mikeymay Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Has anyone had any experience in getting a Sky and/or digital TV signal in the Loire Valley? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 If by didital you mean terrestrial, yes you can get a picture in some places depending how well secluded you are not but it will be French TV only. If you mean Astra 28 on which most of the English speaking channels, including Sky, Sky Freesat, and freesat are broadcast, you could last year as long as you were able to get a clear line of sight to the South East but there has been another bout of channel 're-allignment' this year so unless someone knows for sure it will be suck it and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxli Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Hi You will certainly receive some channels at the moment depending on dish size and sensitivity of the LNB. I live in Switzerland and need a massive 1.2 metre dish at home to get all the Astra 2 (Sky) channels. This is because Astra are increasingly switching to satellites with narrower beams, to try and make it difficult to receive outside the UK!!! They are doing this on purpose for copyright reasons. It's an affront, when we are supposed to be in the EU and have freedom of movement! You may get acceptable reception for now, but don't be surprised if some channels gradually disappear. See this map of new coverage http://www.ukfree.tv/article/1107052175/Were_you_watching_UK_Free_TV_from_the_Astra_satell Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombies Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 A standard size dish will get UK TV in the Loire. I know its the same in the Dordogne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wills Wagon Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Should have no problems with standard sized dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsie Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 We had no problems watching the Le Man's 24 hr whilst in the Loire on our Camos 40 dome. We only had signal loss when it rained hard and this happens here at home in the UK. Our friends were in the Bergerac area at the same time and were also receiving good pictures. If it makes any difference we both use Sky equipment. Bernie T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Digital terrestrial tv using standard roof aerial generally good and lots of HD channels available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Do Sky boxes work OK on 12 volts dc direct from the battery, with or without a voltage stabiliser, or do you use them with their 230 v ac mains adapter, either ehu or inverter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 In June nthis year I was getting excllent reception of all UK channels in the Loire Valley but on our dome aerial (i.e. small sized dish) we suffered marginal eception (especially in poor weather) on some channels when we went another 200 odd miles south down to the coast near La Rochelle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 It would have been helpful if those who claimed to receive pictures in areas such as the Loire and Dordogne had indicated when they received UK channels. Was it recently or before the satellite changes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombies Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Mike88 - 2015-07-15 9:40 AM It would have been helpful if those who claimed to receive pictures in areas such as the Loire and Dordogne had indicated when they received UK channels. Was it recently or before the satellite changes? Today, everyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombies Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Tracker - 2015-07-15 9:22 AM Do Sky boxes work OK on 12 volts dc direct from the battery, with or without a voltage stabiliser, or do you use them with their 230 v ac mains adapter, either ehu or inverter? You can buy cheap universal 12v boxes on ebay, amazon etc and lidl often have them. sky boxes are direct 240 Maybe okay via an inverter but I'd go for a 12v one. Well, to be honest I wouldn't have one. I use a laptop and mobile data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBW Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 In Sept 2014 I lost most of Sky channels down near Montpelior. In May this year, 2015, Same place I could not receive any Sky channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weldted Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 As of the 16th July, 25 miles southwest of Limoges, edge of the Haute Vienne using a 85cm dish fixed to the side of our cottage with a twin lnb, one output to Sky Box, All free to air channels as when in the UK, lost bbc when heavy rain. One output to a Humax free to air box same channels but again effected by heavy rain. Took Motorhome down to Homps on the Canal Du Midi no BBC, Itv during the day and some night but true movies etc Sky 321,2,3,6. 183,4,5 and a few others ok. Hope this info helps. MH fitted with Oyster 85cm Auto dish with high gain lnb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retread24800 Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Should be OK that far North. Bit Chilly though?I haunt the area between Limoges and Perigueux. I receive freesat on a smart Samsung TV, I also have a Humax hooked up elsewhere to the same 85 cm dish and that works too. Had to change from a 60cm dish when the signal faded in other than blue sky conditions and even then the weaker signals often failed or were very pixillated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 there's nowt so queer as folk :-S Best to stop in the UK and watch all the telly you want. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul M Who Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Seriously! You people actually spend money on satellite technology so you can watch some of the worst Television in the world. And complain when you can’t receive it!Dozens of Freeview channels that pump out utter rubbish.And the BBC that shows the same programs night after night Ad Infinitum.Time to get a life people.Me I take all my favourite Movies, Documentaries and TV series on Memory Stick and watch quality, rather than complain about not being able to watch 2nd and 3rd rate TV. As for news I use the internet for that. It’s far more comprehensive than 10sec grabs and you can get the back story and in-depth analysis from a wider cross section of media. I sit and chuckle at every camping ground and aire we stay at when the first thing new arrivals do as soon as they park, before they connect anything or level up, the rooftop dish is searching for a signal or there they are out there with the tripod/dish trying to find a clear piece of sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeymay Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 Thanks all for your replies. All very helpful except for Paul M who.....If you don't have anything useful to say then don't bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiesgrandad Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 We are in the Lot valley, near Cahor, which is about midway between Toulouse and Bordeaux , and we've been here since