Old Lidl/Aldi Sat box info

Vas_Guy

Lidl have a Digital Satellite System next Thursday http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20060831.p.DigitalSatelliteSystem

I live in the country side and totally know nothing about satellite TV but I'm considering getting this system in Lidl next week as I'm not looking for SKY, etc.

Could I make a suggestion that a FAQ thread be set up to help people like myself who know nothing install the system, like how high does the dish have to be house wall, roof, pole?

Rather than repeating pevious posts on the item, eg what stations are available? do you have to realign the dish every time you want to pick up different stations from another satellite?

Also any advice would be greatly appreciated i.e. is it a good purchase!

Heinz

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054980290

watty

See ther ICDGopedia in my sig.

Lists of free channels.

Install info.

The dish is a little small in heavy rain.

If the dish in sunlight at about 11.30am it can see the satellite. I have checked direction of satellite with dish sitting on the ground. The Dish when nearly vertical is looking upward about 20 degrees.

There are better systems at 140Euro to 200 Eur, but it works and will get you all the free channels that are on a Sky box. Or you can get some Mainland European instead.

kkennedy

watty wrote:

.......

The dish is a little small in heavy rain.

.........

Its 80cm this time.

from http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20060831.p.DigitalSatelliteSystem
# External unit: 80cm steel antenna, coated, mast bracket

JakeLuxor

Hi I was thinking of buying one of these systems this week but to be honest I cant really make a whole lot of sense of the info (Im not a satellite techie head).
Does anyone else have one of these systems, if so what channels can you receive?

Many thanks.

Dr. Nick

All BBCs, All ITVs, no C4. Plus anything else that's free like Sky News and Film4.

I know there are other channels available if you point the dish in another direction, but I don't know what they are. There'll be a more clued-in poster along shortly to confirm all

watty

See the list of free channels (slightly out of date ) on the ICDGopedia in my sig.

see www.lyngsat.com europe frequencies and atlantic frequencies
42E, 19E, 13E, 5E, 5W, 12.5W, 30W

19E and 13E are easy to get.

The dish in Lidl is small, the Maplin system with 80cm dish at 139 Euro (Galway, Dublin, Limerick, Cork) is better value.

mjsmyth

Hi Watty,

The dish on sale as part of the €99 Lidle deal according to the website, is infact an 80cm dish.

mj

watty

OK that is MUCH better than previous deals that had 43cm or 50cm dishes!

wheres me jumpa

mjsmyth wrote:

Hi,

The only way to view RTE 1 &2, TV3 and TG4 on satellite is by use of a Sky Digibox and a subscription.

mj

Tip of the cap kind sir.

Really all I want is good rte 1, 2 and tv 3 reception. Parents have to get up and fiddle with the aerial every time they change channel. Any recommendations? I know there are various indoor and outdoor antennas for this purpose but are they any good?

Capt'n Midnight

wheres me jumpa wrote:

Really all I want is good rte 1, 2 and tv 3 reception. Parents have to get up and fiddle with the aerial every time they change channel. Any recommendations? I know there are various indoor and outdoor antennas for this purpose but are they any good?

Sounds like you are using rabbits ears or other indoor aerial.

you would need a decent out door aerial, B & Q do them cheap enough

what is your location ? , as that will determine which transmitter you point it at.

probably better off on terresterial forum too http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=56

wheres me jumpa

Cheers Capt,

See here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=51967128#post51967128

Trevord

I've heard from some people that they had problems with the silvercrest receiver and that it stopped working after 12 months or so.

Some older posts refer to previous lidl offers and criticise the system due to the dish size - however the dish this time is 80cm.

Ronan|Raven

It is a great grouping of products and will be more than adequate for peoples needs for non $ky reception.

kkennedy

watty wrote:

Silvercrest don't exist. It is a comag.

Silvercrest do exist, as a product of comag;)

watty

See
http://www.mysilvercrest.de/en/kategorie.php?k=1

I suspect Silvercrest is Lidl own brand name. My Silvercrest TV is a Beko.


SILVERCREST, a new LIDL Quality brand, is ONLINE!

Manuals, Firmware etc for Comag SL65 via Lidl Silvercrest site:
http://www.mysilvercrest.de/en/artikel.php?a=51&av=2

Vas_Guy

As a novice would I be right in saying that the first thing to do is mount the dish in a southern facing direction and use the satellite finder to find the position of the Astra 2D satellite and evaluate the dish to this position?

Donaldo

For those interested, this is sold out in Cork and Moidleton - anybody have any luck getting them?

