LIDL portable Digital Satelite System

savemejebus

next thursday, details here

Asok

damn that looks pretty cool

halkar

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Me want one. I'll camp out Lidl:D

legend99

What will one be able to get with it? I don't see a slot to put in a card?

Is it worth buying for a holiday home near the coast with crap TV reception on all channels?!!!

How hard would it be to fix in place on a permanent basis on the roof of me bungalow?!

DMC

/me thanks the lord its not today.

po0k

anyone else have any more information on this?
I'd consider geting the mother to procure one.
We generally swap houses for a week or two over the summer with people from around europe, so having satellite TV might be nice for them.

Asok

Originally posted by SyxPak
anyone else have any more information on this?
I'd consider geting the mother to procure one.
We generally swap houses for a week or two over the summer with people from around europe, so having satellite TV might be nice for them.

Ah now john I would have thought a dedicated tech monkey like you would go for a nice big 1m dish fully motorised and a good decoder,cam,card setup :P

BrianD

Can you get Romanian TV with this?
16 deg east I believe

eoinm1

It seem to be alright for 100 euro.

I think I might get one.

watty

Originally posted by legend99
What will one be able to get with it? I don't see a slot to put in a card?

Is it worth buying for a holiday home near the coast with crap TV reception on all channels?!!!

How hard would it be to fix in place on a permanent basis on the roof of me bungalow?!

Even if it did have a card slot it wouldn't work with a Sky card.

I wonder what size dish is?

If it any smaller than 70cm, then here in Ireland it will be most use for Sky FTA / BBC on 28.2E

If any smaller than 60cm it may not be reliable in rain toward the West / Midlands/Nort of Ireland, except on BBC 2D which is actually stronger here than east coast of England, as it is a spot on British Isles angled toward Iceland.
(Iceland gets 2D much better than 2A/2B/Eurobird).

A FTA Palcom DSL4 is cheaper and better (perhaps), but is mains only, this may be 12V DC, there is a related model to Palcom that is 12V. Also this *SEEMS* to include LNB & Dish which is 80 EUR to 100 EUR for a 90cm size, but cheaper for 45cm or 65cm Sky sizes.

You won't get Sky1, RTE, UKTV, etc on it. But it will do all the BBC channels.

watty

Originally posted by BrianD
Can you get Romanian TV with this?
16 deg east I believe

do you mean West? I get Prima1 as only channel out west someplace, next west past Telstar 12 @ 15W. Lots of English programming.

I imagine dish too small.

legend99

Thanks Watty? Listen, am way down in West Cork so what would be the best thing to do. Would that be a waste of 100 notes really?

Any advice to what to do to get a few channels for the rainy days would be great,esp for the kids!

Can't get Sky as no phone line and not willing to get a phone line for a holiday house just for the TV. No RTE reception in the area.....blocked in by hills etc.

Medium reception of SouthCoast relay of the big four English channels is all we have.


Now I know no matter what I can only get RTE off either a Sky Subs or aerial reception so thats out.

So going with the FTA on satelitte how much would that cost to set up and is it worth it, or is this Lidl thing an option for the sake of 100 notes?
Thanks boyo!!!!

watty

1) You *CAN* get Sky without a phone
2) If you do have sky that needs a phone at home, it will happily plug into an alternate dish+LNB (not even Sky type needed) for a few weeks or longer without phone at Caravan, cottage etc.

If you can afford the 200 Euro a full size FTA from the usual sources is better for a fixed location. Esp. if you spend another 100 Euro on a motor and get THIRTY satelltes.

If you want something that just gets Sky / BBC FTA, portable etc, or alternately some of the stronger channels on 13e, 19E AND 30w then the Lidl may be good value. The dish will likely be too small for 42e, 36e, 5e, 1w, 15w etc.


Don't forget if you have a fixed cottage/caravan, with a 2nd Dish / LNB on it, then simply moving *ANY* satellite reciever from home to holidy home is as easity as a VCR with SCART cable, once the initial install is done.

Tony

Originally posted by legend99
. Would that be a waste of 100 notes really?

!!

hardly as you could always buy another dish if the supplied one is not suitable, looks like a fair deal to me.

Tony

Marty

Lidl have confirmed the dish size is 41.5cm in diameter.

watty

That is smaller than Zone1 Sky.

Most of Ireland needs the larger zone2 sky.


"perfectly" aligned in totally clear weather it will work.

Expect pixellation in light rain and frozen pictures / signal loss in moderate rain.

