Satellite Installers Recommendation

[H3lp-N33d3d]

Hello all,
My wife and I recently bought a new-built in Caddington (Luton) , we have been promised since then that Sky and Virgin would be working like a glove just a few days later; forward 7 months and internet speeds reach 0.25mb/s - that's correct 0.25mb/s - and no signs of good TV signal. Sadly that means no stable Netflix nor internet TV. Worth noting that it is worth mentioning that this is a 3 storey-high detached house, and that all cabling leads to the loft; and more importantly, we don't have satellite nor aerial installed and hence our post here.

I am currently looking into installing a 80cm Satellite dish for the the official TV receiver that we have from the portuguese provider (NOS). In addition we would also be interested in getting UK tv, so either Sky / Virgin or Freesat. We could also potentially consider to get an aerial installed.

The ideal situation is that we can use either satellite in the any of the 4 rooms we would want to see TV. All rooms already have pre-installed cabling for satellite and aerial, except for one; the one lacking is the office just below the loft which means it is within easy access, but a media plate would need installing.

I don't want to have to spend a fortunate to get a dish (or two), installed and fully functional.

Any ideas on what is the best solution for me and what would be the price I should expect to pay for such work?
Also, any recommendations on how to improve my internet speeds? OpenReach says we are in the plans to get Fibre within hopefully 12 months, but I work from home and this is just too slow to manage Skype calls.

Thank you for all your help!

Cheers

 

[Analoguesat]

Hi there welcome to the forum.

If you want UK & Portuguese systems &/or tv aerial for Freeview to multiple rooms then you probably need some sort of distribution system installing. You need to talk to an expert in distribution systems about that

I movd house recently & had 0.5meg connectivity - Plusnet were very helpful & arranged for an Openreach guy to come out. He discovered we had been allocated a 0.5 meg capped line at the exchange - once that had been changed we now get 4-5 meg. Its not blisteringly fast but its better than 0.5!

 

[H3lp-N33d3d]

Hi there, thank you for the prompt reply.
What kind of distribution system are you talking off to have an idea, please?

The internet has to do with the fact that it is a new development and phone line is just really bad currently, unfortunately.

 

[Channel Hopper]

You will get a couple of Portuguese channels with a satellite dish, and non with the terrestrial aerial.

What is the split between UK/Portugal/other content that you are looking for and are you willing to pay for content or hope it comes up on an internet stream at some point ?

 

[H3lp-N33d3d]

Thanks again for speedy reply.

Channels are quite different and having NOS tv working would be a must have for me. But NOS doesn't necessarily have the british freeview channels my wife likes.

The portuguese sat is definitely needed, but a simple solution like aerial would also work for the british channels. Just fed up of using domestic internal antenna to be able to watch tv.

 

[Analoguesat]

If you want the full NOS channels you will need Portuguese details to get a receiver activated - you need the ID citizen number or tax number. Without these its not possible to get a sub activated.

If you have a suitable contact in Portugal then get a receiver imported from their pre-activated. You will need a dish pointing at Hispasat 30W for NOS.

 

[Analoguesat]

Thanks again for speedy reply.

Channels are quite different and having NOS tv working would be a must have for me. But NOS doesn't necessarily have the british freeview channels my wife likes.

The portuguese sat is definitely needed, but a simple solution like aerial would also work for the british channels. Just fed up of using domestic internal antenna to be able to watch tv.

A simple setup could be an 80cm dish pointing at 30W for NOS on a westerly facing balcony or up on the roof & an aerial feed to a FreeView equipped tv.

 

[H3lp-N33d3d]

Hi Analoguesat, sorry for the delay. Thank you for your help so far.

Regarding NOS I got all that sorted out. My question is really all about the practicality of installation.

Great, so you reckon really putting the dish up in the roof and Aerial is the best alternative. Can I ask you how much you reckon such should cost?

Also, I am having a lot of difficulty finding someone to do it in my area, despite being so close to London (Caddington/Luton). Got recently a call from a company (AerialForce) but they were extremely arrogant and decided to not use them, after a bit of search found out that it seems they are in liquidation...

Cheers

 

[mikeisyou]

Hi there welcome to the forum.

