK and says that it works fine.

From what Fayz said it also works from the US, but another friend of mine had problems from Canada.

Coops wrote:

fayz wrote:The best really is peasent vision, showtime, orbit, evision all aren't worth it imho and fricken expensive, with free to air, you get BBC world, Al Jazeera English, One TV, MBC 4,2 and their new action channell. You get local news as well as international and not great but pasable entertainment,when you factor in the price (free) it is the best way to go.

My two fils. better to spend your money on a better internet connection and download what you want to watch.

Fayz, quick question - how do you get the free to air TV? Is it a simple matter of plugging into the wall aerial and away you go?

We don't have TV at the moment (but have aquired a truckload of DVDs since arriving) and am starting to miss the 'background noise' tv can provide.

hahahaha, surprisingly my DVD collection has grown since moving here as well

Do you live in an apartment or a villa? assuming you're in an apartment then chances are there is a satellite on the roof of the building, at least one of those will be your free to air ones. We did exactly that in our old place, plugged the cable into the TV and then ran a 'search' and found all the channels,

When we moved to our current place though the connection at the house was disconnected so we had to just reconnect it, somebody just never connected it, just ran a search and again we were good to go. the first place we did it directly to the TV, the second we used a reciever. I'm not really sure if a reciever is required but we're using one.

Good luck

fayz wrote:

Coops wrote:

fayz wrote:The best really is peasent vision, showtime, orbit, evision all aren't worth it imho and fricken expensive, with free to air, you get BBC world, Al Jazeera English, One TV, MBC 4,2 and their new action channell. You get local news as well as international and not great but pasable entertainment,when you factor in the price (free) it is the best way to go.

My two fils. better to spend your money on a better internet connection and download what you want to watch.

Fayz, quick question - how do you get the free to air TV? Is it a simple matter of plugging into the wall aerial and away you go?

We don't have TV at the moment (but have aquired a truckload of DVDs since arriving) and am starting to miss the 'background noise' tv can provide.

hahahaha, surprisingly my DVD collection has grown since moving here as well

Do you live in an apartment or a villa? assuming you're in an apartment then chances are there is a satellite on the roof of the building, at least one of those will be your free to air ones. We did exactly that in our old place, plugged the cable into the TV and then ran a 'search' and found all the channels,

When we moved to our current place though the connection at the house was disconnected so we had to just reconnect it, somebody just never connected it, just ran a search and again we were good to go. the first place we did it directly to the TV, the second we used a reciever. I'm not really sure if a reciever is required but we're using one.

Good luck

you told me but I forgot. Where do I get a receiver and what is it called "a satellite receiver" or ...

fayz wrote:hahahaha, surprisingly my DVD collection has grown since moving here as well

Do you live in an apartment or a villa? assuming you're in an apartment then chances are there is a satellite on the roof of the building, at least one of those will be your free to air ones. We did exactly that in our old place, plugged the cable into the TV and then ran a 'search' and found all the channels,

When we moved to our current place though the connection at the house was disconnected so we had to just reconnect it, somebody just never connected it, just ran a search and again we were good to go. the first place we did it directly to the TV, the second we used a reciever. I'm not really sure if a reciever is required but we're using one.

Good luck

Brilliant! yup in an apartment so will give it a go this weekend....Thanks

Concord wrote:Where do I get a receiver and what is it called "a satellite receiver" or ...

Carrefour. If I remember correctly they are directly opposite where the TV's are displayed (the one in MOE).

Ross

Okay. Sounded like a great idea so I sent to Carrefour and bought a "free to air receiver" they had at least 30 models.

Took it home and connected it. There are three (3) separate satellite dishes connected to my place. I connected each one separately.

Here is what I got: S.H.I.T.

All I get out of the box is the time! Well it read 12:00 and I gave up by 12:32!

Any suggestions! The box is one that also has a slot for a "card" but the guy said it is not necessary to get the card as the card is only to unscramble paid channels.

Fayz, what model do you have?

Hmmm sorry to hear that. The brand we have is OpenStar, Ours do not have a card slot.

When you ran a search on it did you find any Satellites, i.e. Nilesat, Arabsat, Hotbird?

What I don't mind doing is lending you one of our recievers to see if you can get it going, call me after work and maybe together we can figure out the problem. I should be home by 6pm

fayz wrote:Hmmm sorry to hear that. The brand we have is OpenStar, Ours do not have a card slot.

When you ran a search on it did you find any Satellites, i.e. Nilesat, Arabsat, Hotbird?

What I don't mind doing is lending you one of our recievers to see if you can get it going, call me after work and maybe together we can figure out the problem. I should be home by 6pm

Thansk man. Mine doesn't have a "search" button. I could not change the channels. I'll give you a call.

This is emergency stuff as my better half will be here in a few days and without tv she'll kill me!

I am definetely getting that Slingbox thing but not till April when I go to the hood - I have 2 tivo services there (as good ast t.i.t.s on a bull at the moment)!