switchover from analogue to digital in germany

I

ich

Member
My Satellite Setup
for German TV in England still on analogue receiver and satelite dish
My Location
England
On 30th April Germany will have the switchover from analogue to digital TV. At the moment I receive German TV in England on an analogue box and satelite dish. Does anybody know if this will still work after their switchover? I assume not. Therefore my next question. Does anybody know if one can just get a digital box in Germany (around €30) and plug it in here instead of the analogue box and /or must the satelite dish be repositioned? If so to where please?
 
On May 1st next year your analogue receiver will be nothing but scrap. :(

You can do a straight swap for a digital receiver - the German digital channels are on the same satellites as the analogue services.

HOWEVER you may need to change the lnb (the bit on the arm of the dish) if its more than 7 or 8 years old. You need a "universal lnb" to get all the digital channels.

You dont even need to go to Germany to get a receiver - you can get them reasonably cheaply here in the UK too nowadays.

If the dish is years old and rusting you might want to think of getting it replaced as well.
 
Thank you. My LNB is about 12 years old. Can I change the LNB myself, i.e. does it screw in?
When doing this I just wonder if I could also connect an English Freesat receiver to the same dish? Would I need a different LNB in this case?
 
You can change the LNB yourself. It's very easy, just unscrew the old one from the LNB arm, disconnect the cable (again, unscrew it), connect the cable to the new LNB and screw it into the LNB arm.

Freesat uses a different satellite position so you either need a separate dish pointing at Astra 2 @ 28E or attach another LNB to your existing dish at an offset angle, so you get both sats from the same dish at the same time.
 
If and only if you have completely safe access to the dish then yes you can change it. The biggest problems with old dishes are the bolts that are holding the lnb onto the arm rust up badly. Have a look and if they are badly rusted think about getting a new dish.

You can add in a Freesat receiver easily, but you will need a second (offset) lnb for the UK channel on 28E. If you want a Freesat receiver (full epg) then you need one cable from each lnb. If you can make do with basic epg then one receiver and some fancy electronic switching behind the dish are all you need.

If you need to go up a ladder and dont like heights get an expert in - no point saving 50 quid but breaking your neck!

Depending exactly where you are you may find one of our expert installers isnt too far away and could do the job for you. Quite a few of the forum staff and long term members are installers
 
Thank you very much for the useful information.
 
Thank you for your information.
 
For my own clarification, are they only switching the OTA broadcasts from analog to digital or are they going to switch the satellite services also? I have international members on sites over here (USA) that may need to know.
 
Sorry, I do not know.
 
Terryl said:
For my own clarification, are they only switching the OTA broadcasts from analog to digital or are they going to switch the satellite services also? I have international members on sites over here (USA) that may need to know.
Click to expand...

The PAL broadcasts are being discontinued on April 30th 2012.The digital services are already up and running on the same cluster and have been for years.

Have a look here:

-http://www.flysat.com/astra19.php

The stuff with the pale blue background is being switched off.

Some of the old analogue capacity is to be used for extra HD transmissions - several extra channels start on May 1st.
 
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