Anyone have a Sky dish outside in the garden?

Claremac

We're having to move to rented house for 3-6 months due to structural problems with our house. We would like to have Sky if possible (probably go for Now TV if not). The landlord has said he would be happy for us to have a Sky Q dish but would want us to remove it and make good when we leave. While that may be possible, it started me looking at a solution that wouldn't involve any damage such as a dish on a tripod in the garden such as these at https://www.digitalisdirect.com/product-category/satellite-tv-equipment/dish-sets/

Was hoping to hear from anyone who had experience of using these please?

Browntoa

As long as it's stable it's fine for sky

teddysmum

If you have internet,why not use SkyGo for so short a period ?

Claremac

We would have to pay full whack for Sky Q just to be able to watch it on a computer which would be very expensive.

Neil_Jones

Where the dish sits isn't particularly important (to a degree), its more important that the dish can see the satellites in the sky. So if the only suitable place is behind a tree that's fine but if that's going to block the signal its a fruitless endeavour. Also as above it needs to be stable and depending on the makeup of the area tree and buildings wise, the LNB (the "microphone" thing on the dish arm) may need to be angled up higher in the garden than it would say on the side of a house.

Bearing in mind SkyQ requires 18 month contract and you're only going to be living there for 6, you may as well just jump on a NowTV deal for a while as a stopgap. Entertainment package £7.99 a month, Movies £9.99, Kids £2.99 and Sports £33.99. Deals and discounts are available on these if you know where to look. No contract. When you move back home, take it with you.

Claremac

Thanks, Neil. Luckily it's quite a long garden with trees only at the far end so we may be OK with the setup. We are currently with Sky and are currently having to pay the full amount as I have been unable to negotiate my usual deal with them due to the uncertainty over the house move. I have just managed to get an 18-month deal I'm very happy with from them for TV, fibre and phone but I could only take it up if we can get it at the rental house. We would then move back and continue with it at home.

The major drawback for us with Now TV (which is definitely something we are considering) is that you can't record anything. We are big Formula One fans but don't fancy having to get up at 5 or 6am to watch races! We may have to go that route though.

If we didn't have Sky for recording, would it be worth getting a Humax box or the like to record with or is everything available to stream now? We would have to go for Now TV fibre if the Sky deal doesn't come off. We've had Sky so long for the sports that I'm only just finding out what's out there.

knightstyle

First, yes a dish like that is fine and not hard to set up DIY just needs patience.
Second, yes a Humax box like 1100s will work fine with the dish and you can record OK. BUT make sure the channels you want are on Freesat as these differ from Freesat from Sky.
Finally you can just take the Sky TV subscription and get internet from another subscriber at the temporary address.

[Deleted User]

Neil_Jones wrote: »

the LNB (the "microphone" thing on the dish arm) may need to be angled up higher in the garden than it would say on the side of a house.

Given how low in the sky the satellites are from the UK and the distance involved you'll not notice any difference in the vertical angle between head height and a multistory house.


To the OP, as said the only thing to consider for a satellite dish is that it has to have line of sight to the satellites and of course you'll need to get the cable into the house through a wall or door/window frame.

You could mount it on a wall or garage perhaps and string the cable above head height which would make tidying up after the fact much easier.

Claremac

Thanks for the updates. knightstyle, we could get different broadband/phone supplier but it would be cheaper and easier overall to get Sky transferred and take it back with us if I can get the deal I'm after. Colin-Maybe, I think that the layout of the garden would mean that line of sight should be OK. The dish and tripod I have been looking at have a flat cable for getting it through a door/window frame.

Mister_G

Don't forget that Sky Q uses a different LNB to Sky+. The dish set up you refer to in your OP looks like it's for Sky+ only.

[Deleted User]

Mister_G wrote: »

Don't forget that Sky Q uses a different LNB to Sky+. The dish set up you refer to in your OP looks like it's for Sky+ only.

It's a simple matter (though obviously an extra cost) to fit a SkyQ-compatible LNB to that set up.
I agree it's something the OP should be aware of, though...