Lidl FTA kit 18/05 €100

Zaphod

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20060518.p.Satellite
Dish looks to be small.

Digital Camping Satellite System


Easy set-up guide
Sat reciever and remote control
Automatic channel finder
Electronic programme guide
Antenna can be installed in casing or be mounted onto a car roof, table etc.
Most of the common broadcasting stations are pre-programmed
4,500 program storage locations
10m antenna cable included
Computer games included
Durable hard case and all necessary accessories included
3 year guarantee
€94.99 + €5.00 Producer Recycling Fund
Price per item

Tony

good deal even with a small dish

Sparky

Id assume I would have to be up early to catch this offer?

Mossy Monk

they always have these when i work earlies :mad: :mad:

JohnBoy

whats the deal with these systems?

what sort of channels will they pickup?

We live down in a bit of a hole and are looking for better reception on tv3 and tg4 but wouldn't mind the bbc channels either, not massive tv watchers so don't want to go down the sky route and pay a subscription. might this suit?

Blaster99

You'll get BBC1-4, ITV1-4, news channels, and 200 shopping channels. No Irish stations.

You'll get a Sky system for about €200 for a year with lots of stations including installation, paid in monthly instalments. After the year you can quit the sub and keep the setup and just watch free stations. You can also get a UK FTV card that in addition gets you Ch4, Ch5, and Sky 3 for a reasonable penny.

I'd say that Lidl system is worth getting if you're into camping and stuff. Didn't someone mention a very similarly priced system from Maplin as well?

watty

The Maplin one seems to be the same system. Maplin will have it when Lidl sold out.

You can add a larger dish later. the dish is too small for wet weather.

mcgeeney

Is there any difference in price between the Lidl & Maplin offerings?

Presumably I could stick a dual/quad lnb on my existing dish and use the FTA system in the other room.

Anyone know a typical price for getting an independent installer to fit a quad lnb and run a second cable from the dish to the FTA box (cable wouldn't need to be any more than 5 or 6 metres)?

Galway city area (if that makes a difference).

snaps

mcgeeney

You could do that yourself, its an easy job. Just look at some of the threads for suppliers and you can get the gear. Your dish is already set up which is the hard bit, Just purchase the lnb and cable and away you go.

jonnygee

I have found these cheap fta reciever's (whether lidl or not) to be ideal for feeding a video or dvd recorder, when connected to a quad as they enable me to watch one channel while recording another.

hawthorn

Hi

Im totally ignorant of satellite dishes especially when it comes to installing. I have Sky and thats it. But Im wondering about the Lidl package for a different room. I mean, for 100 + installation (how much appx?) you have another complete setup, with the Irish channels on the old ariel.

Also youd have all the BBCs and ITVs where you could see them. i find I almost NEVER look at BBC3 and 4 or ITV because theyre not on the EPG.

Also i believe you can delete any channels you dont like on the Lidl type dishes, whereas with Sky you have to keep on trawling through them.

Does it pick up anything extra that Sky doesnt?

Regards

h

watty

On the dish pointing as at Sky maybe the odd in store radio or one or two Czech channels if they haven't moved already, otherwise the FTA reciever gives the channels that work on a Sky box with no card. (Go 501, press red or text, when iteractive loads remove ROI sky card, press backup. Wait for UK EPG to load).

Zaphod

More info on receiver:
http://www.mysilvercrest.de/en/artikel.php?a=82

List of FTA channels available from Astra 28E:
http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Free+To+Air+on+Sky

Zaphod

In a belated effort to rescue this thread from the deluge of FTV card, Sky, Sky+, SkyHD queries, these go on sale tomorrow.

Pointy elbows are a considerable advantage in Lidl queues.

