I have several satellite boxes capable of being used for free sat---all in good nick. Also a couple of skyboxes [not plus]. If anyone wants, then just yell. You share the postage. Col.
Hi Chris. Freesat is a posh name for free satellite channels----there are hundreds of free to air sat channels on stacks of different satellites not just 28.2 [Sky] free films, music, docs etc----if you are content with 28.2 then an old skybox is OK for you giving over a hundred channels and converted to no card operation. I have one here and it's yours if you want it m8. Cheers. Col.
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I believe that there are more channels available on Freesat then there are on just an ordinary digibox with a £20 card, which is what I have. I can't get Dave, or what was called the History Channel (used to be channel 12 on Freeview) as I need a card, but believe they are free on Freesat.
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I'm a "Juvenile product of the Working Class who's best friends floats in the bottom of a glass"!!
when I read your entries on this thread it makes me wonder how complicated sat-receiving in the UK seems to be. When I want to have Sat-TV - I simply go to an electronic-shop or Aldi, Lidl, ReWe or whatever and buy one for ca,~45.- €, attach it to my dishe(s) and then after updating it shows me all channels from that (or these) satellite on a channel list. - The encoded ones have an "S" or any other sign in front of the stations name - the free ones nothing. If I would want to watch an encoded station I have to by a card from a dealer wich opens the station in a package with other encoded stations - thats all .. - and all this for ~ 45.- € and the ones without card option are even cheaper: Special offers at e.g. Aldi 30.-€ Why is it so complicated in the UK as it could be so easy ? Unfortunately our dish, 80 cms (appartement-house) with 2 LMBs doesn't have Astra 28e° but Astra 19e and Hotbird 13e° - I would have to pay the installation myself but I have already twisted our old analogue house UHF-antenna to digital DVB-t receiving for 8 Austrian TV channels and now they come in clearly over a distance of 160 kms - unencoded. Maybe that would also be an option for you
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I have a Freeview box, but the aerial on the house is pointing toward the local TV Transmitter site which is on the tower aat Holyhead Fire Station. As that is a relay, it doesn't have many of the channels which the main TV mast at Llandonna has.
It would mean me getting a ladder and a new aerial and trying to remember which way Llandonna is from my house!
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I think you mean Llandudno - its exactly 50 kms (as the crow flies)* East from Holyhead landinwards - If you take a long antenna (about 15 elements) and take off the reflector at the end you may catch even Irish TV on DVB-t or better you connect 2 antennas one to the west the other to the East and keep the reflectors - probably you also need an amplifier gaining 30 dbs. I think in the UK like in GER or Austria DVB-t is on UHF. - You only have to find out if its horizontal or vertical polarisation. As its a long antenna it will also catch Holyhead relais without any probs as DVB-t doesn't know any shadows ( in TV-picture) due to wrong or unprecise direction of the antenna as we once had it on analogue TV
*/ so no problem at all for an external roof antenna if theres not a high mountain in between
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Nope! Llandonna! It's on the east coast of Anglesey. 53-17.6n 004-08.6w. Llandonna is horizontal whereas the Fire Station is vertical. I don't think I could get Irish TV from here, I think someone built a mountain in the way!
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aha, - but then you write it like this: "Llanddona" which is only 20 kms East from Holyhead what would make it even much easier - probably your old antenna is fully sufficient and you only have to turn it to the east with horizontal position - or one long 20 elements antenna directed to Dublin without the reflector would let you catch both muxes. If the mountain (dublin) isn't too high and not too close to your house it shouldn't matter - you have to try with your old antenna first
Alec/Chris-------Satellite is not complicated within UK, it's just made difficult by a greedy family run business called SKY. Chris you are correct about Dave etc on a skybox so that's out, you pay rubbish money for dedicated FreeSat boxes which are again run by the above vultures listed under various company names. Alec you can buy digicards anywhere but they are only good for certain packages. People in UK want english channels or channels in english. I have boxes that can hold upto 9000 TV/radio channels with access to all satellites from east to west and with the capability of converting to english if dubbed. These are boxes sold openly but programmed by enthusiasts to be cardless andnon encrypted allowing total access. The boxes that I have left are bascally to allow access to free satellite programmes wuthout the expense of a card. Col.
