humax freesat.

Hi.Help please.My property is near Xativa /Gandia .I have a 1.2 dish with 2 LNBs1 set to Nilesat the other to Astra/Eurobird.I took out a Humax HD freesat box to hopefully pick up BBC or ITV but no luck I just get No or Poor signal.I now pick up Channel 4HD perfectly.Question 1 Is there anything I can do to pick up these channels.Question 2 How can I switch to Nilesat through the DiscQ thingy.As I am in the mountains and my dish is bolted to a large tree its not possible to increse the size of the dish.Question 3 Do LNBs "Go off" with age as mine are probably over 3 years old.Sorry for the long message but its very frustrating as my TV/Sat man has now left the area Thanks for any help.

 Shaqme you cant incresae dish size as you need a 1.9 meter dish or maybe they do a signal booster for sat tv

No matter what receiver you want, the reception of BBC / ITV is basically down to the size of dish you have. There is no "booster" that will do the job, the dish is just too small to receive the signals...how can you boost something that is not there! Either a 1.8m doish or ideally a 2.4m dish is required for decent BBC1,2,itv1,2,3,4 reception - yet even with a 2.4m dish you will not get Channel 5 past 6pm on Freesat.

Using a 1.2m dish and getting a Humax will not work for reeption of most of the main UK TV channels on Freesat. As you have found out, the only difference is that you now have C4HD. (although you will have lost channels if you were using a Sky box and freesatfromsky card!). A sky box with no sky card gets the same channels as a Freesat box, or a generic free to air box. Channels on Freesat use the same frequencies as channels on the sky box.

I do not think it is possible to get both Nilesat and Astra 2 on the same dish - as they is over 30 degrees difference between the two, which is too great for a single dish to receive both at the same time - Astra 2 at 28 east and Nilesat is at 7 West. For both Nilesat and Astra 2 you will need TWO dishes. Perhaps you mean Badr which is at 26 east? Or your dish is on a motor? Either way - a installed dish on a tree is not ideal.

I think you can use the Humax to use a disec option, but it means the loss of the Freesat options, as you have to put the Freesat box into Non freesat mode, and play around with the settings.

To access the hidden menu for diseqc settings and usals on a Huamx Freeast box : Press Menu Setup Freesat tune then press
Red Button Green Button Yellow Button Blue Button Green Button Yellow Button Blue Button Then the Antenna settings option should appear and you can play with them and set up your disec options.

Yes LNBs do go off. They especially do not like heat, and do start to noticably degrade in performance after about 3 or so years.

I live in Gandia and operate in your area and have done for the last 8 years or so....give me a call or drop me an email if you want more information....

You seem to know what you are talking about but surely a smaller dish will recieve signals just not enough of it

I have sent a link for josdad for something which does not exist i suppose at under a fiver might be worth a go

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Satellite-Signal-Amplifier-Booster-electrosmart/dp/B003S5LBVQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314259428&sr=8-1

The "boosters" will boost the signal that the dish can receive...but only if the dish is receiving enough of the signal in the first place for threeceivers to make sense of it all...and sometimes puttingthose boosters (or inline amplifers) on actually make other channels stronger, yet can have an advese affect on the ones you are tryting to get!.

Yes the 1.2m dish will receive some BBC signals...from about 6am until 12noon if you are very very lucky. After 12noon is it simply a case of the dish just not being big enough to receive enopugh of a decent signal to produce a coherante data flow for the receivers to produce a decent picture. no amount of amplification will help. if the dish is only able to receive 10% of the signal...then a booster cannot magically produce the missing 90% of the signal that is required...the digiboxes need enough of the signal for it to produce pictures. Even the 1.8s sometimes struggle with the low signals at around 10pm-2am...and no amount of boosting helps them either.

If the boosters you mention did work, then eveyone would be supplying the 1.2mdishes with them...but the fact is that the 1.2m dishes in the area in question will not provide a decent enough signal for BBC and ITVs channesl on Freesat...with or without booster.