Vireo

Had about 20 in the store in Finglas when it opened at 8 am. Then they brought out another pallet full - must have been at least another 20 on it :eek:

I need not have queued :rolleyes:

Zaphod is right - I made sure that there'll be some people suffereing the effects of sharp elbow syndrome this morning

DMC

Any news of any left around the shops??

ro1798

loads left in finglas

Ulsterman 1690

Lidl in NI are doing them for £70

Slightly dearer but there seems to be more stocks/less demand

rahtkennades

Anybody got any hints on tuning this camping dish in?
We;ve been at it for ages. Signal intensity never goes above 38%. We even put the the LNB on only a metre's cable from the decoder, and still the same. Have we got a duff box/LNB? Is there ANY chance of a replacement in Lidl now?!

tippguy2

prolly the smalll dish thats the prob...can u hook up the receiver to a sky dish ? i got one of those, brill picture, has pip 6 screens and can be motorised (disec)

eoinkennedy

Hi,
Same here, can't get above 38 signal using its own dish.

I hooked the receiver into the feed from a sky dish and it works very well, but of course the sky dish is looking at astra 2.

I reckon it'll be a return to lidl next week.

Now I know why there were so many left.

Eoin

ciarann

:cool:

Zaphod

If you've never aligned a dish before, it can be very frustrating, especially if you don't have a signal meter of some sort and you may well end up eventually thinking the box is faulty. Digital channels are either 'on' or 'off' and do not fade in or out gradually like analogue signals, further adding to the difficulty.

The dish being as small as it is will make alignment trickier. However, the last time these went on sale someone here posted pictures of reception of BBC channels IIRC with the dish.

Firstly your best chance is reception of BBC etc as Astra 2D 28E has the strongest signal over Ireland. Set the elevation angle for Astra 2D at about 22 degrees.
http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Where+to+point+the+Dish%3F

As you face the dish, rotate the LNB about 15-20 degrees clockwise.
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Picture_306.jpg

The frequency settings for BBC might not be in the receiver, so you may have to "Add Transponder" in the settings menu.
10773GHz, Horizontal, SR = 22000, FEC = 5/6

Aim the dish in the direction of the Sun at 11.40am. Then slowly move the dish east or west until you observe some activity on the receiver meter settings.

If you get a signal, then readjust the elevation of the dish to optimise it.

Before you start, it's best to ensure the F-connectors are properly fixed on the cable - the outer braid and the inner core must not connect at any time.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~watty/satellite/sathowto-p8.htm

On overview of dish alignment is here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

Reports of reception using this kit from last year:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=250525&page=3

Galway

isnt the problem these rec are only 12v or 24 dc cannot be connected directly to mains?? loads left in Galway this morn and not much interest either

rahtkennades

Thanks for that zaphod.
we got ours working, by trial and error.
for anybody trying to do it, test it first in the case it came in.
Big tip though. Throw away that useless "guide" with the sticky compass:) .

eoinkennedy

Do you reckon the case could act as though its a dish as well? I'm presuming you're trying it indoors first?

The compass does look pretty useless, so I'll try it without a compass.

Zaphod, why twist the LNB?

cast_iron

eoinkennedy wrote:

Do you reckon the case could act as though its a dish as well? I'm presuming you're trying it indoors first?

Well i'm not entirely sure i understand what you mean, so all i'll say is neither of those will work!

eoinkennedy wrote:

The compass does look pretty useless, so I'll try it with a compass.

Read that again to yourself....

eoinkennedy wrote:

Zaphod, why twist the LNB?

With a weak signal off such a small dish, everything has to be pretty accurate to get a signal. With a standard sky (60cm) dish, i find the lnb orientation is largely irrelevant.

Zaphod is right in saying you set the dish to a 22 degree elevation. But note that this in actual fact means the dish should be pretty much vertical as you look at it side-on. The 22 degree arises from the setting on the dish. Best of luck!

netwhizkid

I got this Set-up today in Lidl in Killarney and aren’t really impressed. I hooked the tiny receiver up to my Sky Dish (60cms) and it didn't get as good a readout as my Grundig Digibox. I reckon the Dish is total cack, I plan to try do some aligning tomorrow (too busy today watching Munster win ) The receiver is small and let me down on that.

However it works ok and there is a handy LNB and some cabling alongside a type of clamp, which might be handy to Diy-ers. The "compass" is thrash but points south nonetheless. I bought it on an impulse really and with I having my own "Yellow Brick" Satellite meter it shouldn't be too tricky for me to get value from it. I doubt if the plasticy "dish" will get a good enough signal to work but I will try it anyway. Maybe in South East England yes but I doubt it for here. My final thought is that it is an overpriced too small receiver but I will get value from it as I will use the receiver in another piece of property I occasionally spend time in that has only terrestrial TV.

