Freeview v Freesat ?

Enterprise_1701C

Like others we have cable, freeview and freesat. Freeview seems to break up at certain times of day, might be down to the neighbours! Our theory is that this way there will always be something of a good enough quality to watch, always get a good enough signal from one source or the other, shame about the prigrammes though !

martinthebandit

Use this http://www.dishpointer.com/
to see if you can actually get a view of the freesat satellite from where you want to put the dish or is it blocked by your surrounding hills.

If you can see it all right then freesat will, almost certainly, give you good reception.

Dishes are pretty simple to put up yourself and I know that my local Homebase were doing a complete kit, dish, cables decoder etc for less than £100 last year, there may still be similar bargains about.

macman

mardatha wrote: »

We were using Freesat but the dish has been damaged. Husband wondering whether to get another dish or change to an aerial and freeview.

OP already has an adequate Freesat service presumably-and a Freesat tuner.
So the cheapest and easiest way of resuming service is simply to fix whatever the dish/LNB/cabling fault is.

mardatha

Ok, many thanks :T OH has phoned the aerial guy and arranged for him just to bring a new Sky dish. That one is old and loses the signal in rain and snow. We would only get some of the Freeview channels so best go with the satellite. Thanks xxx

macman

A new dish will not necessarily overcome loss of signal in rain and snow, unless it's a specific problem with water ingress to the cabling.
Since you are in the Borders, you should ask your installer if the standard minidish (if that's what you have) should be replaced with a larger 60cm dish?
Either way, make sure that the LNB is replaced as well while he's up there. And get a quad LNB so that you have the option of twin cabling for a PVR if you don't already have one.
The extra hardware cost will be minimal.

mardatha

OH says it is the 60cm dish and he has the quad LNB but thanks for reminding him about this, he will make sure we get another the same x
Dish is low down, 3ft off the ground cos we get bad gales here. Makes life a lot easier

macman

60cm should be OK then. Height is not important, it can be at ground level as long as there is a line of site to the satelite.
There is little that can physically go wrong with the dish unless it is knocked and dented or pushed/blown out of alignment. More likely to be a fault with the LNB or cabling. Since it's at ground level, you can inspect all this yourself very easily.

zappahey

mardatha wrote: »

Ok, many thanks :T OH has phoned the aerial guy and arranged for him just to bring a new Sky dish. That one is old and loses the signal in rain and snow. We would only get some of the Freeview channels so best go with the satellite. Thanks xxx

Being close to the ground, it might just be an alignment problem if it's been knocked or maybe moved slightly due to the wind.

mardatha

Well, a guy from the HA came yesterday to fix the chimney when we were out. When we got back there were marks in the garden where a ladder had stood- right next to the dish, and we had no tv. But there were no witnesses and it's his word against ours. So we just got it fixed.
Pleased to report its done and the picture is perfect!