Old Lidl/Aldi Sat box info

danjo

DrHector wrote: »

thanks for quick reply,

the earpiece is workin fine, but no noise at all coming from finder. Have checked all connections, so maybe the beeper is faulty?

Is there another way to find the right positioning for the dish?

Not trying to be smart but do you have the Sat receiver switched on and connected to the beeper while you are adjusting the dish?

Check all cable connections and make sure there is no short or open circuit.

Kotek Besar

Back in Lidl from 23/04/09 @ €89.99.

hadmad

will be going down to have a look at that sys

smellyanus

benifa wrote: »

Back in Lidl from 23/04/09 @ €89.99.

Hi. I have a few questions about this system.
- Where I live it would be awkward to put the dish outside, so would this still receive a signal if it was attached indoors to a table etc? (I see it is only 37cm)
- Does it have to be tuned to the Astra satellite? Would it be capable of receiving other satellites if it was moved around ?
- I have an old Sky box, would that have any influence on the channels I could pick up or would it be totally incompatible?

I realise these are probably very obvious questions to people who know what they are doing, but I have never tried doing anything with a dish before.
Thanks.

DrHector

Sam Russell wrote: »

If you want to tune into Astra satelites, then you point the receiver towards the sun at about 11 am in the morning with the bar horizontal, you will not be far out. Use the ear piece to get it closer, then use the SysInfo button (bottom left) when tuned into a station to fine tune. Try every possible adjustment, a little at a time.

[The earth turns 4 degrees per minute, 30 degress east is 2 hours earlier than noon GMT or 11 am summer time.]

Have tried every possible adjustment but absolutely no sound from earpiece or sat finer beeper thingy

MBSnr wrote: »

Depends on your location but if you're covered by high res pics on google earth use www.dishpointer.com and choose your location on the map and 28E sat from the drop down menu. THis will give you a line indicating the correct direction. If you are not in a high res google area then try lining up with a compass. It's around 140 degrees magnetic in the West. Not sure about the East but can't vary that much! ( I don't have a DSL connection to check on dishpointer.com)

Buffer wrote: »

Your sat receiver should also have a menu option to display signal strength, etc. It's much less convenient than a sat finder, since it requires one person outside at the dish and another person inside at the TV, but it might give you some indication of life.

Make sure you have the elevation set correctly -- it's just as important as the direction. If 20 degrees is what you need, check it by looking at the elevation markings on the dish mounting. A common mistake is to aim the bar on which the LNB is mounted up into the sky, at an elevation of what you expect. With most dish designs, in Ireland the bar will be approximately horizontal, actually pointing slightly to the ground.

Buffer.

Thanks for all the advice guys, dishpointer.com was useful, but the reciever is picking up no signal regardless of trying all your suggestions and every other option I could think of trying!

I'm convinced that some part of the setup is not working ( most likely the LNB or reciever I guess).

Oh well it was worth a try (maybe not worth the 2 days of headwreck!)

Probably a bit late to return this one to Lidl?:rolleyes:

Joey the lips

Hi Folks, I am not a big sat expert but I think this is only the small portable camping version. I seen these when I was in france and while the picture is ok its not as good as the type you used to.

I MIGHT BE WRONG! This is based on one experience, I would hold off for the one for 50 euro more if I were you thinking of buying it,

MBSnr

smellyanus wrote: »

Hi. I have a few questions about this system.
- Where I live it would be awkward to put the dish outside, so would this still receive a signal if it was attached indoors to a table etc? (I see it is only 37cm)
- Does it have to be tuned to the Astra satellite? Would it be capable of receiving other satellites if it was moved around ?
- I have an old Sky box, would that have any influence on the channels I could pick up or would it be totally incompatible?

I realise these are probably very obvious questions to people who know what they are doing, but I have never tried doing anything with a dish before.
Thanks.

I have this exact same system and even after a year I can't see any point in me changing the receiver. I was in the same boat a yr ago and have learnt a great deal in the last yr! It does output composite SCART and not RGB but it really doesn't matter too much to me.

To answer your questions-

You really need nothing in front of the dish. It will work through single pane non tinted non UV blocking glass (old glazing and only for stronger sats) but not through double glazing. I live in Mayo and now have a 80cm dish. The 37cm dish is fine for the stronger sats 28E/13E/19E/5W in clear weather but no use for other sats in my location. With an 80cm dish in Mayo I get most sats from 42E to 43W.