March this year. One of the first things I did was to set up the 80cm dish on a tripod from the van in the garden, and using my Easyfind kit was able to set it up and until a few weeks ago we used it to provide a signal for the house tv, and I swapped from the Easyfind box to our normal Sky+ HD box, and substituting a twin lnb for the Easyfind. We were able to receive all of our normal Sky channels until the subscription ran out. The signal seemed very good, but bad weather to the south of us, ie over the Pyrenees, would cause the signal to break up. I have now mounted a 1metre dish on the barn wall and having used the Easyfind kit to set it up, we are now using the Sky+HD box and twin lnb and it's all working fine. So far we have experienced no breakup of the signal during the recent storms. We only get the usual free channels, but we do seem to get them all. Our big dilemma now is to decide whether to to pay for a dodgy Sky subscription through one of those proxy guys, or get a possibly more legitimate subscription via the internet, or try to convince CG that there is no reasonable way to get more, but I suspect she won't settle for anything less than all the junk yank channels. C'est la vie as we say in France, but the Brummie accent kinda spoils it a bit. AGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Cup Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 A couple of hours south of Cahors a 60cm dish is hopeless most of the time, with the occasional clear picture at odd times. I do wonder if my Sky Now box will work abroad, or will it be out of region. I'll have to take it with me next time. Has anyone tried? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsie Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Zombies, You mention in your post a few days ago that the Sky decoders are 240 volt. Wrong, we have a 12 volt Pace Sky decoder. I bought ours in 2004 . It has been totally used on unregulated 12 volts, often when checking the voltage the display has shown voltages as high as 14.6 with no problems. We have a full Sky card run in conjunction with the home one. A couple of years ago I did buy another Pace 12 volt Sky decoder I saw advertised in the Motorcaravanners magazine, I think I gave £70 for it. I bought it as a spare in case my original packed up. At the moment I have it in my ' man cave ' working without a card. Bernie T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiesgrandad Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Hi Teacup, In our experience the Sky box works anywhere that you can connect it to the Astra satellite, which certainly means pretty well all of Europe. It's the dish size that's the problem since they tightened up the beams, that's why we have an 80cm dish for the van, and a 1metre dish at home. I wouldn't think it would be practical to carry a dish bigger than 80cm on the van, and because we've spent the last 18,months reassembling this pile of stones we haven't actually taken a holiday so I don't know how far south we can go and still get a signal with our 80cm dish, but very soon we will be able to take a break, and I don't plan on travelling north! AGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Cup Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Archiesgrandad - 2015-07-31 5:45 PMHi Teacup,In our experience the Sky box works anywhere that you can connect it to the Astra satellite, which certainly means pretty well all of Europe. It's the dish size that's the problem since they tightened up the beams, that's why we have an 80cm dish for the van, and a 1metre dish at home. I wouldn't think it would be practical to carry a dish bigger than 80cm on the van, and because we've spent the last 18,months reassembling this pile of stones we haven't actually taken a holiday so I don't know how far south we can go and still get a signal with our 80cm dish, but very soon we will be able to take a break, and I don't plan on travelling north!AGDWhat I was talking about is the Sky NOW box which is a media streaming device based on something called a Roku, so that as long as you have a wifi signal you can stream the programme to either a TV or a laptop or tablet. The only problem as I understand it is that it is a regional device, but I understand that if you can tell it that you are still in England it will work. It's this latter stage that I have a problem, since the app I downloaded doesn't work on my laptop. I was wondering if it would work anyway in Europe. I hope that makes sense, I'm not sure it does to me, having re read it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombies Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 dipsie - 2015-07-29 7:56 PM Zombies, You mention in your post a few days ago that the Sky decoders are 240 volt. Wrong, we have a 12 volt Pace Sky decoder. I bought ours in 2004 . It has been totally used on unregulated 12 volts, often when checking the voltage the display has shown voltages as high as 14.6 with no problems. We have a full Sky card run in conjunction with the home one. A couple of years ago I did buy another Pace 12 volt Sky decoder I saw advertised in the Motorcaravanners magazine, I think I gave £70 for it. I bought it as a spare in case my original packed up. At the moment I have it in my ' man cave ' working without a card. Bernie T. Aren't you clever. I bet you couldn't wait. The ones nowadays are 240 which I am referring to. I too had a 12v one years ago before I got a life worrying about what's on tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombies Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Tea Cup - 2015-07-31 8:16 PMArchiesgrandad - 2015-07-31 5:45 PMHi Teacup,In our experience the Sky box works anywhere that you can connect it to the Astra satellite, which certainly means pretty well all of Europe. It's the dish size that's the problem since they tightened up the beams, that's why we have an 80cm dish for the van, and a 1metre dish at home. I wouldn't think it would be practical to carry a dish bigger than 80cm on the van, and because we've spent the last 18,months reassembling this pile of stones we haven't actually taken a holiday so I don't know how far south we can go and still get a signal with our 80cm dish, but very soon we will be able to take a break, and I don't plan on travelling north!AGDWhat I was talking about is the Sky NOW box which is a media streaming device based on something called a Roku, so that as long as you have a wifi signal you can stream the programme to either a TV or a laptop or tablet. The only problem as I understand it is that it is a regional device, but I understand that if you can tell it that you are still in England it will work. It's this latter stage that I have a problem, since the app I downloaded doesn't work on my laptop. I was wondering if it would work anyway in Europe. I hope that makes sense, I'm not sure it does to me, having re read it!If you know how you can change your ip address to make the software or sky think you are in the UK to allow it to stream but why go to the trouble. Just get a stream of what you want to watch via the Web and save all the hassle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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