OT: Euro TV on Analogue Satellite

[Taywood]

I currently watch cross country ski racing and cycle racing on free to air analogue satellite TV. We
know its going to be phased out within the next seven years as all the providers switch to digital.

Its already happened in the UK and we had British Eurosport showing something called tennis at the
time I was watching a cycle race.

I've got the chance to buy a nearly new digital receiver set to digital free to air stations with a
dual lnb which can cover two separate satellites.

So, its decision time,
1. should I switch now before the T de F starts.
2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the sports I'm
interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of England.
3. is there a digital receiver showing only free to air stations or is it a standard receiver with
the card facility not used and fta stations tuned in instead. Advice please anyone Mike

 

[Simon Mason]

"Taywood" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...

> I've got the chance to buy a nearly new digital receiver set to digital free to air stations with
> a dual lnb which can cover two separate satellites.
>
> So, its decision time,
> 1. should I switch now before the T de F starts.

Why not, like you say you have to do it sometime.

> 2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the sports
> I'm interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of England.

If you have two LNBs then the two satellites you will point them at will probably be the Astra sat
at 28.2 E, which carries these channels: http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.shtml

As you can see, a lot of these channels belong to Sky and are encrypted . If you choose to get a Sky
card and subscribe, then here is the mind numbing range of options:
http://www.sky.com/skycom/packages

Much more interesting is the Astra sat at 19.2E which carries these stations.
http://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.shtml.

See the colour coding at the bottom of the page for the free to air channels labelled "digital
clear". All of the German regional channels are free and require no card. You can find their
schedules on the web. Here is Bavarian TV schedule for example:
http://www.br-online.de/programme/bfs/

Remember they are one hour ahead of BST.

> 3. is there a digital receiver showing only free to air stations or is it a standard receiver with
> the card facility not used and fta stations tuned in instead. Advice please anyone Mike

If you want to tune in these free to air channels, you have to do it manually. On the screen menu go
to "Add Channels" then you have to enter 4 parameters, the frequency in GHz, H or V polarisation,
the FEC and the Symbol Rate. You can find all the parameters here:

http://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.shtml

So if you want Bavarian TV then that's 11.836 --H --27.5 --3/4

Press "Find Channels" and the list of available stations will appear. You then select the ones you
want. You have to view them manually as well by going to the additional channels page.

The signal strength is as good as the Sky Sat in Yorks.
--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

 

[Jan]

> Much more interesting is the Astra sat at 19.2E which carries these stations.
> http://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.shtml.
>

Simon are these the same channels as the old Analogue system?

We at present have Sky digital and have kept our old system to enable us to watch DSF and ARD etc
Just wondering if I need to do an "upgrade"

Jan

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[Simon Mason]

"Jan" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> > Much more interesting is the Astra sat at 19.2E which carries these stations.
> > http://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.shtml.
> >
>
> Simon are these the same channels as the old Analogue system?
>
> We at present have Sky digital and have kept our old system to enable us
to
> watch DSF and ARD etc Just wondering if I need to do an "upgrade"

Jan, The same satellite carries both analog and digital. If you look at the key at the bottom of the
page you will see this:

analog-clear/ analog-encrypted /B/D/D2-MAC /digital-clear /digital-encrypted

You can then see by the colour of the page background which is analog and which is digital. So you
can use both the old analog system, or if you get another digibox you can view the digital
version. Simon

 

[Simon Mason]

"Taywood" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I currently watch cross country ski racing and cycle racing on free to air analogue satellite TV.
> We know its going to be phased out within the next seven years as all the providers switch to
> digital.

