Satellite Tv for Europe.
I swore I would never do it but there has come a time when needs must.
My husband has little cognitive ability to do much else now than watch TV so.........
Can anyone recommend a Sat Tv system that is good for Europe that won’t break the bank? I have seen various small ones that claim to work but I am an absolute beginner at this and if you ask me which satellites I need 😳😳😳 I would not have a clue.
I would prefer something portable: I am not so blonde that I couldn’t work it out for connection but don’t have a scooby as what I need. Do I need a kit? Do I buy things separately?
I have seen TVs with Sat Tv built in, are these any good for Europe?
Any help would be very much appreciated
xxxx
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ok. Arty.....nice and slow.....although some of this may sound complicated, I'll try and keep it simple...
first of all, all systems need a dish (to receive the signal) a receiver box (to unscramble and convert the signal) and a RV to display the image.
as you say, many sets have the receiver built in...
to find out what you need we need to understand your viewing requirements....
firstly, where are you going (this makes a difference), what do you want to watch.....BBC/ITV etc? and are you a sky subscriber...
as you go south (say) into France, you are moving away from 'footprint' of the 'uk beam' that carries the main uk channels like the BBC etc..
this means that the further you travel, the larger the dish that's required.
dishes attached to uk homes are usually about 60cm in diameter and this size would probably receive a signal about 'halfway' down France.
to receive a signal in the south of France it would require an 85cm dish.
many folk use a stand alone dish and, with practice, are able to set it up in a few minutes, but you need to understand a bit about the satellite's location so as to understand why the dish has to be moved/pointed in a perticular direction.
there are smartphone apps that can help with pointing the dish and also physical 'signal meters' which can 'bleep' as you line up with the satellite.
systems don't need to be expensive but the cheaper the system the more input from the user (and the apps and 'finders').
as I said, many users manage well enough with simple systems. however I struggled with my manual dish and eventually gave up (possibly a duff system as I felt I knew more than enough about sat locations) and then moved to a semi manual system in our 2nd MH which worked really well.
on the next van I negotiated a large fully automatic system which is terrific, super simple to use but they are expensive....
i think that's enough for one post as I don't want to give you sat overload......
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Artyboo
I would echo what BB has said above. Having for years had a portable dish on a tripod it can be very frustrating and time consuming to set up. It has been as quick as a couple of minutes to the best part of an hour!!! As BB says an 85 cms dish will cover most options for France if you wish to pick up UK terrestrial programmes. However if you don't want BBC 1&2 and ITV etc a smaller dish might be OK if you want to take pot luck with what you receive. It's handy having a TV with a built in satellite receiver as basically it saves on clutter in the van. There are several brands that have the feature, perhaps the best know one being Avtex. An automatic dish on the roof of the motorhome will be the easiest to live with but you are probably talking about a minimum of £1500 in terms of cost.
David
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ok, is Sky different and why....?
well, yes it is and the reason is that most of its Premium channels, like the Sports and Movies are broadcast on a different Beam to the BBC/ITV as in my earlier post....
the Sky channels (mostly) are on a beam called the Pan European Beam which has a footprint that covers the majority of Western Europe and this makes it easy to pick up on a smaller dish....
so, you could be watching (say) the golf/movies in the south of France with a (say) 60cm dish.....and even well into Spain...
both beams are on the same satellite (Astra 2) but the UK beam fades away as you go south whereas the Pan Euro beam remains strong.
now, this is fine but Sky requires its own receiver/decoder and viewing card to get these programs just like at home...so, an Avtex TV can't pick up Sky with its built in tuner....
we have our 'spare' Sky+ HD box permanently installed in our van and (when I choose to......not always) I can move my viewing card into the van box and pair it there....
just to get another perspective, once you get beyond France, the dish size for the BBC etc rises exponentially, with 1.2m dishes required for (say) Valencia..and larger the more towards Portugal you go.....similarly eastwards....
so, an 85cm dish with a Sky receiver and viewing card will give you BBC/ITV etc just about all over France and Sky One, Sports, Movies etc well into Spain....
an 85cm dish with an Avtex TV (no Sky box) will give you BBC/ITV all over France as above but no Sky capability.
hence the where, what etc....
good luck, enough for now....
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great stuff Husky, getting the feel of setting up prior to a significant purchase might help a lot...and give confidence moving forward (or South
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Which bit, Artyboo? I'm getting a bit fed up with Concarneau's weather. I'd hate to move to another wet bit.
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Hopefully it is better for you today. Clear blue this morning as we prepare to move on to Carnac.
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Artyboo
We have sky set up in the van using a free standing oval dish which I was assured would give a better reception in europe, however we have not tried it as yet. Easy to set up using the meter recommended on a thread I started earlier under Sky Q in the van.
Then on our last trip we met a 70 yr old couple who gave us a bit of a ribbing for all this gear to cary and set up.
They then showed us a little plastic box that was supplied by EE that enabled them to receive Sky programmes through this box usnig a laptop this was then linked to the TV.
Afraid I cannot help further on this but it may be an option and obviously easier to set up on site.
I believe the gadget costs about £22 per month from EE.
Perhaps someone could help with more knowledge. We also met someone at Minsmere who had an AP which he claimed allowed access to Sky free of charge again perhaps someone could help further. I think it was something called mobdro.
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I suspect that relies on a fast internet connection to supply the feed.
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A few other points.
You do not have to have the dish in the sky to make it work - indeed it will work perfectly well at ground level provided it has a clear sight roughly SE (i.e. no trees in the way.) You will however need a tripod (if you haven't bought one:) look on eBay for lightweight units such as Konig.
If you have an Android smartphone download the free Satellite Director which will, using the phone compass (assuming it has one) and the camera show a picture of exactly where the satellite is in the sky. If your phone does not have a compass then get yourself a decent optical compass - doesn't need to be expensive - but it will make life easier. The system won't work through trees but it doesn't have to clear them by much.
You have bought the TV and a dish but do you have any cable? Get yourself a 25m roll of WF100 or PF100 from Screwfix, plus a bag of F-type plugs. There is plenty on the web to show you how to make a cable up.
Finally, make everything up and try it out a home before you go - it would not be nice to try to make it work in France for the first time! At least you know it will work in the UK!! One issue is that the Astra 1 cluster used by European broadcasters is very easy to find accidently - you will get a signal but no picture/sound. If you do then you need to move your dish a bit left (viewed from behind) and dipped slightly down to find the Astra 2 cluster.
It is a technical site but have a look at www.lyngsat.com and keep clicking to get to the footprint maps of Astra 28.2E. This will give you a better idea of where you will be able to receive UK FTA programmes. For instance you will get them much further south on the east side of France than on the west, and the weaker the signal the more difficult the dish is to align.
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