Very high 2F Signal today

Problems/advice relating to your PC/Mac/Phone/Television/ Satellite TV/DVD/Blu ray......

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montgolfiere
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Post by montgolfiere »

Chez moi there is no Night time Rain Fade Margin on my 120cm.(as proved last night!!!)
....so, for the south of the Region this does suggest for Satellite Tv you will need Seriously Large Dishes to give 'satisfactory reception with night time rain.........
However the 120 will give 24/7 reception without rain at present signal levels so i personally am thinking to keep that size dish and use some sort of FTA IPTV as a back up for those rainy evenings
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Post by neil mitchell »

Hey Mont.
Well done. Are you saying a 120cm with IPTV back up for the Southern PO too?
montgolfiere
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Post by montgolfiere »

No, I am afraid not. I am on a level with Caves just to the north of Fitou. and i would suggest that any further south from there you will need a 150 down to may be Argeles or 180 Dish down towards the Spanish Border..
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Astra 2E: Dish Size indications for all of Spain

Post by Smiley G »

http://www.skyinmadrid.com/pages/dish_sizes.html

The home page of this site gives some excellent advice;

http://www.skyinmadrid.com/index.html

Wise words!
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
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russell
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Post by russell »

russell wrote:
montgolfiere wrote:My readings are all from my Horizon Digital USB Meter and are Quality levels on Channel 5.
I am using a 120 Metronic Dish at the moment.
Can you monitor the signal voltage, preferably in uV or dBuV, as well? The quality reading gives an idea of the reception quality but drops off like a cliff below a certain signal level. It is not directly related to the size of dish. The received signal voltage is directly proportional to the dish diameter so should tell us how much bigger the dish would need to be when the quality has dropped very low (or to zero)

Russell.
I guess the answer is no then?

Russell.
montgolfiere
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Post by montgolfiere »

russell wrote:
russell wrote:
montgolfiere wrote:My readings are all from my Horizon Digital USB Meter and are Quality levels on Channel 5.
I am using a 120 Metronic Dish at the moment.
Can you monitor the signal voltage, preferably in uV or dBuV, as well? The quality reading gives an idea of the reception quality but drops off like a cliff below a certain signal level. It is not directly related to the size of dish. The received signal voltage is directly proportional to the dish diameter so should tell us how much bigger the dish would need to be when the quality has dropped very low (or to zero)

Russell.
I guess the answer is no then?

Russell.
Sorry i havent replied re this but i have been away in the Uk occupoied with my (Ageing) Mother.
i will try and give the dBuV readings but resisted in the past as most people are used to 'Quality' measurments.

Russell i will send you a pm later today regarding one of your other posts.
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russell
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Post by russell »

Thanks Dave,

Hope your mother is O.K.

Russell.
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Steve&Julie
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No C5 reception here...

Post by Steve&Julie »

Were up in the mountains on the French/Spanish border. We have an 80cm dish, a clear day, and the Sky setup screen shows a full signal strength and 90% signal quality (measured with a ruler on the screen). We can't get C5 and it's derivatives but everything else is OK. Does this mean we need a bigger dish?
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Re: No C5 reception here...

Post by montgolfiere »

Steve&Julie wrote:Were up in the mountains on the French/Spanish border. We have an 80cm dish, a clear day, and the Sky setup screen shows a full signal strength and 90% signal quality (measured with a ruler on the screen). We can't get C5 and it's derivatives but everything else is OK. Does this mean we need a bigger dish?
The rest of the UK FTA Channels eg. BBC ITV C4 E4 etc etc will go the way of Channel 5. This change is likely to happen before the end of November.

You are likely to need at least a 150cm. or 180cm. Dish to get reliable reception down by the Border.

IPTV maybe a better solution for you, if you have an ADSL Connection of around +/- 2mb
see my website www.british-tv-in-france.co.uk for more details.
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Post by montgolfiere »

i have changed to a 110 triax dish with Opticum Quad.

At 16.15 the C5 Reception as measured on my Horizon Meter is :

21% Quality and 62 dBu with cloud.
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Post by montgolfiere »

russell wrote:Thanks Dave,

Hope your mother is O.K.

