Freeview via the medium of satelite ?

steady__eddie

I have given up trying to get freeview via my T.V. ariel due to non-existant signal strength. Ariel quote (cheapest) is £100 which I feel loathed to pay. Somebody has suggested sattelite saying that I could pick up a dish for 30 to 40 quids and instal myself. I do not wish to subscribe to Sky on a monthly basis so could anyone tell me please, is it possible to simply buy the hardware and if so, what hardware is required ?

Paul_Varjak

LIDL sometimes have Satellite systems that can pick up many more stations than Freeview - but make sure that there are no restrictions on installing dishes in your area

andy88_2

http://www.freesatfromsky.com/ will show you the channels available from the Sky satellite, and has an offer at £150 installed (it was lower a couple of years ago).

I was talking to a Sky installer friend of my father a few months ago and will do my best to remember what he said. You can get the BBC channels free on all satellites, together with whatever other channels are on each.

A secondhand Skybox goes for up to £99 his price so is probably available cheaper in FreeAds or car boot sale? He'd recommend Skybox as it auto-updates; occasionally channels are altered; if often it would be boring to do it yourself, less often you'd forget how to do it. If you use Sky itself, you also need a card to plug in (maybe £20 2nd hand or with box).

The hardware consists of fixing brackets, dish, the thing that is mounted on it called an LNB (low-noise block pre-amplifier), downlead cable and receiver control box. The signal is converted at the LNB to lower frequencies (to minimise cable losses) and then again converted in the receiver box.

To install, you will need to know the satellite position in the sky, both azimuth (height) and direction. The beamwidth that the dish receives is narrow so it must be accurately pointed. I can't recommend websites to find the info (maybe someone else will reply) which will vary slightly depending on your location, but I believe the Astra satellite is 19 deg E or somewhere. [Edit - according to the excellent article linked from the next post 28 deg E] If there are other dishes near your house, perhaps you could copy the alignment as a first approximation for fine tuning.

It will be helpful when doing this to have one person moving the dish and someone looking at the TV. Maybe someone else can reply with more info on set-up utilities in the box that might have signal strength meter, etc.

Sorry if this is a bit incomplete; should give you a few starting ideas anyway

chrisw

https://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk

Gives all the info you need. Meant for caravans but applies equally well to home setups.

Also https://www.satcure.com has a free downloadable e-book all about satellite tv.

steady__eddie

Thanks folks, I've got plenty to go at now. I saw the satelite system in my local LIDL 6 months or so back but I remember it stating that it was not capable of receiving BBC 1,2,3,4 etc so I dissed it.

quoia

steady__eddie wrote:

I have given up trying to get freeview via my T.V. ariel due to non-existant signal strength. Ariel quote (cheapest) is £100 which I feel loathed to pay. Somebody has suggested sattelite saying that I could pick up a dish for 30 to 40 quids and instal myself. I do not wish to subscribe to Sky on a monthly basis so could anyone tell me please, is it possible to simply buy the hardware and if so, what hardware is required ?

Scour the local ads in your local newspaper, (free) Trader paper, Friday ADMag etc.. - even have a sneak in the appropriate section of LOOT in your local supermarket/ newsagent (have pen & paper to record phone nos. etc.)

You're looking for a DIGIBOX with dish & remote control.

I've bought several this way.
Cheapest was £20
Dearest was £35

Easy to install especially if a neighbour has one already to show you the direction to point it.

BexTech

andy88 wrote:

http://www.freesatfromsky.com/ will show you the channels available from the Sky satellite, and has an offer at £150 installed (it was lower a couple of years ago).

No such thing as a "Sky satellite", Sky don't own any satellites, they along with other broadcasters lease space on the satellites owned by SES Astra and Eutelsat.

You can use any digital satellite receiver to receive the numerous FTA channels, including the BBC Channels, ITV3, Sky News, The Horror Channel, Shopping Channels and a few movie channels. You however need a Sky Digibox and a FTV card to watch the FTV channels, ITV1, ITV2, Ch4 and Five.

If you can get the box and dish for next to nothing and install it yourself, and you want to view the FTV channels, you can get the FTV card for £20 from http://www.freesatfromsky.com

BexTech

steady__eddie wrote:

Thanks folks, I've got plenty to go at now. I saw the satelite system in my local LIDL 6 months or so back but I remember it stating that it was not capable of receiving BBC 1,2,3,4 etc so I dissed it.

BBC 1, 2, 3, 4, and News 24 are FTA, the LIDL system would pick them up fine, as would any digital satellite receiver.

andy88_2

BexTech wrote:

No such thing as a "Sky satellite", Sky don't own any satellites, they along with other broadcasters lease space on the satellites owned by SES Astra and Eutelsat.

I mentioned Astra later in the post

BexTech

andy88 wrote:

I mentioned Astra later in the post

Yes, you did, I have a habit of reading a post and then missing vital parts, noticed when re-reading, and thought might as well leave my comment as is.

Astra 1 is at 19.2E, and the satellites Sky uses Astra 2 is at 28.2E and Eurobird 1 at 28.5E.

andy88_2

ahhhh, no wonder I was confused about which position I remembered