siteservices

hi there we have bought an apartment which has a Finnish digibox and satellite dish. Anyone know if this could be made to work for english Freesat? Alternatively does anyone have any recommendations for a TV/Satellite person in the Torremolinos area. We'd like to utilise what we've got if possible to try and save some money as we have various things we need to buy. thanks

lyric030250

I cannot help with your Finnish question, but I would be very cautious about spending ANY money on Satellite TV until the coming change in Satellite.
While the current satellite is giving magnificant results it is not designated to remain. It was an interim measure.
The correct replacement satellite is in orbit being tested. It is currently expected to assume it's position in the Astra constellation on or around November 15th.
Soon after we will know how well or even if we can continue with Freesat or Sky.

siteservices

thanks for that I have read several threads here and elsewhere saying the same thing. My partner spoke to a TV/Satellite man when he was in Spain last time a few weeks ago and mentioned these concerns which I had told him about and was assured if we got a 1.3 metre dish we would be OK. i suppose the reason we're wanting to get going with this is so we and our friends can watch english TV as well as Spanish while we are there. Are we right in thinking that if we buy a spanish tv with freeview built in we will be able to get spanidh tv (ie football) as our apartment is in a block with nearly all spanish residents.

lyric030250

From what I have seen so far 1.3m may be optimistic but we won't know until test transmissions start.
Freeview, called TDT in Spain should be OK assuming your apartment is wired to the communal block system.

The Guy

If you want Freesat then you will need a Freesat box. You cannot get Freesat on any other satellite receiver.

But you can get many of the main UK channels "free to air" satellite channels, that are on Freesat, on many other basic digital receivers...as long as you have a dish big enough to receive those channels.

If it is a Finnish Canal+ box, then I am not too sure if it can be used for UK TV or not. If it is a "basic" / generic receiver (ie not provider specific), then it will pick up any channels that your dish is aligned to and is big enough to receive.

But, as mentioned, with the coming change in satellites, at the moment no-one knows what sized dish you will need in many areas of Spain to enable reception of the main UK TV channels on the new satellites. In fact no-onecan confirm if a 2.4m dish will receive the main UK TV channels in many areas of Spain, let alone a 1.3m dish! So "shame" on the someone that was assuring a 1.3m dish when it is unknown if it will receive the main uk tv channels! As mentioned previously nothing can be confirmed until the satellite is in position and transmitting. Although, like today, most Sky pay channels, and a number of less popular channels, are expected to be available on smaller 80-100cm dishes!

Freeview is only available via a TV aerial in the UK.
The Spanish equivilent is TDT - where you get around 30-40 Spanish digfital channels via a TV aerial. Most TVs have a built in TDT tuner, and some now have builtin TDTHD tuners. As you are in a block, hopefully the internal cabling is there and all connected, so it is simply an question of buying the tv, connecting the tv to the aerial point, and scanning for channels.

Of course this depends what football you wany. Most La Liga matches are on Pay TV, one or two champions league matches are on TDT, but no english matches on TDT channels for free (GOL TV do a few UK matches a week last time i checked)

amideislas

Guy -

What is the cheapest freesat box that actually works?

We have a panasonic Sky box that's only a little over a year old (paid €120 IIRC), NOT HD, and it's rather worthless.

We have several €50 HD FTA boxes which reliably receive almost all freesat channels (including HD channels), but...

... with so many channels changing and moving around, I prefer the user interface, 8-day EPG, and automatic channel updating found on the "sanctioned" Freesat boxes, but most seem to be very expensive, physically quite large, don't offer technologically advanced features, and offer lesser reception performance than the cheap FTA boxes we currently use.

So, how much do you have to pay these days for a good HD freesat box that actually works well? Are there any that also connect to the internet (smart ty features)? What do you recommend?

The Guy

All freesat boxes work.
True, some better than others! (Really dislike the Goodmans + Grundigs!)

Panasonic have not made Sky boxes for many years. And one model was rather prone to "locking" if you channel hopped to a weak signal channel. I had a stackof 30 of these one time - all given to the man who tends / cleans / robs metal from the local ecopark!!

Two Freesat HD boxes I like are the Humax and Manhattan - both available sub £100 in the UK.

I thnk only the Freesat+ and Freesat+freetime boxes are internet compatiable - these have hard drives available for iplayer recording and storage - obviously you have to bypass the IP address blocking to access the UK Iplayers from Spain.

Freesat+freetime is the latest box - only one made by Humax IIRC - around £300 - relatively new, and offers a 7 day backwards TV guide and a few other nice features.

siteservices

thanks for all your help and for your PM Fredbargate. i think we will hold off for now then. Unfortunately we cannot check what we will receive with the existing dish/box etc as the remote control for the digibox (or whatever iti is called) is missing. Is there such a thing as a universal remote control for digi boxes like there is for TVs?

The Guy

There are universal remotes for satellite boxes.
But not all universal remotes are compatiable with all makes of receiver (or TVs)

siteservices

hi there we've just had another suggestion of using a sky-box purchaed either here or in Spain which we are told will avoid any possible problems with the new satellite. Does this sound viable? We're not bothered about the sky channels per so but understand we would be able to receive free to air UK channels

The Guy

The issue will be is the satellite dish big enough where you are located to receive the desired signal from the satellite.
Which box you use - sky, freesat, fta, "generic" - for the basic free to air main UK TV channels makes no difference if the dish cannot receive the signals in the first place!

tony

Years ago when we first came to Spain I bought a cheep satellite kit from lee roys

it only had a small 80 cm dish we could get loads of German channels, but not many English ( only sky news and bbc world news )

We now have a 1.9m and pace sky box set up, any way out of interest I tried the old free view box from my old set up on the 1.9 dish and was surprised to find I could get all the same channels ( free ones ) that I get on the pace sky box.

Also Spanish digital tv is good as many of the films can be changed back to English ( just a shame about the long advert breaks )

Cheers Tony

Domino

agreed
especially the one that runs for 6-10mins 5mins before the programme ends.

must be something to do with the advertising contract that it will be put out at a specific time, irrespective of what is happening on-screen.

but its their country, all we can do is comment

tony

Yes it is their country and the ad breaks are a small price to pay for quite a good selection of films and other programs in English !

Just glad I dont have to pay for a Uk tv licence !

The Guy

The ad breaks on TV in Spain, are about the same amount of time for ads in the UK and most of Europe.
Under Eu rules TV companies are limited to the amount of adverts they show per hour. I think they can have around 12 mins per hour (not including self promotion - whoich can make them seem even longer!).
So where are many UK TV channels have 4 "short" ad breaks per hour, channels in other countries prefer 2 "longer" breaks per hour.

And many Spanish channels do not have ads inbetween changes of programmes, they simply go from programme to programme. Presumably no ads inbetween programmes mean you are more likely to watch the next programme rather than channel hop and find something else. But ads just before "whodunnit" will have more impact and more revenue! Like xfactor "the winner is...well see after the break!"

So they may be longer, but less frequent.

A Sky box with no viewing card is effectively a "free to air" receiver, so yes it will receive the same chanenls as a "free to air" receiver.