German TV on Sky satellite with separate receivers...?

[Schtooks]

I had ordered a German HD TV satellite set up which was installed last week. I asked for it to be on a separate dish out of view from the street because I live in a conservation area. We already have a Sky dish that was erected before the area was changed which was allowed after much complaining so I don't think the council would have been happy to see another one pop up. I also opted for a separate dish because they told me it would be an extra £85 for a custom one to take both services. However, today whilst I was outside of the house, I was looking to see where the dish may have been installed and couldn't see it - initially I thought he'd done a great job! Then I followed the wire from the room it was installed in and discovered it was attached to the Sky dish! Apart from the fact I asked and paid for a separate dish is this okay to do? As far as I know Sky is still working ok but I don't know if I ought to say something - I feel like I've been 'done over' especially as the guy brought ladders through to the back of the house looking like he was working back there! I am definitely not seeing things, the wire goes in a straight line to the dish!

Your thoughts are appreciated - I also hope this is the right place to post this.;)

 

[timo_w2s]

If the original dish was for Sky UK (Astra 2) then you can't get German HD channels off it at the same time without an extra LNB stuck on the front of the dish offset for Astra 1.

Can the new "German" receiver also get BBC 1, 2, etc, and other free UK channels? Perhaps he's wired in both dishes to the new receiver.

 

[rolfw]

Have you checked the rear of the property to see if he's installed the dish on a mast looking over the roof?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Take a photo of the Sky dish. It may show two LNBs on the front of the dish taking signals from two satellites (though there are some combined LNB devices for this purpose).

At the very least you should have a spare LNB, the one that has been taken off to fit the two new ones as it is almost impossible to fit the original side by side with the Geman receiving one.

 

[BlindFaith]

If you read his sat setup, his Sky dish has been realigned to 19E

45cm zone 1 Digital mesh dish set to Astra 1 (German TV mainly)

 

[timo_w2s]

If you read his sat setup, his Sky dish has been realigned to 19E

I saw that but he then says he thinks Sky is working. Maybe it's Sky Germany...

 

[Schtooks]

I've just had a good look around the house back and front and there is nothing anywhere. I also got my husband to follow the wire and it definitely goes into the Sky dish less than 10 meters away. There is only one LNB on it. There was an option to add FTA UK channels for an extra £95 which I declined. I paid nearly £300 for the set up.

Sky is still working - my boys would have made a noise by now if it wasn't! I'm just perplexed that it does work and more so by the fact the guy couldn't just say what he'd done. I live in London and I'm a she, hence I know nothing about this kind of stuff. My fault for getting it done while the husband was away!

The Sky dish was installed in 2001 I think - I don't know if it was changed when we went to HD or not (if that makes a difference).

 

[sonnetpete]

I had ordered a German HD TV satellite set up which was installed last week. I asked for it to be on a separate dish out of view from the street because I live in a conservation area. We already have a Sky dish that was erected before the area was changed which was allowed after much complaining so I don't think the council would have been happy to see another one pop up. I also opted for a separate dish because they told me it would be an extra £85 for a custom one to take both services. However, today whilst I was outside of the house, I was looking to see where the dish may have been installed and couldn't see it - initially I thought he'd done a great job! Then I followed the wire from the room it was installed in and discovered it was attached to the Sky dish! Apart from the fact I asked and paid for a separate dish is this okay to do?

It sounds like the OP was expecting another dish to be installed (for HD services?). I'm guessing he has a '$ky' dish set up for 19E and the installer has fitted another cable from the LNB to serve his new receiver...it's confusing to say the least...

 

[Mickha]

Hi Schtooks,
can you please clarify if you are receiving Sky UK or Sky Germany?
Sky UK is on Astra 2, 28.2E, Sky Germany is on Astra 1, 19.2E.
If you can get both these satellites, and channels, then there either has to be a largish dish, with 2 LNB's, one for 28.2E, the second for 19.2E, or 2 dishes, one pointing at each satellite.
Do you have more than one satellite receiver?

If possible can you please post some information, on the channels you can view, on your satellite receiver, channel names, frequencies, polarity, Symbol Rate.
You can quickly check using sites like lyngsat.com, kingofsat.net and flysat, or you can just post the information here and we'll check for you.

 

[Schtooks]

I have trailed the wire with the red spots to the dish so you can see. I have Sky UK with the dish that it came with originally with it's own Sky Plus receiver in the living room and I now have the German receiver in my room upstairs. All the other wires on the house are ethernet cables. The German receiver is a Media Link Black Panther 1card.

On Sky UK we get everything we subscribe to (plus tons of Asian and Middle Eastern channels) and on the German one I get FTA German channels listed below - the antenna setting on the box shows it's Astra 1 19.2E: (sorry this is a long list!)