Note that the Sky Zone1 and Zone2 are already as small as possible and not quite big enough for wet conditons to save Sky as much money as possible, and make dish as unobtrusive as possible.


On the positive side, the smaller a dish, the less critical pointing it is, it is MUCH MUCH easier to find a Satellite with a 41.5cm dish than a 90cm dish.

For a fixed caravan / cottage / mobile home etc, definately buy an alternate 65cm to 90cm dish.

I use 80/90 cm dish with Sky and thus only once lost signal due to rain. (it was exceptional rain with flooding withing 15 minutes, and street lights came on as it got so dark!).

DMC

Even so with the size of the dish, the receiver seems good.

Darren

This is real good value if the the receiver has a flexible symbol rate. Most dig systems do, Sky doesn't. If it does and you have a 80 or 90cm dish this opens up the poss of Sat 330pm premiership on TV sport ro, MBC2 and the one on 16E (can't remember the name).



...............Top Channel, that's it

IronMan

Would it be possible to pick up some high quality european adult entertainment with this modestly priced piece of kit?

watty

You can even do that with a Sky box pointed at 19E FTA German / Austrian channels at night..

It probabily won't take viewing cards.

Depends what you mean by "High Quality" and "Adult"

If you mean BBC2, BBC4, BR Alpha, DW TV, yes.

If you mean "Juvenile smut", probabily only the FTA variety. Most of which *CAN* be got on any Satellite receiver inc Digibox if pointed at the appropriate satellite.

EKRIUQ

As this is a digital system, could I get FTA channels from other satellites ie Hispat ans eurobird.

Darren

Yes, If you have a big enough dish.

Greenman

99 E's seems like a great price, it was 129 E here and is 119 E in Holland.
Its a long time since I saw something cheaper in the ROI LIDL than here!!!
I'll be interested to read the queue stories and how quick it sold out.

Can you get Romanian TV with this?
16 deg east I believe

If you get the signal then that little baby will show it, also that RTE type Albanian channel Top Channel a great footie in the weekend station, Do as I do turn the sound down and listen to the Five Live commentary,

Tony_ire

I'm thinking about getting this to mainly use it for radio, and i just want to check a few things first.
Can anybody say if it will be able to pick up all of the radio stations that are on Sky at the moment? Or the rest of the FTA channels like Sky News, ITV News, ChartshowTV, The Vault, etc.?

egal

Will it work off mains electricity?

Capt'n Midnight

Only 41.5cm - so there is no need for anyone to buy one - nothing to see, move along there folks (especially not from the Lucan store, before I get back from work )

The picture on the flyer is better than on the web - they also throw in a good length of cable , it's got two scart sockets, carry case , what looks like a compas .

The receiver says "free to air" - so unlikley to have a cam

I take it the 256 colours means 256 for each of R G and B

NO IT WILL NOT WORK OFF MAINS - 12V/24V

No idea how much current it uses so no idea if the Argos power supplies would work - LIDL energy station only puts out 1A - probably not enough as LNB alone would take a good chunk of this (don't forget at 18V you'd use extra current to make up the voltage )

seano

here is a link to a DIY store who is trying to break into the market with their professionel installers...check out the LNB

http://www.gamma.com/elements/p21dgn15.jpg
please nobody ask what I mean

digitaldr

I did a bit of a search on google and found this site

http://www.inhousetechnologies.com/lidl_satellite_system.htm

which has a link to the Lidl Digital Camping Satellite TV system brochure

http://www.inhousetechnologies.com/_private/COMAG_MiniSat_Lidl_RZ2.pdf

it only seems to work if you right click on it and choose save as from the menu.

Greenman

Can anybody say if it will be able to pick up all of the radio stations that are on Sky at the moment? Or the rest of the FTA channels like Sky News, ITV News, ChartshowTV, The Vault, etc.?

Yes!!!:)


Will it work off mains electricity?


Yes!!!

mburke

Can this system be used to pick up Saturday afternoon premiership soccer ??

Or will you need to add to the system.

Will the conditions need to be prefect for it to work (no rain, wind, snow etc)

seano

to make a long story short.

The receiver is a Common Interface receiver whereby you can add CI 's for European Pay TV.
It of course fuctions as already been said by other posters as a FTA receiver wherby you can tune in all the FTA channels on the belt.

The LNB is universal so works on the low and high band .

The dish is a peice of garbage(remember Lidl/aldi are german companies and the dish is designed for astra 1 and hotbird reception here on the continent) but that is no problem,just use it as a dart board and buy yourself a better dish eg. a Triax.

