How to get British TV in Munich

Anyone got British Sky Telly here in Munich?

How much does it cost? What does it entail? What do you have to do to get it?

We can get a dish fitted to our house here in Gern.

Jeremy.

Is anyone managing to pick up BBC with an 80cm dish ?

I was told that it wouldnt be big enough...but then isnt that always the problem

I used to be able to watch the joys of BBC1, BBC2, etc. on a nice sized 60cm dish but now that the BBC moved to the same Astra satellite used by ITV, you need a bigger dish.

I know of two people here at work who have BBC, ITV, etc. back up-and-running in the clear using an 88cm dish (which is actually rather large) and they are based around the Fürstenfeldbruck area.

A couple of contacts within the Munich area who may help are:

Jim Lucas - Munich Satellite - 089 79100444

...or...

Bavaria Satellite Systems

To answer a question from the other thread on the same topic, you do need a UK address if you plan on subscribing to one of the SKY packages but either of the above contacts would help you out with that.

FYI - The reason BBC moved to the same satellite as ITV was to make it 'free-to-air' (and to save money by not using SKY's services) and you would therefore not need to subscribe to anything to see it, therefore you would only need a subscription card if you want to get loads more movies, sports, etc.

I hope this helps.

Paul

Friend of mine got a sky digibox with just the normal terrestrial channels plus a couple of BBC digital ones for a one off payment of 300? I think... Think it was through Bavaria Satellite. Of course, there is a variety of packages available where you pay a monthly sum...

Personally I am not bothered much with the telly but I want to watch the odd bit of Brit TV. I would rather play my guitar, mess with my techno music software Fruity Loops or dream of the new telescope I shall buy one day.

I have begun to understand the local culture and can announce that the typical German cultural experience consists of how well 'Shumi' did in the latest Formula One race, how Bayern Munich is doing etc..

One thing the Germans have got right is their attitude to nudity. Our sad Big Brother in the UK is creaming its jeans when someone says an erotic word. Here no worries everyone showers in front of each other. These people are very cool. They don't have horrible hangups like we do. Hang on...not that I watch this shite often and long, it is just a cultural comparison to what I read in Sky News website! (Phew!)

I watch several things on their telly. One is 'Tatort' with my Frau. When you get teletext you can follow it and it is good for your Deutsch. I also followed their wonderfully shallow 'Superstar' shit and it was a laff in the winter cos my woman and I would snuggle up after skiing and argue over who should win it.

They also have these wonderful open soft porn channels here which I think are a wonderful way to chill out...

Jeremy

Jeremy - I've only found two or three things I like watching on German TV, and they are "Hausmeister Krauser" (very strange accents, somewhat reminiscent of 70s British sitcoms in style), and "Was Guckst Du?" which ranks with some of the better modern British comedy programmes. Other than that we seem to have "30 channels and nothing on", which actually is just like having Sky...

Big Brother and so on (British or German) you can keep AFAIAC. Soft porn channels? I don't think we get those :x Actually that reminds me - why do so many German men seem to have those dodgy 'taches like they have in 70s porn films (at least, so I'm told)? Next thing it'll be ultra-wide shirt collars and gold medallions.

"Alles für den Dackel, alles für den Club!"

As above, Bavaria Satellite told me that the Beeb is no longer on the paying Sky dish. They are now on a free to air satellite!

So i don't have to get a Sky digibox!

Jeremy.

I have sky at home, and use a standard digi dish. We used to get all of the channels but ITV, but now that the BBC has switched transponder we dont get BBC either. Murphys and Ned Kellys can get the signal, but I dont know how big their dishes are.

The footprint shows that we would need a really big dish, but I doubt they have one over a meter.



How big do you need the dish to be to get BBC television?

100-120cm are recommended, but are pretty unwieldy. If you use the right equipment, and install (or have it installed) properly, you can get it down to around 85cm, which is much more manageable...

Yorkshirelad6

I have an 85cm dish and I can get BBC on that.

I have an 80cm dish and I can get BBC.

For those who havent been home for a bit there are now 8 BBC Channels available for free on sattelite. You do NOT need SKY. Not even the SKY Digibox receiver.

And you can get many more channels as well.

More info here

You don't need to pay a lot if you want BBC channels only - €100 or so for a cheap digital receiver, maybe €60-70 for a dish and a lot of patience to make it work, or someone to do it for you. You really need a 100cm dish or more, especially to the east of the city, and if you want to do it yourself. Smaller dishes (down to around 80cm) will work, but would need to be better quality (e.g. Kathrein costing over €200!) and professionally installed as the alignment becomes MUCH more critical when you are on the edge of the signal...