Russell.
did you receive my PM? I may have a bit more info re the xbmc saga.
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Steve&Julie
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Post by Steve&Julie »

Thanks montgolfiere

May I throw out a few questions to allow me to establish some options? We can only get 0.5Mb/s on ADSL broadband and no mobile.
As I understand it we may have 5 possible options:
1) Possibly upgrade the dish when the dust has settled
What is the largest dish size that can be pole/wall mounted?
Can a dish be mounted on a flat roof? If so, how is it fixed down?
As the dish would have to be hauled over a 2 storey pitched roof, or brought through the house and a doorway 1.6m high, do large dishes come in 2 halves?
2) Install and subscribe to satellite internet and watch internet TV
Is it possible/allowed to set up a proxy or local UK server with satellite internet? Can I use my existing dish?
3) Watch DVDs
Not quite the same as a regular fix of corrie and strictly
4) Watch French TV
ditto
5) Abandon the TV and enter into conversational pastimes with my wife
Do you know a good mediator?

Perhaps more than a few questions then.
Thanks for any pointers you, or anyone else may have.
Steve
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Post by Allan »

Steve&Julie wrote:
May I throw out a few questions to allow me to establish some options? We can only get 0.5Mb/s on ADSL broadband and no mobile.
As I understand it we may have 5 possible options:
1) Possibly upgrade the dish when the dust has settled
What is the largest dish size that can be pole/wall mounted?
Can a dish be mounted on a flat roof? If so, how is it fixed down?
As the dish would have to be hauled over a 2 storey pitched roof, or brought through the house and a doorway 1.6m high, do large dishes come in 2 halves?
Steve
Practically all dishes are pole mounted but in a lot of cases those poles are bolted to walls. As long as the mountings are substantial and the wall is solid, you can wall mount a large dish. My own dish is 1.5M and is wall-mounted and I have heard of 1.8M and even 2.3M dishes being similarly mounted. You have to pick the right spot, the dish must have clear sky in the direction of the satellite and be in as sheltered a position as possible.

Look at any hotel in southern Spain and you will see large roof mounted dishes, these are generally bolted to concrete floors or beams. Domestically this is harder as no-one wants to drill holes in their roof and risk water ingress. You can get 'patio' mounts which are effectively a pole and a large floor stand, weighted down by paving slabs and sandbags. You need a lot of weight to hold a big dish in place and you must ne sure your roof can support it. Personally I would be nervous of having a giant sail on the roof.

You can buy dishes in 'petal' form for self assembly - they are not considered as good as solid dishes.
Steve&Julie wrote: 2) Install and subscribe to satellite internet and watch internet TV
Is it possible/allowed to set up a proxy or local UK server with satellite internet? Can I use my existing dish?
Steve
There are 2 principal suppliers of Satellite Internet, Tooway and SES. Their products are sold by distributors in France and the UK. At least one UK supplier will provide a system for installation in France but with a genuine UK ip address.

You cannot use your existing dish.

Be warned that satellite internet is generally sold with a monthly download limit. An hour's TV at standard definition is around 800MB so a 10GB limit would only let you download around 12 hours TV a month. SES does offer an unlimited download option but at a cost.

Both providers have options for unlimited downloads between midnight and 8am.
Steve&Julie wrote: 3) Watch DVDs
Not quite the same as a regular fix of corrie and strictly
4) Watch French TV
ditto
5) Abandon the TV and enter into conversational pastimes with my wife
Do you know a good mediator?

Perhaps more than a few questions then.
Thanks for any pointers you, or anyone else may have.
Steve
Remember that the changeover doesn't affect all English language TV, a lot of the more obscure channels will still be available.

Your current internet connection is too slow for most internet TV systems.
You are however just at the limit of a product called the Slingbox. If you have a home in the UK equipped with broadband then you could install a Slingbox there, it connects to a TV receiver and the internet and lets you control and watch your home TV remotely.

Montgolfiere sells an IPTV box with a service claimed to work on 500Kb - the suppliers say you need a minimum of 700Kb but it might be worth asking him for a demonstration.

BBC recently upgraded their iPlayer to allow you to download programs and watch them later. Your slow internet would take about 5 hours to download an episode of Strictly but you could soon get used to watching programs a day or so late.

Unfortunately ITV hasn't followed suit but there is a third party program that claims to let you do it - I'll try it when I get a chance and post the results.

Hope this helps
montgolfiere
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Post by montgolfiere »

http://www.skydsl.eu/fr-FR/Internet-par ... 2p/sky2pt8
I dont know this service but they claim to give unlimited Download.

There are some good solid wall brackets around. However the problem could well be with the strength of the walls!!!

