Satellite TV for campervan

tSeacha

Hi,

I have recently imported a campervan from Germany and I am looking forward to taking it on the road with the family. There is a Satellite dish on the roof and the manuals that came with the van (German of course) indicates that the dish is for the Astra Satellite.
I have a laptop and was wondering what TV card I need to purchase to receive free to air channels on the laptop. I was also wondering if this is the best method to receive free to air channels or am I better off getting a small TV and some sort of decoder?
Any help would be appreciated

stapeler

Can you tell if it's a digital or analog dish? Perhaps one of those Lidl/Aldi sat decoders may work with it. I've tried a laptop card as a TV reciever for a while and found it to be a pain as volume wasn't great, boot up time, extras cables etc. LCD's are cheap these days and will run on 12volts.
My setup is 15"Lcd, Sky digibox and 60cm sky dish which works well.
Perhaps somebody on the Satellite form may be able to provide some more info.

siobhan.murphy

tSeacha wrote: »

Hi,

I have recently imported a campervan from Germany and I am looking forward to taking it on the road with the family. There is a Satellite dish on the roof and the manuals that came with the van (German of course) indicates that the dish is for the Astra Satellite.
I have a laptop and was wondering what TV card I need to purchase to receive free to air channels on the laptop. I was also wondering if this is the best method to receive free to air channels or am I better off getting a small TV and some sort of decoder?
Any help would be appreciated

can u pm me details of ur purchase,im thinking of doing the same..thanks!

paddyb

you should be able to connect via any tv card using a coax cable (standard tv cable) but you will still need a receiver.
Thats what i do in my house.
All the free to air are broadcast on astra 2(28 degrees) which will get all the bbc's, itv's and lots of other channels.
If the dish is 60cm, it will work anywhere in the country

BBC FTA Service
their receivers only cost about £50 i think

wonderworm

if you have a sky box at home you can connect it up to your dish if it is digital

*Kol*

Try your Sky box frst to see if it works. If it does then you can pick up a FTA decoder that will work on 20v and 12v quite easily.

zoltar_boi

I have a German import motorhome - and it had a dish on the roof. I don't suppose you have a decoder already mounted anywhere in the van that you don't know about - ours was fitted in the wardrobe!!.

Can you perhaps post more details about the type of dish you have:-
Is it motorised?
What make model is it?
I also managed to get English manuals by some clever googling.

tSeacha

I have checked the camper and there is no hidden decoder, just the coax cable with an connection at the end. I have checked some web sites for TV cards for the laptop which I assume would carry out the function of a skybox. There seems to be different types including analog, DVB-C, DVB-S, DVB-T and Hybrid. I would assume that the DVB-S is for digital satelite TV reception and possibly the Hybrid one will cover digital satelite TV also. However if anyone has any experience with any of these and the picture quality on a laptop the I would appreciate it greatly

stapeler

Here's one that might work for you,
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=335611
More info on it here http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_novasusb.html

stevethesatguy

google "q-box hd satellite tv receiver for pc" lots of different suppliers of a very small sat receiver that connects to your laptop