Latvian TV Channels help

peter300

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Hi, hoping for some simple advice, i am very new to this (forgive me if i have posted this in the wrong section) i want to watch Latvian and maybe Russian channels, I have Sky Digital for the Uk. I want to buy a simple cost effective system that can get these channels, any ideas on price and anyone who can supply this would be great, many thanks in advance, Peter.
 

peter300

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Hi, hoping for some simple advice, i am very new to this (forgive me if i have posted this in the wrong section) i want to watch Latvian and maybe Russian channels, I have Sky Digital for the Uk. I want to buy a simple cost effective system that can get these channels, any ideas on price and anyone who can supply this would be great, many thanks in advance, Peter.
 

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Hi, from a quick search Sirius4 @ 4.8°e and Eurobird9 @ 9°e seem to offer the majority of Latvian and Russian channels. Receiver, dish and valid subscription required.
 

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Hi, from a quick search Sirius4 @ 4.8°e and Eurobird9 @ 9°e seem to offer the majority of Latvian and Russian channels. Receiver, dish and valid subscription required.
 

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Latvian channels are available via Sirius 4 satellite. You need Viasat Latvia subscription card, to receive those channels and a dish (at least 90cm, maybe bigger, because Latvian channels are on the Nordic Beam, which is weaker on UK and Ireland.
Then you will receive all main Latvian channels, like LTV1, LTV7, TV3, LNT, TV6 and TV5 (this channel is FTA and it's broadcasting mainly russian stuff). There are many russian channels also on Viasat package, like 1st Baltic Channel (Perviy), RTR Planeta Baltic, Ren TV Baltic, NTV Mir etc.
Prices - about 8 pounds for small pack and about 15 - 20 pounds for the big basic pack.
 

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Latvian channels are available via Sirius 4 satellite. You need Viasat Latvia subscription card, to receive those channels and a dish (at least 90cm, maybe bigger, because Latvian channels are on the Nordic Beam, which is weaker on UK and Ireland.
Then you will receive all main Latvian channels, like LTV1, LTV7, TV3, LNT, TV6 and TV5 (this channel is FTA and it's broadcasting mainly russian stuff). There are many russian channels also on Viasat package, like 1st Baltic Channel (Perviy), RTR Planeta Baltic, Ren TV Baltic, NTV Mir etc.
Prices - about 8 pounds for small pack and about 15 - 20 pounds for the big basic pack.
 

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Guys , thanks for thr responses, ant suggestions on a trusted source for this equipment? what should i pay?, many thanks, Peter
 

peter300

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Guys , thanks for thr responses, ant suggestions on a trusted source for this equipment? what should i pay?, many thanks, Peter
 

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LTV World can be received here on a Sky Zone 1 dish or easily on a 60cm dish. It is on the EUROPEAN beam, not the Nordic beam.

Some footprint maps have suggest a 90cm dish for the European beam. This is actually a mistake, it stems from the European Union who moved their two incredibly boring TV channels from Hotbird to the much much much cheaper Sirius 4 satellite. It seems to have become a bit of an urban myth. The 90cm is actually only required for rebroadcast purposes, as the EU footage is used for free in news programmes by the BBC, France 24, SF Info, Russia Today, ARD & ZDF, RAI, TVE and all the other European Broadcasters. It is also provided so that we European citizens can watch the functioning of our glorious democracy, though in reality it is as exciting as watching a dying sheep. :-rofl2

Anyway, the reason is that the larger dish will mean that there are no errors in the broadcast stream which is ideal for editing and rebroadcast. Everybody else can use a 60cm dish and still have a rain margin.

I have never received the Nordic beam, but from the footprint map it looks more like a 1.2m or even a 1.5m would be required in London. Anyone selling subscriptions in London would know for sure.

If you have an old sky dish on your house and an FTA receiver you could have a go at aligning it yourself if you want. It would be too small for the encoded channels but you could watch something while you decide whether or not to get the bigger dish.


5 Kanal (Ukraine) has their version of Top Gear, if you like that sort of thing. The woman in it is nicer to look at than Jeremy Clarkson.

