No one has mentioned FLIMNET of course time moves on, encryption gets better, sadly and when Sky moved from 19 to 28 and into digital, that was that for most, and with digital more channels, but quality is in freefall now, too many channels not enough product to fill them all.
I still get 19.2 and also 23.5. but really miss the Dutch channels, and can't afford what some 'dealers' want in the UK for a smart card and don't know anyone in Benelux to get me one
I had forgotten about Filmnet! I remember in around 1991 that the trailers were unscrambled and that the Filmnet decoders were also used for Teleclub and RTL 2. However, I can clearly remember when Filmnet's encryption changed to D2Mac and after then the scrambled picture turned to snow with no sound. I wonder why D2Mac signals were so badly scrambled?
Oh I loved that show! Although I use to watch it on ITV during the late 80s. I always wanted Sky when I was younger in my early teens of the early 90s but Sky during that time was seen as for people who had the disposal income or the well off. (or show offs!)
I never remember Punky Brewster being on ITV in the late 80s. I hadn't heard of the show until I first saw it on Sky One (my younger brother often watched it). I am not sure if Punky Brewster was only shown in certain ITV regions, as I know there were still some regional variations in the late 80s.
I remember getting a D2mac box just for the porn. Then we sent away to somewhere in Europe for a dodge decoder box for some porn channel that was scrambled by having a signwave added to the analogue TV signal or something like that. Was one of the first to get the original Red Hot Dutch porn channel.
Boy did it get boring night after night sitting up past midnight to watch the porn. From being hard to get and prized, we had load of tapes full of it after only a few weeks.
I had forgotten about Filmnet! I remember in around 1991 that the trailers were unscrambled and that the Filmnet decoders were also used for Teleclub and RTL 2. However, I can clearly remember when Filmnet's encryption changed to D2Mac and after then the scrambled picture turned to snow with no sound. I wonder why D2Mac signals were so badly scrambled?
I think they used digital sound IIRC.
When they used a seperate viewing card my brother and I decided to try out the Adult Channel,when the sub ran out the card was never deactivated. When I changed the card over it would flash up "Your card has expired" on screen before unscrambling the picture. Had about a year and a half of free viewing before they abandoned seperate cards and added the subs on to the main Sky cards.
It is very strange that there are more channels than ever,and not one genuinely good "classic TV" (British or American)channel.
UK Gold and its sister channels are disgraceful.
First time I remember watching it was in a lock-in as Sunday afternoon closing was still in force and we watched the Simod Cup Final (Chelsea v Boro I think). I only got it myself when they gained the PL rights, however I was working in a bar in Crete for a good while prior to that so we had Eurosport, MTV, Sky News and could get BBC Radio and Radio Luxembourg IIRC. But yes, nowt like coming in after a skinfull and sitting there with your kebab watching a pretty young fraulein going at it hammer and tongs!
I had forgotten about Filmnet! I remember in around 1991 that the trailers were unscrambled and that the Filmnet decoders were also used for Teleclub and RTL 2. However, I can clearly remember when Filmnet's encryption changed to D2Mac and after then the scrambled picture turned to snow with no sound. I wonder why D2Mac signals were so badly scrambled?
Wow, FilmNet ! I had a decoder for this back in 1990 until they amended their scrambling to incorporate digital sound, so got the picture and no sound. I flogged it in the end and got a dual one which also unscrambled RTL-4 (not RTL 2). The scrambling method was Satpac / Luxcrypt which was easy to crack hence all the pirate decoders. Even when scrambled you could make out things in the picture. FilmNet was under increasing pressure from the film studios so spent a fortune replacing their decoders for D2-Mac and then wiped all decoders out in the UK.
Didn't Premiere also use the same decoder as Filmnet, RTL 2 and Teleclub. I remember that the Premiere scrambled signal looked quite different to pre-D2Mac Filmnet, as well as RTL 2 and Teleclub.
I always remember on Premiere that you could clearly see peoples' outlines under the grainy scrambled picture.
- A big fuss when buying my first satellite system that it had to be "1D" compatable.
- Davina McCall with Ray Cokes - whatever happened to her? - followed by Beavis and Butthead.
- Loads of mates round marvelling at the films German TV showed, whilst waiting for the boxing to come on.
- Being outraged when Sky decided to make a Frank Bruno fight Pay-per-view.
- Wahre Lieb(e) and Lilo Wanders.
- A third Sky Sports channel starting.
- Having to press a complicated series of buttons to get BBC1/2, ITV and C4 as these were not received from Astra (but was C5 on Astra?)
- UK Gold having teletext pages with loads of satellite information.
- Being able to set up my Pace box so the channels were in the order I wanted, with unsubscribed channels removed completely.
Filmnet/RTL 4 used the same scrambling system. Teleclub used one which I can't remember. Premiere I think used nagravision encryption. I remember you could buy Filmnet/RTL 4 for around £50 and Teleclub for £80 but never saw any Premiere decoders. Probably the encryption was getting bit more advanced. Most wanted decoders were Filmnet/RTL 4 and the D2Mac TV3/TV1000.
Also do you remember when Sky launched Multichannels and were scrambling 10 minute section of programmes mostly Sky 1 in getting people ready for the launch.
I remember going with my Dad to Comet to buy our first box and having a massive argument with the assistant who wanted to sell us installation on which he got commission and me saying "No thanks, I can install it myself". He was very rude and said (looking down his nose) "Oh are you a fully qualified satellite installer then?" to which I replied "No, but I can install a dish myself thanks and have done many of my friends dishes already"
He was so rude that I was so close to walking out.