Oh yeah there was 17 left after I bought mine in Killarney today. I also bought the power cube there for €20 so I might be able to work something with that and the FTA receiver if the power goes out or if I ever actually go camping :eek: My plan when I saw it was Christ I can have my Sky wherever I go in Ireland now as I have the Meter and the "portable" dish in its case would take up little room alongside the digibox the next time I decide to rent a house/cottage for a week or fortnight. (rented holiday homes usually have crap TV stations)

eoinkennedy

Hi,
what I meant by the case acting as the dish was:
if I left the dish in the case and angled it (the case lid can be tilted and locked at a certain angle with the dish still in it and the lnb connected), would the case then act as though it were an extension of the dish and reflect more of the signal to the lnb?

rahtkennades, do you have any compass readings that we can use to align the dish, and what sort of elevation are you using?
I'm going to be using a standard orienteering compass to get bearings from.

Thanks so far guys.

I'll give it a try in a few days, but Lidl seem to be pretty good on returns anyway.

St Senan

eoinkennedy wrote:

Hi,
what I meant by the case acting as the dish was:
if I left the dish in the case and angled it (the case lid can be tilted and locked at a certain angle with the dish still in it and the lnb connected), would the case then act as though it were an extension of the dish and reflect more of the signal to the lnb? .

Every time Lidl sell the camping system we get lots of calls from people asking the same question, Can you call and fit our Lidl dish our answer is no you will need a bigger dish. For roughly the same price as Lidl people can buy systems here in Ireland which would be better quality. It will be interesting to see how many returned satellite systems will be in lidl next week or in a few weeks time how many of those dishes will either be pointing to the ground or hanging loose on houses around the country.

Zaphod

eoinkennedy wrote:

Zaphod, why twist the LNB?

Without going into too much detail, most sats over Europe use linear polarisation of signals (Horizontal and Vertical). As the sats appear to be positioned on an arc from our perspective, the signals are slightly twisted or skewed as you move east or west of true south. By skewing the LNB you ensure it's aligned with the signals from the sats and improve reception.

eoinkennedy wrote:

would the case then act as though it were an extension of the dish and reflect more of the signal to the lnb?

No.

netwhizkid wrote:

I hooked the tiny receiver up to my Sky Dish (60cms) and it didn't get as good a readout as my Grundig Digibox.

Comparing the 'readout' from different models of receivers is pretty much pointless and is not an indicator of receiver performance.

watty

Good answers Zaphod.

L1011

The box is an "SL65/12". That and looking similar - its higher but far slimmer and less deep - are all it has to do with an SL65. Completely different interface, its a different box on the inside. Real SL65 does RGB and SVideo over SCART and has an SVideo socket, this does neither; SL65 has a less detailed "info" screen on the channel, the SL65/12 even has the signal squawler on the info screen (much easier to get to), etc.

Remotes are compatible though.

Vireo

Took me three hours to get a signal and like others I was beginning to think it was faulty - same thing, 38 signal, no better. My arms were in bits as I held it in the air and everything.

So, put mine on the ground and kept it level with that sucker thing that comes with it. Tried to align it exactly like the nearby Sky dishes. No joy. I noticed the dishes are almost vertical so I did that by putting the arm of the Lidl dish parallel with the ground.

Put the receiver on BBC 1 which is pre-tuned. Even though it was spitting rain I eventually got a very good picture.

The compass thingy is a bit prehistoric but if there is no Sky dishes around, at least will give a good idea of the correct position (if you can work it out!). I checked it after I tuned in Astra and it was actually quite accurate for giving the general direction of the satellite.

To get the Sky satellite, after you have put the green line with "Dublin" on it (if you're in Dublin that is, but presumably it's close enough for other places) exactly aligned with the CITY mark, the Astra you look for is the green line in the bottom right corner of the viewable area in the top bit. (NOTE - the word Astra is actually hidden! If you turn the dial to London to align with the CITY mark you'll see Astra in the bottom right, then turn it back to Dublin.)

