Best service provider for satellite TV and international TV?

Arts & Sciences Arts & Entertainment
#1

[color=#400080]What is the best company to deal with if you want to get a satellite TV system or other TV content not offered on cable TV or MOD?[/color]

I contacted three companies, and I have to tell you, the experience ranged from [color=#008000]very pleasant and helpful[/color] :bravo:to [color=#FF0000]very rude and unhelpful[/color] :fume: .

The companies I talked to are:
-Talasat
-Taiwansatellite
-Sat2Me

Those are the only companies we found that spoke English.
Has anybody else dealt with any of these companies?
One of them really pissed me off big time, so it would be nice to hear some opinions to see if it’s not just me.
Thanx

#2

I bought my satellite system from Jim at Taiwan satellite and have been quite happy with the service he provides. The service he has given both myself and my father, who is even worse than I am in terms of being knowledgeable in such matters, has been most helpful. His wife has also helped me out over the phone in the past and as we are not anywhere near the locations he generally services, it is most appreciated.

#3

I got my streaming system from Marc at Sat2me. Firstly the price on offer is lower than Taiwan Satellite for both Satellite and streaming services. Secondly being located in Taipei and working directly out of an office in Taipei City it is always easy to get hold of someone at Sat2me. This is not always the case for Taiwan Satellite which is a one man operation based in Alishan. This becomes an issue if you want your system setting up quickly or if a problem occurs. I know quite a few people who have moved over from Taiwan Satellite to Sat2me for just this reason. Sat2me are a very customer friendly operation with a lot of different packages available. They will give you a tour of there office (just round the corner from The Tavern) and introduce their packages if you give them a call.

I have been very happy with the service provided by Sat2me.

#4

Yes There

Satellite TV did really changed my life in Taiwan. You are right -there are very rude companies
or must I say individuals who is of the opinion he is the only one who can do this. Sitting with
all his clients "broadcasting " in 1 pc … come on. How long can he go on.

It is obvious that I am NOT any more with his company.

I went to a new company for the following reasons :

  1. Professional approach.
  2. Professional equipment.
  3. Real Office with a great array of satellite dishes.
  4. Backup service
  5. Great product - with limited lost of signal - during typhoon.
  6. Good price.

You want to have the best = go to the best !

SAT2Me !!

Happy Viewing
Jo

#5

Can anyone post a contact number for Sat2me?
Thanks

#6

Hi Igor,

I have talked to several people at Sat2Me.

(02) 8786-1817 ext. 111 Claire: friendly Taiwanese girl

same number, ext. 333 / direct line (02) 8789-1636 or mobile 0910-609405: guy called Marc

info@Sat2Me.com

Talked to both. The lady gave me a test system after the second email to have a look.
When asked if I could go to their office to visit, the guy invited me right away.
When I got there I could park in the basement, and they had demostration system running with all the channels we taklked about. Including a special Indian package they have from different satellites (my wife is from India). Jim never even gave a real reply of channel list when I asked him.

Didn’t ask the Talasat guys to visit their office, but Jim at Taiwansatellite, refused, and would not even let me visit his office with lot of blabla. Sorry, but if a company say you cannot visit them, and has no address, I don’t buy from them. simple.

So went with the Sat2Me guys, and very, very happy with them…

#7

I have been with Jim Taiwansatellite for a while now. I have 2 systems. I’ve been to his office in Taipei before.

He even gave me some free trials of his streaming. It was good but I chose to put up dishes at my house.

Jim has a good price and he does a good job of installing the dish. He also answers the phone when I call him and answers questions.

When I contacted Marc about a satellite installation he could not provide me with any details of the installation. He seemed very cagey on the phone about the content. He actually sent me to the taiwansatellite.com website to check the schedules because his site didn’t have any on his website.
Also I went to Marc’s rooftop party as he was using this as a demo for satellites. His systems broke down several times during the party and when we told him we were leaving to watch at the Tavern he lost his temper.
Not only that… Marc told many of us at that party that they installed the Taverns systems… At the tavern I saw the Taiwansatellites namecard stuck AV rack. In fact I went with Jim because he personally came to do the installation which is what I wanted.

