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Ich arbeite als hund.

Any news on Cable TV via Microwave to Lamma?

After several years, there still seem to be no good, affordable solutions for satellite or cable TV on Lamma. The best option right now is claimed to be the Thai satellite the restaurants use: legal (?), best choice of channels, no service interruptions or card upgrades.

Sounds too good to be true? Experiences, please?

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Yes, Thai satellite reception is legal although they it be a little more expensive to obtain and install (not sure how much it is now)

Once installed the subscription is about HK$ 3500/year & can be renewed by contacting UBC direct & then TT'ing the fee to them with a fax copy of the TT. The signal will be reinstated (if your sub had expired) within about 10 minutes.

Can have anything up to about 9/10 sports channels running at the same time.
International friendly football matches can quite often be viewed on Thai channels with English (BBC/Sky) commentary - ESPN, STAR SPORTS, Sports, & Sports Gold have full coverage of Premiership, Spanish Primera, La Liga, Bundesl...., some French & some Dutch, South American Football etc..Champions League, and many Internationals, - for those that are interested.
If not there is always Discovery or National Geographic or History Channels, HBO, Cinemax, BBC World, CNN etc,etc etc

Reception is good except in really bad weather if you are getting a deflected signal as opposed to a direct signal

I shall be sending my Invoice to UBC

A Blog contributor & new arrival on Lamma just asked me about the cable/satellite TV options.
As I always try to be extremely nice to Blog contributors, I put together a small list. How much of it is correct, what's wrong & incomplete and are there any more options I'm missing?

Summary of cable/Broadband/satellite TV options on Lamma<ol compact><li>No Cable TV on Lamma at all, not even by satellite or microwave yet. I might be wrong on this one?
There's also rumour about a satellite or microwave dish option to receive standard Cable TV, but does anybody actually have that yet on Lamma?

<li>No Broadband TV on Lamma at all, because the bandwidth from Lamma is not high enough to support TV. PCCW is not going to upgrade it anytime soon as there are only 1,200 Broadband accounts on all of Lamma, not worthwhile for them to make the investment. Their salespeople have promised it for ages, but it won't happen. As the Broadband infrastructure cannot support TV yet, no other company can offer Broadband TV either.

<li>A few individual channels are available via websites, for example BBC, CNN (?), but in internet-streaming-video-quality only. OK for news, but maybe not for movies or documentaries.

<li>Satellite: the only way for now and there are several options:
<ol compact>
<li>Thai satellite: best, but also most expensive option. Most channels, big setup cost ($5,000+, I believe) and considerable monthly charges ($300). Large satellite dish. See last message for more details from somebody actually using the Thai satellite).
<li>Philippine satellite: Sham Shui Po is selling Dream Systems from Pinoy Land for about $2,000 plus installation. AXN, Discovery, ... You will need their receiver and card and dish.
<li>exTV: Galaxy TV & TVB. new and eager to promote themselves on Lamma. Just a few good channels so far, low setup and monthly costs, around $200/month, I think.<li>There are a few "illegal" options which are widely used, affordable and are probably your best bet. Setup costs starting at $2,000, no monthly costs.
<li>A few local guys are very knowledgeable and reliable in setting this up, especially Parksy, the soundman of most local concerts.
Some bars (depending on satellite TV for their business) are also quite knowledgeable, especially Malcolm in Diesel's, Kim in Fountainhead and Dan in Aroy Thai.</ol></ol>

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Where am I?

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I've just heard from somebody who got the Filipino satellite installed today.

This is the same TV solution as the Main Street hairdresser and several bars are using. Bars also use the Thai satellite for better sports coverage, but it's very pricey & legal & uses the huge satellite dish (see above).

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.

Occasionally you'll need a new card, which is supposed to be only $100, but I don't believe that it's so little. Maybe sales talk...

Receiving Cable TV the legal way (probably via microwave dish?) costs $5,000 plus considerable monthly charges. The same guy could install that as well.

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the new card for the filipino satellite is $250, not $100