If you want UK & Portuguese systems &/or tv aerial for Freeview to multiple rooms then you probably need some sort of distribution system installing. You need to talk to an expert in distribution systems about that

One of these would do the trick - NEU Edision HDMI Modulator single HDMI auf DVB-T USB MPEG4 FullHD HDTV schwarz | eBay

I would recommend having a HDMI cable from your satellite receiver to a HDMI modulator then plug in the cable from the aerial. Your satellite box will show up as a freeview channel in the other rooms.

Freeview are moving from DVB-T to DVB-T2 transmissions within the next 4 years so I would recommend baring this in mind aswell.

 

[archive10]

Hi Analoguesat, sorry for the delay. Thank you for your help so far.

Regarding NOS I got all that sorted out. My question is really all about the practicality of installation.

Great, so you reckon really putting the dish up in the roof and Aerial is the best alternative. Can I ask you how much you reckon such should cost?

Also, I am having a lot of difficulty finding someone to do it in my area, despite being so close to London (Caddington/Luton). Got recently a call from a company (AerialForce) but they were extremely arrogant and decided to not use them, after a bit of search found out that it seems they are in liquidation...

Cheers

There are many ways of doing this, but If I may chip in with a quick overall suggestion:

I think you will be covered well with two 60cm dishes, or one 60cm dish and an aerial.
The must-have dish is for pointing at sat-position 30W for Portuguese channels, the optional dish is for FreeSat, but if you are only allowed one dish, then an external aerial for FreeView will do as an alternative (put on the same mast as the dish is attached to).
If you can have two dishes, then get a 8/9x8 multiswitch (like this: EMP-Centauri - Multiswitch MS9/8PIU-5 V10 ).
If only one dish, get a 4/5x8 multiswitch (like this: EMP-Centauri - Multiswitch MS5/8PIU-4 (P.143-UP) ).
The multiswitch allows the outputs from the dish to be distributed to a number of outets (in this case 8, as you have 4 rooms - two connections in each will server either PVRs for recording).
(I do not endorse the EMP stuff specifically - but I have them myself, and they seem to do the job. There are many other alternatives on the market that does the same thing.)
The 4/5 thing means that the multiswitch also allows an aerial input to be distributed on the cable - this is especially useful in case you have one dish and one aerial.

In the following, I will assume that you can have two dishes.

The first dish on the roof needs to be pointing at 30W for NOS (and spanish channels).
The other dish needs to point at 28.2E for FreeSat (BBC, ITV, CH4/5 etc).
With EMP Centauris, you can equip each dish with a Quad or Quattro LNB (Quattro preferred).
With many other multiswitches, you will need to buy Quattro LNBs.

Connect the dishes to the multiswitch, and the multiswitch outputs to the distribution cables leading to each room.
At the receiver end you need to program the receivers to use something called DiSEqC to choose between satellite A and B.
This allows the receiver to use the correct dish for reception of either NOS or Freesat channels.

If you are the DIY type, then stay tuned on this thread fore more guidance and suggestions etc.
If you just want to get it set-up, fixed, and done so you can watch TV, you should really get an installer out.
He can set up the dishes, the LNBs, the multiswitch, and even program the set-top boxes.
There is a special section of this forum with "installer wanted" - you are very likely to find someone near you to sort you out properly.

 

[H3lp-N33d3d]

Hi st1,
Thank you for the thorough reply.

I'll look into it then. Still prefer to possibly get an 80cm dish for NOS.
Could I potentially use the 30W sat as a means to get freeview channels?

Cheers

 

[Mickha]

Freeview is a term used for terrestrial television, via your roof aerial, freesat is generally used for the free English satellite channels, on 28.2E.
There are FTA, Free to Air, channels, on 30W, although most listings aren't upto date, as they still list Movistar+ channels, whch ceased broadcasting, on 30W, recently, but are still available on 19.2E.

https://www.lyngsat.com/Hispasat-30W-4-30W-5.html

https://www.lyngsat.com/packages/Nos.html

 

[Channel Hopper]

Hi st1,
Thank you for the thorough reply.

I'll look into it then. Still prefer to possibly get an 80cm dish for NOS.
Could I potentially use the 30W sat as a means to get freeview channels?

Cheers

Yes, make it a steerable system, though you will need to have some form of controller to move it.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Do you want the ability to watch Portuguese and UK TV at the same time? If yes then a movable dish would be useless if using satellite only.