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We use a humax pvr in central France and have a bigger dish than the usual sky one. I have a very old Tom Tom which I use for speed awareness and direction. As long as I know where east is when we moor up then it’s the first strong signal towards south. I use a sat finder and also if in doubt about direction have an app on the iPad that will locate any satellite. The only problem with freesat is it needs a post code and now it views 2 satellites it needs to be a bit more accurate or it keeps saying postcode not recognized, otherwise great reception.

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2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

If it’s the same box as us, the following might be helpful:

 

being a freesat box, it ignores most other satellites, unlike a satfinder which beeps at any old satellite. So if you can see the tv screen whilst setting up its much easier. It does react to the next satellite further south, giving a “this channel is scrambled” etc message in place of “no signal”. So I then rotate it slightly further east to get the right one. Only trouble is that sometimes, even though it’s on the right satellite, I still get the “scrambled” message. However flicking the channel up to BBC2 and back, fixes it.

 

Thanks Nick - I re-tuned to the wrong satellite the first time around and got some UK channels but lost the Freeview channels.  Now I have the Freeview tune and therefore all the right channels in the memory, I 'll give that a go with the Hummy rather than the Sat tuner device. 

 

2 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

We use a humax pvr in central France and have a bigger dish than the usual sky one. I have a very old Tom Tom which I use for speed awareness and direction. As long as I know where east is when we moor up then it’s the first strong signal towards south. I use a sat finder and also if in doubt about direction have an app on the iPad that will locate any satellite. The only problem with freesat is it needs a post code and now it views 2 satellites it needs to be a bit more accurate or it keeps saying postcode not recognized, otherwise great reception.

Yep, that postcode thing was a real stumbling block for me. I think after tuning to 19E the first time and not having the Freesat tune, I wasn't exact enough to pick up the Freesat channels and, crucially, postcode info from the pair. Once I'd got the postcode accepted and was able to use the Freesat Tune option it worked fine and the next try was pretty much straight to the right bearing by doing what you suggest - too far East and work back. Another couple of goes should confirm whether I'm now correctly trained (in both senses!) or if I fluked it. :D

 

Thanks again guys.

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With our Humax box, you only have to put the postcode in once, unless you want it to change regions. It remembers the previous info even through a long power down (we turn it off “at the wall” when we leave the boat for weeks or months, it works again straight away without any postcode faff.

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FWIW It's most important to get the angle of declination right. There's a lot of hardware 'up in the sky' and very easy to find the wrong satellite group - which will give a signal to your sat finder, but no programmes.

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1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

FWIW It's most important to get the angle of declination right. There's a lot of hardware 'up in the sky' and very easy to find the wrong satellite group - which will give a signal to your sat finder, but no programmes.

I find with a 60cm dish (a typical house zone 1) that the angle is not that much of a problem. Once I get the direction right, the declination is very easy to peak with the sat finder. For me, the sat finder is so easy to use to pick the most easterly satellite. The only problem arises when there is a tree in the way of that satellite and you end up with the 19E one as the strongest easterly one. You soon realise though with no tv signal your not going to succeed unless you move the boat.

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2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

With our Humax box, you only have to put the postcode in once, unless you want it to change regions. It remembers the previous info even through a long power down (we turn it off “at the wall” when we leave the boat for weeks or months, it works again straight away without any postcode faff.

Yep, mine's the same I'm sure. I made the mistake of thinking I'd found the right satellite and retuning to it, thus over-riding previous home settings.  Once I'd really found the right bird, the postcode was verified and a Freesat Tune was done. I'll leave that bit alone now!  Thanks Nick.

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25 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I find with a 60cm dish (a typical house zone 1) that the angle is not that much of a problem. Once I get the direction right, the declination is very easy to peak with the sat finder. For me, the sat finder is so easy to use to pick the most easterly satellite. The only problem arises when there is a tree in the way of that satellite and you end up with the 19E one as the strongest easterly one. You soon realise though with no tv signal your not going to succeed unless you move the boat.

A smaller dish has less gain, but is rather less critical in aim than a bigger dish with higher gain.  For continual re-aiming when travelling, the smaller dish is preferable (in that way at least).  I've had quite a bit to do with satcom over the years - doesn't mean I'm any good at pointing a dish on a magnet from the roof of my Narrowboat though, does it! :D

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On 12/07/2018 at 22:54, nicknorman said:

 

 

Only irritation with Freesat is that if you watch BBC 1 HD, it is not regionalised so when local news comes on after the main news, well it doesn’t come on. You have to switch to a non-HD version of BBC 1 to get local news.

A newish irritation with Freesat is that you can no longer receive Channel 4 HD.

This has gone due to a contractual disagreement between Ch4 and Freesat.

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12 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

I find with a 60cm dish (a typical house zone 1) that the angle is not that much of a problem. Once I get the direction right, the declination is very easy to peak with the sat finder. For me, the sat finder is so easy to use to pick the most easterly satellite. The only problem arises when there is a tree in the way of that satellite and you end up with the 19E one as the strongest easterly one. You soon realise though with no tv signal your not going to succeed unless you move the boat.

A 60 cm dish if a girt big bit of kit - especially if you stow it away when cruising - especially if the arm doesn't fold.

We solved that with a 50cm Triax unit where arm ' could be made to fold'

It's now been replaced with a flat panel Selfsat antenna (can't really call it a dish - more a 'tray' ). No arm and a lot more sensitive than any (reasonable) dish

2 hours ago, MHS said:

A newish irritation with Freesat is that you can no longer receive Channel 4 HD.

This has gone due to a contractual disagreement between Ch4 and Freesat.

Is there really much difference between standard and high definition TV for 'normal' viewing. I reckon there is for action stuff - cricket? footer and tennis. Surely sufferable for a day or so....

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39 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

 

Is there really much difference between standard and high definition TV for 'normal' viewing. I reckon there is for action stuff - cricket? footer and tennis. Surely sufferable for a day or so....

With a 32” tv and watching say the Formula One, there is a big difference. 

 

We now have to watch a blurry version of a very dull, expensive traffic queue rather than a sharp one. 

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45 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

 

Is there really much difference between standard and high definition TV for 'normal' viewing. I reckon there is for action stuff - cricket? footer and tennis. Surely sufferable for a day or so....

It depends on the screen size. For our 22” boat tv, not much but it is noticeable.

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21 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It depends on the screen size. For our 22” boat tv, not much but it is noticeable.

This is where my 'handle' is revealing - my first tv was a VCR197 fed from an "IF strip" as my father would NOT buy a tv, but that decision was reversed when he discovered golf was broadcast. I digress.

We have a 27" HD set on the boat which in Royce terms is 'sufficient' - that is watched longitudinally-ish down the boat. I just can't get my head around folks who have 50" tvs which they watch across the boat - a distance of (in practical terms) 4ft distance. I suppose the advantage is that one is really within the picture!  

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5 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

This is where my 'handle' is revealing - my first tv was a VCR197 fed from an "IF strip" as my father would NOT buy a tv, but that decision was reversed when he discovered golf was broadcast. I digress.

We have a 27" HD set on the boat which in Royce terms is 'sufficient' - that is watched longitudinally-ish down the boat. I just can't get my head around folks who have 50" tvs which they watch across the boat - a distance of (in practical terms) 4ft distance. I suppose the advantage is that one is really within the picture!  

I agree. Massive TVs in a tiny space shows a lack of judgement. Or the need for a visit to specsavers!

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