 I know the boosters / inline amplifers exist. Theya re sometiems used on long cable runs. But there is not one that will get BBC / ITV / Astra 2d signals on a 1.2m dish in the area in question. It is simply an issue with the dish size and locaiton. Now if the OP was about 50-70kms north of valencia then the dish may be OK...but not where the OP is located.

It may cost less than a fiver to try the booster / amplifer you mention, but it will be a fiver wasted. It will not magically produce the signals the OP requries.

Hi.Thanks for your reply.We were definately recieving Nilesat on our old FTA box as we used to watch Dubai one films and we have 2 LNBs on our dish.I think the answer is to get the Sat and PC guy out when we are next there in October to discuss our options.the reason for the tree mount is that we live in 3 acres of pine forest in a dip in the mountain and  the only place the sat guy could get a signal was about 60 metres from the house up the hill. allthough I have upgraded the cable to 125 to compensate for the long run,this may be one of the problems.I did take out a Pace Sky box and Sky freesat card but it didnt work there.Out of curiosity if I took my Sky box and card from home would I recieve the same channels.Thanks once again.Mike

If your dish is pointing tot he UK TV satellites at 28 east, then there is no way it can also be getting Nilesat at 7 West...the degree of difference bewteen the two satellites (over 35 degrees) is too great for one dish! I suspect you have one dish with an LNB for AStra 28 and 1 for Badr at 26 . BAdr and Nilesat carry almost the same channels...both carry Dubai One...

As long as the dish is pointing towards Astra 28, then your sky box will work. As will your sky card, be it a freesatfromsky card or Sky subscription card. But your availability of channels will be limited by the dish size - so you will not getthe saame channels on it as you do in the UK...but you will get most of them.

contact me off board - my details are available via the link at the bottom of this post - and we can arrange a time to visit and have a look and see what we can do for you.

Can anyone help.  

I have just brought a HUMAX FOXSAT 500GB HD receiver out from UK.  I have been using this in the UK for about 18 months OK.  In trying to set it up in Spain I am alright with non-FreeSAT stations but for some reason I cannot get the FreeSAT to tune.  

I have tried several post codes but each time in "verifying postcode" I get the message back "Invalid Postcode. Please check your postcode". I have tried tricking the system by deleting the last letter of postcode, then pressing back which restores the postcode, but avoids the "verifying postcode". I have then done search but everytime "no channels" are found.  I have noticed that whatever postcode I insert the transponder frequency remains unaltered which suggests this is my problem.  I have used RGYBGYB to go to the hidden menu to change the transponder frequency but the FreeSAT transponder search freq remains unaltered.

Unfortunately I am thinking I may have to do a factory reset to solve the problem which will delete all the programmes I have recorded. Will this be successful or does anyone know any other way to solve the problem.

Thanks.

you have to ensure you are inputting the post code in correctly.

One of the common errors is putting a Spanish postcode rather than a UK postcode.

Also, inputting a "_" (1) rather than a space (0) in the postcode.

You cannot change the Freesat "transponder" as the freesat data used for their EPG and postcode verification is only on that one transponder.

Changing the postcode will not change the "freesat" stransponder.

Chagning the postcode only changes which BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, C4 and Five regions you get on 101,102,103,104 and 105. The freesat box will use whichever of the 100+ frequencies it needs to use for the channel you have selected to watch.

 Thanks satandpcguy

Since the box was already working in the UK with its postcode I thought it should have been OK out in Spain. I have tried various postcodes, all input correctly, and get same invalid postcode messages.

Not sure what to do next as I think trying a factory reset will still give me the same postcode problem.

 We brought out humax freesat like yours. Made sure our dish was lined up correctly, input our UK post and it tuned in loads of channels without a problem. We are south of Torrevieja on a 100 cm dish.

Do you currently have channels in your Freesat EPG?

Have you EVER had channels in your Freesat EPG?