Many people want ITV, movies or sports... then you are in the world of Sky - different (more expensive) equipment and monthly subscriptions.

Don't think Jim Lucas (in the earlier posting) is around anymore, or maybe not around all the time, but Bavaria Satellite are still out there and are one of the few local companies who specialise in this. There's also a company in Spain (solsat.com) selling equipment by mail order (watch their hidden costs) and German Sky in Hamburg (friendly contact but along way away) specialising in Sky... Needless to with all of these you pay more for the professional assistance and the guarantee, but at least you know it will work and you save a lot of time and hassle.

YL6

Sorry- disagree with the above. Ive reinstalled my own dish three times in Munich and also two others for friends. Its easy.

You need:
1. a half decent sat receiver- eg Grundig that I bought on uk ebay for GBP40.
2. A decent 80cm dish and LNB- I payed EUR100 at Saturn.

You need no tools other than those for bolting the dish to the wall (drill, spanner, screwdriver etc).

Finding the satellite takes about 30mins max without any satfinders, compasses, divining rods, sacrifices to the gods etc. My record is about 10 minutes.

For a technologically minded, practical and methodical person its a peace of p:$$.

i really want bbc tv. not that rubbishy bbc world channel that's the british equivalent of cnn claptrap.

i heard i have to have a 90cm dish. i think that's a bit big myself...and that it would cost hundreds of euros (circa 600).

but speakfreak makes it look so easy and ...well...inexpensive! am i missing something?

Agreed - but not too many people are (or can be bothered to be, or have the time to be...)

I know people who have eaten up whole weekends trying to get it right, then had to call for help, only to see a "professional" do it in 5 minutes. I'm good at what I do and get paid good money for it... so do those who install satellites, I guess.


Why not ask him to do it? - according to his own words he can do it for around €160 complete...

YL6

Foxy's folks installed their own dish too and it works pretty well as far as I can tell. Having said that I wouldn't fancy it myself - I once tried to change the bulb in the side repeater of a Vauxhall Astra - took me f*****g hours...

I went looking for a dish yesterday but balked at the price when I saw a 27cm one for €23. I thought that was a bit steep. The brand was Friesland so I presume that must be in the higher end of the market at that price.

Try Ebay for dishes, I got a 1m Gibertini for €39- plus p&p, LNB (0.6db) for €15-
Digibox I brought out with me.

@ellewood

A 90cm dish will cover you just fine. Go to Saturn to find out how much they are. Then decide if what's left from 600EUR is worth paying to get it installed professionally. And yes I was talking proper BBC as in the UK, not BBC World.

As I said if you know someone who is technically minded and methodical, they will be able to put the dish up for you no problem.

Now whether they are willing to is another story...

I know how to do it, have the right tools to do it and enjoy doing it. So I saved myself the money and did it myself.

There are a couple of good Satellite shops in Schwanthalerstr (opposite Saturn at Theresienwiese). I got a 85cm dish there for about €30, as long as you get a good LNB then you should be alright.

This is probably gonna be a stupid question, so I apologise in advance.

Do you need to have a balcony? What if you dont have one and live on the 4/5 floor, is there any other method you can use that doesnt involve drilling a hole into matey boys (landlord) external wall?

Even with a balcony you still gotta screw it to the wall, cos these things need to be "fixed" firmly in 1 direction!

no, i think that's a good question. even though i have balcony would much´prefer to have 90cm dish on wall and out of way and yet without pissing off landlord!

Foxy's question comes as a result of a chat with me - essentially she wants to sit in my flat watching Eastenders, but since I'm in Schwabing without a balcony, I doubt very much that a dish on the wall outside will be legal - hence no Sky TV. Is there somewhere else I can put it, or don't they mind if I decide to drill a dish into the wall?

It all depends

Some wall are costructed with a 4inch layer of Polystyrene insulation, just under a Fibre mat facia.. drilling into this may get you into deep shit..

There are many fixing methods
Wall, Balcony rails, Free standing mount (wheighted) roof pole. None penetrating roof pole.. its endless

Alright, not endless, but there are many fixing methods

G

Related topic: German liability insurance for satellite dish installers

Ok, just for information, this PDF from the BBC gives you all the frequencies of their feeds.

HTH
P

Unfortunately that's an old document - some details are out of date. http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html has more uptodate information.

YL6

Right I know there are lots of threads out there about satellite tv, but I've been at work all day and really can't be bothered to sift through them all...