Galway

All gone in Galway too. There will dishes flyin off houses everywhere once the windy season kicks in the west! Cant say im bothered not getting kit, have receiver from last time (sold separately) and camping one. Mapllins have better quality one I think @ €136 plus €10 if u use voucher from catalogue (expires today). I think Id get it all as separates and go for quality. Technomate have cheap receivers with better spec and loads of better dishes and LNbs to be had.

Vas_Guy

Did anybody get theirs working yet?

Robxxx7

Went to Lidl in Tralee this morning and all sold out, Staff there said people had been queuing since 6:30am :eek: :eek:

jor el

I went down to Lidl in Limerick this morning at 9AM and they were all gone too. I did get the sat finer though which is what I was really looking for. My sister wanted me to get the dish for her.

Vas_Guy wrote:

As a novice would I be right in saying that the first thing to do is mount the dish in a southern facing direction and use the satellite finder to find the position of the Astra 2D satellite and evaluate the dish to this position?

The sat finder will show you when you get a signal from any satellite. Between facing directly south and when you get to Astra 2 at 28degrees east you'll pass through quite a few satellites, including Astra 1 (19 degrees) and Hotbird (13 degrees).

Best thing to do is start of facing south then turn it about 25-30 degrees to the east (either guess the angle or better still use a compass). Move it slowly around at this point till the sat finder gets a signal. Have someone inside watching the TV for a picture to appear, though it probably won't appear till you get the elevation close. Getting the elevation right can also involve lots of trial and error. There should be some pretty good instructions included with it on how to get it pointing in the right direction. There were with the portable kit that Lidl had a few months ago anyway.

netwhizkid

I got one in Killarney today at 11.45 but they were all sold out since since before 9 O'Clock, (I had mine pre-ordered since Sunday) Anyway according to the fella serving me they was a Queue since about 6 or before it and all 120 sets were sold out with mine being the last to go. Three other people were looking for them and had to fill out forms while I walked out the door with mine.

Anyway much to my chagrin my Meter (Yellow Brick type one) is now going faulty and is giving me "LNB Short, Shutting Down" < anybody know what this means and it is f**ked?? Anyway I managed to align it to Astra 28 with the Earpiece beeber, I also bought the other meter but find it to pure crap, The earpiece one that was supplied is better I think. In the last Hour I have aligned it to Hotbird 13 East, Telecom 2D 8West < I am experienced at this sat as I use it for Skydsl and I just recently got it onto Hispasat 30W. Nice little kit and much better than the Camping one which cost the same price. The dish is flimsy and would not be as good as my 80cms channel master I bought from Tony's www.satellite.ie, however that is firmly rooted to Telecom 2D 8W until DSL arrives and may god help the crow that lands on it.

I will report back with more findings later.

SRB

These units are always left piled high in Lidl shops "up north", my local one even had some of the "sat/dish/box in suitcase" ones still sitting there a few weeks back.

Trevord

Got my Lidl system working. Used the lidl satfinder with lightmeter. The satfinder works ok. I found Hotbird in about 5 minutes (although it was Astra I was looking for).

As explained elsewhere the trick is to start with the satfinder dial to the right and when you get a beep then turn it down until you can hardly hear it and then move the dish slowly until the sound is stronger (and you see more lights again). Repeat this process a few times and you should get sound and lights even when the dial is almost fully to the left - at this stage you should have a picture.

Took a good hour to find Astra (during which time I found Hotbird about 5 more times !) - no compass. Was looking to find signal at ground level in back garden as I'd like to play around with dish before installing it somewhere more permanent. Main problem with delay was due to neighbouring houses being a bit in the way.

Kristok

Got mine working today astra was a pain to find hotbird was dead easy got it working accidently first try. The que in finglas was starting at half 5 youd think they would get more in stock with such a high demand.

Am I right in thinking there is no way to have both going at the same time ? Can you get something to re-adjust the dish for you to point at the right sat (ie something more expensive than this setup)

SPDUB

The Lidl on Thomas Street still had 3 or 4 of these at approx 5.15pm today

hargo

If you pick up Astra 19.2 , then is the elevation the same for Astra 28.

cosmos49

SPDUB wrote:

The Lidl on Thomas Street still had 3 or 4 of these at approx 5.15pm today

What have Lidil got 3 or 4 of.Meters LNBs dishes or the complete systems

SPDUB

cosmos49 wrote:

What have Lidil got 3 or 4 of.Meters LNBs dishes or the complete systems

Complete systems in a very large box

cosmos49

SPDUB wrote:

Complete systems in a very large box

I went to Thomas ST @8AM (Sat)they have recieved 12 systems overnight ...
NO queue...NO hasel...NO problem I even got parking outstde the door. Tks to SPDUB for the tip...

