Would like to watch German & Dutch TV - help please

Bubbshjs · 26-08-2009

Sorry, not sure if I've posted this in the right place.

We would like to be able to access Dutch and German TV. I've looked at a few sites and think we need to be able to access two satellites to do this - Astra1 and Hotbird. Looking at companies that provide the equipment, install and set up, the whole package would seem to be in the region of £300 - £350.

As my husband is pretty handy I'm hoping he might be able to do something for rather less than this, so I wondered if someone on the forum could point us in the right direction as to what sort of things we should be reading to gain enough knowledge and what sort of equipment we should be looking at please.

Also is there any way of blocking the porn channels? Something tells me it wouldn't take my teenage son's friends long to find those!

I have tried searching the forum, but couldn't see any recent threads on watching German tv, and the Dutch ones seem to focus on football (of course!) I have started reading through all the stickies at the start of this forum, but am totally ignorant about satellites at the moment I'm afraid, so please keep any replies as simple as possible - thanks.

We have no satellite dish at the moment, but we might consider signing up to Sky at some point. Is it possible to subscribe to German Sky and receive it in UK?

Many thanks for all your help. Apologies if I'm asking stupid questions.

**T_G** · 26-08-2009

Hi

Welcome to the forum! Although I can't understand for the life of me why someone would want to watch German TV

, I'll try to answer some of the questions.

There is a whole lot of free german TV available, all you need is a dish pointing to Astra 19 east. As long as you got someone who is able to drill some holes and put up a satellite bracket that won't be a big thing. Obviously you will have to have the dish pointed to the south.

The reciever issue is not too easy to answer. If you just want to watch those German channels, there are fairly cheap digital receivers, which will allow you to sort out a channel list and block the porn. there isn't that much free porn, but there is a lot of filth there which I would not want young children to see...

If you are thinking of watching Premiere (or Sky Germany as it is called now) then you would need a different receiver altogether.

Let us know what you had in mind. TG

**satelliteman** · 26-08-2009

Hi and welcome to the forum,

German programming is mainly on Astra1 but for access of both Astra1 and Hotbird satellites, a simple enough set up would be to install an 80cm dish fitted with a 6° monobloc LNb.

george_H · 28-08-2009

Hi

German channels are indeed easy and free.
Dutch ones are more difficult.
There is only one free one: BVN which shows samples of the other public dutch and belgian channels.
For the others you need a card. These are managed by canaal digitaal
_http://www.canaldigitaal.nl/
and require a registration. Costs start around € 69,96. per year. I think they require a dutch address for these.

regards
George

***Huevos*** · 01-09-2009

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

Also is there any way of blocking the porn channels?

There's is no real porn on free channels. Some channels have half dressed women talking on the phone but that is about it. Best thing, after doing a full search of the satellite, is just to delete those rubbish channels.

**jphili** · 01-09-2009

Originally Posted by george_H

Hi
For the others you need a card. These are managed by canaal digitaal
_http://www.canaldigitaal.nl/
and require a registration. Costs start around € 69,96. per year. I think they require a dutch address for these.

Canaldigitaal also has a Belgian sister: TV-Vlaanderen (_http://www.tv-vlaanderen.be/ )
Their basic package starts at €9.90 per month, and yes you need an address in Belgium for 'regular' registration.

***JTA*** · 01-09-2009

for dutch/german channels you need Astra1 (19E) and Astra3 (23E). You won't see much on the latter though, unless you have a valid subscription. All of the FTA channels are on Astra1. If you want to receive to Sky Deutchland you'll need a dedicated receiver and a way of getting it to the UK, on top of getting a valid subscription which is only possible if you live in Germany.
same story with the dutch or flemish channels.
setting up a system isn't that difficult to do, I'd suggest you start with a simple FTA receiver pointed to Astra1 which will give you a bunch of german channels free to watch. If you like what you see then you may start looking around for a means of getting some valid subscription and appropriate receiver.

