jdr

An old Sky contract card will give you all the free channels, we use ours .

LivingHere

Out of curiousity, do you get the same channels if you take the card out?

jdr

Haven`t tried it lately, but it used to lose 4 and 5, so you should get loads of channels even without a card.
Go on the Spain forum and in the Free Beer thread near the top of the page there is a link to everything you need to know on Sky. ;-)

Gremblar

Thanks for all the advice. I will try the link from the spain thread. Just one other question. Is there a certain frequency that we have to set the sky box to? I think ours is still set up for england or on the default and I think someone earlier in this thread mentioned about resetting it.

Can anyone help?

Thanks again xx

duffer

If it's a UK $ky box you do not need to change the frequency. Just make sure the dish is pointed in the right direction: 28.2 degrees East - something you could in theory do yourself and then fine tune it - however it could take hours to do it without any specialist equipment as you would be moving the dish a mm at a time. just get a quote for repositioning of the dish. With a signal meter and easy access of the dish, the job should take about 10-15minutes. A 1.2m dish should be ok.

Your old card will work fine. Without the card you'll probably lose only C5, Fiver, 5 US.

Gremblar

Thanks Duffer for your response. I think our dish is too small and will need repositioning, as when it points in roughly the right direction we have a house roof in the way! Bloody typical! Ah well, better get on and get it sorted! Oh, by the way....... do we have to open up an Italian tv subscription? I only ask because when we first tried the dish (which was set up to receive Italian tele) we still didn't receive anything using our digibox or by plugging an aerial straight into the tele. Surely we should be able to receive Italian FTA tele? At least the kids would be able to watch some cartoons, albeit in Italian (which, to be fair, is great to get them to learn the language). Maybe we're not connecting up right or do we have to have someone out to 'switch us on'?

Anyway, still clinging on to sanity! Just!

Thanks to everyone for their input xx

duffer

Hiya,

You mentioned 1.2m dish in a previous post. For Parma maybe a 80-90cm dish is sufficient but I cannot be 100% sure. If the dish is too small it will affect your reception of BBC, ITV and C4 which need large dishes because of weak signal in Italy. C5 will be OK on a small dish as the signal is strong in Italy.

Do not confuse digital satellite and digital terrestrial as they are not compatible. To receive Italian channels using your current dish (without repositioning it) you will need a decoder bought from any electronics store such as Mediaworld, Unieuro, etc. This will enable you to receive free to air Italian channels such as TG24, Rai and tons of porn channels. Yes I had to do a lot of research on the channels.

If you want to watch good programming, you will need to subscribe to Sky Italia, who will provide you with the decoder and card. You can just connect your existing dish (as like you mentioned it's already hooked up for Italian television, i.e. pointed at the Sky Italian satellite) to this decoder and you're up and running. Problem is that if your dish is pointing at Sky Italia you cannot receive any signal from UK channels as the 2 satellites are too wide an angle apart. There are square sat dishes which could pick up both signals but they are quite rare here = expensive.

My recommendation would be for you to pick up (unless it's already integrated into your TV) an Italian digital terrestrial decoder. This picks up the signal not from your satellite dish but a standard TV ariel. These decoders are fairly cheap and you can choose to watch some of the programs in English/original language. This leaves the satellite dish free for UK TV.

Without either decoder be it satellite or terrestrial the only channels you can receive are the ones you tune it on your TV.

Ciao for now.

Gremblar

Hi,

Thanks for that. That's helped clear a lot of things up. Only trouble is that we don't have a terrestrial aerial on the house. But I understand what you are saying about using our english sky+ box with the sat. dish pointing at the astra sat. and being tuned in for english programmes and then having a terrestrial aerial with an italian decoder box for viewing Italian tele (if we really want to). (I hope that's right!).

Hopefully I won't have to bug you guys again, fingers crossed.

Thanks again and best wishes xx

Lorna at Vicenza

don't foregt to pay your tv liciense (canone RAI) and if you want to watch good programmes then don't bother with Italian television at all - lol !!!

However - as you mentioned some Italian cartoons might be good to help the kids. My kids picked up loads of extra English words from cartoons so it should work vice versa .......... though I'm not sure that the word "poison" fits well into every day language ---- picked up from watching Snow White !

bravodelta

My kids are watching CBBC and CBeebies on the internet.
We watch BBC,ITV etc. No dish needed and no upfront cost.
Its with British tv abroad .... OK if you have internet at 700kbps and higher.
We are in an apartment and cant have a dish.

Gremblar

Hi there,

Could you give me the site name/address as I've tried going onto the cbeebies website and because we're not in england it won't let us watch anything! It sounds great and would definately be appreciated.

Thank you! xx

duffer

Actually it is www.britishtvabroad.com believe it or not. Seeming as you've the UK $ky box already and a dish already on the roof, I would reposition the dish as it would be far cheaper and better than this internet service. Even upgrading to a large dish of 1m or 1.2m would be about the same as a year's subscription.

Another cheaper option would be to buy a slingbox, pay for or contribute to a UK broadband service for a friend or relative and then connect up the slingbox to their TV and internet. If they are willing that is. In the long run this would be cheaper.

Best option for me would still be the satellite dish. English TV is so much better and just being able to switch on the TV and lump yourself on the sofa is just excellent.

My 3m old son has already a habit of looking at the TV. So I usually move him away but sometimes when it cannot be avoided I switch to Cbeebies as there is no flash/strobing lights and nicer colours and sounds for him.

LivingHere

[My 3m old son has already a habit of looking at the TV. So I usually move him away but sometimes when it cannot be avoided I switch to Cbeebies as there is no flash/strobing lights and nicer colours and sounds for him.[/QUOTE]

I love the way you say "when it cannot be avoided". My eldest used to know it was time for bed when the music for the Channel Four News came on!

david.rogers

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the board, will be moving to Umbria in about 2 months - to a town caled Gubbio (about 50km NE of Perugia). I have been getting mixed messages about getting BBC1, 2 etc in the region. Some (UK based) experts say about a 2.4 mtr dish should do it, but an installer in the south of Umbria says 'not possible'. Help! Anyone know anything/anybody around this area?

Thanks

David

duffer

I reckon 2.4m should be fine. You could go even smaller if you want only the Sky channels and can sacrifice the BBC and ITV. You should however consider there are 'hot spots' and 'dead spot' for the signal, for lack of the technical terms, therefore just because someone is using a 2m dish only a few kilometres away from you doesn't neccessarily mean you can, even if you are more north than they are.
My dish is a 1.2m and it's quite big compared to the other dish on our roof pointing at the Italian satellite. 2.4m is flipping big!