Yes Col - I had one like this (where you could give in codes*) as well (manipulated in Austria) - but then after some months Austria and also other channels changed the encoding systems - and that was it. - (You can't give in the new codes anymore due to encoding system changes) Thats why I moved to DVB-t for receiving at least Austrian TV. I could never try Astra 28° myself as we have no dish or LNB for Astra 28e on our house. But a friend in Salzburg has one and they receive all free English channels (as far as I know BBC , ITV and some others) with a regular (you cannot give in codes ) receiver they bought at Austrian Aldi without any problems. Their dish is 1.20m in diameter. So it shouldn't be a problem for Coastie either
*/ The codes were secrets (a loong line of numbers and letters) of course but some people had them however
Alec----codes are a thing of the past nowadays m8-----I watch a lot of german channels on 19 especially TNT series which I change from german speech to english but how? I can't discuss here-----you can PM/e-mail for details if interested. Col.
Quote: The Reaper wrote in post #12Alec----codes are a thing of the past nowadays m8-----I watch a lot of german channels on 19 especially TNT series which I change from german speech to english but how? I can't discuss here-----you can PM/e-mail for details if interested. Col.
Thanks Col - German TV satellite channels (about 40, the religious, selling- and rubbish channels not included) are not encrypted. - they are all free - only the pay-TV channels are encrypted but on my digital receiver I have now there is nothing you can do about encrypted pay-tv channels besides buying a card. At the moment I have 30 channels alone via DVB-t and all the free satellite channels in addition which gives me about 100 channels to watch - but to tell you the truth, actually I watch about maximum 20 channels (Austria included) mostly via DVB-t. Its a bit like with my Radio station bookmarks on my pc - I think I have more than 100 bookmarked but listen only to about 10 regularily if at all. For me its more the idea of tinkering, finding out and of being able to without actually doing it .... So thanks again - maybe I will get back to your offer some day later. BTW we don't have this telephone-line-decoding system over here - also the very expensive receivers barely have a plug for that
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Quote: alec wrote in post #9aha, - but then you write it like this: "Llanddona" which is only 20 kms East from Holyhead what would make it even much easier - probably your old antenna is fully sufficient and you only have to turn it to the east with horizontal position - or one long 20 elements antenna directed to Dublin without the reflector would let you catch both muxes. If the mountain (dublin) isn't too high and not too close to your house it shouldn't matter - you have to try with your old antenna first
yeah, yeah, ok so you got me on the spelling of Llanddonna! I was having an English moment!
As regards the mountain, I mean Holyhead Mountain which stands between me and Dublin. When my Brother lived at the top of Kingsland Hill, about quarter of a mile away from me toward trearddur Bay, he could get RTE no problem.
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I'm a "Juvenile product of the Working Class who's best friends floats in the bottom of a glass"!!
We used to pay Sky £26 a month and found we was only watching UK Gold and Dave. When we got our new TV it had freeview built in so the Dave channel was free to air.
We canceled paying Sky and kept the Sky box. We then bought all the comedy shows they show on Gold. We have each and every comedy series they show over and over again.
Its worked out much cheaper than paying Sky and we can watch them without the adverts and when we want. We have built our own comedy channel doing it that way and who needs Sky.
30million people think they "need" sky----even Adolf couldn't brainwash that many. Also sky made almost a billion pounds profit in the last half year----making a better job of fleecing the multitude than our good old banks, nice, if your name is murdoch.
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I paid £20 for a card from Sky which gave me ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 plus their attribuatries and others. It's a card guarranteed for 3 years but good for 5 and that's what I use although I think that if I were to pull it out of the box now I probably wouldn't see any difference.
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Quote: coastie wrote in post #15........ As regards the mountain, I mean Holyhead Mountain which stands between me and Dublin. When my Brother lived at the top of Kingsland Hill, about quarter of a mile away from me toward trearddur Bay, he could get RTE no problem.
You simply have to try to find out - actually DVB-t signal travels much better than the old analogue signal. When Austria was still analogue and transmitted with 500 KWs from Salzburg we always had reception troubles caused by weather and never a really clear picture (snow) in Munich . Now they transmit with 80 Kws only from Salzburg and we always have an excellent clear picture and only sometimes its gone due to special weather conditions (inverse weather). A friend of mine who lives in a high apt-building 11th floor in the East of MUC even catches Switzerland - Tx is 220 kms away from MUC
@ Col - pay-TV (now owned by Murdoch in GER) is no big thing in GER, actually its a minus-business as many people who try it give it up after a while - its simply not worth it besides you want to watch special channels.. But i-net TV seems to grow slowly.
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Mon May 06, 2013 11:58 pm (Last edited: Tue May 07, 2013 6:46 pm)
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