Satellite TV in Taiwan Questions

Hi. About three years ago they were selling the RCA direct TV system in Taiwan but then… …

It’s gone…
Does it still exist? Could I be able to buy service from an other NTSC country like Japan? Their satelites should still be in view.

In my village I noticed a ton of old dishes on peoples roofs. They are useless because large buildings surround these houses.

Some people tell me that this was an old pay tv service ten years ago. Is that true?

Is that true? Does it still exist? The people I talk to are either young and/or don’t care about history or technology… so getting answers is like pulling teeth.

What about big dish? When I was in college in the us, there was a big dish on the schools roof, controlled by a joystick and later by a VIC 20, believe it or not.

Are we allowed to have these kinds of recievers in Taiwan? Are there any places to get surplus equipment? Would Star TV, CNN, Cartoon Netork sell the service to individuals.

Even if they did… It would probably be too expensive. I’d be happy with direct TV as my cable company keeps dropping my favorite channels.

Here is the service I use.

http://www.satgo.com.tw I use the Dream.co.ph service that they sell here in Taiwan through Satgo. Don’t bother calling Dream they will tell their service is not allowed outside of the Philippines even though it works just fine and on their website their coverage area is for a lot of the surronding countries including Taiwan. I guess they mean they are not authorized to sell it outside of the Philippines, but maybe others are.

As for BIG dish, Satgo has it all. Check them out.

Hey, I just checked out that website: those dishes are only about $4,000, which is much cheaper than I had expected. But, is it worthwhile, given all the grumblings I’ve read on various posts?

The Big Babou

I paid NT$3X,XXX total and I still think it is worth it. UNLESS, you already get Star World, Fox and CNBC. Of course there a lot of channels, but these are my favorites.

You could also try to buy it in the Philippines and bring it back to Taiwan, I think it is about half the price.

So “SATGO” won’t take orders for their systems to set one up in Taipei / Taiwan ?

… would really like the “Dream” package setup which includes Star World and BBC World ( which current cable provider doesn’t include ! )

From your post, it appears that if I call them up, they won’t set up a system, so why do they provide prices in NT$ ?

Of course SATGO will take your order and set it up in Taipei. Might have to wait a while. I meant that if you go to the Philippines and get the system there, it would be cheaper, but I think they it is against their policy to allow the systems to leave the Philippines or something. I guess only Satgo can sell it however, which is where I got my Dream system from.

Has anybody got this service? Hobart. are you still around? I’m pretty keen to get one hooked up if I can get AFL football regularly. Are there any other providers around that anyone knows of?

I should still be around at least for another 3 to 5 years(maybe longer), that’s why I didn’t mind investing in this SAT TV system. Actually I got mine for the news channels. AFL football. Hm…I know I get one or two Australian channels in addition to ESPN (In English) and Star Sports (In English), but I don’t know how often they show AFL games.

You might want to invest in even better technology that has a real reciever that is not tied into some paid subscription service. I mean a big dish that you can remotely turn around and tune into some different satellites, etc. Check out www.tvro.com.tw and don’t take no (meibanfa) for an answer! Good luck!

OK, will give it a try. Let me know though if you do see Australian Football on there. It’s quite a distinct game where they wear short sleeved guernseys (vests). Probably on start sports. And is that star sports different to the one on cable tv? Thanks.

I’m new to this as well. I went to SATGO and surfed around to try to figure out the difference between the equipment vendor and service provider. Hobart, can you explain how the cost breaks down. I’m still not sure from this thread how I would go about going out tomorrow and getting all set up with, say, the Dream thing, without having to take a trip to the Phillipines.

Also, if I get this little dish thing, what are the requirements I would have in an unobstructed view of the sky? I live on the 16th of a tower on a hill in Xizhi. Nothing much obstructs my view of the sky, except that I have only two sides of the tower to install the thing outside the window. Could that be a limitation in reception, if say, I had to point the dish in the direction of the other two sides of my tower … or are we just getting bombarded with microwaves as we speak and I could just point the dish into the ground and still get reception?

Did you install yours or have the guys come out?

… just had the SATGO guys install DreamTV - works well ( finally get star World ! ) - bit steep at NT$29,000 for dish, decoder box and 1 year sub but yearly charge after that is NT$9,000. Nice also to get BBC World too - for those geeks out there the TECH TV channel is neat with latest tech info and news + info on video games

Scott

just a couple of questions:

Are you recieving digital broadcasts?

Could you let me know what channels you can recieve (other than Star and BBC) - my computer can’t read the chinese at the satgo website.

Thanks

Dream TV package includes some of the usual cable tv channels ( AXN,HBO etc ) - web page listing the channels at

satgo.com.tw/DBS/146Dream.htm

  • this comes up in english on my PC.

Hi. Do the home satelite recievers/ program providers here in Taiwan allow you to choose various soundtrack (Chinese/English) and what other special features do they provide.

I’d love my Star World again and our local cable TV provider decided to choose the Chinese sound track of the Disney and Cartoon channels.

We had English for a while but then they decided that most people prefer the Chinese. The kids can’t read subtitles :?

Scott, if you happen to see Australian Football on Star Sports let me know. I’m still unsure whether their Star Sports is just the same as our cable tv, or whether it is different. Thanks.

Amos… been checking out the TV package - not on Star Sports but there is Ozzie rules football on ABC Asia which is one of the channels in the package

Scott, how often is that mate? Like is it just replays, or live games? Thanks, appreciate it.

[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Hi. Do the home satelite recievers/ program providers here in Taiwan allow you to choose various soundtrack (Chinese/English) and what other special features do they provide.

I’d love my Star World again and our local cable TV provider decided to choose the Chinese sound track of the Disney and Cartoon channels.

We had English for a while but then they decided that most people prefer the Chinese. The kids can’t read subtitles :?[/quote]

Disney and the Cartoon network is English on the Dream system. They are all in English for that matter except TV5 (French) and DW (German and English) and there are a few Philippino Tegalu channels.

Find the website for ABC Asia and check for yourself mate. Don’t make Scott do all of the work.

[quote=“jeremy”]
Also, if I get this little dish thing, what are the requirements I would have in an unobstructed view of the sky? I live on the 16th of a tower on a hill in Xizhi. Nothing much obstructs my view of the sky, except that I have only two sides of the tower to install the thing outside the window. Could that be a limitation in reception, if say, I had to point the dish in the direction of the other two sides of my tower … or are we just getting bombarded with microwaves as we speak and I could just point the dish into the ground and still get reception?

Did you install yours or have the guys come out?[/quote]

Go to the location(s) where you can mount the small dish between 10:00 and 10:30 AM and if you can look directly at the sun then you will have reception. They will come and install it for you.