I manually move the 80cm dish about and use the SL65/12 to get 18 sats from Mayo!

The Sky boxes are limited to a set frequency range and symbol rate (for the sat at 28E) and as such cannot display sat channels which fail outside those ranges. Also it cannot scan as the SL65 can - you ahve to manually know the channel frequencies.

Hope this helps. I find it's very useful for watching free sport that isn't otherwise available on the Sky 28E sat.

Joey the lips - the picture is not RGB scart so can be a little soft. If you mean the dish size and reception - yes it does suffer breakup. Best thing I found with the system was it is a great start up package to get into the whole muli-sat thing without spending a fortune.

smellyanus

Thanks MBSnr. I have been researching it most of the evening and it seems that 37cm wouldnt really be great (like you mentioned your 80cm).
Pity, like I said it would be hassle to put a dish outside so could only really consider something small that wouldnt take up half the bedroom (I only wanted it for upstairs anyway, I have NTL in the sitting room).
Cheers.

DT100

So whats the overall opinion...is it crap or good?

MBSnr

DT100 wrote: »

So whats the overall opinion...is it crap or good?

It's basic but it does the job. The composite pic is good on my 32" LCD. TBH a lot of sat channels run at such a low bitrate having RGB or composite SCART is irrelevant! I've used the small dish in a lot of different weather conditions and it isn't bad for the stronger sats. With a larger dish it works very well. It's also small and lightweight and you can record onto DVD from the 2nd scart. I have it setup with a diseqc switch (cost about 6 euro) so that I use it to watch something on 28E (if the Sky box is busy recording 2 things at once) without having to unscrew cables behind the tv unit.

I would only replace it if
1. It broke
2. The amount of FTA HD channels increased to the point that I needed a HD receiver

chamlis

My Dad and I got the lidl one a few years ago. The dish is shoite.

We got an 80cm dish secondhand, and it works great. Well it did till it crapped out recently. My Dad got another satbox that a dude was supplying to people as FTA, and it is shoite.

So, daddy is going into lidl tomorrow morning and picking up a new one.
Just don't rely on the supplied dish.

micratoyota

I must disagree with you. I got the complete package in April 2008 and with perseverence got the quality up to about 75% I have perfect reception and sound from this system Admitadly it is in a sheltered position and not more than 16 feet off the ground (the dish) in the back of my house I have had no problems either with the bracket or dish, in Cork City two minutes from city centre. I also got an old Sky box +remote from a friend and got an outsider to put up a sky dish for €80 bring t v to my back room The outsider hooked into the Lidl wiring near the dish to save himself cable by splitting the wire at the LIDL dish and running the new cable only to to living room rather then the front room which I wanted. Anyway its working perfectly Aldi in the Front room and old Sky in the back room. LIDL dish 60cm Old Sky(supposebly) 80cm

lewisevans777

As a result of checking out this product for a friend, I actually came across an Irish supplier who, to my mind at least, has a better solution. No fixing dishes and hunting for signals, no fiddling around like people have found on the last 45 pages of this thread.

Check out http://smartstuff.ning.com/forum/topics/slingbox-or-silvercrest?page=1&commentId=3014348%3AComment%3A801&x=1#3014348Comment801.

He is selling a lot of good gear cheaper than you can get it in most shops in Ireland.

Sam Russell

The Lidl kit is great, works well, and every thing is in the box. The only fault with it is in the bracket used to support the dish. The 80 cm dish is too big, too much wind resistance, for the bracket which only supports from below. The whole thing wobbles in any wind above a breeze. The 60 cm one is more reliable from that point, but loses signal in snow or heavey rain. Taking the price into account, it was great value, easy to install, and gets a very good signal. It cost 80 euros, and saves me the 200 or so euros a year to NTL. I had to get an aerial for RTE, for which I used a bent coathanger attached to the old NTL cable. Works.
We do not get Channel 6, thank goodness. Unfortunately we do get channel 3, but you can't win them all.
A great improvement in reception and channel choice, at no ongoing cost. Cannot be beaten.

BostonB

lewisevans777 wrote: »

As a result of checking out this product for a friend, I actually came across an Irish supplier who, to my mind at least, has a better solution. No fixing dishes and hunting for signals, no fiddling around like people have found on the last 45 pages of this thread.

