duffer

Yes HD will be available free of charge on Freesat. It won't be launched until May at the earliest now but the decoder should be future-proof, i.e. HD, etc. I don't think I'm allowed to get a 140 or 150 dish on my roof but hoping 120cm should be sufficient because it's only in the late evening I lose the signal.
Although I still will need 2 decoders because I have Setanta sports on the Sky box and they will have the FA cup and England home matches from next season.

yellowdog

I checked my dish size tonight. Its only 1m!
I get a good signal all the time apart from when a storm hits and it pelts it down.
When I move to hd. I'll get a 1.5 jobbie.

duffer

Got my new Telesystem 125 cm dish (130h, 120w cm) installed on Saturday and had no signal loss whatsoever during the weekend. Using a Strong branded universal single LNB. On the Sky digibox the signal strength meter reading varied between 90-100% with the signal quality constant at 90%.

If there is a big storm I reckon I'll lose the signal completely. Just hope it's not next week when Liverpool play!

yellowdog

Interesting.. the readings you are talking about are the ones in the menu thats on the digibox? If so I seem to remember that I get 50% on one and about 80-90% on the other. Not sure which. Probably the strength is about 50%. I'm going to be installing a friends dish soon here in Genova that will be a 1.20+ dish so I'll see then what difference it'll make.

duffer

Yeah it's thru the system setup menu, signal test: the top bar is the strength which previously had been around 70-80% and the bar underneath is the quality which used to gradually detoriate from around 60% as the evening got on.

We got a scaffolding pole from the local builders to attach the dish to because the previous mounting pole was too thin. I had spent enough money as it was so any saving was welcome!

yellowdog

I've read about the signal weakening in the evenings from other posts but to be honest I've never had that problem. I have open sky in front of my dish so no problem there. If I had a pole i'm sure it would have fallen down by now. We have a lot of wind here. In fact I'd like to get a wind turbine but the council won't let me put it up. As I live in a historic 'palazzo' . Nobody minds the dishes everywhere though!

duffer

The signal weakens depending on where you are in respect to the footprint of the satellite and the size of the dish. Changing from 87cm to 125cm has done the trick (fingers crossed). I think even 100cm would've been good enough but it was worth the risk seeming as I've spent too much time and money on this thing! Changed dishes, LNBs and even the cable which runs internally. Total cost has been €430 all in to get to the point where I am now.

But now we've got the F1 season back which ITV broadcasts in widescreen, live Wimbledon coverage round the corner on the Beeb, Champions League every 2 weeks. Shame the cricket is all on Sky UK though...

yellowdog

Yeah I know all about the footprint thing. I think overkill is better so I'm sure your better having got a 1.25m. I remember getting my decoder and bringing it over with me 6yrs ago. It cost £300 to buy as it wasn't subsidised. I know I couldn't live without UK Tv. Italian tv is for the most part ad-filled trash.

duffer

You're being much too kind!

simonofischia

I have a skybox(twin lnb) which I intend to take to our new home in Naples. Can I receive the basic sky channels in naples area. I have a card. Anyone know. What size dish? help please.
Simon

yellowdog

I don't know about the digibox as some are better than others at picking up weak signals or so I read. From the Astra 2d Footprint it seems that you will need a 2.4m dish. But maybe someone who lives in the area that is reading this could confirm.

simonofischia

thanks yellowdog for the info. I want to watch BBC news and some of the basic channels. Someone said that I could get these on Italian SKY. I don't know if this is the case. I was also told that the further south(in Italy) the less chance I would have of getting sky. Thank God i have a projector and a ton of dvds to watch in my new "make up" cinema room. Keep me sane when the weather is too hot to watch anything.

duffer

I heard that the Pace manufactured digiboxes are better at picking up low quality signals. You will only need a dual LNB (and 2 cables) if you want to use the Sky Plus (record and pause live TV using the hard drive of the digibox) feature which is only available if you have a subscription to Sky or £10 monthly without subscription.

Remember, if you want only Sky UK, i.e. subscription service including Sky 1, UK Gold, MTV, National Geographic, etc then you can make do with a smaller dish because these channels are broadcast from Astra 2B which has a much bigger footprint. If you want only the free to air BBC, BBC News and ITV channels or want them in addition to your paid-for Sky UK you WILL need a BIG dish because they broadcast from Astra 2D (much smaller footprint).

yellowdog

If u mean BBC1-5 and ITV CH4 then u will need a big dish as duffer said. The only bbc channel that I know of on the italian satellite which i bleieve is hotbird is BBc World.

TestaRossa

The news channels you get included with SkyItalia are CNN, Fox, BBCWorld, Sky (British), and a few other English speaking news channels, so quite a good selection.