You will then have a decent receiver and the size of the dish you buy shall determine what satellites you receive.
There might be a problem with the thing if you decide to add a disqc moter and extra Cams but if you use it as a one satellite receiver you should be ok.

NorthDown

Related to all of this, I'm in Britain as my handle suggests - is S4C FTA in the UK?

Where should I be looking for a mains kit - cheap that gets BBC & S4C(if it is FTA)?

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by mburke
Can this system be used to pick up Saturday afternoon premiership soccer ??

Only a SKY Digibox with a SKY card can pickup SKY Sports. Both the box and card have serial numbers so you can't swap them. And SKY can deactivate cards remotely.

It's a monopoly

Darren

yes you can pick up Saturday premiership with this system. you just need a min 80 -90 cm dish and preferably 1m+.

Greenman

Where should I be looking for a mains kit - cheap that gets BBC & S4C(if it is FTA)?

If you read this you will see its 220v also!!! Go to page 2,

is S4C FTA in the UK?
Yes and to any land that can receive it!!!

Can this system be used to pick up Saturday afternoon premiership soccer ??

Yes.yes.yes!!!
For all FTA footie look at this and this.

eoinm1

The reciver is a Comag DVB FTA III

I can't find a web site for the company: Comag

PK - the king

256 colours is the colour spec of the on screen menus and programme guides.
256 is the spec that sky use for most of their interactive services (BBCi, SkyActive) so the picture quality is decent enough.

bk

People here seem to be saying that the dish is useless, but the reciever is good, is that correct?

So basically you are paying e99 for the reciever, how does this compare to buying recievers on their own and how much would a good dish set you back?

watty

The LNB may work with a different dish, probabily worth Eur 20 at least?

watty

Palcom DSL4 is excellent at about 90 Euro.

Add LNB, 90cm Dish and postage and you up to about 200 Euro.

So about 80 Euro for a good 90cm dish
About 160 Euro for a Triax 1.1 m dish

Dish prices ZOOM UP dramatically with size, i.e. a 10m disk is likely to be 10,000 Euro!

alan101

can this receiver be connected to an existing sky dish to pick up the free to air channels as my existing sky digibox is shot.

Darren

yes

Capt'n Midnight

If you need something that will run on 12Volts then this is a no brainer. otherwise you could pickup a basic FTA system for the same amount second-hand with a decent sized dish.

bk

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
If you need something that will run on 12Volts then this is a no brainer. otherwise you could pickup a basic FTA system for the same amount second-hand with a decent sized dish.

Thanks Capt'n Midnight, that is what I wanted to know. So any pointers on what I should look out for (reciever, dish type and size, etc.) and where.

Capt'n Midnight

They should also run on these
http://www.lidl.ie/ie/index.nsf/pages/c.o.oow.20040419.p.Energy_Station
- no idea how much power it uses so no idea how long the 7Ah battery would last.

pbirney

Originally posted by eoinm1
The reciver is a Comag DVB FTA III

I can't find a web site for the company: Comag

Website: http://www.comag-ag.de/
Not much info. but a software update for the receiver is available from the site.

Bard

Worth getting?

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/index.nsf/pages/c.o.oow.20040422.p.System

# Don't miss your favourite programmes while on holiday!
# Can be used with any TV!
# Automatic channel finder, easy setup guide and electronic programme guide
# Antenna can be installed in casing or can be mounted onto car roof, table etc
# Most of the common broadcasting stations are pre-programmed on following satellites: Astra, Hotbird, Sirins, Hispasat and Heliost
# Operates almost all functions via remote control
# Brilliant monitor graphics, 256 colours
# 4000 programme storage locations
# Fully compatible with MPEG-2 and DVB
# Auto selection of NTSC/PAL
# OSD (On Screen Display)
# Programme information on screen
# Digital Radio Receiver
# Cable for car cigarette lighter included
# Connections: 2x Euroscart, 2x Audio output Cinch (stereo)
# F connector input and output (loop through)
# RS 232, 12/24V INPUT
# Price per item €99.99

cgarvey

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153864
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153849

None left in Blanch anyway.

.cg

Bard

Coming from Ardee, I suppose my closest/handiest Lidls would be Baldoyle or Coolock. I guess I'll try them out.

huh!

None in coolock or baldoyle stores, just there .

merged.
Didn't bother going myself, no real use for it.
Plus the queue at the Arklow store can get violent