Satellite TV

[mistermac]

Hi Everyone

I noticed in my local Maplin's that they're selling a satellite package (dish, box & all the leads etc) for £79 instead of the usual £99.

Does anyone have one of these? Are they any good? Are they easy to use? What are the 'down' sides to them?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Mac

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Very good - for more info scroll back through these pages.

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Hi Mark

If you are tal;king about the system in the case they are very good the downside is you dont get channel 4 &5 the upside is you dont get big brother added bonus that one .

On offer at Maplins @ 49.99 as for the others no Idea. the one in the case has about 8 sat programmed in , what more can you ask

Regards Stewart

 

[mistermac]

Hi Mark

If you are tal;king about the system in the case they are very good the downside is you dont get channel 4 &5 the upside is you dont get big brother added bonus that one .

On offer at Maplins @ 49.99 as for the others no Idea. the one in the case has about 8 sat programmed in , what more can you ask

Regards Stewart

Thanks Stewart -

It certainly looks good. And for

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Thanks Stewart -

It certainly looks good. And for

 

[Pam_374318968]

Hi Mark,

There good if you can get a signal. As with any Sky mast - if there is something in the way you can't pick it up. If you can get a clear signal you can get all freeview channels.

Pam,

 

[Karen_374313821]

Hi all,

My OH just bought a satellite system in the box from Maplin on Thursday night and we took it away with us the next day. He hadn't tried to set it up just read the instructions which were not great and attempted to set it up that night. Unfortunately he was beaten by the light so next morning attempted again but was not having much luck. He eventually got a crystal clear picture and then realised he had tuned into Astra 19.2 instead of 28.2 so started again. Later he relocated the dish and attached it to a stop sign at the exit of the site and within a few mins had a wonderful picture. The trees behind us were blocking the signal all along. He has now decided to get a pole to attach it to as we were getting a few looks as people walked past but all in all I think it will be easier to set up the next time and would reccomend them. Only downside is no channel 4 or 5. Was thinking of getting a sky box and card does anyone know would that be compatable?

Thanks Karen

 

[Ian_374317932]

Mark

I bought one of these sets in June works very well crystal clear tv loards of radio chanels also.

My set came with a built in detatchable compass.

You need to aim the dish to ASTRA 28 that means 28 degrees east of south horizontal adjustmant vertically the dish needs to be almost vertical. The system has a signal streagnth monitor that is displayed on the tv when you press info on the remote.

Setting up is easy once you get the principle. I have my dish set up so I can attache it to the side of my van with the 3 suction pad stays on even in strong winds.

Word of warning make sure you have the power off when connecting coaxial cable from the dish to the decoder or you could cause damage.

You should get perfect TV anywhere in europe with this size dish, if you tune to astara 28 that is the uk tv chanels satellite.

Good lock

 

[COLIN_5095629]

Hi all,

My OH just bought a satellite system in the box from Maplin on Thursday night and we took it away with us the next day. He hadn't tried to set it up just read the instructions which were not great and attempted to set it up that night. Unfortunately he was beaten by the light so next morning attempted again but was not having much luck. He eventually got a crystal clear picture and then realised he had tuned into Astra 19.2 instead of 28.2 so started again. Later he relocated the dish and attached it to a stop sign at the exit of the site and within a few mins had a wonderful picture. The trees behind us were blocking the signal all along. He has now decided to get a pole to attach it to as we were getting a few looks as people walked past but all in all I think it will be easier to set up the next time and would reccomend them. Only downside is no channel 4 or 5. Was thinking of getting a sky box and card does anyone know would that be compatable?

Thanks Karen

karen,

check previous posts on this forum ,and you will find loads of info on sky boxes , or go to www.sataliteforcaravans.for all the info you want

colin.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Just one point to pick up-

Freesat and Freeview have different channel line ups.

Freesat recieves a lot more channels but you will not get CH4, Ch5, E4, UK bright ideas, UK history or the +1 channels for these stations.

Overall I feel freesat gives you more as you get Men and Motors, 2 Movies for Men film channels, 2 girly flick channels (name has slipped me) as well as the Zone and Reality channels and a lot more.

