Communal Dishes

Hi Mark

We are on the same development as Gina. We have 2 aerial sockets, one terrestrial, one sky. We have only used the terrestrial one so far & have not yet subscribed to sky as we are not keen on paying a monthly fee when we are not in Spain full time. We plan to look into thre sky card you have talked about, so would be interested to know how it worked out it over xmas? Did you use the normal ariel socket?

We plan to really find out how the TV works & set up the DVD on our visit next week then consider sky later.

Thanks to everyone who has posted info on this issue, had no idea Sky was not legal in Spain (or have I misunderstood?)

Eileen

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I assume you have the double socket, one for TV and one for satellite? If so, there is (apparently) normally nothing attached to the socket on the other side!! The installers told us that it is only really a feed for radio anyway. As we are top floor, the installation was easy with the cable coming down the front and in through the normal ducting for the apartment and the other end of the cable coming in through a blank socket in the wall (happily next to the TV ).

To receive UK television, you will need a box of some kind. It doesn't have to be Sky, but capable of picking up the Astra range of satellites. You can then pick up BBC1, BBC2, ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 3, BBC Three, BBC Four and others as they are free to air. To receive the other channels, Channel 4, Channel 5 which are free to view and some of the Sky channels however, you will need a box capable of accepting and decoding the Sky card.

We couldn't get installed before Christmas unfortunately, so had to make do with BBC World News and my Son's PS2 .

When you buy your Sky card, the terms and conditions state many times that it can only be used within the UK. You will need to activate the card in a box in the UK before taking it to Spain unless you withold your number when ringing and can give a UK address. Wherever the card is registered/ activated will depend on what region of BBC and ITV you get as a default (although all of the BBC regions are available separately in the planner). You cannot pay a monthly subscription for Sky from a Spanish bank account, although you can continue to pay it from a UK bank as Sky do not officially have a remit to broadcast outside of the UK. Watching Sky in Spain is a bit like listening to Radio Caroline all those years ago  .

The other minor problem is that after a power cut of any kind, you need to set the digibox to look in the right direction for the satellite, but that only takes seconds.

We got all the channels we expected, except for Channel 4, but Channel 4+1 was able to be received.

As the dish had already been purchased by someone else, it was just a case of hooking in another feed as most dishes allow four connections to them, the 8 connectors are not very reliable apparently. Protocol says that you approach the person that owns the dish and pay them some money for your connection (around 50- 100€), but as yet, we haven't been able to find who owns the dish we plugged into. the installer left a tag on the cable giving our contact details if anyone needed to know. To run a cable from dish to box cost 60€ and the job was done in less than an hour.

HTH

Mark

 

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Thanks Mark

We do have a double socket & have already used the TV socket to link up, had no problems in getting Spanish channels - good way to learn Spanish  From what I have picked up from those who have installed satellite, there is a link behind a panel in the kitchen. We shall investigate further tomorrow when we fly out.

Thanks again for your help.

Eilen

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some of you may be interested to know that you can now get sky tv in Spain LEGALLY.

Your standard UK sky digibox will work here and you can get the full packages avaliable in the UK.

Sky Plus and HD are also avaliable.

Unfortunately as usual there is a catch,you have to pay UK prices for the Packages!!!!!

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My standard 10 year old Panasonic digibox works fine in Almeria .

Has something changed with Sky's broadcasting license then? It has always been available in Spain but the viewing cards have had to be registered to a UK address. The Sky shop down the road in Puerto Rey (very expensive) were selling HD, but don't forget, Sky+ needs two feeds from the dish to work correctly i.e watch one and record another. If all four feeds are used up, you have wasted your money as you will only be able to record the channel you are watching.

Mark

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We had a guy in the shop yesterday who was an agent for Astrosat(German company).

He assured me that you can get it all and have your card registered to you spanish address.

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Hi

Like others I have been told that Sky is not authorised for official use in Spain, yet you can use a digibox and card if it is registered to a UK address.  But obviously that can become messy if you have any problems.

