SKY HD UK Channels Reception in France

rinfrance · #1 (**permalink**) 12th February 2011, 10:09 PM

Hi, I wonder has anybody any info on UK HD either FTA or encrypted south of Nantes.
I am getting Information that HD will not work (reliably) on a Sky dish and no hope with a "normal" (as opposed to a large one) French dish (as the EPG seems to fail if you get a good HD signal).
Looking at the footprint and signal strengths that I am getting whilst HD is and sky+ or FTA+ is good to the Loire from there down it is really down to just the plain old digital.
Yes I know that one must have the larger (used to be called the Scottish dish) dish, and that some have used a signal booster to good effect, the break up of the signal has been reported to me as fairly catastrophic.
I do have reports that the new boxes have a less gain preamp to the old digiboxes, certainly they do not like working on the old small dish.

thetrevone · #2 (**permalink**) 16th February 2011, 05:04 PM

Hi rinfrance
I have a friend who lives just north of La Roche-sur-Yon in the Vendée, he recently bought a new HD TV set and has a SKY HD box connected to it, he has not reported any problems with HD and he has not had a larger dish installed but I do not know what size he does have I assume around 60cm. I can find out more info it would be of any use.
Regards
Doug

rinfrance · #3 (**permalink**) 17th February 2011, 07:21 AM

Hi thanks yes the dish size would be good, he is some 80 miles south of the given footprint thing so it would be good to know dish size and box model. It may be that he already had a "scottish dish" and he could have already had a pre amp in line fitted available here in France. Certainly the thing on how frequent he loses signal due to bad weather signals would also be of interest as maybe he tolerates loss of signal in bad weather. Best regards R

thetrevone · #4 (**permalink**) 17th February 2011, 07:55 AM

Hi rinfrance
OK I will see what I can find out, he was a film and TV cameraman so he likes his TV as good as it can be and I doubt he would suffer lots of loss of signal. He has to put up with a loss of mains power a lot though, one of the joys of living in rural france I am told.

Best regards
Doug

rinfrance · #5 (**permalink**) 17th February 2011, 08:10 AM

Hi OK thanks for the response, the electric, well I was into electrical supply and electricity and have a very good raport with the ERDF. If he suffers burnouts or black outs then he must contact them. We have had loads of chats with them and now when I give them info they jump. Not because of agro but because the info I have given them has been of use and correct.
At present we are getting or electric cheaply due to poor voltage. Up until now we had 230v +or - not a lot, suddenly this year things changed and it went down to 197, and certified by their engineer 207. We / they do not know why, it is over the region due to my research so due to a problem on the HV.
So tell him to let the ERDF know, it causes them problems as well you know.
Cheers Doug, Rog
Any others with info on UK HD below say the Loire please.

thetrevone · #6 (**permalink**) 20th February 2011, 07:26 PM

Info as promised,
My friend had Sky SD on 60cm dish and had no problems.
He now has Sky HD on the same 60 cm dish; he has changed the single LNB to Twin LNB’s and has had no problems. He now uses a Sky+HD box which reports a signal strength of 95%. This is on the original self aligned system, without the aid of any form of meter. The signal is viewed on a Samsung 40” LCD CCFL back light screen with 60hz refresh rate and uses the HDMI cable supplied with the Sky Box. In today’s market this would probably be considered a low end screen. A 55” LED full back lit TV with 200 Hz or more refresh rate and a high speed HDMI cable may of course show up some issues in the quality he is receiving.
He has a friend who lives 10 miles away who is happily receiving Sky SD on a mini dish.
Regards
Doug
PS
To Nab
I think this thread could do with being moved out of the service update section.

rinfrance · #7 (**permalink**) 21st February 2011, 08:06 AM

Hi OK dont know where it should go if not service but hey!.
The TV specs are acedemic, and the HDMI cables, well there have been a test by computer shopper and even they were surprised at the results. Basically there is no difference until you go over say 12 meters.
Anyway your info helps, so as far as I am concerned if I get a "it does not work" then its most likely to be misaligned LNB.
Side line, he would not be able to align his dish from here manually, even with a meter its difficult. There is a gendarmerie or military microwave link thats "sprogging" from just south of Redon to west of Laval. The problems get worse monday to Friday from 09:00 to say 12:30 and 14:00 to various times in the afternoon.
It seems they are probably TXing on the frequencies between the higher and lower areas blocking the EPG etc. We even have had people with constant headaches at those times. I started tracking this 10 years ago and it has it seems gotten worse. Other amateurs have also tracked it. The sprogs are probably due to a bent dish at Aversac and the problems due to increased power due to signal loss or lack of bandwidth. A friend who worked for a French radio company has also logged it.
I am hoping that the new wind generators at Ferce may give it a headache. But perhaps they will again just increase power and the signal rebound of the blades causing more problems!!!

thetrevone · #8 (**permalink**) 21st February 2011, 08:51 AM

Rinfrance,

I just passed on the info about the whole chain of equipment so you knew exactly. If you believe that the TV, receiver boxes, and cable specs etc, etc are academic, fine no problem.

As for where the post is, this section was setup for 'service updates and news; ie a resource of information for issues that would affect all users of a system, box or sat, I did not think you were likely to get the most response to your question left here. Again if your happy with it here, not a problem with me.

Good luck with your microwave link issues.
Regards
Doug

rinfrance · #9 (**permalink**) 21st February 2011, 09:24 AM

Hi thanks for the replies, the fact he is satisfied with his signal is good enough for me. The fact its an HD box gives me the info, the 60cm dish gives me a bit of concern as to whether its a large new type (or old scottish dish) on the old type small. He will however apparently find a new cigarette packet 4 output LNB will deliver a consistently better signal du to higher gain (apparently).
Any way cheers, bonne chance, now have to try a French non TNT HD card on sky and french TV, even better pre amps.

TotalSatTeam · #10 (**permalink**) 21st February 2011, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetrevone

[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]
I think this thread could do with being moved out of the service update section.

As requested this thread has been moved to the dedicated SKY section.
The title has also been edited to reflect the content of this discussion.
Permanent auto redirect is set from old location, links and thread name.

TS Team