Sat TV in Spain (1 Viewer)

[zaskar]

Hi there.
There have been a number of changes since I was last in Spain for winter and I wonder if you could confirm something that I've "heard"/read please?
I understand that since the sat changeover, I cant get sat TV south of the Costa Blanca even with a 1.1 metre dish when using a bog standard Sky box.
I've heard that it is possible when using a Sky HD box as supposedly, the signal comes from a different satellite?
After a short stay near Calpe, we're heading down to Mazarron on the Costa Calida.
Could you please advise if reception of ANY English speaking channels may be possible.

Thanks a lot
Z

 

[Don Quixote]

You will get all of Sky pay channels ie sky1 sky movies etc so you can use your sky card in the sky box, but NO BBC1,2,3,4 ITV1,2,3,4, CH4 or CH5 on anything smaller than 1.9mtr dish in Calpe and Costa Calida.

 

[zaskar]

Thanks John, much appreciated.
My folks have given me an unwanted HD box (I've got the basic Sky package already) but a 1.9Metre dish is just crackers!
Think I'll stock up on DVD.s

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[Satandpcguy]

I cant get sat TV south of the Costa Blanca even with a 1.1 metre dish when using a bog standard Sky box."
YOu can still get UK TV via satellite in most of Spain...

- Most (but not all as stated above) of the Sky pay channels are still easily available, as they are on the European beam of the satellites.

- It is the non Sky BBC ITV C4s and Five (and a handful of Sky pay channels, and a few of the less popular cheapo channels) that are trickier....as they are on the UK beam of the satellites.
In the Costa Blanca, including calpe, you can just abuot receive BBC ITV C4s and Fives using about a 100x110cm dish, maybe a 110x120cm dish is better for a more stable signal.
Further south then you need a larger dish for these channels...125x135 in Torrevieja,moving to a 1.8 in east Almeria, to a 2.4m is west Almeria , to larger (much larger) in Costa del Sol.

So no matter, you will always get some English TV in SPain, but maybe not the channels you want!

"I've heard that it is possible when using a Sky HD box as supposedly, the signal comes from a different satellite?"
Eh?
Channels on a standard sky box and a Sky HD box all come from the same three satellites.
The difference is which beam on the satellites are the channels on....and SD and HD channels are spread across these beams

In fact Dave HD is on the harder torecieev UK beam, and Dave SD is on the European beam, easier to receive....so in this case the HD version is not easier to receive

"but NO BBC1,2,3,4 ITV1,2,3,4, CH4 or CH5 on anything smaller than 1.9mtr dish in Calpe"
Nope - incorrect information by about 3 or so years....
The new satellites are much easier to receive in calpe than prior to 3 or so years ago, when 1.8s and 2.4s were needed....
I got a very "on the edge" signal on a 90x100cm dish in (a very busy) Calpe this morning!

 

[Don Quixote]

I cant get sat TV south of the Costa Blanca even with a 1.1 metre dish when using a bog standard Sky box."
YOu can still get UK TV via satellite in most of Spain...

- Most (but not all as stated above) of the Sky pay channels are still easily available, as they are on the European beam of the satellites.

- It is the non Sky BBC ITV C4s and Five (and a handful of Sky pay channels, and a few of the less popular cheapo channels) that are trickier....as they are on the UK beam of the satellites.
In the Costa Blanca, including calpe, you can just abuot receive BBC ITV C4s and Fives using about a 100x110cm dish, maybe a 110x120cm dish is better for a more stable signal.
Further south then you need a larger dish for these channels...125x135 in Torrevieja,moving to a 1.8 in east Almeria, to a 2.4m is west Almeria , to larger (much larger) in Costa del Sol.

So no matter, you will always get some English TV in SPain, but maybe not the channels you want!

"I've heard that it is possible when using a Sky HD box as supposedly, the signal comes from a different satellite?"
Eh?
Channels on a standard sky box and a Sky HD box all come from the same three satellites.
The difference is which beam on the satellites are the channels on....
In fact Dave HD is on the harder torecieev UK beam, and Dave SD is on the European beam, easier to receive....

