British TV channels in Germany?

onlypadog

I'm relocating to Germany for 8 months in August with my new job, and I was wondering if I took out a Sky TV subscription over here and took the box and my TV with me, will I still be able to receive the signal in Germany?

I have heard rumours that this is possible and if so it would be a great comfort to me to still be able to watch all of my favourite TV. Does anyone have any experience in this or can give me any advice?

Much appreciated

scotsbob

You can certainly receive the Astra satellite (which Sky use) in Germany.

However it depends where in Germany you will be. Anywhere in the west should be ok with a 1 metre dish.

I believe the new Sky cards may be coded to the receiver so as long as you take both you should be OK

will-in-estoril

onlypadog wrote: »

I'm relocating to Germany for 8 months in August with my new job, and I was wondering if I took out a Sky TV subscription over here and took the box and my TV with me, will I still be able to receive the signal in Germany?

I have heard rumours that this is possible and if so it would be a great comfort to me to still be able to watch all of my favourite TV. Does anyone have any experience in this or can give me any advice?

Much appreciated

You will be outside the Astra 2D footprint, the satellite from which BBC and (most) ITV channels are beamed, so make sure you have a receiver with a decent tuner: there is none better than the Pace 2600, which you can only buy secondhand. The dish size required will vary slightly depending on which part of Germany you are in. I am much further south and have a 1.4m dish!

You will not have to take your TV; a German TV will do, as long as you connect via SCART leads. (Germany uses PAL BG as opposed to PAL I in the UK but this does not matter for SCART connections.)

scotsbob

will-in-estoril wrote: »

You will be outside the Astra 2D footprint

If he is outside the satelllite's footprint then he would not receive a signal.

The Astra footprint does in fact cover most of Germany as you can clearly see from the chart on this webpage


http://www.digitalsat.co.uk/astra2dfootprint.html

will-in-estoril

scotsbob wrote: »

If he is outside the satelllite's footprint then he would not receive a signal.

The Astra footprint does in fact cover most of Germany as you can clearly see from the chart on this webpage


http://www.digitalsat.co.uk/astra2dfootprint.html

Ok, what I should have said is that large parts of Germany are outside the footprint: the size of dish you need can vary drastically across the country, from 60cm in Dusseldorf, to 1.2m in parts of Schleswig Holstein, to up to 1.5m+ in the Berlin area. Climatic and weather conditions affect reception.

Whilst there is no substitute for the correct size dish, you should also use a decent LNB and a receiver with a sensitive tuner.

As I stated earlier I am way outside the footprint in the Lisbon area of Portugal, but can get good 2D reception using a Pace 2600, a Sharp LNB, correctly skewed and a 1.4m dish.