Direct TV or Dish Network in Ireland?

bigpaddy2004

Is there even a glimmer of hope of being able to receive either of these american satellite networks with a big enough dish in Ireland?

TVDX

Basically the answer is no.

But, there has been some debate about whether or not the Echostar satellite @ 61.5 w can be received or not in Ireland?.

This contains alot of Dish Network channels including HD channels.
A person on Digitalspy who had a house at a west coast of Ireland location with a totally clear view and a 2 metre dish claimed he got a Dish network test card albeit breaking up.

There was no real hard proof but some members on that forum claimed that if this guy had his dish set up for optimal reception he may just have got it.
Unforunately he disappeared.
The problem was with his LNB which wasn't ultimately designed for reception of Circular polarisation.

Have a read of this thread for more inoformation, but it's certainly a very compelling mystery and I would be interested to know what members like Watty and Tony as well as Zaphod think of this?.

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=363078&highlight=echostar+6.5w+viewable

watty

20m dish on Rockall?

The beam points the wrong way.

bigpaddy2004

I know of a lad up the road with an old 6 metre telecom dish but he was un successful in getting the lnb correctly focused on it. he had to use a jcb to carry it down the garden!! Would this dish have a chance if you could get the lnb properly focused on it?

TVDX

watty wrote:

20m dish on Rockall?

The beam points the wrong way.

You must admit that it's intriguing that people have reported reception reports even though they are weak.

watty

People report all kinds of things. There have been reports of European Astra in Central Africa and South America, but VERY big dishes and more likely.

I don't think a 6m will do it.

TVDX

watty wrote:

People report all kinds of things. There have been reports of European Astra in Central Africa and South America, but VERY big dishes and more likely.

I don't think a 6m will do it.

Well, I wouldn't rule it out so quickly myself.

bk

If you have family or friends in the US, you could always use Slingbox. Basically a Slingbox takes the output from the satellite receiver and streams it over the internet, so you could watch it in Ireland. You would need the following:

1) Family or friends in the US willing to host the satellite and receiver.
2) A subscription to the sat service.
3) A slingbox connected to the receiver in the US.
4) A Broadband connection in the US with a good upload speed (preferably 512k or more).
5) BB in Ireland
6) A computer in Ireland.

The picture quality won't be great, but at least it will work. It would be a good idea to get a PVR with this setup in the US, so that you can time shift as well as place shift.

Another, perhaps even better option would be to setup a media centre PC (WMC or MythTV) in the US and simply copy the shows from their to Ireland (or use Orb or VLC for streaming).

Of course I wouldn't suggest the, ahem ..., other means of getting shows from the US off the internet, just a few hours after they are broadcast, those means are legally a grey area.

bigpaddy2004

bk wrote:

If you have family or friends in the US, you could always use Slingbox. Basically a Slingbox takes the output from the satellite receiver and streams it over the internet, so you could watch it in Ireland. You would need the following:

1) Family or friends in the US willing to host the satellite and receiver.
2) A subscription to the sat service.
3) A slingbox connected to the receiver in the US.
4) A Broadband connection in the US with a good upload speed (preferably 512k or more).
5) BB in Ireland
6) A computer in Ireland.

The picture quality won't be great, but at least it will work. It would be a good idea to get a PVR with this setup in the US, so that you can time shift as well as place shift.

Another, perhaps even better option would be to setup a media centre PC (WMC or MythTV) in the US and simply copy the shows from their to Ireland (or use Orb or VLC for streaming).

Of course I wouldn't suggest the, ahem ..., other means of getting shows from the US off the internet, just a few hours after they are broadcast, those means are legally a grey area.

I believe you missing the main point of this thread.
Where is the fun now in doing that...than trying to get a signal over here on a big dish!!

watty

Yep we should have an expedition to claim Rockall once and for all for Ireland and take a 6m dish with us.

What range of video sender do we need then to get the signal back to Galway City and remote control the receiver?

emaherx

watty wrote:

Yep we should have an expedition to claim Rockall once and for all for Ireland and take a 6m dish with us.

What range of video sender do we need then to get the signal back to Galway City and remote control the receiver?

even if you could find one with the range, you may have a problem getting line of site, Damn curved planet!!:D

Zaphod

There was a piece on this in Dec 04 Television - 3x jpg scans.

(1) http://xs201.xs.to/xs201/06224/oof1.jpg

(2)

(3) http://xs201.xs.to/xs201/06224/oof3.jpg

He got a signal of 5dB in the Algarve. You'd need 7-8dB for lock. A difference of 3dB requires double dish area. Unfortunately, he doesn't say what size dish he used.

The problem with out-of-footprint reception is that it's very unpredictable. Even a distance of 20 or 30 miles can make a huge difference to the strength of signal received e.g. reception of BBC in Cyprus.

I've tried a number of times with a 2.4M for 61.5W and I've got absolutely zilch! There isn't the faintest sign of any signal on the analyser. I didn't have a dielectric slab for Ku (only C-band), so I suppose it's still possible. Maybe.

bigpaddy2004 wrote:

I know of a lad up the road with an old 6 metre telecom dish but he was un successful in getting the lnb correctly focused on it. he had to use a jcb to carry it down the garden!! Would this dish have a chance if you could get the lnb properly focused on it?

Got any pics of this beauty?

rcunning03

Best chance of getting American TV is the satellite service the US armed forces use in mainland europe, no ad's on it just government "information" campaigns, still pictures of the US and plenty of ads for the US military. you would have to know someone in the US military though