Where to Start

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum,

I have been looking at various forums to do with satellites over the past couple of months. But I am still completely stuck on what to do...

Basically I am paying for SkyHD at £150 a month this includes unlimited Internet and some sort of plan of phone calls and 1 multi-room. I pretty much have all of the packages movies sports etc but I don't subscribe to specialist channels.

I am moving house soon and I'm thinking of starting fresh............. Are there any alternatives to sky, because it feels like I'm paying a lot of money for a load of crap on TV.

One of my friends gave me a box called Kodi to try but this was too complicated.

I can't remember exactly but there was someone on a forum that said he pays £200 a year for 1000 channels that he actually watches. All of these channels one different types and included Saturday football matches.

This got me thinking, if I was to buy my own satellite receiver and satellite dish would I be able to access different channels and would I be up to access channels across the sea in America and Europe.

Any help or suggestions would be fantastic,

Kind regards

To access different channels you need to access different satellites, so start off with a motorized satellite dish.
This isn't as complicated as it sounds, it's just a normal dish, attached to a motor, which, once set up, will move automatically to any satellite, or channel, selected.
You first need to find out where you can site your dish, and if there are any local regulations stopping you installing a satellite dish, at your new address, usually if it's a listed building, or part of a apartment building, which should have its own communal system.

You can work out where to site your dish by using dishpointer.com.
Enter your postcode, select a suitable satellite, usually 1W, from the drop down box.
Zoom in on the map, moving the green icon, until you locate your new property, then look if your dish needs to be on the front, rear, or even side, of the property.

You can check out what channels, and packages, are possibly available, by looking at lyngsat.com.
Stick to the Europe satellites, between 52E - 30W.

Also read the dish set up section:
DISH SETUP: Single sat, Multi-Sat & Motorised

Welcome to the forum JoJoSully but of course whatever premium channels you decide on you still need to buy a subscription and if you are getting rid of sky Q, you will also need to look at ISP's as well. Unfortunately the situation that was around 10 - 12 years ago is not now there. The advent of digital and increased encryption precludes the 'free' viewing that was available in those days

Welcome to the forum @JoJoSully

I use an enigma2 box for my freesat and freeview channels. I have it connected to my sky dish.

I also use a PC Card/dr hd d15/tm5302 boxes for feed hunting.

Now enigma2 boxes are not for the newbie.

What sort of thing are you really after?

Is it news/sports feeds or regular channels?

The 1000s of channels for £200 sounds very much like illegal card sharing of subscription channels.

For a quick look at some of the other channels available (mostly free) on other satellites and dish size required in the UK take a look at this site - Packages - KingOfSat

Thanks for the replies, I'm after anything but sky hd or the new sky q I would like to have access to european channels possibly american and really any other independent channels that show saturday football and other sports

I'm afraid the US channels will not be available (apart from CNN and similar rebroadcasts to Europe).
I think your best starting bet would be freesat, which is exactly the same dish pointing in the same direction, but with no fee (other than the license fee).

Building on that, you have the options of foreign-language tv (german, french, italian, spanish), all of which can be received with normal-sized dishes but point in different direction compared to the freesat one.

More exotically (if you really need the sports bit), you can try subscription-based services (Viasat, BeIn, etc), but these are not generally available to UK residents. You either need to know someone in the country of origin, or go through shady business connections. Not recommended.

SO, if you are vying for view of "what's out there", a good start would be a multifocus dish pointing at 19.2E and 13E, this will give you loads of foreign-language channels.
However, if you're after the sports - you may get some on the German channels, but else be happy with what's on freesat.

I have a different set of views on this .

Get yourself a 90 cm motorised dish with a half decent box and 90% of your requirements will be there .

American channels on 9e i believe , AFN package that works with keys at the moment , may go down , may not .

Free football on 52e , 3pm's sometimes on other satellites , not HD but watchable .

Foreign sub , easy to get and cheaper than sky if you want Movies ( all in english ) , Factual channels ( all in english ) and sport ( foreign commentary ) , lots of reputable people and businesses sell them , shop around .

also once you have the satellite dish up, a bit of googling will enable you to receive any foreign channel for a fraction of your current cost, but you must use other forums for that kind of infomation, because we are all squeaky clean on here