General help and advice required!

[yiannis75]

Originally Posted by zin

He should be getting BBC and ITV directly with a 4.2m dish, in fact if I paid 7000 euros I'd expect a butler with that to change the channels for me.

We don't get ITV through the epg. I think ITV london is on Astra 1d satellite which I don't think you can pick up without going to other channels.

But we have never had perfect viewing on these channels, we have tried various Sky boxes some better than others, have had several engineers come out with their spectrum analysers etc but whatever they do I still do not get uninterrupted viewing. We have even tried a dreambox and that was the worst of the lot.

In Limassol I had a 2.4m dish and never received BBC or ITV in any way, shape or form. Then with a 3m dish it was much better but in the end it took a 3.8m dish to receive it consistently. That doesn't mean it didn't ever break up but I would say probably 98% of the time it was good. I have been told the further towards Paralimni you go the bigger the dish you need and the smaller dish is required the further towards Paphos you go.

[yiannis75]

Originally Posted by winasdqwe

Should give some help and advice

Have just been reading up on some satellite forums and apparently since a new satellite was launched called Badr which I think is a Pakistani satellite it has caused interference with certain channels and BBC is one of those.

Also read something about a new Astra N satellite which has a narrower beam over the UK and will probably be bad news for dish installations as those channels moving to the new Astra N sat will probably be very hard to receive here in Cyprus.

[Veronica]

We have a VU+ Solo box which works from our satellite and internet.
We have had no problems with it except when there is rain coming which is the same as we always had with our sky boxes.
We have two of these boxes and for about 300euros per box yearly subscription we get the full sky package as well as all of the normal ITV BBC and freeview channels.

[yiannis75]

Originally Posted by Veronica

We have a VU+ Solo box which works from our satellite and internet.
We have had no problems with it except when there is rain coming which is the same as we always had with our sky boxes.
We have two of these boxes and for about 300euros per box yearly subscription we get the full sky package as well as all of the normal ITV BBC and freeview channels.

That's like a dreambox is it? It basically hacks the encryption of SKY and someone is rebroadcasting the channels from a server. Technically its illegal and if the servers are found your subscription will be gone as will your money. I have also heard of several users being raided by the police!

A subscription for the full sky package without HD is over £500/year so it has to be something like this. My father has a similar box known as the technomate/dreambox, but for him in Oroklini its awful. Much worse than his old, but excellent Pace 2600 box which is very good at pulling in a fringe signal, he is reverting back to this. Paphos is much better for picking up fringe signal don't know why, but generally people used to be able to pull in all channels with a 2.7m dish!

Lots of solutions out there, you just have to go with what works best for you! However with the new satellites like Astra 1N with many more to come its up in the air what channels we will be able to receive in Cyprus very soon.

Might be time to start watching Cypriot TV

[fluff202]

Hi , We are in Limassol , with a 3.2 dish , we get BBC till about 8.30 pm here , comes back about 10pm , also channel 4 is the same , Simon the sky man put a patch on the dish (rubber mat ) which means we get BBC for longer periods , but we can watch it live from our computer hooked up to theTV ! As long as you have on speed or expat shield downloaded , you can get iplayer and itvplayer . Hope this helps .

[burnie]

Wow, so many responses! Very helpful.

I half expected to be laughed at for worrying about something like TV channels but it seems it is an important subject for a lot of you which is good.

To give you all an update, I'm meeting with my future employers in January and my wife will be coming out with me. We'll take that chance to have a good look around.

Have done loads of research and will continue to do so.

Thanks again for all of your resonses