Can anyone clarify the current situation as I am intending to fit a dish and take my digibox to the house in March.  or indeed what is the best set up for TV in Spain.  Many thanks

Tim

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I was out in Spain the other week and was listening to Mojacar FM. There is a well known satellite installer/ provider in the locality that advertises himself as a Sky approved installer. I am sorry, but that is a bit of a grey area. He may well have been a Sky installer in the UK, but there is no such thing in Spain as it is out of their jurisdiction. Yes, you can use any satellite decoder to receive the free channels from any of the Astra satellites, but not officially to receive any encoded Sky signals. This well known installer provides cards "officially" for customers that are registered to a UK address. If it was okay to have them registered in Spain, surely that is where they would be registered? Someone on our resort that paid subs by credit card had his subscription cancelled because his credit card expired. Instead of contacting the person for his new card details, he was told it would cost €250 to reinstate as the card was abroad and it would have to be sent back to the UK for re- activation.

A question asked on the Sky customer service website:

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We will be taking over our South facing holiday home Town House, approximately 100 kms north of Malaga in June/July this year.  We have a spare sky box, a
LNB, a 80cms dish and a satellite finder.

Will my 80 cm dish be large enough to get a signal?   Do I bring a TV  out from England which is course on the Pal system, or do I buy in Spain?  

Can we watch Spanish TV, a good way to learn the language and also watch Sky TV through the same aerial and TV set? 

The Developers specification states wired for satellite TV in lounge and master bedroom.  We use an electronic radio/tv transmission unit to send programs from our lounge to our bedroom TV at home

How much does it cost  to get a sky viewing card for  use in Spain?

 Can I use Sky broad band in Spain provided I pay for this service in England and I take my UK viewing card out from England  when on holiday?

The local Council appear to be quite fussy, am I likely experience problems from them when installing my dish?

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Can anyone clarify as long as you have paid for the connection on a communal Astra satellite you can still pick up the free to air channels without the need for a digibox. Also is the Channel 4 and 5 to be added soon I have read this somewhere.

Many thanks

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If you are connecting to a dish, you will need a receiver of some sort, you cannot plug it into the back of your TV. Any satellite decoder will do, doesn't have to be a Sky box, you just need to ensure your boox is looking for the correct frequency.

At the moment, you need a Sky card to decode C4 and C5 as they are free to view, but not free to air. Some time later this year, it is said they will become available to view free to air, therefore no card required.

Mark

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Mark

We have got Sky Freeview in SPain & don't have a card or any type of subscription but we can get Channel 4.

It is not on the usual list of channels but the installation guys talked us through how to access it. Can't remember offhand how to do it but if I think of it next weekend, I will look up the instructions & let you know.

Regards

Noreen

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We can't get C4 up at Resort even with a card, but we can get C4+1!!! How odd is that .

Mark

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How to get Channel 4 with out a sky card.

If you can receive E4 and More4 then you can follow this procedure and get C4 on a KSy box with out using a Sky Card

Services
4
4
10729
V
22.0
5/6
Find Channels
Navigate to 8350 and press Yellow (should put a tick next to the channel)
Press Select

You have now added C4 to your OTHER CHANNELS lists available via the services button
Any C4 or C4+1 using skys channels number (104, 135,993 or 994) still require a Sky catrd to view. This "secret" C4 is the channel used by the new Freesat recivers - who currently do not have access to a C4+1 or C4HD as these are still bound by the C4 / Sky contract
Note there is no EPG programme info, and again only available if you can get E4.

Hope this helps


This message was last edited by satandpcguy on 6/6/2008.

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That's handy to know, thanks very much.

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and if you can get C4+1, but not E4, you can get your Big Brother live streaming by

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Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh Big Brother .

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Thanks for info everyone it helps a lot.

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Hi Everyone

This question has been asked many times and I am still confused.

I have decided to purchase a Pace DS445n Sky receiver and I notice that there is a 'UK ' only model and a 'Unsubsidised' version which is about £50.00 more expensive.which is meant to be used abroad. Will the 'UK only' model work in Spain whether or not I activate the viewing card? 

And are the satellite connections in Spain the same? 

Many thanks

Paul

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I would imagine that it will be okay to use but am not certain. Ask the shop if you are able to manually change the frequency. If it is Sky branded (no matter what make), it is supposedly only any good in the UK, but will work outside the boundaries.You can pick up 2nd hand Sky boxes dirt cheap on  places like eBay (always worth a punt).

Connections to the back of the box are generally the same, a connector screwed to a piece of coax which is then inserted to the box.

Mark

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