Choosing a satellite receiver

by Elijah B. Market

When it comes to choosing a receiver here are a few points to consider.

The channels you want to receive

If you only want to watch the Free to air ( FTA ) channels available then there are plenty of models to suit your needs. FTA machines are cheaper than the more high spec machines but will generally contain the DiSEcQ protocol in their software which means that they can still be motorised or used with multiple LNB's. It's important to check that they have the right connections for your TV / VCR setup as some models have SCART connections only.

The disadvantage of FTA machines is that should some of the channels you watch become encrypted then there is no provision in the machine to de scramble them.

Embedded Receivers

The term embedded relates to the receiver having a de-scrambler embedded onto the printed circuit board of machine. There are many formats of encryption used by the different broadcasters across Europe - Viaccess, Irdeto, Conax, etc and these formats can be found embedded on various makes and models of receivers.

Conditional Access Modules ( CAM's )

A CAM is a de-scrambler unit used to unscramble a Digital broadcast and is inserted into a receiver's Common Interface slot (CI)

Common Interface Machines

Receivers are generally quoted as containing a number of Common Interface slots (CI), this enables them to cope with different encryption methods used by the broadcasters across Europe. The relevant CAM is purchased for the encryption method of the channels you wish to view, then it simply slots inside the CI slot in the machine. Some receivers contain 2 CI slots and have an embedded scrambling format also.