Turn the dish until the green arrow of the compass points to this Astra mark - not the Dublin mark. You then know you are in the general direction. Keep that dish vertical and keep trying.

netwhizkid

I tried aligning mine today with the dish in the case and after about 15 minutes I gave up even though having my Yellow Meter. It was however the Midges and Rain that drove me in, I hope to try tomorrow again and see how it goes.

L1011

It appears the boxes arbitary signal units are significantly lower than the original SL65, btw. What the original SL65 gives as 98/92, the SL65-12 (SL53 ) gives as 76/74 - considering the original SL65 had a lock figure of 43% quality in general, I'd guess the 38 quality the SL65-12 is giving is probably going to lock fine.

eoinkennedy

Okay, got mine working yesterday off its own dish.
Took about 20 minutes to get Astra 2, but the others (Astra 1 and Hotbird) took much less because I knew what I was doing.

Follow Zaphods instructions, take it slowly and be patient.

I'll post the compass bearings and elevation later, but it does work, signal quality was excellent (60-70%) and the epg is very configurable.

banackec

I bought one of these in Lidl recently and although a complete novice, i managed to get mine up and running without too much bother. Quality of Astra, Sirius, Hotbird etc was excellent, even in the terrible rain we had this weekend.
My only worry is how much weather the dish will be able to withstand, remember its very much promoted as a "camping" kit, and presumably only to be used occasionally as opposed to constantly.

Galway

how are ye power the rec? glad now i did not buy one. Got one of non camping lidl ones last time and its grand for an extra rec for astra 2 free to air channels

St Senan

banackec wrote:

Quality of Astra, Sirius, Hotbird etc was excellent, even in the terrible rain we had this weekend.QUOTE]

The dish that comes with the camping kit would not be able to pick up Sirius
here in Ireland the size of the dish would have to be around 80cm to pick any of the channels available on Sirius

Ger Roe

I set up one of these units over the wekeend by clamping the dish to a plastic patio table outside the back door. A complete lash up, but it worked and I was watching Astra 2 on it quite happily.

It's a bit tricky getting the dish aligned - very small movements required, but the compass does give a rough indication of where you need to start off from. The bubble scale seems to be a latitude indication to help estimate the pitch of the dish.

A bit of patience and it works, took me about twenty minutes to pull in a picture. Worth having for the James Bond factor of having a system in a suitcase. Next stage is to power the receiver and a hand held LCD screen from the power cube that they were also selling - but the rain wil have to stop for a bit to give that a go.

ro1798

hi i was trying to set this up and only getting 11% on the second indicator on the screen, is this correct? it was 38% on the top????? i dont know if i got the cable correct....

please help i dont want to have to bring this back


thanks

ronan

banackec

scaller wrote:

banackec wrote:

Quality of Astra, Sirius, Hotbird etc was excellent, even in the terrible rain we had this weekend.QUOTE]

The dish that comes with the camping kit would not be able to pick up Sirius
here in Ireland the size of the dish would have to be around 80cm to pick any of the channels available on Sirius

I may be a novice but im not a complete idiot...the Sirius channels were pre-programmed........i could pick them up.

http://www.ses-sirius.com/tv-channels/
watched thosed last night, with my dicky dish, dude.

Ronan|Raven

ro1798, you are getting "some signal" anyway (background noise) from the lnb which should mean the cable should be ok. You will have to ensure that the dish is perfectly straight and then go about setting your elevation on the dish for the area you are in, roughly anywhere between 18-22degrees. Assuming you are trying to get the Astra 2 satellite with BBC and so forth. You will then need to make small movements east/west and see if you can increase your signal like that.

Ronan|Raven

banackec, what channels exactly were you able to view on Sirius? The reason I ask is most of those channels are to weak to be picked up here even on a 1m dish.

St Senan

banackec wrote:

I may be a novice but im not a complete idiot...the Sirius channels were pre-programmed........i could pick them up.

http://www.ses-sirius.com/tv-channels/
watched thosed last night, with my dicky dish, dude.

No one is calling you an idiot, but are you are saying is that you can pick up 3 satellites at once from your lidl camping dish.
ASTRA 19 east, HOTBIRD 13 east and SIRIUS 5 east

I install satellite tv every day and i know what channels are available fta on Sirius.
btw what channels are you getting from Sirius on your dicky dish

watty

I agree, sounds very unlikely... You might get some Sirus 5E channels on the bucket lid, but I'd imagine vanish during rain. The ones I get are fairly good on my 80cm motorised.