"but NO BBC1,2,3,4 ITV1,2,3,4, CH4 or CH5 on anything smaller than 1.9mtr dish in Calpe"
Nope - incorrect information by about 3 years....
The new satellites are much easier to receive in calpe than prior to 4 or so years ago, when 1.8s and 2.4s were needed....
I got a very "on the edge" signal on a 90x100cm dish in (a very busy) Calpe this morning!

Funny I live there, so stating what I know........ but then again your the man.

 

[Sheddy]

Last winter in Benidorm I managed to pull in all the BBC, ITV etc and all my Sky channels into my Sky+ box, using a 1.1 m dish with a good quality LNB, of course some loss of signal happened when raining, ( UK HD channels first to go) but all in all it was pretty good and stable.
Cheers

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[Satandpcguy]

Funny I live there, so stating what I know........ but then again your the man.

In calpe (and most of the CBN) the recommended dishes for the last few years have been 125x135... as the signals are much stronger than they were 3 years ago when the bbc itv etc were on the old astra 2d satellite which needed the 1.8s and 2.4m dishes
Now with the new satellites, the signals are much stronger, so smaller dishes can be used....and how I managed to get the faint trace on the 90x100cm dish this morning.

These days the 1.8s are needed for areas north towards Tarragona, and south near Almeria


I have a map that shows which sizes of dishes get the UK beam signals for Astra 2E - compiled from many reception reports received:

http://www.satandpcguy.com/Site/astra_2e_satellite_reception_footprint_uk_tv_spain.php

 

[zaskar]

Thanks chaps.
As it happens, I rarely watch BBC or the "big 5" anyway (sorry, should have made that clear in my first post). My main aim would be for the Discovery channels and perhaps any cooking channels for the Boss.

 

[Satandpcguy]

Discovery channels should be no problems in most of mainland spain on a "1m" dish, using either SD or HD sly digiboxes

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[zaskar]

Absolute result! Thanks mate.
We're not box fanatics but even Spanish winter nights are long so something would be nice.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Mikeco]

The alternative is to get a good WiFi signal and use Filmon to get BBC ect.
We were lucky at La Manga last year as the site was set up with good TV and WiFi for 1 euro a day so I'm hoping that it will be the same this winter.

Mike

 

[Neil S]

I cant get sat TV south of the Costa Blanca even with a 1.1 metre dish when using a bog standard Sky box."
YOu can still get UK TV via satellite in most of Spain...

- Most (but not all as stated above) of the Sky pay channels are still easily available, as they are on the European beam of the satellites.

- It is the non Sky BBC ITV C4s and Five (and a handful of Sky pay channels, and a few of the less popular cheapo channels) that are trickier....as they are on the UK beam of the satellites.
In the Costa Blanca, including calpe, you can just abuot receive BBC ITV C4s and Fives using about a 100x110cm dish, maybe a 110x120cm dish is better for a more stable signal.
Further south then you need a larger dish for these channels...125x135 in Torrevieja,moving to a 1.8 in east Almeria, to a 2.4m is west Almeria , to larger (much larger) in Costa del Sol.

So no matter, you will always get some English TV in SPain, but maybe not the channels you want!

"I've heard that it is possible when using a Sky HD box as supposedly, the signal comes from a different satellite?"
Eh?
Channels on a standard sky box and a Sky HD box all come from the same three satellites.
The difference is which beam on the satellites are the channels on....and SD and HD channels are spread across these beams

In fact Dave HD is on the harder torecieev UK beam, and Dave SD is on the European beam, easier to receive....so in this case the HD version is not easier to receive

"but NO BBC1,2,3,4 ITV1,2,3,4, CH4 or CH5 on anything smaller than 1.9mtr dish in Calpe"
Nope - incorrect information by about 3 or so years....
The new satellites are much easier to receive in calpe than prior to 3 or so years ago, when 1.8s and 2.4s were needed....
I got a very "on the edge" signal on a 90x100cm dish in (a very busy) Calpe this morning!

In Benidorm using my 85cm Chrystop Autosat with automatic skew we received BBC1 and ITV 1 ,3 and channel 5 , In Xabia we could get all the main stream channels , even further North at Benicassim we also could recieve ITV Scotland (STV)
That was in May this year

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[Satandpcguy]

Things are a tad different in the summer with the heat and humidity - my 80x85 is struggling at the moment to keep most bbc channel locked in, in the cooler months, less of a problem.