Vmaxer

I got one in Balbriggan at 11 this morning, leaving 1 left on the shelf..

muincav

I was in Lidl in Monaghan town on Saturday afternoon and asked if there were any sat systems left and the guy who worked there said they had a pallet load that didnt sell, so they were all wrapped up and ready to be sent to another Lidl store where thy would sell easier. I found this quite strange.Im sure if they had been left on show they would sell no problem..

Vmaxer

Vas_Guy wrote:

I got mine working and found Astra 28.2 Degree East and i've just one query, I can get all pre programmed station, BBCs, ITVs, etc Film Four, True Movies are not on the list and as they are FTA is it possible to tune it in on the receiver?

I have My reciever set up a couple of Days now and if You do an Auto scan on astra 28.2 it will get all available channels, do an auto scan for Free channels. When the list is up to date I find the handiest way of looking for a channel is to go into List and press 3 for FIND and do a search for channels that way. I eventually get round to setting up a favourites list though.. Next step for Me is to set up a DiSEqC Switch so I can run a couple of dishes off the same feed..

craze7

i have one of these lidl sats and its workin grand, got it about a year ago and have it tuned to astra28 east.

i just deleted all the programed channels on the decorder and then did a scan from scratch it will only pick up the channels that have a signal. then go to channel grouping and sort by fta, that way all the scrambled channels will be at the end of the list.

and yeat true movies 1 and 2 are on it, also reality 1 and 2, channel u, vault, fizz, film4 1 and 2, bbc's,htv's and loads of other stuff!!!

netwhizkid

craze7 wrote:

i have one of these lidl sats and its workin grand, got it about a year ago and have it tuned to astra28 east.

i just deleted all the programed channels on the decorder and then did a scan from scratch it will only pick up the channels that have a signal. then go to channel grouping and sort by fta, that way all the scrambled channels will be at the end of the list.

and yeat true movies 1 and 2 are on it, also reality 1 and 2, channel u, vault, fizz, film4 1 and 2, bbc's,htv's and loads of other stuff!!!

Yep the comag receiver is good enough, I like it one thing I dislike is how it doesn’t have certain other satellites pre-programmed in, however I found away around this and when I scanned Telecom 2D @8°; West, I had to scan it under the title 19° East. I have also noticed when you press "List" you will see all the channels and the encrypted ones have the $ sign before them eg. $Sky Sports, it is handy to quickly differentiate from the FTA and non FTA channels.

sandyg

Hubbie bought satellite and satellite finder. Not having much luck tuning it in. Signal wont go higher than 38% and the line above it stays at 10%-11% after moving the dish about. Keeps coming up "No Signal". Anyone got any basic instructions on how to tune it in as satellites are not his strong point!!

Vas_Guy

sandyg wrote:

Hubbie bought satellite and satellite finder. Not having much luck tuning it in. Signal wont go higher than 38% and the line above it stays at 10%-11% after moving the dish about. Keeps coming up "No Signal". Anyone got any basic instructions on how to tune it in as satellites are not his strong point!!

I've no experience with satellites as well, but I found this website very useful: http://www.irishsilicon.com/archives/000311.html

http://www.irishsilicon.com/archives/2005/09/lidl_satellite.html

Basically mount it on a south facing wall of your house.

Connect the sat finder and turn on the receiver to say BBC 1 or any preset station.

Then aim the dish in a south easterly direction and set the angle to between 22-23 degrees and if no signal appears adjust it slowly.

Revived45

I was installing the LIDL silvercrest system and had difficulties receiving any staellite. Signal strength remained in low 30s. Turned the LNB by 90 degrees and got 80% signal quality and strength. Reurned LNB to its correct position (cables at bottom) and had 33% signal regardless of dish position. Dish assembly looks right. Could the LNB have been manufactured incorrecctly or have I made some blatant error. For the moment i have left the LNB at 90 degrees and will cover the cables unless i get some better advice. It is woking fine but would appreciate some comment from other members of the forum.

Tony

Thats great info, any idea who owns that site as i'd like to get link permission?

Trevord

Thought it was watty's site

watty

Tony wrote:

Thats great info, any idea who owns that site as i'd like to get link permission?

It is Byte's site. (the name is a bit of a givaway...)

However it is the last bastion of ICDG live content now that these forums are non-hosted.

Byte donated the space and bandwidth and various posters helped put up info after I configured the wiki a bit after Byte installed it.

Mine is
http://www.wattystuff.net/tiki/tiki-index.php

(Again the name is a clue...)

wattystuff.net = watty
bytelive.com = byte

byte

Tony wrote:

Thats great info, any idea who owns that site as i'd like to get link permission?

Well, I host it and installed it, and Watty done some cosmetic work and amongst others filled the content.