Check out http://smartstuff.ning.com/forum/topics/slingbox-or-silvercrest?page=1&commentId=3014348%3AComment%3A801&x=1#3014348Comment801.

He is selling a lot of good gear cheaper than you can get it in most shops in Ireland.

Could you be more vague? Do you mean the Sling Media slingbox ?

oshea1p

Hi BostonB

I just got back to Lewis on this as the Sling Media offering is not the same as what is on offer in LIDL. He was looking at the Slingbox Pro and standard Slingbox which should be used along side a SKY or NTL box for remote access. The Sling kit does not offer a standalone solution.

In relation to the dish LIDL are offering, it looks fine for camping etc but not something I would use at home as a dish that size is probably not going to give the best signal. Also it's plastic so as Sam commented wind etc (which we get now and then in Ireland) is going to mess with the picture quality. Also heavy rain (again something we tend to see here) messes with the signal.

At €80 it's ok but I would keep looking.

Cheers,
Paul.

stevethesatguy

there is a €99 complete satellite tv system for sale in ireland, can't say who though

aidanodr

Hi Guys,

Just got the Lidl Silvercrest SL 65/12 system. Spent a while trying to get the thing to work. No matter what I do I get Signal Quality up around 70% and the Signal Strength staying static at 14% regardless. Any tips, pointers? I found the supplied cable to be not great? The mesh part one is meant to fold back breaks away easily.

I am in Carrigaline, Co. Cork, I assume for the Astra Satellites one is pointing in the same general direction as all the Sky dishes? I find the supplied "Finder" unit a bit dodgy also.

Are their any changes to be made in the Box setup itself that may not be well described in the manual?

Any help appreciated to get me on my way ..

Cheers
Aidan

stevethesatguy

sounds like you have the bracket on the back of the dish on upside down,,,apart from that the dish is notoriously poor at signal ampliflation

celticfc

Slightly different offering from Aldi next week (Thursday 21st May).

See here

PplAreStrange

celticfc wrote: »

Slightly different offering from Aldi next week (Thursday 21st May).

See here

no its not, they always sell the the same decoder and LMB with different sizes of a dish, which is just a piece of metal that could be shaped or fashioned by anyone, its the LMB and decoder that does all the work. So essentially its the same set they always sell.

celticfc

PplAreStrange wrote: »

no its not, they always sell the the same decoder and LMB with different sizes of a dish, which is just a piece of metal that could be shaped or fashioned by anyone, its the LMB and decoder that does all the work. So essentially its the same set they always sell.

Yes but the reciever doesn't look like the usual Tevion/Silvercrest (Comag) SL65-12 STB. Perhaps it's a different manufacturer..?

PplAreStrange

celticfc wrote: »

Yes but the reciever doesn't look like the usual Tevion/Silvercrest (Comag) SL65-12 STB. Perhaps it's a different manufacturer..?

oh its aldi not lidl, my mistake. however they're all pretty much the same

FanadMan

Seen the ads for this dish system - but does anyone know if they are any good? Am in an appartment block with a communal sat dish so will I be able to use the decoder ok?

PplAreStrange

you just need the LMB (sat transmitter/reciever) to have enough coax connections on it. Otherwise you may have to get a interface for the dish so that more ppl can use their decoders.

FanadMan

Well, as its a communal dish serving about 50 apartments surely it would have enough connections. And each apartment has a wall socket specific for the dish. Fingers crossed this Aldi box will work ok.

St Senan

There is a thread about this already http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054982781

Thargor

That link you provided is a 46 page long thread for a different product from a different shop that isn't on sale anymore, so its not really any help to me, Im asking about the satellite dish kit in Aldi tomorrow.

Tony

To be fair to scaller I think thats an honest mistake as lately a lot of new threads have been started on the lidl kit.

Thargor wrote: »

That link you provided is a 46 page long thread for a different product from a different shop that isn't on sale anymore, so its not really any help to me, Im asking about the satellite dish kit in Aldi tomorrow.

Thargor

I know, Im not being thick or anything, I suppose it does sound a bit like Im snapping at him reading it back, I just want some info, sorry :P

You reckon its too small? I forgot to say Im in Galway City.