Sky in Rome?

L

lummer

Regular Member
My Location
Castelli Romani, Rome
Hi, can anyone recommend an installer in or around Rome? I'm looking to get Sky and ideally try to get BBC too, but by reading other posts I don't think I don't think I'll have either the money or free space to get BBC even if it was possible.

I'm wondering if someone could tell me how much I can expect to pay to have everything installed too.

I'm situated outside Rome, in the Castelli Romani area, just beside Albano Laziale in a place called Cecchina.

Thanks,
 
Ta, I've read a mention of them elsewhere in this forum too. I also see they advertise in wantedinrome, but as I'm getting a bit weary of the two tier pricing system some places seem to have here for foreigners and natives, I was trying to avoid them to keep my costs down.
But I guess it's better to go with the recommendations and pay the extra for the better service.

Any ideas how much I can expect to pay for installation if I get a hold of my own receiver and card?
 
Mine was installed a few years back in the Lira days & it was approx. L600,000 including the dish. I also already had my own receiver and card. I've called them back a few times since to sort out various problems due to the fact that I've had ongoing building work for the past 18 months & the dish & receiver have had to be moved around;the good news is that they have never charged me for any of those subsequent visits! Best of luck.
 
Hi there,

Carlo on 3396150682 installed 2 systems for me. 180 without dish and box. Good service. Not sure of full price. Call him for info.

ark



lummer said:
Hi, can anyone recommend an installer in or around Rome? I'm looking to get Sky and ideally try to get BBC too, but by reading other posts I don't think I don't think I'll have either the money or free space to get BBC even if it was possible.

I'm wondering if someone could tell me how much I can expect to pay to have everything installed too.

I'm situated outside Rome, in the Castelli Romani area, just beside Albano Laziale in a place called Cecchina.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
 
markthorpe said:
Hi there,

Carlo on 3396150682 installed 2 systems for me. 180 without dish and box. Good service. Not sure of full price. Call him for info.

ark
Click to expand...


Ta, he quoted me €250 euros for the equipment(minus receiver), plus €360 euros for the install, standard prices I'd hope it wouldn't be more, as the install would simply be on my balcony with a cable running about 2 metres along the floor to my TV/Receiver.
A receiver from him was another €650 euros/£420 pounds! If I wanted him to arrange a card and subsrciption then he wanted another £150 pounds on top of the subscription.

Seeing as I got a Pace 2600 off ebay for less than £100 pounds I thought the rest of his prices might be slightly excessive too?

Anyone advise?
 
lummer said:
Ta, he quoted me €250 euros for the equipment(minus receiver), plus €360 euros for the install

If you have from your balcony a clear view of sky in south direction, the dish installation is then a trivial exercise that wont't take more than half day ( including the time spent for making the holes to attach the dish bracket to the wall )

When it was for me a couple of years ago I was quoted 600K lira ( i.e 300 euro todays ), so after consulting the internet and discovered how simple was the process I decided to do it by myself.

I bought a 0.8 mt dish ( I'm located in ROMA EUR and it may be that you need a 1.0 mt dish ) for 50 euro plus an LNB for only 15 euro ( I can ensure it is enough don't trust all these people saying that you need at least a 50 euro LNB for receiveing C4 e C5 in Rome ) plus 4 euro for 10 mt of satellite cables.


The only real difficut (and expensive ) bit of all this process is is getting hold of a good digibox ( I mean good for fringe area such as Rome mine is a Grundig GDS 310 and never gave me problems in 2 years ) and above all have a valid SKY card.
If you don't have any relatives or friends in the UK that may cost even more that 600 euro, but this has nothng to do with the ridicolous installation expenses that you have been quoted.

To summarise try to spend money in a good digibox and a valid SKY card and do the installation by yourself.

Ciao

Ameolive
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for that, I got a Pace 2600 which people are saying good things about for fringer reception here, and getting a card will be no problem as I've got a house in UK and all my family and friends are there.

Like I stated at the start of this thread, I'm getting weary of the two tier pricing system in this country. Things seemed fine while my Roman girlfriend was dealing with him, then while on the phone to him she spoke to me in English and the next thing we knew he's mailing THOSE prices to me.

Anyways, my balcony has a clear view south and the sat is to be located absolute max from the receiver/tv with no obstructions for the cable.
I'd love to attempt it myself, but have no clue what to buy and from where and then no clue how to DO the install.

Any help or guidance appreciated.
 
lummer said:
Any help or guidance appreciated.
Click to expand...