How do I get BBC 1 + 2, and ITV 4, maybe channel 4 but am not really fussed, from my free to air satellite.

Now I don't really claim to know very much about satellite tv, never done it myself until now. But my WG already has a dish and i can pick up hundreds of channels - just not the ones I want.

I have it tuned in to Astra 2, and it can find BCC and ITV etc, but it's always scrambled, and have no idea how to un/descramble them? I can still get BBC world and a couple of other random english channels, but let's face it, it's not the best tv around.

So yeah any help/experience would be greatly aprreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Andy.

Topics merged by admin

if you can't be bothered to read the threads which will answer the very questions you ask, I doubt anyone can be bothered to write the answers again.

doesn´t sound like you have tuned into Astra 2D. It is at 28,2°East. BBC world news is on 19,2° which is the usual satellite for German channels. You need to reposition the satellite or get an additional LNB and associated cabling attached to the dish and pointed at 2D.

As mentioned above "BBC World" is on a different satellite. However, the BBC does transmit a 24 hour news service on Astra 2 and it is easy to confuse that with "BBC World" because they share a lot of content. There's a direction finder here that will help with pointing the dish.

BBC and ITV are not electronically locked or scrambled on Astra 2 (at the moment) but if you have poor reception or the wrong set up then your receiver might be confused.

Be sure you have a "digital" LNB and that the cables are properly connected, not sharply bent and aren't waterlogged or corroded.

You might need to manually set your receiver to the symbol rate and/or polarisation necessary.
There's a list of available channels here The channels you want have a symbol rate of 22000 and you'll see an "H" or "V" for Horizontal/Vertical polarisation next to the frequency. There should be a "set up" menu on your receiver that allows you to select those options for each transponder.

Finally, if you have another tough day at work and need a "fix" of British TV then you might be interested in theTVCatchup thread

the only 24 hour BBC news channel on Astra 2 is BBC News 24 and I can assure you the content and layout of the channel is very different and not easily confused.

why not just download what you want from the internet? Anything worth having is easily available if you know where to look.

cos sometimes its nice to be able to switch on the TV and listen to some news etc without having to wait for the downloads to finish first.

Not exactly the most helpful of posts this is it? If you know where to look why don't you let on?

download and install:

http://www.utorrent.com

set up port forwarding so incoming connections work,

go to:

http://www.eztv.it

and click on the torrents of the shows you want to install.

Better still, add an RSS feed to the RSS downloader in uTorrent, add some filters to filter the shows you want and let uTorrent do the work for you after that.

Torrents can be good, but variable speed depending upon the tracker. There's also the problem that some ISPs (not necessarily in Germany) throttle torrent traffic as a form of protecting the network or their contention ratio.

Binary newsgroups are a much more varied source and the download is always at full speed.

then stop pissing about get in touch with Grinner or put your hand in your pocket and get in touch with bavaria satellite and pay a reasonable amount to get a professional in.

agree with you but eztv generally has excellent speeds and it is easy for the inexperienced to set up and to find the shows they want which is not the case for newsgroups.

Newsgroups used to be a little difficult, but with software like Newsleecher which has an option for a keyword search of all newsgroups, associates itself with NZB, and repairs and extracts RAR and PAR files, it's a whole lot easier than it used to be.

still not as simple as setting up the RSS feed in uTorrent then not having to do anything afterwards except leave your pc turned on.

Let's say for example you are a massive prison break fan. Well first of all you load the URL of the eztv rss feed into uTorrent which is:

http://tvrss.net/feed/legacy/eztv/

then you open the RSS downloader in uTorrent and add a new search filter. simply writing "prison break" will do for this show, nothing fancy. then click on "ok". We know from the calendar provided on the eztv website that the next episode of Prison break is due to aired on the 3rd November, so the torrent will appear a few hours after it has finished. So you leave your PC on over night (3rd to the 4th) with uTorrent open and working. You go to bed and wake up the next morning to find the download completed and waiting to be watched. Can't be simpler.

For those that are unfamiliar with RSS feeds, the feed publishes newly released torrents in a format that download clients can read. uTorrent has a built in feed reader/downloader. You add search criteria to the reader/downloader and when it find a torrent that matches the filter you set, it automatically downloads the torrent, imports it into uTorrent and starts the download of the avi file.

BBC will start streaming BBC1 and BBC2 live from next week.

Of couse you will have to go via an UK proxy from Germany, but will be nice to watch live shows without satalite.

More info on the bbc site
Main BBC channels go live on net (BBC News)

see this thread about using a UK proxy

Using a proxy to access BBC iPlayer from abroad