Bubbshjs · 09-09-2009

Thanks to all of you who replied - sorry for the delay, I guess posting just before you go away isn't very sensible!
I can see we need to give this more thought. For the Dutch channels I assume we can use one of the relatives' addresses to buy a card/receiver from canaldigitaal.nl. In Belgium they speak Flemish which is slightly different to Dutch so not so good for the kids' language skills, but I'm not sure if you get just Belgian channels if you you sign up through canaldigitaal.be. Can I just check though if I've understood correctly: we would need a dedicated receiver for Canaldigitaal i.e. different to the one we would need for the free German TV channels OR was that just for Sky Germany?
I know what you mean about why anyone would want to watch German TV, which is why I wondered if the Sky package would be a good idea to get films etc, but I don't think that's viable by the sounds of it. I just know that from the way my daughter's Dutch improves when we visit the relatives, that if she could listen to some German everyday (and TV is the only way this is likely to happen!) she would find her A level easier.
For a fair bit of free German TV then, we need an 80cm dish fitted with a 6° monobloc LNb for Astra1 19E plus a basic digital receiver?
Thanks again for all your help - much appreciated.

**jphili** · 10-09-2009

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

In Belgium they speak Flemish which is slightly different to Dutch so not so good for the kids' language skills, but I'm not sure if you get just Belgian channels if you you sign up through canaldigitaal.be.

Regarding Dutch channels:

On canaaldigitaal you get Ned 1-3, RTL 4-5,7-8, SBS 6, NET5 and Veronica. één and canvas are available in a more expensive package.

On TV-Vlaanderen you get Ned 1-3, één, canvas, ketnet, vtm, vt4, 2be, vijftv, vitaya, jim and TV Oranje (strange that I did not notice TV Oranje on CD).

So it's more regarding content than channels as far as I'm concerned.

And language wise: exposure to both should be better for their language skills. So they speak neither Hollands nor Flemish, but proper Dutch.
My children watch both and I haven't caught them saying 'zeuven' yet.

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

Can I just check though if I've understood correctly: we would need a dedicated receiver for Canaldigitaal i.e. different to the one we would need for the free German TV channels OR was that just for Sky Germany?

For sure not for the free channels. I've got a CD/TVV CAM in my TopField and watching the free German channels with no issues at all. There's quite a number of channels available, so it might be a good idea to check them out first before trying a subscription.

As for Sky packages, they've always been more restrictive with the boxes they support so that assumptions might be correct.

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

I know what you mean about why anyone would want to watch German TV, which is why I wondered if the Sky package would be a good idea to get films etc, but I don't think that's viable by the sounds of it. I just know that from the way my daughter's Dutch improves when we visit the relatives, that if she could listen to some German everyday (and TV is the only way this is likely to happen!) she would find her A level easier.
For a fair bit of free German TV then, we need an 80cm dish fitted with a 6° monobloc LNb for Astra1 19E plus a basic digital receiver?
Thanks again for all your help - much appreciated.

I guess you're looking for films with German sound, since there's plenty of films on the freesat channels on Astra 28.

***JTA*** · 10-09-2009

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

For the Dutch channels I assume we can use one of the relatives' addresses to buy a card/receiver from canaldigitaal.nl.

same for Flanders - you need a Belgian address and bank account

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

In Belgium they speak Flemish which is slightly different to Dutch

the tv stations all use 'standard' Dutch, it's just pronounced in a "softer" way than the Dutch who articulate more German-like.

Originally Posted by Bubbshjs

we would need a dedicated receiver for Canaldigitaal i.e. different to the one we would need for the free German TV channels OR was that just for Sky Germany?

any certified TVV-CDNL receiver will give you all the German FTA channels. Not sure about Sky Germany, but if you can get a certified Sky Germany receiver with a Common Interface than you can put a TVV or CDNL CAM into it which will give access to these packages also. The other way might also work : a certified TVV-CDNL receiver with common interface and a Sky Germany CAM. None of these will work with Sky UK however.

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