I have just tried on my box running the wizard again, inputting a failed postcode, yet the previous EPG data is still there.

So, do the channels that you get in Non freesat mode (ie the BBCs) work in Freesat mode?

If channels are already loaded into the Freesat EPG, then you should get those channels without having to change postcodes, assumin gyour dish i big enough for where you are to receive those channels, and the dish is aligned properly.

So...

If you can get into non freesat mode scan frequency 11426.00 H 27500 2/3 - the freesat transponder, and see if ytou get the channels on that frequency - like Freesat Info and Rdaio Caroline. If you don then you have a signal problem - if you dont get that signal then the Freesat guide cannopt laod up, so the box iwll not go past the postcode validation. If you do get those channels, then there is no signal problem and there should be no reasons as to why your box is not validaing the postcode - again assuming you have input it correctly.

Question to the satandpcguy, we're planning to move out to spain next spring and I was wondering if its better to bring out a freesat box or get one installed, if necessary?  We'll be about 40 mins north east of Malaga so I'm not sure you cover that area but if you don't maybe you would know someone that does and when the time comes I could get in touch.

Thanks

Louise

If you can get a Freesat box in the uK then get one, as they do tend to be cheaper in the UK than in Spain.

The channels it will receive will all depend on the size of dish you have.

But bare in mind that over the next year or so 3 of the current UK TV Astra satellites are scheduled to be replaced, and it is likely that reception of channels / frequencies / beams will differ to what it is like today.

As I am based near VAlencia, I do not acrually cover that area, and sorry but I dont know of anyone that i would recommend in that area.

Ok thanks for that!  I'm sure there will be an English team that cover the Costa's and surround.  I think I've been told before that you need a big dish so will make sure we have one on the advice of someone who knows!

Thanks again

 All is well with my HUMAX FOXSAT box today may have just needed to bed down after travelling.  

Watching news on non-Freesat this morning and thought I would have another go at Freesat.  Did not touch postcode at all, system just proceeded to verify postcode successfully, then search has pulled up all the Freesat stations so I now have full EPG functionality. The oddity of computer driven systems?

We bought our HUMAX FOXSAT box in UK and have used it there for 18 months.  We are about 15 mins South of Malaga. We are connected to a community satellite system with large dishes for different nationalities with distribution through the complex. I have a single cable from satellite system which I have connected to "LNB1 in".  I have a short cable linking the "LNB1 out"  to the "LNB2 in". Despite initial teething problems, see thread, the EPG is fully operational so I can plan and record programmes including series. I can now record one programme and watch another or a previously recorded programme from media. I may think about connecting another cable from the community satellite system in slower time and also investigate whether I can can some other channels from other countries - especially for sport.

Thanks.

 Correction: Will let me record programme whilst watching another on media.

Hi Jack

Apologies for late reply, only just read your msg.

A full list of freesat channels are available on the internet.  We also have humax box in UK and get same freesat channels in Spain as in the UK including HD channels.

BBC 1, 2,3,4 and HD. ITV 1,2,3 and ITV 1 HD. Ch 4, ch 5. E4, More4, 4seven, 5 usa, 5*, CBS drama, CBS reality, CBS Action, horror. M&MOVIES, Film.4, TrueMov, Movies4Men, plus news, kids, shopping, radio, plus all +1 channels are available.

Hope this helps your decision.  

I have been using my humax HD freesat box for over 2 years. I have only just discovered that I can connect it to the internet to get BBCi player and ITV player. Whilst I can watch ITV player, the BBCi player allows me to choose the program but when I ask it to start its does not allow me to. Anyone had the same problem or found a solution?

I also noticed that when the humax box was connected to the tv via a skart cable it was unwatcable because of buffering, however when I connect it via a hdmi cable there was no noticable buffering.

you need a UK IP address/ vpn to make your iplayer in spain work.

it sees that your IP address is from Spain, so it blocks content.

connecting a box via scart or HDMI should really have no impact on the speed of delivery via the internet  - thats two seperate components.