Anyway I know a few people with Jim’s systems and some bars. After visiting Carnegies bar in Taipei I asked him about this guy Marc and he didn’t have very nice things to say. So that definately put me off.

I know some other friends who have had lots of problems with bad satellite packages before.

Jim’s ones have been very reliable all the time I have had them.

Happy TV watching
just my 2 cents.
Fridge

#8

Yep, Jim has a good reputation, but as a Kiwi I would be a little wary of having him set up my sporting viewing. He might fix the system so it plays a continual loop of Rugby World Cup semi-finals between France and New Zealand. :wink:

#9

Yep, Jim has a good reputation, but as a Kiwi I would be a little wary of having him set up my sporting viewing. He might fix the system so it plays a continual loop of Rugby World Cup semi-finals between France and New Zealand. :wink:[/quote]

Never, I would only let you watch Australia winning their 2 RCW victories

#10

Think if anyone has the experience, dealing with companies or individuals that do Satellite TV installations and/or streaming than I am sure I can also offer my two cents on that. When we started with Satellite TV back at the old Tavern in 2000, we worked with Ta-Lai Sat (which was refered to). When we moved over to the Tavern-Premier, initially we continued with them but we found that the fellow running that company was taking on too many jobs at the same time and the service became really lousy. As I knew Jim (through this forum) and he gave us some advises earlier, I asked him at a very curcial time if he could take over and actually re-do the whole system. We worked out an agreement and since then (more than 3 years), Jim, his wife and an employee, do an absolutely outstanding Job in both the maintenance as well as overall service (including prompt advise of channel relocations, etc.). What we also had to find out, was that Ta-Lai Sat had actually not done such a great job in many aspects, cheap cable TV wire was used but we got charged for expensive Satellite dish cables. Some of our dishes were barely bolted to the roof and it was only luck, non of them ever came down. We paid for cards through Ta-Lai Sat and when we renewed them through Jim, we found out that for years, Ta-Lai Sat put an unusual high mark up on card subscriptions. The streaming idea was actually first tested with us in 2006 when we faced a problem to receive a permit to put a dish on the roof of o’Ginny’s and we started to stream from a dish and receiver, located at the Tavern-Premier. Back then, to my knowledge, Jim rented some space and possibly an internet line from Marc at sat2me (or whatever that company was called at that time). Sat2me or any of it’s past or present employees have certainly not built or serviced any of our systems at any location at any time. Whilst I know Marc Tuckenberg (who is a long term resident like me) as a regular customer at our restaurants, we have never conducted any business together. Running a sports bar like the Tavern-Premier is, for us it is crucially important to have a good service as it is sort of a life line and Jim and his crew have never disappointed. Needless to say that no installer can give you a 100% guarantee that you never have a problem, for many satellite feeds, Taiwan is on the very edge of the footprint it covers and during heavy rain, one can lose the feed for a while, regardless how big the dish is.

#11

Michel,

Wasn’t planning to post in this thread; but I believe the market is big enough for all providers, and for all clients to subscribe with whom they wish to. And providers should perhaps not post here.

But for the record, I have never said we provide services to The Tavern Taipei, apart from some hardware you bought from us a while back. And yes Michel, your beer is good…
:slight_smile:
However, we have hosted an IP-based system for the Tavern Yokohama since early 2007.

As for the party mentioned above, this was a Webspar/Sat2Me party. And the info is incorrect; the problem was not the system, but us not thinking properly…with an early game, and bright sunlight on an outside projector screen there wasn’t much to see till later in the day, and going to the Tavern was the only sensible thing to do…
:slight_smile:

More than 70% of our clientele is not based in Taiwan, but in otehr parts of Asia. We are providing streaming sports content services to roughly 60 bars and restaurants, from Hong Kong and Jakarta to Singapore and Japan, with almost two dozen commercial streaming clients in Taiwan from Kaohsiung to Taipei. This as part of currently just over 200 hosted systems, most of which are not set up for sports only. We have the largest range of available programming, and, as Michel knows, since he was in our office only a few weeks ago, are growing solid, b

The market is more than big enough for all of us. So to all posters on this thread: let’s try to keep this civil, without throwing incorrect information and un-truths around about service or quality. This applies as much to what people say about the Tavern as about us or any other provider.
:slight_smile:

#12

Jim was the person who did satellite for me and I was thrilled with him. He provides great customer service and is very professional and extremely friendly.

