mikec44

Hi All

I have recently purchased a two bed Buenavista Holiday home in Queada overlooking the Golf course. The previous owner have also been english and have a Satalite dish installed but have taken the receiver.

Can you advise what receiver i need as i just want to watch UK TV, BBC News Sky News, BBC1,2,3,4 etc

Not interested in HD or recording etc.

Any advice most welcome

Mike

The Guy

You have the choice of
Sky boxes - if you want to use a sky card now or in the future.
Freesat boxes -
or "generic" free to air boxes.

If you want a full programme guide, and automatic channel updates, Sky or Freesat box.

If you dont care for a full 7 day programme guide, then "free to air / FTA" box will do.

FTA boxes are available in most electrical / tv stores....and cheaper than Sky / Freesat boxes. Connect it up, go to the install menu, scan for the uk tv channels on Astra 2 at 28 east, and off you go. There are so many makes and models of FTA boxes, they all basically do the same.

Reception of some channels will depend on the size of your dish. 1m is minimum for the main uk tv channels.

mikec44

any reliable TV installation companies that cover Quesada?

Countryboy1

Why do you feel the need to contact a company? Follow 'The Guys' advice, buy one of the satellite receivers he described and plug it in! Simple.
BTW although you say you're not interested in recording, is this because you don't want to pay for a box capable of doing do (no criticism intended) or you only have one satellite feed coming into the property from the dish?
If you are able to have a box that can record, IMO if you're starting from scratch, recording is a huge benefit.

mikec44

thanks for the advice, do you have any recommendations?

Mike

Countryboy1

If you mean recommendations as to installation companies, I don't I'm afraid. I know of a few but as to recommending any that's another thing.
'The Guy' is the expert (amongst others!) but here goes with my bit.
I can't help you in the case of generic boxes, but I have direct experience of both Sky boxes and Freesat. I currently use a Humax Freesat PVR box and am pleased with it (except for a couple of Humax bugs but that's another story).
Both will serve your purpose well (as will a generic box), although you haven't mentioned your dish size or location both of which will affect your channel availability and reception.
If, as I said before, your buying from new, if you don't have 2 feeds from your LNB I'd recommend running a second cable to your property if this is possible and buying a box with recording capability. It's so useful and convenient.
If one cable from your dish is all you can manage the others will advise I'm sure as my only experiences over the last few quite a few years now are the Sky and Freesat recording boxes.
You'll need to post a little more information as to your location, dish size and which stations you want to receive.

amideislas

You can often find used dishes on segundamano.es. We bought our 1.6m dish there for about €100.

Advice from hubby (who has successfully done this a few times without special equipment):

********************************************
If you have a big dish, the bulkiness and weight will require you'll need a good strong mount to support it, and hold it VERY securely in strong winds. Don't underestimate this. get the right mounting bracket and bolt it securely to the wall or if in the ground, put in a concrete pillar up to a meter deep. It's important.

Connect a grounding wire for lightning protection. Big copper wire connected to a copper grounding rod 1.5 metres in the ground is good.

Once you have it mounted, aligning it can be rather simple, or sometimes complicated and very picky, it depends on where you are and the terrain.

First it should be mounted where it has full line of sight access to the southern sky. Trees and other obstructions must be avoided. Full sky is the best solution.

Get a compass and go to dishpointer.com, select ASTRA 28.2E, and set your exact location on the map and it will give you the precise elevation and direction settings for your dish.

Point the dish as close as you can to what it tells you, use the compass and the elevation marks on the dish to get it close to those settings.

Turn the LNB slightly to the left (as you are looking at the dish - about 7:00). Closely adjust it to the SKEW setting given to you by dishpointer.com. Many LNB's have markings showing the skew.

Then, get a small TV and your receiver box and set it near the dish where you can see it while adjusting the dish, hook it up to the dish, turn it on, change the channel to say, BBC or ITV, and press the info button to get an on screen meter of signal intensity and quality.

Now start moving the dish slowly back and forth in small increments until you get a signal. A jump in signal intensity indicates you've found a satellite, but unless you get the channel you've selected (even if badly received), then you're on the wrong satellite.

If you can't get a signal at all, move the dish back to the closest position to what the map tells you, and ever so slightly adjust the elevation (tilt) of the dish and slightly move back and forth until you see some jump in signal. If it starts receiving the station, then now you are in the right satellite and within the "zone" to start to tweak it for the best reception.

Now tighten it all up just enough so that it's stable, but allows you to tilt and move the dish in tiny increments. Slowly and slightly adjust up/down, right/left until the signal meter shows the best possible reception. It may take some hit and miss, and you should change channels and check their signal levels too. Find the best compromise giving you best overall signal intensity for all the channels.

