ASTRA 1,2, 3/1D & EUTELSAT Progs TXd

[Ray54]

Hi,

I am interested in augmenting my Freeview channels with the FTA ones available from the Sky Satellite [Astra 1 ?] and in the hope of picking up HDTV in the future.

But in looking at the various forum and adverts I understand it is relativley easy to receive signals in London / Essex from:

• ASTRA 1,2, 3/1D & EUTELSAT HOT BIRD

What I have not been able to find out is what sort of programms are available from these satellites and if any are likely to carry English Language progs.

I was rather taken by some of multi LNB set ups but cant justify the extra costs without knowing whats likely to be available.

Can any of you help me by pointing me in the right direction to find this info in laymans terms?

Regards

Ray

[nanochickin]

There you go mate, Everything you need to know can be found on these 2 sites

_http://www.lyngsat.com/ & _http://en.kingofsat.net/

Stuff of Astra 1 can be got using just a 43cm Sky minidish in most of England. Hotbird can also be got with the same dish but it may suffer during rain and bad weather

In Scotland you will need at least a 60cm Zone 2 dish to reliably get either satellite



Nano

[robbo71]

Hi Ray, welcome to Techwatch.

The satellites that Sky use are actually the ones at 28 degrees east, which includes some Astra 2 and Eurobird 1.

The channels available on 28E are listed here:-
http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html


A large proportion of them are of course encrypted by Sky, but there is still quite a few Free to Air channels(these have an in collumn 5).

Similarly on the same site you can see what channels are on Astra1 (19.2E) and Hotbird(13E) or any other satellite that take your fancy.

Other useful sites are www.flysat.com and http://en.kingofsat.net

Robbo

[nanochickin]

Ha ha beat you to it Robbo



Nano

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by nanochickin

Ha ha beat you to it Robbo



Nano

This time!!

[Ray54]

Thanks for the fantasicley fast response folks, I will look into these now

Ray

[jamesconnor12]

can anyone help i have a sly minidish witch i dont use anymore i am with nthel now i have 6tvs in my house can i buy a dish and 6 recevers just 2 keep everyone happy can this b done living in eire

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by jamesconnor12

can anyone help i have a sly minidish witch i dont use anymore i am with nthel now i have 6tvs in my house can i buy a dish and 6 recevers just 2 keep everyone happy can this b done living in eire

Why do you want to buy another dish?

To run 6 receivers from one dish you need an Octo LNB which has 8 outputs.

[jamesconnor12]

cheers robbo any advice on where 2 get them i have a cable box i got in brighton a year ago very helpful man by the name of trevor i think he works in cable boxs big thanks in advance

[robbo71]

It depends what you want the receivers to do.

The basic options are: a Sky digibox, a Freesat Box, or an general purpose satellite receiver.

What channels were you intending to watch?

The Freesat boxes are approx £50 each in Argos/Comet/John Lewis when they get more stock in, to give you all the free to air channels on 28E.

A general pupose receiver such as a Technomate are also approx £50-£60 for the cheaper models, and can be purchased from many online sat retailers,Southernsatellite for example.Again it will get you all the free to air channels on 28E.

Sky boxes would obviously enable you to view all the subscription chanels with the appropriate Sky subscription.