In fact, she is welcome at my house at any time ;)
 

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LTV World can be received here on a Sky Zone 1 dish or easily on a 60cm dish. It is on the EUROPEAN beam, not the Nordic beam.

Some footprint maps have suggest a 90cm dish for the European beam. This is actually a mistake, it stems from the European Union who moved their two incredibly boring TV channels from Hotbird to the much much much cheaper Sirius 4 satellite. It seems to have become a bit of an urban myth. The 90cm is actually only required for rebroadcast purposes, as the EU footage is used for free in news programmes by the BBC, France 24, SF Info, Russia Today, ARD & ZDF, RAI, TVE and all the other European Broadcasters. It is also provided so that we European citizens can watch the functioning of our glorious democracy, though in reality it is as exciting as watching a dying sheep. :-rofl2

Anyway, the reason is that the larger dish will mean that there are no errors in the broadcast stream which is ideal for editing and rebroadcast. Everybody else can use a 60cm dish and still have a rain margin.

I have never received the Nordic beam, but from the footprint map it looks more like a 1.2m or even a 1.5m would be required in London. Anyone selling subscriptions in London would know for sure.

If you have an old sky dish on your house and an FTA receiver you could have a go at aligning it yourself if you want. It would be too small for the encoded channels but you could watch something while you decide whether or not to get the bigger dish.


5 Kanal (Ukraine) has their version of Top Gear, if you like that sort of thing. The woman in it is nicer to look at than Jeremy Clarkson.

In fact, she is welcome at my house at any time ;)
 

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peter300 said:
Guys , thanks for thr responses, ant suggestions on a trusted source for this equipment? what should i pay?, many thanks, Peter

Use your contacts in Latvia to get the subscription there. You will pay silly money if you buy the sub in the UK
 

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peter300 said:
Guys , thanks for thr responses, ant suggestions on a trusted source for this equipment? what should i pay?, many thanks, Peter

Use your contacts in Latvia to get the subscription there. You will pay silly money if you buy the sub in the UK
 

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hexah said:
LTV World can be received here on a Sky Zone 1 dish or easily on a 60cm dish.

LTV World is Lithuanian not Latvian! All the Latvian channels are on the very poor (in the UK) Nordic beam....... :(

I can just get the Nordic beam on an 80 cm dish in fine weather - it disappears with the merest hint of rain.
 

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hexah said:
LTV World can be received here on a Sky Zone 1 dish or easily on a 60cm dish.

LTV World is Lithuanian not Latvian! All the Latvian channels are on the very poor (in the UK) Nordic beam....... :(

I can just get the Nordic beam on an 80 cm dish in fine weather - it disappears with the merest hint of rain.
 

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Analoguesat said:
LTV World is Lithuanian not Latvian! All the Latvian channels are on the very poor (in the UK) Nordic beam....... :(

Um, I used to live with a couple of Lithuanian ladies so I don't have much of an excuse and I bet they would laugh very hard at that :-Nooo and not for the first time :-doh2 indeed their grasp of English was better than most native speakers so they specialized in inelegant putdowns :toke:

That said they were nicer to look at than most things on TV :cool: so why did I get hit with the ugly stick...O-no

It was bites mention of LTV1 that confused me, I think.

Analoguesat said:
I can just get the Nordic beam on an 80 cm dish in fine weather - it disappears with the merest hint of rain.

So that suggests at least a 1m.

Lyngsat mentions a free radio station but sadly that is on the Nordic beam as well.

I have often suggested to people from abroad who are only going to be here for a while to find some radio stations if they can't get FTA TV or for some reason can't get a card from their own country, but we seem to be out of luck here.
 

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Analoguesat said:
LTV World is Lithuanian not Latvian! All the Latvian channels are on the very poor (in the UK) Nordic beam....... :(

Um, I used to live with a couple of Lithuanian ladies so I don't have much of an excuse and I bet they would laugh very hard at that :-Nooo and not for the first time :-doh2 indeed their grasp of English was better than most native speakers so they specialized in inelegant putdowns :toke:

That said they were nicer to look at than most things on TV :cool: so why did I get hit with the ugly stick...O-no

It was bites mention of LTV1 that confused me, I think.