Forgot to say that you will find this utility useful. It shows you where to point your dish. Enter
the sat position 19.2 E or 28.2 E and your lat/long and it does the rest.

http://www.smw.se/smwlink/smwlink.htm

--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

 

[Ian]

Taywood must be edykated coz e writed:

> I currently watch cross country ski racing and cycle racing on free to air analogue satellite TV.
> We know its going to be phased out within the next seven years as all the providers switch to
> digital.
>
> Its already happened in the UK and we had British Eurosport showing something called tennis at the
> time I was watching a cycle race.
>
> I've got the chance to buy a nearly new digital receiver set to digital free to air stations with
> a dual lnb which can cover two separate satellites.
>
> So, its decision time,
> 1. should I switch now before the T de F starts.
> 2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the sports
> I'm interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of England.
> 3. is there a digital receiver showing only free to air stations or is it a standard receiver with
> the card facility not used and fta stations tuned in instead. Advice please anyone Mike
>
>
>
>
I'm in the business, although more transmission than reception, check out www.lyngsat.com it is an
enthusiasts page, very useful, the trade use it a lot.

Ian

 

[Philip Taylor -]

Taywood wrote:
>
> I currently watch cross country ski racing and cycle racing on free to air analogue satellite TV.
> We know its going to be phased out within the next seven years as all the providers switch to
> digital.
>
> Its already happened in the UK and we had British Eurosport showing something called tennis at the
> time I was watching a cycle race.
>
> I've got the chance to buy a nearly new digital receiver set to digital free to air stations with
> a dual lnb which can cover two separate satellites.
>
> So, its decision time,
> 1. should I switch now before the T de F starts.

No need to switch at all, until analogue (or your analogue receiver) dies; I "switched" from
analogue to digital some time back, but rapidly resurrected the analogue box whem Eurosport stopped
English-language FTA transmissions on digital (whilst maintaing them on analogue). Occasionally the
soundtrack doesn't match the action, but they usually fall back into synch before too long.

> 2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the sports
> I'm interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of England.

Eurosport and DSF (german) are the main two sports channels, but there are probably others.

> 3. is there a digital receiver showing only free to air stations or is it a standard receiver with
> the card facility not used and fta stations tuned in instead. Advice please anyone

Yes, FTA boxes are usually cheaper than those capable of accepting cards. You basically need to
decide before buying a digital box whether you are willing to receive /only/ FTA channels, in which
case you can save some money, or whether you may want pay-mode channels at some point in the future.
My received (a Manhattan DSR 2500 APCI) is capable of accepting two CI cards, but I've never used it
in that mode since with a fairly modest motorised dish I have access to around 1300 FTA channels
within an arc of 28,5E .. 30W.

Philip Taylor

 

[Taywood]

> > So, its decision time,
> > 1. should I switch now before the T de F starts.
>
> No need to switch at all, until analogue (or your analogue receiver) dies; I "switched" from
> analogue to digital some time back, but rapidly resurrected the analogue box whem Eurosport
> stopped English-language FTA transmissions on digital (whilst maintaing them on analogue).

Thanks Philip thats sort of what I was looking for. Imagine coughing up circa £200 for lots of extra
foreign language channels only to find none of them cover my sports. Not that I mind foreign
language programmes, I watched The Highlander again last night in german!

> > 2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the sports
> > I'm interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of England.

> Eurosport and DSF (german) are the main two sports channels, but there are probably others.

Do I take it thats the international Eurosport not British Eurosport? Mike

 

[Philip Taylor -]

Taywood wrote:

[snip]

> Thanks Philip thats sort of what I was looking for. Imagine coughing up circa £200 for lots of
> extra foreign language channels only to find none of them cover my sports. Not that I mind foreign
> language programmes, I watched The Highlander again last night in german!

I've watched that particular film in several languages, but having read what actually was done to
Wallace, I find the torture scene more than a little disquieting ...
>
> > > 2. can someone tell me what fta digital stations broadcasting to Northern Europe show the
> > > sports I'm interested in and does the footprint from the satellite cover the North of
> > > England.
>
> > Eurosport and DSF (german) are the main two sports channels, but there are probably others.
>
> Do I take it thats the international Eurosport not British Eurosport?

Yes, I don't have Sky (on principle) so I have the International feeds, not the British. I suspect
the overlap is well over 90%, though ...

** Phil.