Freesat in Europe

uktyler

What satellite transmits Freesat, and what do I need to pick it up in Germany?
We are looking to get a dish and receiver and we may as well have English TV as well as German.

wonka

It's astra 2A/2B/2E transmitting at 28.2E, see here:
http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.2E.php

Actually, the Freesat channels are merely the same as Sky channels that are being broadcast unencrypted. What most people don't realise is that Freesat isn't a broadcaster, it's really just an EPG.

So, if you can get Sky in Germany, you can pick up Freesat too.

moonrakerz

Most of the FTA from UK is now on Astra 2D. This has a much smaller footprint than 2A-C and in some parts of Europe very large dishes are now required.
This was done deliberately to restrict the reception areas of UK TV programmes.

Have a read of this:-

http://www.astra2d.com/

knightstyle

Beware of buying a free to air receiver in Germany. They do not have all the channels. Get a secondhand Sky box in UK, get a freesat card sent to a UK address, 60cm dish will probably be OK. Set it up in UK if you can as the Sky people do not like calls from abroad when switching the Freesat card on.

SpanishBlue

knightstyle wrote: »

Beware of buying a free to air receiver in Germany. They do not have all the channels. Get a secondhand Sky box in UK, get a freesat card sent to a UK address, 60cm dish will probably be OK. Set it up in UK if you can as the Sky people do not like calls from abroad when switching the Freesat card on.

I'm not an expert, but have heard more than once (admiterly here in Spain) you are better off with a free to air receiver than a sky box, especially a 2nd hand sky box. The tuner in a sky box is not that strong, and not ideal for use outside the UK.

I think you would receive very few, if any at all of the main channels with a 60cm dish.

A free to view card is not really necessary - It will get you very few extra channels. You can now receive all the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & Five with no card.

Inactive

SpanishBlue wrote: »

I'm not an expert, but have heard more than once (admiterly here in Spain) you are better off with a free to air receiver than a sky box, especially a 2nd hand sky box. The tuner in a sky box is not that strong, and not ideal for use outside the UK.

.

Yjay very much depends on the make/model of receiver.

The very best Sky Receiver, tuner wise, is the Pace 2600, they have the very best tuner of all, closely followed by the Thomson 4212.

knightstyle

I have used a Pace with 60cm dish in Hannover OK. The free to air receivers are not available legally in Germany. They sell a satellite receiver which gets lots of foreign programs and only a few UK ones.

SpanishBlue

knightstyle wrote: »

I have used a Pace with 60cm dish in Hannover OK. The free to air receivers are not available legally in Germany. They sell a satellite receiver which gets lots of foreign programs and only a few UK ones.

knightstyle, I'm curious to what Channels you can receive in Hannover with a 60 cm dish. Do you know if the dish is pointed at 28.2 east, and are you therefore picking up the BBC 1,2,3,4, ITV1,2,3,4, Channel 4 & Five channels (all on Astra 2D). Or are you pointing at a different satellite, and receiving channels like BBC World etc.