Freesat set up

[woolybanana]

My daughter who is in Belgium wants to get BBC and other channels via freesat and has asked me to advise, which is a bit like asking Julius Caesar to judge a football game. So, can I just ask for a bit of a knowledge check please?

She would need

1) HD ready TV,

2) dish - can it be any satellite dish or does it have to be a special one?

3) set top box which can either be of the integrated recording facility type or not -what are the best makes please - Humax seems very big but is not the cheapest?

Another question - can she receive terrestrial signals at the same time, ie local Belgian channels which may or may not be on the satellite (not sure)?

Most of the kit is cheaper in UK. Where best for UK delivery, apart from Amazon, svp?

Be grateful for any tips please guys.

[Martin963]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

My daughter who is in Belgium wants to get BBC and other channels via freesat and has asked me to advise, which is a bit like asking Julius Caesar to judge a football game. So, can I just ask for a bit of a knowledge check please?

She would need

1) HD ready TV,

[/quote]

Well that's fine,   but bear in mind that HD ready rarely means that the TV will pick up HD straight out of the box.   See below.    

[quote user="woolybanana"]

2) dish - can it be any satellite dish or does it have to be a special one?

[/quote]

Can be any dish,   but needs une tete universelle   (Universal LNB).    Doubt actually you'd find a non universal,   but avoid a "quattro"  (a dual or quad is fine if she has more than one sat receiver).    Belgium could use a Sky minidish without problems for all the British fare.

[quote user="woolybanana"]

3) set top box which can either be of the integrated recording facility type or not -what are the best makes please - Humax seems very big but is not the cheapest?

[/quote]

Humax and Panasonics have good reputations.    There's been trouble with the non-recording STB's from the Alba/Bush/Grundig range,  but they are cheaper!

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Another question - can she receive terrestrial signals at the same time, ie local Belgian channels which may or may not be on the satellite (not sure)?

[/quote]

Yes,   see this link

http://www.rtbf.be/tv/frequences

for the transmitter network in the French part of Belgium.

So if she has a roof aerial and a good signal a TV with integrated TNT  (ie Freeview) will work,  but with the proviso that I don't know what HD system if any they use in Belgium  and with the further proviso that some TV's bought in Britain may NOT show the EPG or the channel number order correctly  (although they should display the actual programmes!!)

As I say,  what I don't know is which HD system they use in Belgium.   All HD uses MPEG 4 coding but in Britain we use DVB-T2 for the actual HD transmission whereas in France they use the less advanced DVB-T system for HD as well as SD.    This is only relevant if there are terrestrial HD transmissions in Belgium.

I think there's a small belgium pay-TV sat bouquet,   there used to be one free to air amalgam of Belgium TV but I think it went with some cut backs.

Maybe someone knows more about the Belgium situation,   but there's a start.

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Most of the kit is cheaper in UK. Where best for UK delivery, apart from Amazon, svp?

Be grateful for any tips please guys.

[/quote]

[woolybanana]

Thank you very much Martin, very grateful

[Les]

If she doesn't want to record one and watch one at the same time, then there are very reasonable prices on basic freesat boxes. Connect it to a satelite dish pointing at the normal SKY channels. I would still choose a Humax freesat box, but I am biased.

[Jazzer]

I prefer Humax,but Argos have a Bush for under £50.

[krusty]

I bought the Bush one a while ago , no complaints so far . I removed my old sky box , plugged in the Bush box and it set up easy peasy.