All posts by Mike Davison
Below are all of Mike Davison's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John:
Dave is only available through a UK Sky package. It is carried on the Astra 2A satellite on a wide beam and in the Czech Republic you only need the same size dish as the UK. Copyright issues are protected by the Sky Videoguard scrambling. As BBC etc are free to view(not scrambled) only a receiver is needed but copyright still has to be protected and this is being done by tightly focussed beams on the UK and signal levels fall rapidly outside the distorted ellipse that covers the UK. It's only a guess but I should think in terms of 1.5 to 2metres for the tight UK beams of Astra 2E and 2F.
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John:
I should add that BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Ch5 satellite signals have no scrambled counterparts in the Sky subscription package so that route doesn't exist for you. Sky and Freesat use the same free to view services.
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patricia: I have no experience using BT's infinity TV services over broadband so cannot advise.
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Anne :
You don't say what model you've bought. Many will setup for various countries but if yours is designed for the UK market only it will only use channels 21-68 UHF. The good news is that DVB-T standards are used in Germany so you should be able to get the local channels via an antenna. Only satellite, Sky or Freesat, will give you access to UK channels but the dish size will have to be big to get the now much reduced spillover of the tight UK beams. You are not far out of the 60cm contour but the falloff could be rapid so a 1 to1.5m dish may be necessary for the Freesat(and Sky) PSB services of BBC and ITV.
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M
Can I use an existing sky dish with a freeview box? and if so cMonday 22 September 2014 8:11PM
Wetherby
gary:
No. That's a short answer - sorry. Freeview receivers take antenna signals between 470 and 860MHz. Satellite dishes send signals between 950 and 2000MHz to the satellite receiver and the digital processing is different.
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Briantist:
COM7 channel 32 Emley Moor is shown as 54.82kW on the digitaluk.co.uk website and not 16.7kW. Who is correct?
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John Davies: It should be OK but only for the UK. The satellite info' on the Ebay link is out of date. Astra 2D no longer operates and has been replaced by Astra 2E and 2F but at the same location. The UK beams on these new 'birds' for BBC, ITV, Ch4, Ch5 are now tighter so this dish will not pick those free to view channels for which no card is required much beyond the shores of the British Isles. It looks a little pricey but that may be because of the 12v DC power option being necessary. No mention of HDMI is made so it is probable no HD services will be received. A 55cm dish may also suffer from bad weather that comes between you and the satellite sooner than a bigger dish. Even my home 90cm system fails when a thick thunderstorm cloud obstructs the path. Details of all free channels from all the satellites at 28.2deg.East can be found at Eutelsat 28A & Astra 2A/2E/2F at 28.2?E - LyngSat I hope this helps.
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Matt Hudson: Tucked away on the CBS Action website it says 1st October launch on Freeview nationwide. Well those with COM muxes.
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M
Can I use an existing sky dish with a freeview box? and if so cThursday 25 September 2014 8:29PM
Wetherby
MikeP: I just went for the concise approach. Did you really add anything of importance?
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Tuesday 16 September 2014 10:02PM
John:
I don't think your receiver matters. The integrated satellite receiver in your Philips TV should be adequate. Dish size and LNB spec' are more important. You may get a better EPG and text services with a Freesat receiver however but until you get a watchable signal from the tight beams I should hang fire.