Do you bother with your satellite dish anymore?

busby said:
What direction is Hotbird and what channels do you get? I have not used my Multimo dish in Spain for years,,BUSBY.
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Hi there,
I never had any luck with the Multimo in Spain, I found it somewhat patchy in France but have had Oyster for about 12years now wouldn't be without it wintering in Spain &Portugal we BBC1/2/3 ITV &all BBC Radio programmes so I will stick with my rooftop as I'm not into streaming.
 
We have a standard TV antenna on the roof and watch local TV, when we are in mainland Europe we are normally able to find an English channel or one we can understand either in German or French.
Sport does not really need a commentary to follow the action!
News is broader than the UK/USA centred news that is peddled in UK.
 
Now that BBC iPlayer, Now TV and other home streaming services allow you to download their content to watch offline we download several box sets general programmes and movies onto the laptop and watch via a HDMI lead plugged into the Avtex TV without the need for any complicated setups or satellite dishes. Brilliant when abroad as well as everything is on your laptop. Sorted!
 
Ivory55 said:
We never seem to get the hang of any technology. The radio in the van cuts in and out as we drive along. Never get good tv reception in the van or at home. The tv at home has a mind of its own , it can be on Yorkshire today, Birmingham tomorrow or even the Isle of Man. It’s pot luck. We just accept it as normal now.
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sounds like us. :DWife couldn't even get firestick to work indoors.:LOL:
jollyrodger said:
Normally wouldn't bother but this van came with an Oyster system ,but no reciever when I first got it so I put one in from old van .
worked ok out and about a few times then off to Spain and didn't lock on .
So went back to streaming and hdmi multi media player.
Not locking on now so just pm'd Anthony at oyster tech .

If it can't be updated it will be coming off the van at some stage.
Anybody identify the unit ,no name at all.

Assuming an Oyster by the dish .
View attachment 288718
Answers on a postcard :D
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There's your problem at the top.You need the resident 'man of mystery ' @Stretto Boy :LOL:
 
Jim said:
Yes, still do when I need to (y)
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@Jim who do you use as your ISP these days. I cancelled my last contract after a 4 week trip last year where I used my phone as a 4g hotspot and didn't use the satinternet at all during the trip. That was to France. Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

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I see posts like this around the web all the time and I find there are a lot of misconceptions around this subject so even though the post has been idle for a few months I wanted to try and give a bit of a more in-depth explanation.

For live UK TV abroad you have two options....... Satellite or Internet

Attached is a data sheet that I have compiled using the "big 4" mobile providers in the UK, subscription pricing for certain platforms and also the RRP's of the most commonly bought Oyster Satellite systems.

Everyone has their own views on what's better and different solutions work for different people so please don't think I'm trying to push our systems.
Hopefully this will just help to shed a bit of light on what you're likely to pay depending on what you're after and also put to bed the misconception that streaming is cheaper than Satellite right now.
 

Attachments

IPTV is the future, the dish is dead - long live IPTV........

Still use ours for free view channels if terrestrial is rubbish - but IPTV is where it’s at......
 
I P TV is only s good as the wifi connection, prefer just to have to worry about a clear view of south-east sky to keep her indoors happy watching her soaps and for my sport
 
The birth of 5G, expansion of comm’s the days of having no / limited comm’s will soon be over....long live IPTV
 
Have a sat dish on a tripod. Easy to move to avoid trees but takes a few minutes to set up.

Also nickable so wary of where I put it.

Works just fine for us

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IPTV still requires data subscription regardless of how fast it is or how stable the stream is.
Whether you have Mifi or pay for pitch wifi you're still paying to watch TV no matter which way you look at it.
 
We used our dish all the way across France from Roscoff to our last night in France on the border with Italy at Montgenevre where to my surprise we got a good signal for BBC. Since crossing into Italy and now in Corsica it's been untouched but we have watched a bit of Montalbano and some Springwatch on iPlayer. However, even with a 50Gb monthly allowance we don't have enough data for regular viewing like we might do at home or as we did when we crossed France.

And we haven't missed it. The entertainment on this screen is better.:)

LRM_EXPORT_3913809444569_20190528_180234812.jpeg
 
Never had much use for TV in the van we have one but its never on the good book is all the entertainment we nead fun
bill

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Neither. We chat, drink and play boardgames. Not necessarily in that order.
 
