Hi!

With Guy's and Fred's help we now have:

BBC News
BBC Parliament
CNN
Sky News
S4C
bid tv
create and craft
True Movies and True Movies 2
All the Streams
plus a couple more shopping channels and Russia today

And all BBC Radio

We are in Granada province up a mountain and have an 80cm dish.

If we got a bigger dish would we be able to get things like More 4 and BBC 1/2/3 and ITV etc?

If so, we will definitely invest in one.

Sorry I think I asked this before, but this is a bit more specific, thanks in advance, sorry I'm still such an ignoramus.

Also, on a different tack, I understood what you said about Freeview being through an aerial and Freesat being through a satellite. In the UK my son has free TV through a cable from Virgin Media. He used to pay for the TV but then cancelled it so they said he could have 'Freeview'. Is it actually freeview or another system? Trying to learn here!

Pleased to hear that you've got some more channels.

The ones you have are on the "stronger" satellites. For BBC/ITV you need a bigger dish to receive them. 1.3 should be fine.

As for Virgin, I would think they are referring to the "free to view" and "free to air" channels which do not require a sub.

What you will be receiving on your setup are the "free to air" channels which, with the right dish will include the BBC/ITV etc..

It depends on what the person means.
As far as I know you MUST pay virgin somehting per month to get any channels on virginmedia...even the free to air and free to view ones.

if he has an aerial and a Freeview box, then he will be able to use that to get he Freeview channels.

Just one thing about these Channels I have mentioned, they are not on the list of Channels that comes up? Does it matter?

When you press Favourites the satellite info says Astra (Just Astra, no number). When you select a channel it says Hotbird 13E. Puzzled??

As regards Virgin, my son also has phone and internet with them; he was going to cancel the whole lot because he did not want to pay for the TV and they said he could have the 'Freeview' TV for free. AFAIK he has not connected the TV to the aerial, it comes through a cable via a box on the wall. The only box he has is the one Virgin (Telewest) provided. I think maybe they did him a favour so that he wouldn't cancel the whole lot.

every receiver is different in how it displays channels.
and on many you can chop and change orders and list that the satellite channels.
if you say you can receive them then they will be in the list.
what you may have done scan for astra 2 frequencies when using an astra1 menu option, so you r astra 2 cannels (UKTV) are also included on the astra1 list - ie you have added UK channels to your german channel list.

sometimes a full factory reset to delete all channels, and initiate a free to air scan on astra 2a,2b,2d, eb1 will add the channnels to the correct lists.

AFAIK on virgin you are still charged for the rental of the box / cable connection, even though you are not charged for the tv channels....so yes the cannels may be "free"

No, I don't mean the channels we are receiving,(they are on the list, my husband has put it in alphabetical order and we have gone through all 1750 on the list.) - sorry - I mean BBC 1/2/3 Channel 4, More 4 etc are not on the list of channels.

My son now pays absolutely nothing for his Virgin TV, I have just asked him - so they have done him a favour, basically. He has less channels than when he did pay for it, but still plenty! (He does pay what I consider to be a lot for the internet though....but he has the 'best' internet package they do).

BBC etc wil only appear on the list if you are able to receive the frequencies they are on. IF the box can scan and receive those frequencies then it knows what channels are on that frequency so it populates the channel list.

As you have a small dish, then you cannot get those frequencies, so the box will not populate the channel list with those channels.
it is only populating the list with the channels it knows it can receive.
IF / when you get a bigger dish, and perform a scan BBC et al will (should!) appear inthe channel list

Thats my point - he is still paying for a virgin service and getting the tv channel in "for free". my bro in the UK has two vigin mobile, and as part of the deal they get very basic "freeview" tv from virgin. if they did not have the mobiles then they would have to pay a "rental" cahrge for the box and cable connection.

Thanks again for your help Guy, we understand now. We would like a bigger dish but if it has to be 1.3m we might have difficulty actually siting it. Some friends just downhill from us have a dish; they can receive all the channels, so my husband is going to measure theirs tomorrow.

If we buy a new dish, does it come with a new LNB, if so will there be any compatibility problems with the existing box? If there is no LNB with the dish, can we use the existing?

Thanks for explaining simply. Just right for a pair of Seniors!

All clear too about Virgin Media (we are getting there slowly!).

you can get dishes with or without LNBs...
but make sure you get one that is correct for the dish.
there are two types of dishes.
prime focus dishes where a prime focus LNB sits on the "spiders" in the middle of the dish.
offset dishes have the offset / universal LNB "off set" at an agle to the dish.

there should be no compatiability issues as all LNBs and satellite receivers use the standard "f" type connectors - the little "screwey" topy things at the ends of the cables (thats me gettting technical there!!!)

always measure dishes horizontally - for "official" sizes you do not include the outer "rim" of the dishes - hence why people (mainly in Spain!) call 1.8m dishes 1.9m (official spec shets and invoices from factory say 1.8 - so why do installers say 1.9!??!?!), and 1.25m dishes 1.3 or 1.35m dishes...

Thanks once again, much appreciated.