Didn't it have a low frequency that some had trouble getting on some LNBs? - I seem to remember a workaround of changing the local oscillator frequency.
I wonder how many people who could never get Channel 5 via terrestrial and didn't live in a cabled area subscribed to Sky (either analogue or digital) just to get Channel 5? :rolleyes:
Does anyone know what channels were on Sky/analogue satellite between September 1993 and June 1994? I'm writing a story set in that era and one of my characters has satellite TV and I was trying to think what channels they would have watched on it. I know the BSB-Sky merger happened in 1990.
Does anyone know what channels were on Sky/analogue satellite between September 1993 and June 1994? I'm writing a story set in that era and one of my characters has satellite TV and I was trying to think what channels they would have watched on it. I know the BSB-Sky merger happened in 1990.
Comments
I had forgotten about Filmnet! I remember in around 1991 that the trailers were unscrambled and that the Filmnet decoders were also used for Teleclub and RTL 2. However, I can clearly remember when Filmnet's encryption changed to D2Mac and after then the scrambled picture turned to snow with no sound. I wonder why D2Mac signals were so badly scrambled?
I never remember Punky Brewster being on ITV in the late 80s. I hadn't heard of the show until I first saw it on Sky One (my younger brother often watched it). I am not sure if Punky Brewster was only shown in certain ITV regions, as I know there were still some regional variations in the late 80s.
MTV was fab in those days Ray Cokes, Paul King and Edith Bowman plus some of the foreign VJ's
The all night music video jukebox were you rang in to get your fave video shown
Boy did it get boring night after night sitting up past midnight to watch the porn. From being hard to get and prized, we had load of tapes full of it after only a few weeks.
I think they used digital sound IIRC.
When they used a seperate viewing card my brother and I decided to try out the Adult Channel,when the sub ran out the card was never deactivated. When I changed the card over it would flash up "Your card has expired" on screen before unscrambling the picture. Had about a year and a half of free viewing before they abandoned seperate cards and added the subs on to the main Sky cards.
UK Gold and its sister channels are disgraceful.
Now content is too spread out over too many plus ones and second spin off channels.
Not forgetting how good music tv was back then.
Wow, FilmNet ! I had a decoder for this back in 1990 until they amended their scrambling to incorporate digital sound, so got the picture and no sound. I flogged it in the end and got a dual one which also unscrambled RTL-4 (not RTL 2). The scrambling method was Satpac / Luxcrypt which was easy to crack hence all the pirate decoders. Even when scrambled you could make out things in the picture. FilmNet was under increasing pressure from the film studios so spent a fortune replacing their decoders for D2-Mac and then wiped all decoders out in the UK.
I always remember on Premiere that you could clearly see peoples' outlines under the grainy scrambled picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6cUJgqaZVU&feature=plcp
- A big fuss when buying my first satellite system that it had to be "1D" compatable.
- Davina McCall with Ray Cokes - whatever happened to her? - followed by Beavis and Butthead.
- Loads of mates round marvelling at the films German TV showed, whilst waiting for the boxing to come on.
- Being outraged when Sky decided to make a Frank Bruno fight Pay-per-view.
- Wahre Lieb(e) and Lilo Wanders.
- A third Sky Sports channel starting.
- Having to press a complicated series of buttons to get BBC1/2, ITV and C4 as these were not received from Astra (but was C5 on Astra?)
- UK Gold having teletext pages with loads of satellite information.
- Being able to set up my Pace box so the channels were in the order I wanted, with unsubscribed channels removed completely.
Also do you remember when Sky launched Multichannels and were scrambling 10 minute section of programmes mostly Sky 1 in getting people ready for the launch.
Yes it was,on 1D.
He was so rude that I was so close to walking out.
Didn't it have a low frequency that some had trouble getting on some LNBs? - I seem to remember a workaround of changing the local oscillator frequency.
Excellent - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBXAIGTMchc
I think I can guess what the educational stuff on TV1000 after 11pm was
Channel 5 was better on Sky though
UK Gold showed proper oldies, not stuff from a couple of years ago
I liked the Family Channel as well
From this thread
1 RTL 2
2 RTL Television
3 TV3 (Sweden)
4 Eurosport
5 Vox
6 Sat-1
7 TV-1000
8 Sky One
9 Teleclub
10 3 Sat
11 Filmnet +
12 Sky News
13 RTL 4
14 Pro 7
15 MTV Europe
16 Sky Movies
17 Premiere
18 The Movie Channel
19 ARD - Das Erste
20 Sky Sports
21 DSF
22 MTV Europe
23 UK Gold
24 JSTV
25 N3
26 Sky Movies Gold
26 TV Asia
27 TV3 (Denmark)
28 CNN International
29 n-tv
30 Cinemania
31 TV3 (Norway)
32 Documania
33 ZDF
34 UK Living
35 The Children's Channel
35 The Family Channel
36 Sogecable 3
37 TNT/Cartoon Network
38 QVC
39 West 3
40 Sogecable 4
41 Country Music TV
41 The Discovery Channel
42 Bravo
42 The Adult Channel
43 MDR
44 Galavision
45 Bayern 3
46 Nickelodeon
46 TV Asia
47 Blank
48 S3 (SWF/SDR)
Thanks