That dreaded rumour again!

[MikeO]

Actually Im a bit surprised to hear this cos Steve (TWTB Audio & Visual Ltd) Installed my 3.2M at the end of last August and didnt mention any of this at the time - no mention of "In the last 12 months, Sky have made some changes in their footprint, this has meant that there has been several reductions in bandwidth and signal strengths)".
When I asked him about issues of losing BBC/ITV signal in the future, he just said that we can never guarantee anything, and gave me no indication that there had been problems before, or were any anticipated problems to come.
Dunno why he has started this now, or why he didnt say anthing to me last August.
I guess time will tell, or does he know something that we dont?
My system is still working fine till now (after giving the dish a couple of tweeks) - not even a blip on C4, so I dunno why he is saying in his letter that there is no guarantee of getting C4 even with a 4.2.

Mike

 

[Analoguesat]

Actually Im a bit surprised to hear this cos Steve (TWTB Audio & Visual Ltd) Installed my 3.2M at the end of last August and didnt mention any of this at the time - no mention of "In the last 12 months, Sky have made some changes in their footprint, this has meant that there has been several reductions in bandwidth and signal strengths)".

Mike

Thats will be because there havent been any bandwidth/footprint reductions as far as we know.

Sky can make any footprint changes even if they want to - they dont operate the satellites. Eutelsat & SES Astra would be a bit peed off if Sky started fiddling with technical parameters on their sats!

 

[daisyanne]

Analguesat,

Thanks for the response. Could you explain to me the bit about the Arab satellite causing interference are certainly plausible where an installation is sub optimal. Does that mean poor reception of channels if he doesnt do his job properly?

Also the bit "Lets see - Channel 4 is transmitted on 12168V on 28E.
Badr 4 - ahah - Ghiras TV on 12169V Thats likely to be your problem

" Are you saying that's true or was that tongue in cheek?

Also, any truth in "It is also possible that Sky may have to remove terrestrial channels from their platform when the UK migrates from analogue to digital terrestrial channels in March 2008" ?

Sorry to be so dense!!

Daisyanne

 

[dxsat]

That last bit is referring to the start of 'Freesat' from the BBC.
Just last week, a BBC statement said that existing satellite viewers would remain unaffected by the launch of the new service. (This means me and you, watching the BBC on Astra 2 will not lose the BBC services)
The migration from analogue to digital terrestrial TV will not be completed for a number of years, and will not be completed by March next year.
The letter is so full of inaccurate assertions and factual inaccuracies that you should take no notice of it at all. All potential customers should avoid this installer as he is trying find excuses in advance if the installation doesn't work as it should. Tell the developer to find a competent installer. It is obviously not hard to find one in Cyprus.

 

[Analoguesat]

Thanks for the response. Could you explain to me the bit about the Arab satellite causing interference are certainly plausible where an installation is sub optimal. Does that mean poor reception of channels if he doesnt do his job properly?

Yes, or if the dish is a bit small for the location, so picking up less signal from 28E

Also the bit "Lets see - Channel 4 is transmitted on 12168V on 28E.
Badr 4 - ahah - Ghiras TV on 12169V Thats likely to be your problem

" Are you saying that's true or was that tongue in cheek?

Nothing tongue in cheek about it daisy. All satellite dishes will accept signals from off main axis satellites. You are trying to get a very weak signal off 28E. Theres a fairly strong signal on the adjacent satellite at 26E which is on an almost identical frequency AND on the same polarity. And your island is virtually in the strongest part of the footprint for 26E. Im not saying Im certainly right, but Id say its very likely.

Also, any truth in "It is also possible that Sky may have to remove terrestrial channels from their platform when the UK migrates from analogue to digital terrestrial channels in March 2008" ?