If you use both you have a really good lineup - this is what we do at home now as I believe Sky is a real rip off unless you like a lot of sport.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

I should also add

FreeSky (or whatever they call it) which is a different line up again - this is a Sky box with a non subscription card (

 

[KeithJ]

Hi Karen. I had all the same experiences as you when I started using a satellite dish this year. I attracted no end of attention and help from other campers when I was struggling to get it to work! Most of my problems were to do with trees blocking the signal.

Then I invested in a Max View tripod. They are not cheap, at about

 

[Woody3]

If you go overseas don't bother buying an expensive UK kit. Go to a DIY shed in France and get a fill kit of dish, LNB, and receiver for 80_. Get the tripod of a set of work lights (mine cost 11.50_ from BricoMan at Boulogne) and you have everything you need. If you like CSI etc then get a secondhand Sky box and a FreeSat card and you are away.

Setting up is made simpler if you have a compass and and sat finder box (fits in series with the LNB and squeals when it detects a signal.) It hasn't taken me more than ten minutes at any site this year to get set up - three times out of eight I got the dish dead on first time with the compass!

 

[DeliDave]

we use a washing line,take off the airer bit and clamp the dish on have put a groove in top so once its set you just put it back in same place

 

[Guest]

we use a washing line,take off the airer bit and clamp the dish on have put a groove in top so once its set you just put it back in same place

Garry - an old Sky card which has lapsed no longer works for CH4/5. And a Freesat card costs

 

[Guest]

Damn! Clicked wrong button!

Garry - an old Sky card which has lapsed no longer works for CH4/5. And a Freesat card costs

 

[JeremyClarksson]

We are using a lapsed Sky card at home and it gets both Ch4 and ch5.

Freesat boxes do not require a card and if they come with a card slot it is normally for the european channels not Sky. On these you do not get Ch4 or Ch5 at present only FTA channels like all the BBC digital channels, ITV regions and other unencrypted channels.

FreeSatFromSky is the service using a card from Sky for encrypted FTV (free to view) channels like ch4 and ch5 at present and a Skybox.

There is a very good reason for Sky doing this - they want you to come back to them as a customer, keeping you using the sky box will help and if they withhold ch4 and ch 5 you are likely to get another box (freeview perhaps), all of which make their job of winning you back to their expensive packages harder.

You are right about the card being

 

[Guest]

I'd been trying on eBay for a while to get a card. Already had a Pace Minibox 12V system so didn't need a box. Some of the cards go for around 40 to 50 quid sometimes!! Mad!! Especially when you can get them for 20 quid from Freesat.

Eventually, a friend had a lapsed card which I tried. I couldn't even get Sky 3 with it (which you can without a card!) let alone CH4/5! So I bought a 20 quid card. You may be just lucky your card still works.

I have now got Sky One and all other encrypted channels from 101 to 179 for just

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I think that it has to be the card with the yellow house on it

If you leave the box on for a while,sometimes a day or so the card can revive.

I recently lent a digi box to someone on a CC site and at first it said "No satellite signal is being received " on ITV

After a few minutes it recovered and the picture came on

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Our card is blue with a yellow house on it and of the FTV channels it only gets 4 and 5, I think E4, Sky Three etc are subscription channels on Sky (Albeit from the most basic package).

We do not use the Sky box much now as we have a hard drive PVR with digital terrestrial and satellite decoders in the box, so you just set up the channel list for the best of both worlds - brilliant.

Thinking of taking it with us for next week in the van.

Might set the sky box up for another room.

 

[Robert_374242026]

Hi all,

My OH just bought a satellite system in the box from Maplin on Thursday night and we took it away with us the next day. He hadn't tried to set it up just read the instructions which were not great and attempted to set it up that night. Unfortunately he was beaten by the light so next morning attempted again but was not having much luck. He eventually got a crystal clear picture and then realised he had tuned into Astra 19.2 instead of 28.2 so started again. Later he relocated the dish and attached it to a stop sign at the exit of the site and within a few mins had a wonderful picture. The trees behind us were blocking the signal all along. He has now decided to get a pole to attach it to as we were getting a few looks as people walked past but all in all I think it will be easier to set up the next time and would reccomend them. Only downside is no channel 4 or 5. Was thinking of getting a sky box and card does anyone know would that be compatable?

Thanks Karen

Thought i would add our expeirances, our Lidl one works very good with Sky + and their Silver Crest box.