Good evening all, as I am a complete beginner in caravanning into Europe, whats the right equipment to buy ie which tv and dish setup can I buy just a standard tv you would use at home
Many thanks dave
Many thanks dave
Satalite tv
- Thread starter worsley947
- Start date
How many full stops in a bottle of ink?
Yes, a standard mains TV will do but somewhere around 18-22" is big enough for most people. You will also be well advised to get one that is full HD (not just HD ready) and that has a Freeview HD tuner - for home future-proofing.
You will need a satellite dish. I use a 60cm ovoid which is good enough for most places where UK satellites are receivable. You will also need a LNB (the bit on the end of the dish arm, a tripod on which to stand the dish, anything up to about 15m of PF100 or WF100 cable and connectors, and it is a good idea to have an optical compass. Inside you will need a satellite receiver, and HDMI cable to connect it to the TV, and a means of getting the external cable inside. If you have an Android smartphone download Satellite Director (free) which will make alignment much easier.
If you are going to France you can get a dish with LNB and 10m of cable from such as BricoMan for about €35, probably rather less than over here. I bought a worklight tripod without the lights for about €12 which will do as a dish mount.
For a receiver you can get a Freesat box - even off eBay if you like. If you have Sky at home you can take that with you. A cheap solution is to find your local branch of Cash Converters where you will be able to get a Sky box for £20 or less including a remote and a guarantee. If you are intending to use it only for free-to-air (FTA) channels without recording then get a Sky multi-room box from CC (for about a tenner or so) as they are much smaller and lighter than a full Sky box as they don't have a hard disc inside. Note you do NOT need a Sky subscription to watch FTA. If you get a box from CC it will likely have an expired viewing card in it (behind a flap) which will work for FTA, otherwise it will cost you a once-off £25 to get a Freeview-from-Sky card.
There is plenty of on-line help on how to set it up the dish and receiver and how to fit F-type plugs et al. You should buy F-type plugs in a pack of 10 from Screwfix for a couple of quid, and get a 25m reel of WF100 unless you buy the full kit in France. It is also a good idea to get a pack of back-to-back F-type sockets so you can extend cables if necessary.
Having said all that, the broadcasters tightened the satellite footprint a few years ago to limit where it can be received outside the UK. This map footprint shows you where you can receive BBC/ITV/4/5 channels. We are currently using Astra 28.2E F-footprint and the second line corresponds to a 60cm dish. If you are going much outside this area unless you are desperate don't even consider satellite. People in Spain are now having to use 1m or 1.2m dishes, and in Italy 3m is the norm where a few years ago 60cm would get the lot.
Yes, a standard mains TV will do but somewhere around 18-22" is big enough for most people. You will also be well advised to get one that is full HD (not just HD ready) and that has a Freeview HD tuner - for home future-proofing.
You will need a satellite dish. I use a 60cm ovoid which is good enough for most places where UK satellites are receivable. You will also need a LNB (the bit on the end of the dish arm, a tripod on which to stand the dish, anything up to about 15m of PF100 or WF100 cable and connectors, and it is a good idea to have an optical compass. Inside you will need a satellite receiver, and HDMI cable to connect it to the TV, and a means of getting the external cable inside. If you have an Android smartphone download Satellite Director (free) which will make alignment much easier.
If you are going to France you can get a dish with LNB and 10m of cable from such as BricoMan for about €35, probably rather less than over here. I bought a worklight tripod without the lights for about €12 which will do as a dish mount.
For a receiver you can get a Freesat box - even off eBay if you like. If you have Sky at home you can take that with you. A cheap solution is to find your local branch of Cash Converters where you will be able to get a Sky box for £20 or less including a remote and a guarantee. If you are intending to use it only for free-to-air (FTA) channels without recording then get a Sky multi-room box from CC (for about a tenner or so) as they are much smaller and lighter than a full Sky box as they don't have a hard disc inside. Note you do NOT need a Sky subscription to watch FTA. If you get a box from CC it will likely have an expired viewing card in it (behind a flap) which will work for FTA, otherwise it will cost you a once-off £25 to get a Freeview-from-Sky card.
There is plenty of on-line help on how to set it up the dish and receiver and how to fit F-type plugs et al. You should buy F-type plugs in a pack of 10 from Screwfix for a couple of quid, and get a 25m reel of WF100 unless you buy the full kit in France. It is also a good idea to get a pack of back-to-back F-type sockets so you can extend cables if necessary.
Having said all that, the broadcasters tightened the satellite footprint a few years ago to limit where it can be received outside the UK. This map footprint shows you where you can receive BBC/ITV/4/5 channels. We are currently using Astra 28.2E F-footprint and the second line corresponds to a 60cm dish. If you are going much outside this area unless you are desperate don't even consider satellite. People in Spain are now having to use 1m or 1.2m dishes, and in Italy 3m is the norm where a few years ago 60cm would get the lot.
Why not just take a TV with DVD built in and just take box sets to watch like what we do ?!
Craig .
Craig .
Hi craig im planning on going away to europe for two years on my own so would like some English tv
worsley947 said:
If you find some decently fast wi-fi and sign yourself up to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with UK servers you will be able to watch iPlayer/ITVhub/4OD/Demand 5 easily using a laptop or tablet.
If you sign up to Kaspersky Secure Connection (only costs a few pounds a year for up to five connections) it allows you to select the country (inc UK) in which you want the programme server to think you reside. Being secure it also means that your email etc is secure even if you have connected to an open wi-fi hotspot.
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