What permission do you mean by link permission? If you wanna link to the wiki from your site, then by all means (btw, http://icdg.bytelive.com is the handy sub-domain)

Tony

byte wrote:

Well, I host it and installed it, and Watty done some cosmetic work and amongst others filled the content.

What permission do you mean by link permission? If you wanna link to the wiki from your site, then by all means (btw, http://icdg.bytelive.com is the handy sub-domain)

Thanks, by link permission i just mean asking you if its ok to link to your site. I think its important to do this as your google rank could be hurt if you get a link from a site with unrelated content.

watty

I wouldn't call a site selling sat gear unrelated.

Tony

watty wrote:

I wouldn't call a site selling sat gear unrelated.

Its not but i think asking for permission is a good way to go nonetheless.

bryanbal

hi all
im unable to get a signal. using the earpiece at certain points the beebing is high pitched but signal still at 11%.i have the vertical angle at 22 degrees. if the beebing is increaseing does that mean that my wires are connected correctly. please help ive followed everyones tips but still nothing.

patto_chan

bryanbal wrote:

hi all
im unable to get a signal. using the earpiece at certain points the beebing is high pitched but signal still at 11%.i have the vertical angle at 22 degrees. if the beebing is increaseing does that mean that my wires are connected correctly. please help ive followed everyones tips but still nothing.

As well as elevation and azimuth angles you may also need to rotate the LNB slightly clockwise for east satellites. Refer to links in other posts.

I played around with this system last night. It's the first time I've tried a satellite set-up by myself.
While adjusting the dish on a temporary stand I looked in through the window at the TV. I found it was very, very sensitive to elevation and azimuth angle. I found looking at the TV more useful than the sat detector. Frequently without any noticeable change in output from the sat detector the TV screen flipped from 'no signal' to a clear picture.
I only succeeded in locating the 19E sat (German channels) and even then only at 11% signal quality. Will spend some time at it this weekend in order to tune in to 28E (UK channels).
For the sake of comparison I connected the Lidl set-top box to my 6yr old (out-of-contract) Sky dish and found it was aligned with signal quality of 73%.

AIM

kkennedy wrote:

The older Comag SL55 that lidl did a few years back did tent to overheat and the Power supply would blow( is easily repaired with a few components and a soldering iron). Dont know if its the same with the SliverCrest SL65.

What components did you have to replace? My pwr supply has just packed up and I need some details on how to repair. Tnx

irishair100

if any 1 from co meath / galway / co louth /wood like me to setup ther satellite system call me no xxxxxxxxx from 10am to 8pm,
have setup 3 so far all working a.o.k,
[ed by Mod: No advertising. Against the rules.
You can PM someone asking for help.

Not a good idea to put your phone number except in PM (Private Message). Use Private messages at top of page or Java menu (if it works ) on the user avatar/name.]

wil

I cant see any comment/reply on this (Ill put my glasses on later) so I will just say it is unusual though not impossible. It is possible though unlikely that it could be manufactured with the components mounted at 90 inside. (then we have all heard how good Chinese* quality control can be when left to their own surface mounted devices)
I do also recall one installer mention here that he had come across a lnb that had the connections to the side. Not so good for water resistancy so taping up is a must.
Do check though that you are getting both horizontal and vertical signals in case one is gone.
But if it works, it works.

Revived45 wrote:

I was installing the LIDL silvercrest system and had difficulties receiving any staellite. Signal strength remained in low 30s. Turned the LNB by 90 degrees and got 80% signal quality and strength. Reurned LNB to its correct position (cables at bottom) and had 33% signal regardless of dish position. Dish assembly looks right. Could the LNB have been manufactured incorrecctly or have I made some blatant error. For the moment i have left the LNB at 90 degrees and will cover the cables unless i get some better advice. It is woking fine but would appreciate some comment from other members of the forum.

I mention Chinese above as these receivers are almost definitely manufactured in China, well Taiwan, well Republic of China(Taiwan)..

Comag and Siemsson are German import/distribution companies used by Lidl, Aldi and Maplins among others for supply of electronic goods. It is unlikely that they ever manufactured anything, most of their products are rebadged Far Eastern manufactured
Silvercrest is a brand name used by Comag/Lidl (not sure who owns it) Lidl otherwise usually use Median on their rebrands, Tevion is the Siemsson/Aldi brand.
AFAIK the current SL65 like the mini SL65/12 come from Taiwanese manufacturer Goodmind Industries
Firmware by Suresoft, chips by ALI.
Beko may be rebranded as Silvercrest but it also a brandname from a huge Turkish manufacturer Arçelik (not kidding) (They also own Thomson brand.) Mostly white goods but various other electronics including sat receivers and TVs