Analoguesat said:
I can just get the Nordic beam on an 80 cm dish in fine weather - it disappears with the merest hint of rain.

So that suggests at least a 1m.

Lyngsat mentions a free radio station but sadly that is on the Nordic beam as well.

I have often suggested to people from abroad who are only going to be here for a while to find some radio stations if they can't get FTA TV or for some reason can't get a card from their own country, but we seem to be out of luck here.
 

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hexah said:
I have often suggested to people from abroad who are only going to be here for a while to find some radio stations if they can't get FTA TV or for some reason can't get a card from their own country, but we seem to be out of luck here.


To be honest whilst I have never spent much time myself analysing radio reception, I have tended to find that radio stations can be pulled in with very low signal strengths and qualities that are insufficient to allow a visual signal and have always assumed (rightly or wrongly) that it is the small amounts of data being transmitted for radio that allows this. Anyone care to blow my findings out of the water?
 

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hexah said:
I have often suggested to people from abroad who are only going to be here for a while to find some radio stations if they can't get FTA TV or for some reason can't get a card from their own country, but we seem to be out of luck here.


To be honest whilst I have never spent much time myself analysing radio reception, I have tended to find that radio stations can be pulled in with very low signal strengths and qualities that are insufficient to allow a visual signal and have always assumed (rightly or wrongly) that it is the small amounts of data being transmitted for radio that allows this. Anyone care to blow my findings out of the water?
 

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From my own satellite radio listening experience, I have found that when video is breaking up, the radio channels on the same transponder with a similar signal quality usually are OK or have a few farting noises which can be tolerated.

The reason is that MP2 was designed in the 1980s to be exceptionally resilient, but sadly it is no where near FM sound quality. It sounds crap at 192kbs, sometimes poor and often sibilant at 256kbs, still lacking at 320kbs compared to MP3 at 192kbs and the ancient sample banks sound just plain dire compared to the vastly superior encoding of MP4 at 128kbs. MP2 at 128kb can even sound crap through TV speakers - it really is that bad!

So your theory is right :-worship

Still, MP4 is the future. If you have heard it, it is far better than MP2 and MP3.


There are lots of excellent classical music stations on Hotbird, Astra and Thor. They are all on 320kbs compared to BBC Radio 3 on 192kbs O-no what is it with the BBC these days? :mad:


Some German public TV stations like Das Erste also transmit in AC3 aka Dolby Digital which is way better than MP2, so you can compare MP2 and AC3 just by switching audio stream (you may need to use a computer satellite card for this).

Sadly no FTA radio in AC3 that I am aware of, but MP4 is way better than AC3, and will be introduced alongside HD TV on DVB-S2 transponders.
 

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From my own satellite radio listening experience, I have found that when video is breaking up, the radio channels on the same transponder with a similar signal quality usually are OK or have a few farting noises which can be tolerated.

The reason is that MP2 was designed in the 1980s to be exceptionally resilient, but sadly it is no where near FM sound quality. It sounds crap at 192kbs, sometimes poor and often sibilant at 256kbs, still lacking at 320kbs compared to MP3 at 192kbs and the ancient sample banks sound just plain dire compared to the vastly superior encoding of MP4 at 128kbs. MP2 at 128kb can even sound crap through TV speakers - it really is that bad!

So your theory is right :-worship

Still, MP4 is the future. If you have heard it, it is far better than MP2 and MP3.


There are lots of excellent classical music stations on Hotbird, Astra and Thor. They are all on 320kbs compared to BBC Radio 3 on 192kbs O-no what is it with the BBC these days? :mad:


Some German public TV stations like Das Erste also transmit in AC3 aka Dolby Digital which is way better than MP2, so you can compare MP2 and AC3 just by switching audio stream (you may need to use a computer satellite card for this).

Sadly no FTA radio in AC3 that I am aware of, but MP4 is way better than AC3, and will be introduced alongside HD TV on DVB-S2 transponders.
 
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