Once you're getting a good signal, tighten everything up very well. Bear in mind that as you tighten the bolts, the dish may move slightly in one direction or the other, so keep watching the signal level as you tighten it up, and re-adjust if necessary. Exact placement is critical for good reception especially in the worst of weather conditions. Make sure it's tight, since a big dish in a big wind puts a lot of force on it, and can easily move it out of position.

Signal Quality

After your dish is aligned and getting a good signal, the most important thing is signal quality, which is affected mostly by the skew of the LNB. The skew should be around -40 degrees to the left or about 7:00 position as you face the dish.

Also the LNB itself is important. For Spain, get a good LNB with a low noise figure. I use an Invertro Black Ultra quad which gives me good results. The Guy may be able to recommend something better, but that's what I use.

Loosen the LNB a bit, and ever-so-slightly adjust the skew around the 40 degree point until the "signal quality" meter on the screen is the best you can get.

A millimeter the wrong way, and you can lose stations. Spend some time doing this, and also change channels to 4, 5 and others and check their quality before committing it. Some channels seem to be more sensitive to the skew than others.

Once you have it at the best possible skew, tighten it up good, but don't break it.

Depending on where you are and the size of your dish, you may begin to lose some stations after 8:00pm due to "night fade". But that's just how it is in Spain.

I've had a number of so-called "experts" do this work in the past with poor results, so I decided to research it and do the work myself, and I've had good results ever since.

Good luck.

mikec44

wow thank you soo much

tommy.irene

Mike ..Go and buy a freesat Box put the ariel in and run a scraf lead to the TV .. tune in box.. you should get UK TV. simple..My friend got a freesat box in Argos for £20..and brought it to Spain when they came..boxes here are around €100.

VFR

Or around 30eu in the charity shops.

mikec44

I was told the free sat / freeview boxes in the uk will not work in Spain, can anyone confirm this?

Also, can you buy a neww TV in spain with the free to air inside the TV?

Mike

amideislas

Well, satellite signal is the same one you receive in the UK, just weaker. For this to be true, the Freesat box would have to somehow know it's in Spain and deliberately turn itself off or something. The answer is: yes, they work here too.

TV's in Spain are basically the same as in the UK. Some different brands, and a different power plug, but basically the same. Most receive "free to air" digital broadcasts, just like in the UK. Precious few can receive a satellite signal without a separate satellite receiver though.

You can use a regular satellite receiver which you can buy new for as little as €25. Hi-definition boxes go for as little as €40. It doesn't have to be a "freesat" box, but a bona-fide "freesat" box is best if you aren't technically oriented, because they have this proprietary software that sorts out a lot of the technical mumbo-jumbo semi-automatically. Unfortunately, they are usually a lot more expensive than a regular satellite receiver.

Spain naturally has Spanish "free to air" channels, not UK channels. But unlike UK channels, many are broadcast with a second sound track with the original audio, which you can select on the TV. So some of the US/UK programmes broadcast in Spain are also in English.

rspltd

Just to mention the converse, I bought a Spanish TV with free to air back to the UK, retuned it to UK and it works fine.

Countryboy1

Whoa Whoa!! Stop now! This is getting very confusing.
Freeesat and Freeview are TOTALLY different and we seem to have moved on reception of Spanish TV.
One of the above uses a satellite dish for reception, the other an aerial (not ariel washing powder!) on the house roof to receive digital terrestrial signals. TDT here in Spain.
Do some internet research on both systems. With a dish and a suitable receiver you have access to UK TV, with Freeview you do, but only in the UK via an aerial! TDT will give you access to Spanish digital TV.

amideislas

There is no "freeview" (brand) in Spain. It's called "TDT" which is a term for the the technology "Terrestrial Digital Television", and is the standard that most of the world uses. "Freeview" is a brand name which refers to the proprietary TDT system used in the UK. "Freeview" and TDT are largely compatible, but the UK version uses a proprietary Program guide system which only the "freeview" boxes support. "Freeview" does not exist anywhere but in the UK. You cannot receive "Freeview" in Spain.

"Freesat" is also a UK brand name for the satellite version, which also uses a proprietary program guide system, and only "freesat" boxes are compatible with. "Freesat" is the only UK broadcast you can receive in Spain because it is broadcast by satellite over the entire continent, not just in the UK (except internet TV, which has other limitations).

The differences are mainly in the channel and program guide, otherwise any old satellite receiver can receive UK "freesat" satellite TV (including HD), minus the 7-day program guide (you only get to see what's next on a normal box), and also when channels are changed to different satellite frequencies, a "freesat" box can semi-automatically retune to it without manual intervention.