Dear Lummer

I will always reccomend this site to get the most accurate and clear information on DIY digibox installation:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

As for equipment there are plenty of places not far from where you live where you can find all you need here is just a list :

BRICOFER ( staff very prepared and willing to give advice : e.g how to fix the bracket to the balcony wall..)
Radio Elettrica Romana ( RER ) ( reccomended !! )
LEROY MERLIN ( closest place !! V.le Kennedy 86 CIAMPINO 0679 325 499 )

Again, unless you are in the quest for the mytical ASTRA 2D that in our area has become a sort of Holy Graal, what you need is just a .8 mt dish ( 1.2 if you wish to see CH4 even in stormy conditions ) a 0.6 db standard LNB, standard coaxial satellite ( good quality cost 2euro/mt) and the so called F-connector ( regarding how to fit the F connectors to the co-axial cable see this http://www.satcure.com/tech/fconn.htm)

All the above, included brackets and bolts, would never cost more than 100 euro ( maybe 120 if you opt for the 1.2 mt ).

Hope this helps

Ciao
Ameolive
 
Thanks a lot,

Sullivan's site seems just the thing I was looking for.

I actually got Sky Italia installed yesterday simply because it was so cheap, and for the record I have to say I'm very impressed with the amount of English Language channels on it.

But never the less I still wish to get Sky, as I have a Pace 2600 sitting doing zero at the moment.
The guy that came and fitted Sky Italia was from a shop in Genzano and when asked if and how much it would be get a dish installed for Sky UK he said the same thing as you, I guess labour is extra. But as it took him exactly 1 hour to sort me out for Sky Italia I'd hope labour wouldnt be much. Although I will call the numbers you gave me to hear from them too.

I found this on Ebay, is this the kind of thing you are talking about?
http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=32840&item=5715921663&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Seems very cheap, wonder if there is a reason why?

Anyway, I would just like to tell you that Eursat told me a 1m dish was the absolute minimum that I could even consider, he also told me that unless I had a 0.3 db LNB with it then I would receive nothing.

Im actually back in the UK just now, and have just seen LIDL the cheap shop place have a 80cm dish for £14.99 pounds/ €22 euros, just wish a had a bigger bag to take one back with me, they also have had in stock a .06 LNB for £3.99 and a signal finder and wall bracket too, but they were all sold.

I think I'll leave the search for the Holy Astra 2D to the professionals, I'm on the 3rd floor so ther is no possibilty I have enough free space and/or money for that kind of thing. Mind you, it would be cool to do successfully!
 
Lummer

Eursat people can tell you whatever they want to sell you the most expensive equipment .
Thankfully we are living in the era of the Enlightment and we can judge by ourself , these are the facts :

1) From the official ASTRA charts, you see that with a .9 mt dish you can receive ASTRA 2B North ( Channel 4 ) without problem. These figures are evaluated for an average equipment ( e.g a dish in good condition, a cable lenght less than 30 mt, and a standard LNB ) and, as far as I know, are pretty conservative so they should work also for bad weather conditions.

2) As I have already told you, we've been watching ( myself and my beloved English wife ) Ch4 Ch5 for more than 2 years using a 0.8m dish, a standard LNB ( paid at RER 20 euro ) and normal satellite cable.
Of course i did the installation by myself ( again forget signal finders and just follow Sullivan's suggestion!!!) and to be totally honest with you it took more than 3 hours.
We have problems watching Ch4 only in heavy rain conditions.
Of course a brand new 1mt dish would perform much better but to be honest I do not intend to spoil the view from my balcony with a large dish ( believe me 20 cm means a lot ! ) when there is no real need for that.

Finally as for the offer on e-bay, I found the price totally consistent with the market prices and the scenario of someone who wants to get rid of the equipment as soon as possible.

Just a question why do you want to take all this equipment from UK and my be risking to damage it ( in Stansted and Ciampino baggage handling staff are notorius to be particularly good a t breaking almost everything ) when you can have the same in Rome for less ?

Ciao

Ameolive
 
Hi, again thanks a lot.

I didn't disbelieve you, my point, which I should have made clearer was how easy it seems to be for Eursat to squeeze money out of folk who don't have clue what thay are doing.£420 for a receiver!!!
I wish I had there email here so I could quote directly to illustrate this.

Now my big decision is whether to go for a 1m dish or 80cm dish, as the balcony that they are on is not the 'main' balcony perhaps I could go with a 1m one, but the best thing for me to do is to go to a shop and check them out directly to compare I think.

I dont intend to take anything back with me, I just saw those things at what I thought was a cheap price, and wished I was able to take them back. Don't worry, I have previously learnt my lesson of the baggage handlers between Stansted and Ciampino.

Anyway, once again thanks for the help and advice, this is exactly the kind of replies I was hoping to recieve. Of course, any more is welcome.

Ciao,

Lummer
 
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