We bought our satellite set from the Melksham Satellites store, it was a small 55 cm dish that had its frame and literally sat on the ground. The package came with a sat receiver, cable, and satellite finder. It was excellent and quite a number of people both here and abroad came across to talk as they couldn’t believe something so small sat on the ground would work.
David Sullivan had an unfortunate name, I remember seeing a documentary!!
I dabbled with satellites for some years but with poor reliability. We manage fine now but I can see there are advantages when abroad. Virgin give me hundreds of channels. We watch 10 tops. Terestrial, Netflix, Disney, Prime Dave, Yesterday.
John
I think the coverage plot that Dustydog attached must be an old one with one of the earlier satellites. UK stations are now on Astra 2G the coverage plot of which is HERE. The coverage for Europe seems to look much more like what DD posted, as HERE. Most of Europe uses Astra 1N which is at 19.2E and the coverage plot looks like THIS.
I would add that some Sky stations are on the wider Europe plot as they are available across the whole area. The Astra 2G coverage is deliberately made tight to stop people in other countries distributing UK home market programmes. UK coveragecan be received quite easily after maybe a 10-20minute battle with the (60cm ovoid) dish right down to nearly Clermont Ferrand, Colmar in Alsace, all of Belgium, most of the Netherlands, and Germany as far south as about Frankfurt.
Been there, done that........
I would add that some Sky stations are on the wider Europe plot as they are available across the whole area. The Astra 2G coverage is deliberately made tight to stop people in other countries distributing UK home market programmes. UK coveragecan be received quite easily after maybe a 10-20minute battle with the (60cm ovoid) dish right down to nearly Clermont Ferrand, Colmar in Alsace, all of Belgium, most of the Netherlands, and Germany as far south as about Frankfurt.
Been there, done that........
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We've never needed/wanted any form of subscription TV, each to their own as BB says, so a Freesat PVR does everything we need - originally we needed a 65 cm dish to get the Astra channels in the far north of Scotland but since they changed to a UK pencil beam a 40 cm dish is fine everywhere in the UK now - but of course if you tour abroad you will need a bigger dish, increasing in size as you go south.
We use the Freesat PVR at home as a recorder and also get the advantage that all regions are available so occasionally benefit from Scottish programming.
Thanks folks. You have helped clarify my thinking.....quite a feat!
I am still in the cloudy side of it all, we watch the terestrial TV, a few DVD's and if in France the local TV, for the news, and our recorded tv programs as a back up. Holland is great as they have so many Programs is English,
Are you still watching French TV or are you talking retrospectively? The French changed their TV format a few years ago which make it essentially incompatible with any UK TV. If you have a European TV (which will work in France and in this country) then that is a different matter.
France uses the SECAM system will we use the PAL system. PAL is superior to SECAM IMHO.
We have a couple of Tecknika TVs which worked fine in France but that was about 5 years ago
Oops Buckman, you are behind the times. PAL and SECAM (and NTSC for that matter) are for analogue services but France along with the rest of Europe has gone digital. Analogue TV in France was switched off on 30 Nov 2011.
However if you have a UK TV it will not work in France due to different standards in use.
In the UK:-
SD multiplexes (muxes) running DVB (sometimes called DVB-T1) use an encoding format called MPEG-2 - the same format but with less carriers as used by DAB.
HD muxes run DVB-T2 are encoded using H264.
In France:-
HD Pay-per-view terrestrial channels use H264
HD terrestrial channels run by TNT use DVB-T2 but encoded with MPEG4 where the rest of Europe uses MPEG2. It also uses Dolby Digital + (DD+) sound encoding.
To view HD channels the French need to buy a TV with the appropriate decoding capability or a TNT set-top box that will do it for them.
Almost all terrestrial TV in France is now HD but incompatible with UK HD. However past experience of TVs in Europe is that one of the set-up pages asks in which country the TV is being used which includes the UK and RoI. Ergo if you buy a TNT compatible TV in France it should work on UK broadcasts when you get home.
If you are of a technical bent and want to know more about digital TV in France have a look at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_France#DTT_transition
If you want to know more about DVB-T2 and what formats are used across Europe in general look at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T2
We have been using Satellite at home and in France and Switzerland for about 30 years now. Totally wired in for SkyQ and now have exactly the same package at home and abroad. Never yet failed to get signal although sometimes easier than others. No plans to change anything in the foreseeable future.
My experience with satellite set ups has all been in Europe so might nit be appropriate for the UK but abroad the signal kept getting more restricted and we went from a 60cm dish to 90cm to a 1.7m rented dish (in Portugal) and eventually the man renting out the dishes gave up. I have decided literally months of my life have been spent aligning dishes to receive programs we can do without and don't even watch at home and now we take DVDs.
Yes you can. I have done it. You do not need WiFi if you just want to watch TV and any recordings you have made. You obviously need the correct LNB for SkyQ but I repeat you do not need WiFi for normal use. We take our box from home every time we go away.
We did not have an issue receiving Sky programs with our Satfi dome in Spain as far down as Valencia. Obviously no BBC or ITV, but we never watch either anyway.
In France south of La Rochelle no issue using our 85cm and could watch all Sky programs including BBC, ITV etc.
Even as far east as where I live in Germany I get all free UK channels here at home with a 90cm dish.
I stuck to the Sky+ box because I was told you had to be linked to Wi-Fi. Not the case now I understand. If I change my LNB will I be able to access all Sky channels and record whilst away? If yes then we will upgrade just for the additional recording time.
I currently use a quad LNB but only two outputs. So my present internal wiring will be fine. Will I still be able to watch Sky in the lounge and bedroom?
The two cables from the correct LNB go into the Q box and will set you up in one location in your van. My LNB has two connections for Q and four standard ones and I use one of the standard ones to run a cable to the second location and use a standard Freesat box. I have not found a way of getting Q to a second location because you cannot use one of the mini boxes you have at home because of no WiFi.
There may be someone with more knowledge than me who has managed it but I haven't. So I have a cheap Manhattan Freesat box in the bedroom but working from the same LNB but on the standard connection.
I am told that finding the Sky Q signal is a lot more difficult than Sky+HD. Never tried it so no idea myself.
Thanks for all that. You’ve jogged my memory. I’ve stuck with the Sky+ box purely for the ease of not needing the second box. I expect the time will come when I will have to upgrade at home but will probably retain Sky+ in the caravan. Are the ID cards interchangeable?
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