German HD Channels Included:
ANIXE HD
RBB HD (all regions)
MDR HD (all regions)
HR-FERNSEHEN
TAGESSCHAU 24
EINS FESTIVAL HD
EINS PLUS HD
SERVUS TV HD (all regions)
3SAT HD
KIKA HD
ZDF INFO HD
ZDF NEO HD
ZDF KULTUR HD
DAS ERSTE HD
ARTE HD
BAYERISCHES
NDR (all regions)
PHOENIX HD
WDR (all regions)

+ German Freeview channels also available on this package

ENS FESTIVAL
MTV
DAS ERSTE
ARTE
WDR BIELEFELD
WDR DORTMUND
WDR DUSSELDORF
WDR ESSEN
WDR MUNSTER
WDR SIEGEN
WDR AACHEN
WDR BOHN
WDR DUISBURG
BR ALPHA
PHOENIX
ZDF
9 VIVO
CNBC
RBB Branderburg
RBB BERLIN
SWR 3
Super RTL
RTL
RTL 2
VOX
EUROSPORT
ENS EXTRA
ENS FESTIVAL HD
EURONEWS
N 24
SAT 1
ERFEINS
PRO SIEBEN
KABELEINS
VIVA
ENS PLUS
AL JAZEERA
FRANCIA 24
BBC MUNDO
BAYERISCHES FSS
HR-FERNSEHEN
BAYERISCHES FSN
ZDF Infokanal
KIKA
NICK / COMEDIA
CANAL 21
SRFERNSEHEN
RADIO BREMEN TV
SAT 1 BAYERN
N-TV

+ Spanish Freeview channels available on this package:
TV24 HORAS
TVE
TELEMADRID SAT
TV DE GALICIA
ANDALUCIA TV
Cubavisión
TELESUR

+ French Free to air channels available on this package:
ARTE
ARTE HD
FRANCE 24
TV5 MONDE EU
ITELE
D17
TV5 FR
EURONEWS
LCP
TV8 MONT BLANC
BFM TV
BFM BUSINESS

 

[timo_w2s]

I've just had a good look around the house back and front and there is nothing anywhere. I also got my husband to follow the wire and it definitely goes into the Sky dish less than 10 meters away. There is only one LNB on it. There was an option to add FTA UK channels for an extra £95 which I declined. I paid nearly £300 for the set up.

Sky is still working - my boys would have made a noise by now if it wasn't! I'm just perplexed that it does work and more so by the fact the guy couldn't just say what he'd done. I live in London and I'm a she, hence I know nothing about this kind of stuff. My fault for getting it done while the husband was away!

The Sky dish was installed in 2001 I think - I don't know if it was changed when we went to HD or not (if that makes a difference).

Oops, sorry for calling you a he.

Sky UK and German TV are on different satellites so you must have Sky coming from another dish then. Does your building have a shared dish perhaps somewhere else? Could the Sky dish you are now using for German TV have been an unused spare which the installer decided to use?

Edit: Only just seen your post above after I posted this. Yep, I can see there is only one LNB on the dish as you stated.

 

[Schtooks]

It's ok - it must be the deep voice! lol

There is no other dish on my house - just the one. I might just have to man up (!) and call them and ask what they did.

 

[Captain Jack]

Thats.... Odd. There HAS to be another dish receiving Sky UK stuff. Where does the cable for the Sky plus receiver go? Same dish/LNB as the German receiver?

You are not receiving German tv via the Internet, do you?

 

[timo_w2s]

Sorry if this is a silly question but just to eliminate the possibility... for the UK channels you definitely have a Sky satellite receiver and not Sky channels via Virgin Media cable TV?

 

[Schtooks]

I thought I was confused before but I'm totally baffled now! There is absolutely, categorically no other dish on my house! I have a normal Sky+ HD satellite system that has been there for years downstairs. I do not have cable TV of any kind. The German HD satellite FTA was only installed last week and the as per the photo, no wires lead to anywhere else but the Sky dish...

 

[Lazarus]

Agatha Christie meets Satellites.co.uk

 

[timo_w2s]

The mystery deepens. I love threads like this. Whatever you do, if you find out somewhere else what's going on please do update us here too! We need to get to the bottom of this...

 

[Mickha]

Is that picture the front of your house, or the back?
Is there any sign of a dish on the roof, or at the rear of the property?
Some of the more dodgy installers might point your Sky dish at 19.2E and switch the Sky cables to a neighbours dish, if they have a couple of outputs empty

 

[sonnetpete]

Is it possible to trace the lead backwards from the input of your Sky+ box to wherever it appears outside....or is it plugged into a socket on the wall?

 

[Schtooks]

Mystery solved! Husband just went up on the roof to take a look and there is a dish hidden between the chimneys and the cable work is so neatly done that it crosses the roof and then runs down the back of the gutter pipe around the satellite dish (hence looking like it's on the dish) and going backwards to my room! I think this guy needs to train the guys who install Sky as the wire for that is literally just trailing and not tacked down anywhere.

I would like to thank you all for your help in solving this little mystery which wasn't! Now, here's hoping I can find out how to get the PVR going...!