On 6 Mar 2007 02:10:18 -0800, wrote:

On 6 Mar, 09:39, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,"Roger R" writes:

|
| Thanks for everyone who responded. I forgot to say that it would be
| only free-to-air - my opinion of Sky is such that I won't touch them.
|
| In that case you would require a 60 cm dish for BBC channels on Astra 2 at
| 28 degrees east of south and/or an 80 cm dish for Hotbird at 13 degrees east
| of south for a selection of European channels.
|
| A more advanced set up is to add a motor to the dish mount to enable
| armchair switching between satellites.

Thanks very much. I was hoping to get away with a fixed installation;
I shall have to recheck.

I was told by an installer that the receiver had to be next to the
television. Is that the case with all of them, or can they be installed
in the roof (power, but not easily accessible)?

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I would recommend getting a Sky Digibox (not a Sky+ box!) and (if you
like watching C4 or C5, it's the only way to get them via satellite at
present) a Freesat from Sky card.

This will enable you to use Sky's EPG which makes things very easy.

As others have said, for setting up purposes, you can use the built in
meter, if you can see the output from the box and control it via the
remote.

With regard to locating the box, you can put it in the loft (though
check your loft doesn't get too hot), you will either need to use the
RF out (only gives Mono sound and not such a good picture) or you will
need to run multiple cables for either composite + stereo, or RGB +
stereo.

Again, if you use a genuine Sky Digibox, you can use the RF2 out and a
cheap nTV Link (remote control extender) to control the digibox from
the TV room.

You could get a second hand Box Dish and card for approx £60-80 or
less. You then have to DIY, and take the risk that the box may or may
not last the course (this is the route I took, mail me if you like and
i'll give you the details of my supplier).

Alternatively, you could get Sky to install the whole thing for £150
and then you are covered for a year or so if it goes wrong (I don't
know if they offer such a guarantee, but if you pay by credit card,
you could always take one or both of them to the small claims court).
It would suck giving money to Murdoch, but then they can't really make
anything on this :=))
Ask around friends and colleagues , good chance someone will have a
redundant SKY digibox and possibly an old viewing card.

You can buy a Free to View card from SKY for £20 and get ITV, but I
understand that old subscription cards even if they have expired will
still allow you to see FTV channels.

As for dish alignment I found starting from the east the first strong
signal you come to is the right one. A cheap tone signal detector
works fine. Other tip is start with the dish vertical dont tilt it up
( as I did) .
Robert