Do also remember we are prone to much stronger winds around here than just about anywhere else in Europe...... (see my previously posted 'Ground Level' wind map.)
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Post by Nigel »

Are there any downsides with internet by satellite
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Steve&Julie
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Post by Steve&Julie »

Excellent replies. Some really valuable info.
Thanks guys.
Steve
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Post by Allan »

Nigel wrote:Are there any downsides with internet by satellite
Yes

I have both Tooway satellite and Orange broadband as I cannot afford to be without an internet connection for my business.

Satellite tends to be more reliable though still has the occasional outage.
Download speeds are very quick (20Mb).

The principle differences are caused by distance, the satellites are nearly 36,000 km above the equator so for a signal to travel from me and back to the earth, it has to travel the equivalent of twice around the world before going anywhere.

This lag means that telephony, Skype and Face time are not as smooth as on ADSL, - they are however perfectly workable, you have to get used to pausing a fraction of a section before speaking to avoid interrupting the other party.

Web browsing also suffers a bit of a lag at first but then the page comes down rapidly.

I use something called RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) that allows me to access my customer's computer systems in whatever country they may be in. Again the lag takes away from smooth operation but the chances are that most people will never use this.

A lot of French internet services come with a telephone as part of the package - internet phones are not good with satellite internet but they are usable. You can buy a satellite connection in France with a UK iP address but not with an iP phone included. You can however always buy a Skype phone with a French number.

Satellite packages are usually sold with a download limit but there are some higher priced services that are unlimited.

If you have access to good ADSL then I probably wouldn't consider satellite but with slow or unreliable ADSL it is a viable and fast alternative with the added bonus of a UK iP address.

It isn't hard to justify the cost if you can save French internet, Phone line and VPN charges.

I watch a lot of TV using Sky plus which has a brilliant Catch-Up TV service, with satellite internet I can tell it to download a program and it is available to watch within seconds.
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Post by montgolfiere »

Signal now up by another huge ammount overnight. I must say this is an unexpected trend and long may it continue.!!
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Post by Sue »

We had all missing channels through the day yesterday and channel 5 was still there at 11pm. (This is on our 100cm dish).
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Post by Tatra Man »

Greetings fellow sufferers - Newbie here - please be gentle with me!

I have my retreat a bit further west that most of you - in 66800 Saillagouse - and I only bought it this year with the intention of spending winters there. Despite having had a bus pass for 6 years, I ski and am looking forward to free lift passes in just 4 years. But enough of that - I'm an ex-TV broadcast technician so I do understand a fair bit of the technology and have successfully installed my own motorised dish in the UK without a compass or sat-meter.

What I have already taken down to Saillagouse is my old 50" Panasonic plasma - yes - in the car! - with FreeSat HD and FreeView SD and I was very pleased to find that it worked with TNT DVB-T HD broadcasts. So, all I need now is reception of FreeSat HD. I've acquired an Inverto Black Ultra which I'll be taking down with me at the beginning of December and then I want to be up-and-running as soon as possible and certainly before Christmas and before I'll be spending all day hitting the slopes.

So there's part of my reception chain - Panasonic FreeSat receiver and Inverto Black Ultra LNB (quad - so I can run a Panasonic FreeSat Blu-Ray recorder as well) but I obviously need a dish and, no, I can't get a 1.2m dish in the car!! - so I'm going to have to buy in France. The question is . . . . . . . what?

My location is in the sunniest part of the whole of France - the Cerdagne - which is why France has its solar furnaces there but, it does snow so I do anticipate "weather" - lots of it.

Do I go for a Gilbertini 1m and pray? Do I go for a cheap 1.2m and pray? Do I go for a 1.5 and hope the neighbours don't complain? Do I need planning permission for anything over 1m mounted on the building?

Any reports from that area or from Andorra?
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!
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Post by russell »

Tatra Man wrote:Do I need planning permission for anything over 1m mounted on the building?
You will find the definitive answer here: http://www.extranet.nouveaupermisdecons ... s-a47.html
If I understand it correctly you need to make a declaration de traveaux for any size dish mounted externally on the wall or roof. You don't need planning permission (permis de constuire). No paperwork is required for ground mounting.

Personally I wouldn't want to mount a big dish on the wall or roof. Ground mounting is safer given the winds in this area. No one really knows what size dish will be required when the signals are transfered to the new satellite.

Russell.
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Post by Tatra Man »

Sorry not to reply earlier - skiing is far more important! (Where's a "Downhill Loony" emoticon when you need one!?)

Well even a Gibertini 125 is far too borderline with only sporadic reception of BBC1 Oxford and Channel 5 so it looks like I'll have to invest in a 180 but can anyone recommend a supplier? (And does anyone want a little-used Gibertini 125? :oops: )
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!
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