Tips on buying a HD STB overseas

[iandrew]

There seem to be no HD STBs available in India which is very unfortunate because I have a HD ready LCD TV. I need FTA channels (mainly for my dad) and instead of buying a simple STB with only a composite video output, I wish to get one with an HDMI output for better quality (although the program is still non-HD). Can you please give me tips on what kind of standards I need to look for. I probably need MPEG4 capability for the future. What satellite bands do they have to be compatible with? Any polarisation issues? Although I am tech savvy, I am new to satellite TV. Can I just buy the STB and get the dish in India since the dish is probably bulky? What about the LNB? Do I need anything else?I am now in Korea and so the choices are probably going to be Korean or Chinese. Thankfully they use 220v. Do they use similar standards as India. Any help will be appreciated.