No idea, but Id say its unlikely. The BBC & ITV wont be leaving 28E or abandoning the Sky platform when Freesat starts simple because they arent going to throw away the viewers slouched in front of over 8 million sky set top boxes

 

[Zorba]

Channel 4 is an unusual problem as it is spread all over Cyprus.We installed a dish recently in Paphos and there was no signal on ch4 but the same size dish down the road which was installed last year still received it.In Limassol different installations do and dont.I have been to a few and can usually improve ch4 but sometimes bbc/itv is affected,because they are on different satellites.Its probably interference from arabsat and if the dish has slight imperfections then it might pick up the arabsat frequency stronger.Right now my ch4 sky two and sky three are not working but i am too tired to go up and fix it.My bbc/itv is excellent but thats because i have adjusted my dish to the 2d satellite.I'm sure I can improve my ch4 by adjusting the lnb,there is a knack.
As for whatsisname in Larnaca,I can understand why he might be putting people off the sky system.The 4.2m dishes are hard to set up and once they are set its hard to "fine tune " those dishes because of the design.I know he would rather sell a Showtime system because its easier,quicker and more reliable.Now that Showtime have the rights to Premiership football i have sold quite a few.

 

[geoffreys]

That last bit is referring to the start of 'Freesat' from the BBC.
Just last week, a BBC statement said that existing satellite viewers would remain unaffected by the launch of the new service. (This means me and you, watching the BBC on Astra 2 will not lose the BBC services)
The migration from analogue to digital terrestrial TV will not be completed for a number of years, and will not be completed by March next year.
The letter is so full of inaccurate assertions and factual inaccuracies that you should take no notice of it at all. All potential customers should avoid this installer as he is trying find excuses in advance if the installation doesn't work as it should. Tell the developer to find a competent installer. It is obviously not hard to find one in Cyprus.

Indeed so, I have already recommended to Daisyanne a very competent installer in her area of Cyprus (Paralimni) - see my previous posting on this forum thread,
Geoff
Cyprus

 

[daisyanne]

One last question if I may? Will the digital switchover from 2008-2012 have any effect on SKY reception here in Cyprus?

Sorry if this has been answered but i have read through all the previous discussions on this thread and cant find any reference to it.

Thanks so much guys.

Daisyanne

 

[dxsat]

The switchover is solely to do with terrestrial reception in the UK only.
There should be no effect at all on satellite viewers.

 

[daisyanne]

Thanks a lot Snap.

Daisyanne

 

[Zorba]

The fact that you have a digibox means that you have already switched over to digital.

 

[mctighed]

Get a Slinggbox. Watch all freeview channels through the internet. Pictures are already reasonable quality and when CYTA get their act together and increase download speeds from 1meg, you can stuff Murdoch like I have.The internet is the way forward for watching T.V. anyware in the world.

 

[dxsat]

Time for a reality check on Slingbox:-
To get UK TV anywhere in the world, Slingbox requires:
- a slingbox transmitter in the UK, a receiver at the remote location
- a tuner or satellite receiver with a good signal at the UK end
- somewhere to locate the box, under the remote user's control
- a broadband connection at both ends, with enough bandwidth to spare so that the sling connection doesn't go down when the internet is used normally. Routers sometimes re-boot. ADSL sometimes goes down, or slows down painfully for brief periods, depending on the provider.

These requirements are too much for many users, and it will be years before DSL connections are good enough to be completely reliable.
In the next few years, this may happen, but until Slingbox or competitors provide as good and reliable a picture and sound as current satellite transmissions, with HD, widescreen and 5.1 sound, TV over the internet will never be appeal to more than a tiny minority.

 

[mctighed]

A Slingbox costs about £140.00. The UK version contains a freeview tuner. The Slingbox connects directly into the router which is accessed by a computer from a remote location. If you use a PVR in the uk, as I do, you can timeshift programs. It uses widescreen and othe screen formats. It doesn't do 5.1 sound or HD, but here in Eastern Cyprus the option is a 4.2 meter dish which most people reading this will know is expensive and prone to other problems. I think this is a reasonable alternative to being able to watch ALL UK tv channels. Many people here have second homes in the UK and have high speed internet already.

 

[dxsat]

What I meant was not that it is available now, and works, as you've proved, but that it's going to be a while before you can use it as a substitute in the living room. When you have family sitting down watching TV, the picture has to be reliable and as good as available on a digibox. Whilst you can happily watch a sling stream on your laptop, it's a completely different experience.

 

[dxsat]

I seem now to be unable to edit or correct any of my postings.
Correction to post 73 above:
A receiver is not needed at the remote location.

 

[Analoguesat]

As a follow up - it turns out I was spot on with my prediction that Arabsat is the problem.

:-worship

Read this

http://www.satellites.co.uk/satelli...cyprus-signals-getting-poorer.html#post595822

That Badr 4 channel is nailing the Channel 4 frequency.