Tinky

Hi all,

We have just moved to a new place and our very kind landlady arranged for Sky to be installed. However instead of Sky we have got Televes box, aligned for astra 2a.

With ITV we cannot get any signal after 7ish in the evening, not helped by the clouds. I read somewhere you can get stronger signal if you have a sky box and viewing card.

So my question is, would the connection points be the same, so we can just swop the Televes receiver with a Sky box? And will it make a difference?

Thanks

The Guy

The televes box will be picking up the free to air (i no sky card) versions of ITV.
Assuming you have a decent sized dish for your location, then there are some ITV1 regions that go off earlier then others - as the ITV channels are split between about 6 differnet frequencies over 2 different satellites.

as you can see from
ITV Channels and Frequencies

You could try ITV STV / CI on 10905 v 22 5/6 - the regions on there are generally known to be a bit stronger - of course it depends which ITV region you are refering to as going off at 7pm!

As long as you have a decent sized dish (upwards from 80cm) then you can, with a sky card, get ITV on frequency 11973,v,27.5 2/3, C4s on 12480 v 27.5 2/3 and fives 12422 h 27.5 2/3.

Sp yes, as your dish is pointing to the correct satellites (as you can get the FTA versions of ITV) then its a case of swapping over the televes box over to the sky box with an active sky card (freesatfromsky (£20 uk - more in Spain) or a sky subscription card (£18 per month)

Tinky

Thank you! I will have a bit of fun trying to get ITV STV / CI as they are not showing on the list of available ITV channels. The last region we can view is ITV London, the others disappears a little bit before that.

I am going to the UK next week, so may just get a Sky box then, and even treat hubby to a HD box, as I am sure with the world cup coming up, there will be some games showing in HD

Thanks again for your reply Guy!

The Guy

If you can get ITV London you may find ITV STV / CI stays about 30mins to an hour longer.
It may not be in your channel list so you will have to manually add it - by going into the menus and scanning the frequency 10905..

Rember if you are going for a Sky HD box, then to use the hard drive funcions (to record and playback ) you MUST pay sky somehting per month.
But even if you do not you will have access to BBC HD, ITV HD and C4 HD - and later this year Five HD - with no subscription (the last three requireing freesatfromsky card at least).

I have a list of the games that are on BBC and ITV...
BBC and ITV World Cup 2010 Matches
and i am sure they will be on HD.
And even SPAIN has games in 3d (D+), but the UK broadcasters do not (i dont think BBC and ITV will let Sky put them in 3d on their 3d channel!)

mikelincs

There is a thread in 'The Lounge' stating that UK TV may soon be very difficult to get outside of the UK because of changes to the Astra Satellite.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=664182

The Guy

mixed news and speculation at the moment - the "news" is uptodate as Astra have not confirmed where the new satellite is going!

lynnxa

he posted it here too

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...3&postcount=12 but mitzy snipped it

The Guy

Best to read the whole thread - not just one post

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=662820

its just speculation - as nothing has been confirmed by Astra and even the original source says its destination is unknown.

and as UK TV comes from 4 satellites, one not even owned by astra, you will not lose everything!
i am not saying nothing will hppen - it just that it is speculation based on a post whose information has now been updated!

Tinky

No joy ITV CI is no better, so a Sky box seems to be our only hope if we want ITV.


Thanks for the links as well and all your help xx

The Guy

Of course, if you had a bigger dish then you would be able to receive the free to air - no sky card - versions of ITV ok - if there is space and money and landlard allows!