ITV FTA

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cliff
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ITV FTA

Postby cliff » Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:04 pm

If anybody is interested, ITV1 & 2 went Free To Air today according to Ditial Spy forums, so you no longer need a Sky Digibox or card to view.

AguilaMike
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Re: ITV FTA

Postby AguilaMike » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:13 pm

You don't need a viewing card any more Cliff, but you definitely need a digibox to receive programs from Sky !

poshtotti
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Postby poshtotti » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:14 pm

Am I being a bit thick.......how can you pick it up without a digi box & card?

We recently had Sky installed with a free to view card, but it seems we don't get all the free to view channels that Sky list.....Is this because we're in Spain or have the installation team pulled a fast one on us?

Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:28 am

The only Free to View channels (now that ITV1 and 2 are clear) are Channel 4 and Five.

You do not need a Sky Digibox to receive free to air channels, any digital satellite receiver will do but they have to be tuned manually. However, they are much cheaper and made to a much higher specification than Sky Digiboxes which are made on a shoestring with inferior components.

You will not receive all of the channels listed by Sky as Free to Air or Free to View because some of them are on transponders which have different footprints and the signals do not reach Southern Spain.

cliff
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Re: ITV FTA

Postby cliff » Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:04 am

AguilaMike wrote:
cliff wrote:If anybody is interested, ITV1 & 2 went Free To Air today according to Digitial Spy forums, so you no longer need a Sky Digibox or card to view.


You don't need a viewing card any more Cliff, but you definitely need a digibox to receive programs from Sky !
Sorry, of course you do need a satellite receiver and Beachcomber clarified.

In our community we have 6 satellite receivers which distribute 6 FTA channels as UHF signals. When I get back from the UK next week I shall no doubt be encouraged to go and retune one to ITV. Don't think BBC4/CBeebies will be a great loss. But then I don't suppose ITV will be a great gain.

cliff
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Postby cliff » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:22 pm

Has anybody started receiving ITV1 on a standard digital satellite receiver (i.e. not a Sky Digibox)?

I've tuned one of our community receivers into ITV1, but the receiver does not seem to recognise that it is a wide-screen image, so rather than chopping off the sides and distributing that, we are getting the widescreen squashed into a 4:3 image (as broadcast). Okay for people with a 16:9 option on their TV but annoying for others. The same receiver was previously tuned into BBC4/Cbeebies and worked fine.

Currently picking up Carlton East on 10.832

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country boy
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Postby country boy » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:42 pm

:( I use a sky box "sin card" and get ITV1,2,3,4 now but rarely after 6pm when it starts to break up. I only have a metre dish, would a 1.3 one stop this?

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Postby Beachcomber » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:51 pm

Cliff, I have a friend who has just tuned in his Humax FTA receiver and does not have this problem. Maybe it is something lacking in the software of the receiver.

Are all or your receivers the same? Have you tried switching them around to see if they all replicate the same problem?

Country Boy, you need, at least, a 1,20m dish. That is 1,20 from side to side and 1,30m from top to bottom.

I mainly use my satellite system for listening to the radio (given the abysmal offerings here on the Costa del Sol) but I only lose the signal for the radio and TV stations on Astra 2D in heavy thunderstorms or torrential rain.

cliff
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Postby cliff » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:52 pm

We've got 3 lnbs on what looks like a 1.3 or 1.4 metre dish and the channels including ITV are solid most of the time (i.e. occaisional breakups in bad weather).

cliff
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Postby cliff » Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:11 pm

Beachcomber wrote:
Are all or your receivers the same? Have you tried switching them around to see if they all replicate the same problem?
We've got a rack of 6 which are commercial units rather than domestic. The one I'm using for ITV was previously on BBC4/CBeebies which is also widescreen and it chopped off the sides quite nicely. All I've done is gone into the menu changed the frequency and rescanned for channels. Sky News recently went from 4:3 to 16:9 and we didn't have to do anything in the box. It's obviously not spotting the widescreen marker. There's no option in the menu to select the output format.

I'll maybe give it a try on another receiver, or maybe try a different transponder; there's a few to choose from. Lugging the TV down to the satellite room to hook it up is a bit of a pain! Wish I had a spare portable

Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Tue Nov 08, 2005 8:59 pm

How about one of these.

I have a Promax 4C Premium and it is fantastic.

cliff
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Postby cliff » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:53 am

I assume for professional use. A tad OTT for what I need I think.

Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:25 pm

No, I am only an interested amateur. I don't do professional installations.


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