US Feeds in Europe ?

DannyD

Hi,
I remember reading that it was possible to receive US channels in real time here in Europe if you :
-know the correct channel/frequency.
-have a big enough dish.

I'm talking about the channels itself in real time not just a show or the news.Is this possible and if so which channels ? thanks in advance.

chernobyl

Originally posted by DannyD
.Is this possible and if so which channels ?

No, its not.

watty

I suppose MSNBC on Telstar in NTSC hardly counts.. Half time not there and madly boring when it is. Month or two since I looked, the Kids would have set fire to the TV if I hadn't moved the dish away.

There is some junk on 5W.. sometimes a Globecast Washington or NY test card. Also what looks like some kind of abysmal quality NTSC converted badly to PAL USA origin Iranian programming feed.

In essence Chernobyl is correct, but if you want brain damage there are a few channels that can be loosly called "feeds" and "American"

Actual real US of A channels are impossible. Even if you took that big dish from Middleton and stuck it on Rockhall.

There is nothing secret about the Satellites or Frequencies
www.lyngsat.com has it all.

DannyD

Thanks for the replies.

And why is it so ? We can get channels from Europe and Asia but not the States ?

watty

We don't get any channels broadcast by satellite to Asia.
We get Asian channels rebroadcast on European Satellites for Asians (and anyone else intgerested) in Europe.

The USA output is either rubbish that no non-American would watch or sold at inflated price to Europe by artifically limiting "rights" to each terrestrial broadcaster.

The only major exception is CSPAN/VOA TV (feeds?). It is low bitrate poor quality and sometimes carried on BBC Parliament Channel when they have nothing else. FTA on Hotbird but not Digibox compatible.

Unless it is in Polish/Arabic/German dubbed it will thus not be on FTA Satellite in Europe.

We pickup all the European channels, because, curiously, we are actually in Europe.

You don't get ALL of them:
Netherlands / Dutch and Scandinavia is like UK, they have a FTV card schemes with nominal annual charge to pay for administration of it (RTE take note).

France and Ireland are Idiots and make the "Free" Terrestrial channels part of Pay TV packages, though there are a few main French Channels (TV5, TV5 Europe, France5 and Arte are Free to Air). The France1,2,3 &4 are pay only on Digital, though for historic reasons (Like Ch5 was on Sky Analog) "free" in Analog Secam on 5W (for now).

Most of the "real" free channels as apposed to European versions of the UK free "dross" are German and Italian.

Almost all the Russian stuff is encrypted, but since they are the most avid pay TV hackers I dunno why they bother.


There are a few Polish main Channels too, as well as the Polish Pay TV packs.

Dunno how "main" the Greek stuff is. If that is their "main" TV channels, I am very sorry for them.

The other 46 or so Countries / Languages is the sort of stuff free on Sky, but in Croation, Hungarian, Korean etc.

A lot of Arabic stuff (some Persian/Iranian too) on Hotbird. Some of these are the "main" terrestrial Channels, others like Nile TV (English, Hebrew, Arabic, French) are "external" services like DW TV (English / German mostly) or BBC World TV (English FTA)

Oman TV has some US Sitcom etc in English with Arabic subtitles.

Arriang TV from Korea looks to be designed for Koreans in USA, and is almost entirely English and nearly devoid of News/Current affairs (hardly mentioned World Cup in Korea).

I get about 300 free TV and 280 free Radio just on Hotbird &Astra I think, plus I have all the 60 odd free radio and 70odd Free TV on Sky on the PC too. A fourth LNB is used for "feed hunting" getting Globecast feeds on 5W digital at the mo (mostly test card).

bkehoe

The NBC Primetime shows (ER, West Wing, Friends, etc) are always on at scheduled times on Telestar 12. Note the timezone; you're not going to be getting primetime shows till around 1AM, with say ER not being on till 3AM, so I usually record them on the PC. Some of the time the signal strength drops, so to keep it you'd need a 1.2M dish. During the day you sometimes get NBC programming and usually MSNBC. NBC also have feeds to Europe on Telestar 11, though I only tried there around twice, and didnt get anything.

watty

Also it is in NTSC, which my TV does do, but looks fairly coarse compared with BBC/TG4/RTE/C4 PAL.

Yah, I find on my ole 1m dish I got for ten Euro, I lose MS-NBC feed on Telstar if it rains (Mid West gets 5 to 6 times rainfall of Dublin/London!)

rcunning03

when i was living in brussels i got to know the owner of an american bar and he was able to recieve all the us channels in real time. unfortunately you need a pass from a us soldier to recieve these channels but as this satellite feed reaches belgium i presume it also reaches ireland

they also have the armed forces channel europe which has all the us sports on live, no commercial advertising just adverts for uncle sam and freedom every 5 minutes

so if you have money and us military connections you can recieve us channels in europe

watty

They seem fairly low bitrate, lots of stuff on one transponder, yes AFN does exist on EU satellite as a "cold war" legacy. Encrypted, but allegedly occasionally clear.

I beleive the Russians no longer "occupy" "East Germany" so when are the Americans going home?

Sin e an Fear

they also have the armed forces channel europe which has all the us sports on live, no commercial advertising just adverts for uncle sam and freedom every 5 minutes

Yeah, and the newscasters wear miltary uniforms- see www.afnkorea.com

British Forces TV www.bfbs.com is a mix of BBC and ITV- BFBS1 looks watchable, BFBS2 looks like junk. BFBS Radio 1 makes BBC Radio 1 sound like Radio 4....

With Astra 2D picked up in Cyprus, perhaps Irish UN peacekeepers can watch RTE et al.

Smeagol

When I was living in Germany (near Düsseldorf) I could pick up BFBS TV and Radio . I had clear view to the transmitter, towards the occupied part of the town. (Where the brits rule). Sky sports premiere league coverage every sunday, but without the ads. Same in the rhine/main area (Frankfurt) with AFN. When you live close enough to a tx, you can watch all the stuff for free. Isn't it nice to have foreign forces in the country?:mad:

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by watty
Even if you took that big dish from Middleton and stuck it on Rockhall

i have a question about that dish. i've passed it loads of times and i'm wondering how big is it and what's it for. it's hardly connected to a STB in someones living room

pbirney

Originally posted by Mossy Monk
i have a question about that dish. i've passed it loads of times and i'm wondering how big is it and what's it for. it's hardly connected to a STB in someones living room

It's a 32 meter dish and its purpose is to handle the bulk of North & South American telephone traffic in & out of Ireland. Up until its introduction in 1984, Ireland relied on the Goonhilly earth station in Cornwall for its transatlantic telcoms.

This site (rather outdated) has more info.: http://indigo.ie/~eftirl/

~Paul.

colin300

You can get feeds for the NHL games and PGA tour golf off 12.5west (Atlantic Bird 1).