I was in London last week and the Zone 1 Sky minidish is not much bigger!

Galway

so how have ye been powering this rec? it said only 12 or 24 Volt dc so i didnt bother buyin one.

netwhizkid

Galway wrote:

so how have ye been powering this rec? it said only 12 or 24 Volt dc so i didnt bother buyin one.

I have been powering my Receiver that I got in the Satellite Camping kit exclusively via 12volt from the Lidl Power cube which I also bough on Saturday. An adapter is provided in the kit too and it also works perfectly. 24V will destroy the thing and this is highlighted in the Manual (as certain campers and lorry have 24v batteries) It recommends getting a DC/DC adapter. It will work on either battery or through the adapter.

I managed to align my dish today, I got set to Astra 28° East after about 10mins with my Professional Yellow Meter, I was able to view all my Sky Digital Channels on it when I hooked it up to the Digibox, so I'll have sky next time I go holidaying in Ireland or the UK

I also aligned it to Hotbird 13° East, I was able to get around 80% on that and was able to watch loads of channels including BBC World & Euronews. I noticed however that there was a block of channels, which said "No Signal" I guess these have a weaker footprint and require a bigger Dish. I also aligned it to Astra 19° East but did not go to the trouble of checking to see what if any channels could be received. I spent about 15 minutes trying for a Hispasat Signal but the dish is obviously too small. Anyone get lucky with Hispasat in Ireland? I read on Digitalspy last night that it can be received in Barcelona anyway on the Lidl camping kit.

I failed to align it yesterday as I had little time with midges and rain. However today was a fairly good day here in Kerry and there was only limited cloud cover. I wonder could yesterday’s extremely dense clouds and misty foggy type rain have affected it. I spent about an hour watching Hotbird today and it was okay some good channels on there and enough English to keep me contented. Some of the European countries seem to have very liberal attitudes to what they broadcast, some naughty channels on the Lidl kit too :eek:

The biggest problem I have with it is the Wind. It keeps throwing it off track. I did not use it in the suitcase as I did yesterday. I used it with the clamp and the extension arm locked onto Aluminium round pole resting in the umbrella stand of one of those green plastic garden tables. I had put some bricks around the bottom of the bar but it kept spinning it the wind. The suction cups were useless in today’s wind and left "Coffee Rings" on the boot of my sisters car also :mad: It obviously wasn't me


All I can say is I am now a "happy camper" with my Lidl kit and it will provide for portable Sky & FTA in my case and an emergency backup should my digibox fail (as it has twice in the past at a cost of €108 and the second replacement went a month later but was under guarantee). It will also allow me to watch Satellite telly when the power fails, as it is 12V compatible. Now to figure out how to power my TV off the Powercube too

L1011

Working on the tried and tested "wave dish around like crazy", I've got nice strong analogue pictures from Astra 1 and Hotbird just holding the dish in my hands.

A decent analogue box will let you line up Astra 1, Hotbird, Atlantic Bird 3 and Hispasat with far, far less hassle than a digital box or a meter.

banackec

scaller wrote:

No one is calling you an idiot, but are you are saying is that you can pick up 3 satellites at once from your lidl camping dish.
ASTRA 19 east, HOTBIRD 13 east and SIRIUS 5 east

I install satellite tv every day and i know what channels are available fta on Sirius.
btw what channels are you getting from Sirius on your dicky dish

Astra1 19 East
Hotbird 13 east
Sirius2 5E
Astra1 28 East
Eutal sat
and more, come pre programmed with the set..the ones above are the ones ive found.
Sirius2 installed 450 channels mostly German, BR alpha, phoenix, das erste, wdr etc..a few Spanish channels, tv Canaria etc, and a few English channels, Travel, CNN, Euronews etc...there were a number of "scrambled" channels, but very few "No signals". Thats a few hundred channels-excellent quality.
This from a backyard in Cork, with a (dicky dish)
Sorry if I seemed a litle sarcastic earlier, but I didnt realise it was such a big deal.