Gargoyle,

You've been using the Dream system for a while?
Can you recommend it as the best?

How often do you need to replace the card? Frequently?

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Yes, I've been using for a while, but haven't used the others so can't recommend it as the best. But I am happy with it - lotsa channels. Shame no BBC Prime, but I don't think that's on Thai satellite either - just Cable or Now which we can't get anyway.

The first card last about 8-9 months, second one about 6 months. not too bad, considering how cheap the installation is - which includes all the hardware.

also when the card failed, dream phoned us up a day or two afterwards and delivered the new card to our place on lamma the next day - we left money in the letterbox and came home to a new card.

so the service has so far been reliable & prompt.

"Somebody off Lamma, a Chinese guy with reasonable English, installed the Filipino satellite for my friend, including the small satellite dish on the balcony:
Only $1,500 total cost for 52 channels, many of them in English, including HBO & Cinemax. "

So this is the Dream system, right?
Anyone got the contact details for this guy? LG?
Sounds like it's worth investigating.

As this guy could be theoretically fined up to $1 million for installing illegal satellites, I won't publish his phone number here.
I'll send you a Private Message, Zippy, with his phone number.

I don't know him personally yet, but will be talking to him as soon as I can spare that much money.
You can ask Nick or Parksy for a reference on him, as he's been doing this on and off Lamma for quite a while now and is pretty experienced.

By the way, there's currently no danger of a fine for anybody USING a satellite at home, just installing them is illegal. But as there are no affordable legal TV alternatives here (except exTV), any law enforcement on Lamma on this matter is highly unlikely.

Watch out for my comprehensive table of all TV options on Lamma in my Lamma-zine Blog later this week.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Got my Dream TV installed at the weekend and it's fuggin' great!
I used the guy mentioned above and paid $1400, cos he was doing half a dozen Lamma installations on Sat, so it was a bit cheaper. Well worth it.

I did a bit of snooping round Sham Shui Po on Monday and for those who aren't scared to install it themselves (it's not exactly rocket science), the whole system (dish, decoder and card) can be bought for $750. I would have done this if I'd known at the time, but to be honest I don't mind paying the extra to have him cart it all over here and then install it. I'm still pleased with what i got for $1400.

Picture quality is great, on-screen schedule for each channel, including details of the shows and a great range of channels:

http://www.dream.com.ph/main.asp?p=programming

Brilliant!

Great that it worked out so well, Zippy!

I'm paying 33% commission to anybody introducing an advertiser to the Lamma-zine, so where's my commisssion for introducing this guy to you?

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Come on man, I just passed on the info that you can get it for $750 from SSP.

Since you said you were going to go for it when you could afford $1500, I think you've just got your comission

Carrying a 60cm satellite dish on the MTR and the ferry all the way from SSP, mounting, installing, cabling and directing a satellite dish myself and hooking it into my complex home entertainment system? Getting my tender, delicate keyboard fingers dirty with all this manual labour?
I'm a software guy not a hardware techie (anymore)!

Somebody here willing to do all of this for less than $650?

Yes, I didn't think so...

Thanks for the update and all your info anyway, Zippy!

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Does anybody know the charging scheme of TVB Payvision? Total setup costs and monthly charges?

TVB Payvision seems to be becoming quite popular amongst Cantonese speakers now, more and more channels added, even a few English ones. It's the only other viable and affordable TV option on Lamma besides the Philippine Dream satellite which doesn't offer any Cantonese channels at all.

The other satellite options are all extremely expensive and only affordable for restaurants that need them for attracting customers, especially sports fans.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

It seems that TVB Payvision is becoming more and more popular on Lamma. But those who can afford it are hedging their bets like this place in the valley:

Terrestrial TV antennaes with signal booster, Philippine Dream TV satellite, Thai satellite and HK TVB Payvision, all the major options (except Cable TV via satellite). It's getting crowded on our rooftops...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.