With help from this forum I am now, slowly, getting my head around Satellite matters for caravanning. We don't have satellite TV at home so this is VERY NEW to me.
I have now got Maxview 66E dish and tripod set and cable (bought recently from another caravanner) Omnisat satellite finder and compass TV and Scart Lead
All I now need is the satellite receiver.
I am hoping to use our satellite system in the UK and on the Continent (as far south as it can receive a signal with this size of dish)hopefully southern France, northern Spain and northern Italy.
I realise that Freesat is only intended for the UK and so do not plan to get a Freesat box.
If my understanding is correct the 2 other options are a Free-to-air box or a 2nd hand sky box (with/without a Sky card).
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the 2 boxes?
Are Sky boxes locked to one satellite only - can they be altered?
Does anyone have recommendations for brands/models for either type of receiver?
Are the boxes easy to use, ie, would I struggle with a 2nd hand one which if it came without any instructions?
Am I right thinking that I cannot get some UK channels without a Sky Box and viewing card.
As far as I understand - a free to air box will pick up freesat, but without the electronic programme guides. If I am wrong someone will soon correct me.
I think it's a great bit of kit and certainly works really well in the uk. The only issue (if you can call it that) is that as there are so many channels it picks up and stores it took me a while to sort out the favourite ones and move them to a more sensible location in its memory.
The picture quality seems very good although I only have a small tv in the caravan.
I can't see why it wouldn't work in europe, it seems to know about a lot more satellites than Astra and Eurobird.
I have sky at home but didn't go that route because the there are no small footprint receivers. I didn't want to lug a big box around. Also I think the sky card doesn't give you much extra now either. I think it used to be channel 4, 5 and sky 3 (I think), but you can get 4 and 5 on this box so for me anyway it wasn't worth it.
I think the Fortec Star receiver is great for the money and would recommend it to anyone.
As per Stevieg330's post, the recommend of the Fortec is well justified.
If your new to sat TV, I'd suggest a Free-to-Air (FTA) is your best route. 2nd hand Sky receivers can be awkward, because while you can add other 'non-Sky' package free channels, it's awkward and long-winded as they don't have a full search facility.
On the other hand, while the FTA receivers do pick up pretty much anything, I find it easier to delete what you don't want than to to try and find it in the 1st place.
The Freesat receivers work well, but can be limited in what customising you can do.
As a final note, the FTA units are physically considerably smaller too.
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Topic: Which satellite receiver?
