Hi there.

My Landlord provides free access to Hotbird and Astra1 Satellites. I bought a Humax HD 1000 receiver, but only get limited access to some english stations. I would love to get Fox, CNN, TNT, ESPN, and other US stations.

Can anyone recommend the type of card and a phone number or URL where I could order the card for these stations on the above satellites?
I understand it will cost me somewhere around 50 - 80 CHF a month, but that does not worry me.

Thank you.
-Ron

You don't need a card, but you will need a HUGE drill to drill right through the earth until you can see the US satellites that are hovering over the US, and are simply not visible from Europe! In other words, unless the stations you want are on European satellites (and some are), you're out of luck!

Richard S

www.teleclub.ch/satellit is what you'd be best off with. Much of the stuff (certainly movies) is in two languages (Premiere) and they have HD content to which you can subscribe.

I've heard that if you're current or retired US military or diplomatic staff that you can tune into Armed Forces television. Though, I've heard it isn't really worth it. They've got some sort of decoder box. Google around and you'll find references, but if you're like me and don't have the right credentials, you can't get it.

Your best bet is to "give" someone a sling-box. ;-)

The Armed Forces does need a special box and you'll be lucky to get one. Google for +AFN +powervu and you might get some hits.

Thank you.

The website is in Deutsch, but I will contact them and see what they say. I already have the HD Premiere Sat box.

Regards,
Ron

Hi Ron!

You wont get US Stations in Europe but you can get some very good Spanish/English channels with D+ (In Astra 19.2°
Look at www.kingofsat.net to find the channels you want.
FOX, AXN, TNT, Discovery, NatGeo in Astra with D+
CNN is FTA also in Astra
ESPN Classic can be found in Hotbird 6/7A/8 (13°E) with Polsat

Regards,

Seba Perez

you'll tell him next how to get a D+ or PolSat subscription?

Subscription..ejem... Legally you can get a D+ subscription if you know somebody in Spain. For Polsat I wouldn't know

If not you can get a Dreambox receiver or a any receiver with a cam module reader + module to decode those packages.

From what I can see, the best bet for me is probably SkySatellite.com out of Great Britain. They are based off of Astra2 and are available in Switzerland. Smart cards run from 13 Euros/month to 43 Euros per month and can bring in a variety of American and British channels.

Thanks to all who have replied.

-Ron

and the card won't work in your Humax.

Bottom line: The dish provided to you sucks cuz you won't get any of the programming you want from it.

Some alternatives:

1. Get a SkyTV box. SkyTV is pretty much just US programming anyway. This is the most conventional approach (and most expensive). You'll need a 90cm dish and the correct line of sight.

2. Get a sling box (www.slingmedia.com) and have a friend in the states hook it up. Not as good quality or framerate as a SkyTV box, but close enough. Only thing that sucks is you are off by 6-9 time zones :P Attach a TIVO to get rid of that problem.

3. ITunes. Pretty sweet actually, but the cost of buying episodes adds up fast.

4. www.mininova.org. Takes about an hour to download an episode free of charge.