I have a number of friends who used him too (both for business (pubs) and for their homes) and they had nothing but good things to say about Jim and his service.

I highly recommend him.

#13

We at Ben Sports bensports.tv decided to use Jim Taiwan Satellite TV for setting up our uplinking and downlining facilities for sports broadcasting and IPTV streams. We operate sports and casino operations and we broadcast sports on satellite, through our web streaming and other IPTV services. Our casino operations use IPTV streaming for those who use our online betting and online gambling services and our sports are streamed to over 80,000 clients on IPTV or on one to one streaming systems.

We sent representatives to talk with Jim and also with others in Taipei, back in January and February and then requested that he visit us in Manila. We also visited the Tavern later on in the year, which we must say is the only place in Asia that has such a good setup with both good food and the most sports to be seen at any one time in any one place.

We were looking for people who have the technical skills to setup and maintain our broadcasting facility, IPTV and webstreaming. Taiwan Satellite TV had that ability whilst others who provide hosting services did not. Jim spent quite a considerable amount of time overseas setting up our operations in HK, Macau, China, and also in Manila and Clark in the Philippines for a major part of this year.

We found out about Jim from the worlds largest technical magazine for satellite equipment manufacturers and related companies. Jim’s company Taiwan Satellite TV was given a major 4 page feature article last year.

#14

I want to install satellite at my house but they will not allow antenna dish on the roof.

Is there a way around the antenna dish on the roof? Can someone put it on the balcony facing south or perhaps inside a window pointing another direction?

Shame to waste my HD system with the cheap analog local channels.

#15

[quote=“tango42”]I want to install satellite at my house but they will not allow antenna dish on the roof.

Is there a way around the antenna dish on the roof? Can someone put it on the balcony facing south or perhaps inside a window pointing another direction?

Shame to waste my HD system with the cheap analog local channels.[/quote]

Firstly it depends on what package you want. Dream TV can be installed with a balcony mounted dish and the dish points to 130 Degrees south east. NO HD content on there though. Putting a dish behind a window is not the best as glass has properties which make the signals refract away from the dish.

It really depends on what you need in tems of content. If you cannot have a dish then perhaps streaming is the only solution. forum.taiwansatellite.tv/viewtopic.php?t=354

#16

Hey guys.

Ok, from a person who has been in Taiwan for a while ( and discovered his Forumosa membership was suspended due to prolonged non-activity, wow, embarrassing ) I can offer these points of reference.

I’m using Sat2Me streaming since January this year and have 2 packages.

Why I choose them?
3 reasons:

  1. They offered me info on how and what the system is, gave me free trial, and explained everything in satellite-for-dummies terms. And even after I went back home and did some research, they could answer me on higher tech questions ( I love the internet! )
  2. Couldn’t put up a dish where I’m staying ( and was also considering moving to a new place, so installing twice would have been a pain in the be-hind ).
  3. I like it when there is one person who answers the phone, one who develops the system, one who does the marketing, one who is tech-support, one who does the installing… you know, that feeling that everyone has their job and they make sure they do it right.
    They offered me a professional service and a product and always, Always, ALWAYS made me feel like I’m right ( even when I was wrong, ha )

I know 4 other people personally who use their streaming, and one who uses their dish. No complaints, no worries. And when there’s a problem, they are a phone call away and again, they make sure they fix it ( even if it is you that did something wrong or stupid )

Thats it. Enjoy your satellite TV !

#17

is there a website for sat2me?

