mikethomo

We have got away with the 1m dish so far. We can still get ITV , will wait a while to see what happens before messing with the dish always scared of loosing what we have got.

duffer

Yeah this is so true, I'm not holding out much hope for this evening because when I had my smaller dish, I would get a BBC signal during the day but then lose it in the evening during primetime TV only for it to return towards midnight. Upgrading the dish size fixed this problem.

Anyway, the vast majority of the terrestrial channels will switch over to 2E later tonight.

One option available to those with good internet connections is IPTV, basically a set-top box that is connected to the internet and then plugged into your TV and you watch TV streaming over the internet. Have never needed one of these so couldn't recommend any particular IPTV service but that's what Google is for FFS!!

duffer

I had always thought 1m was too small for central Italy for the BBC channels unless you are speaking about Astra 1N because I doubt you could've got BBC when it was on Astra 2D a couple of years ago.

It also depends what you mean by central Italy :-)

mikethomo

Umbria ! Castiglione del lago . We have had BBC and Itv for the last couple of years but not C5 . I have a larger dish in the shed but to date have not needed to try it, may have to dust it off.

duffer

Ah right, if you couldn't get BBC a couple of years ago when it was broadasting on Astra 2D then it is very unlikely you'll get it now it's on Astra 2E.

Wait a couple more weeks and see if they have made any adjustments to the signal, then if still no luck, pull out the big dish and give us an update

mikethomo

ok that seems the best way. Will wait a while and hope for the best if not its out with jodral bank and blite half of Umbria, still anything to keep the other half happy.

Garbatellamike

well if Obama clamps down on NSA they may have some nice big dishes for sale

linseed oil

ot just get filmon though your computer all English telly free

mikethomo

We have not got the best if internet connections. I have tried expat shield but it keeps buffering waste of time for us. I will try filmon but I am not optimistic .

Patty

All our BBC channels have gone - but this morning we still (fingers crossed) have ITV and Ch 4 E4 etc. Two of my friends who live nearby have still got every channel though and I asked them what size dish they have (cos I only have a 70cm) and they have 1.2m - so I'm going to wait a bit and then maybe invest in a bigger dish.

duffer

Hi Patty,

That's good to know that you might need only a 1.2m dish in your area, which is practically what I have now (it is actually an offset dish 1.2m wide x 1.3m tall). You could get away wth that on the roof or wall. I might need to upgrade to 1.4m or 1.5m but it will be difficult...

I was OK with losing the BBC and ITV until I realised the summer of sport will be on the free channels in the UK, i.e. Wimbledon, World Cup, Commonweath Games.

The BBC and ITV, between them, will show all 64 matches of the World Cup whereas in Italy there will be only 25 matches shown on Rai. Sky Italia have the rights to all of the matches! Bummer.

Isakat

I miss the BBC for the news each morning and for all the gardening and restoration programmes. Now we do not have teletext to see the news.

I also realized that Watch has gone, but Watch +1 is here( I just started watching the new series of Grimm).

Patty, could you double check for me the size of dish that your neighbours are using please?
Here the 1.2 m. dish is useless for the BBC, but we might try the big monster in the back garden of 1,8 m.

duffer

Must admit that I always watch BBC Breakfast when in the UK but rarely watch it here. Looks like you'll be able to spot a British expat very easily this year just by the size of their dish!

I wish I had a whopper!

Isakat

I am sure your wife wishes that too.

sonofjoe

I'm not a football fan but I use this to watch Sky F1...I'm sure you will probably see most of the world cup her too [ http://cricfree.tv/live/index.php ]