#18

I think it is sat2me.com .
I’ve tried sat2me system and it works pretty good (they use different equipment depends on need: mpeg4,mpeg2 and better) . I’ve also seen mpeg4 system from taiwansatellite. But sat2me systems are easy to install and use. You don’t need computer just connect receiver to TV and network and use remote to control it.
I’ve heard that Taiwan Satellite rented bandwidth and servers from sat2me, but after some time it moved ( without notification) service to the south of taiwan, disrupting service for sat2me customers and his own. Also some satellite receiver customers moved from taiwan satellite to sat2me, mainly because of bad service.
I guess it is good that competition and quality decide now about service, not monopoly.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards,
Hans

#19

[quote=“khan”]I’ve heard that Taiwan Satellite rented bandwidth and servers from sat2me, but after some time it moved ( without notification) service to the south of Taiwan, disrupting service for sat2me customers and his own. Also some satellite receiver customers moved from taiwan satellite to sat2me, mainly because of bad service. I guess it is good that competition and quality decide now about service, not monopoly.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards,
Hans[/quote]

FYI Marc was evicted from his old office on Hsin Yi Road before the rent contract was up. When I enquired about his moving my servers without interuption I was promised that it would not be affected and that the fixed IP I had bought from his company would be moved. When Marc finally moved on the last few days before the move he advised that the advice he had given regarding moving my paid same fixed IP, that I had a contract with him to provide, was not going to happen, because his ISP said they could not move the same IP address.

[color=#0000FF]The reason for bad service was that I was having my servers hosted by MTI GLOABAL who were continuosly disconencting my servers. Many times I hd to visit the office to get my servers reconnected. It’s a good thing I opened an office in Taipei and run my own servers[/color]

If he had told me a month previous to the I would have had time to prepare but he did not have any new IP’s to move to…

As it was all Marc was concerned about was that I move the dishes and reinstall them at his office. For that reason there was a week where services were interupted due me having to find a new office and server location in Taipei. I did not move unexpectadly ( it was MTI who had to relocate ) and once the new server was installed all services including MTI’s were resumed ( as Marc could not transfer the same necesary FIXED IP I had paid for that calender year ) I had no choice but to install a system where I was not regularly cut of or had excuses from Marc that they were doing system maintenance… a continual problem with his company.

I did not move to the south of Taiwan. I live in Alishan but have had an office in Taipei and Taichung since July 2007 when Marc moved from his old office.

No doubt Iwill receive more letters calling me a criminal from certain people who also send threatening texts on msn that if I dont remove what I write I will be sent to jail for these so called allededly crminal forum posts. What a joke.

#20

[quote=“jon.donovan”]Hi Igor,

I have talked to several people at Sat2Me. (02) 8786-1817 ext. 111 Claire: friendly Taiwanese girl same number, ext. 333 / direct line (02) 8789-1636 or mobile 0910-609405: guy called Marc info@Sat2Me.com

Talked to both. Didn’t ask the Talasat guys to visit their office, but Jim at Taiwansatellite, refused, and would not even let me visit his office with lot of blabla. Sorry, but if a company say you cannot visit them, and has no address, I don’t buy from them. simple. So went with the Sat2Me guys, and very, very happy with them…[/quote]

Actually not true that you ever talked with me about satellites services. Not once have you ever called my office number 02 8771 7947 or my tech support 0960718548 or my cell number 0930 750 441.

If so I would have given you my company address.

However people that never give a name or contact phone number can hardly be spoken to.

SAT2ME and MTIGLOBAL are now offline and out of business it seems. Allegedly the company owner Marc fled Taiwan owing lots of people money. Allegedly The company will be wound up and closed down. Several of their customers have already contact me to continue services with my company. I know several people who claim they have not been paid for services provided to MTI. They are now looking for new site hosts in case anybody actually has a reputable website and email servicing company.

The websites are down and I just visited the office there where there is just a skeleton staff of 3 hoping to keep the some parts of the business alive if they can find new investors. As far as I understand from one of the company shareholders the landlord has taken legal possession of the hardware, servers, furniture and other satellite systems as he has not been paid rent for several months. Contracts were signed where can sell of the hardware incase of debt recovery.

A sad day when companies close due to lack of business.

I became aware of this issue as several panicked people called me to say that a foreign run satellite business was closing down and was it me? Obviously this type of news can be very upsetting when new customers are concerned they might pay you only you find out the next day you’ve done a runner with their money.