Casper46 said:
I have no idea of what streaming is so it’s an oyster for us.
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I also have no idea what streaming is - but I don't possess a satellite dish either - guess that makes me a dinosaur.
 
Ours came with the `van. and it is useful. but needs sky card. Streaming is hit and miss and the bandwidth varies so much, plus is very data hungry.

We could get BBC in La Manga, back before the Astra satellites where realigned. After which 4 of us invested in a 6ft dish and shared the output. Met a guy one time who carried a 5ft dish on the rear of his r-v, and spent ages setting it up on site. Mind we all watched the Rugby world cup via it an barbecued (and got rat-arsed)

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Yes, its and old manual dish on an old Hymer. Factory Fitted Ketherein from early 2000.

Does not receive a couple of channels and only works in Northern Europe. Stream the rest.

Wont spend a lot on auto systems. We had and oyster Vision II that came with the motorhome cost a fortune in repairs. It spent more time broken than fixed. Then a German System, Like Avtex. That again was a lot of rubbish.
 
I’m a bit of a gadget freak (probably a symptom of working in IT) and have generally bought the (b)leading edge technology when possible.

I’ve a VuQube that I bought a few years ago for my boat - funnily it doesn’t seem to work too well when I’m at anchor ?, so I moved it to my Moho and to be honest it’s a right faff - so I’ve resigned that one to the garage at home.

Now I admit if you’ve invested in a roof mounted dish akin to a Patriot missile system with tracking etc, it would be very nice to have. But for me, streaming wins hands down (due to initial cost as well as weight).

I’ve a EE 4G Home Hub that I take with me, and the performance and coverage is very impressive. I’ve got 100GB a month, which I’ve not hit yet, and I can watch the standard terrestrial channels as well as Netflix, Amazon prime etc with the use of an Amazon Fire stick; and if I want anything beyond that (for big golf matches etc on Sky) I use NowTV app.

I now take the 4G Home Hub with me to boat trips and road trip - same system, one cost - works a treat.
 
Jim said:
Everyone seems to stream their TV these days. Is the rooftop satellite system dead or do you still have a need for it?
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Our Oyster Satellite system needed completely replacing after getting damaged but we decided for us it just wasn’t worth the expense of repairing/replacing it.
If we want to watch tv we do have a built in Freeview system in the tv that came with the motorhome which works really well, plus we bought an Apple Lightning Digital AV adapter (£49.99 from the Apple store) that connects our iPhone, iPad or iPod to the tv. It’s a clever little device and it enables you to mirror whatever is displayed on your Apple device onto a HDMI television so you can view your programme on a bigger screen. We find what we have is suitable for us as we don’t watch that much tv in the motorhome and must say we haven’t missed not having the satellite dish at all.
Great question though and it’s fascinating to read what other people use in their motorhomes.
Sue ?
 
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We had a telly and satellite installed on the new {to us} van. We've never streamed until we were away in the van at Easter and I streamed the Man U match from my phone - a month's data used up on one bleedin match!

Since then, Cliff has upgraded his mobile contract to unlimited data, and will be using that to watch the footie on Virgin Go whilst in the van, and I will use the telly to its full advantage.

I also read, listen to the Archers, play the Uke, and look out of the windows if the view is good. ;)
 
Used streaming all over France and Spain without hesitation or buffering (Vodafone)
Data is pretty cheap these days. Still see people shuffling about trying to get a satellite signal through the trees, nearly as entertaining as watching a tugger erecting an awning in a wind.
I never use site wifi though, never found any adequate and free.

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Gave the satellite system to the charity shop. God bless the Vodafone 100gb a month offer that was discussed on here. We watch as much tv as we like on our mifi. Don't think we'll ever go past 100gb a month.
 
Parrot Face said:
Gave the satellite system to the charity shop. God bless the Vodafone 100gb a month offer that was discussed on here. We watch as much tv as we like on our mifi. Don't think we'll ever go past 100gb a month.
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Wow missed that thread, how do you get 100gb a month.
 
CazPaul said:
Wow missed that thread, how do you get 100gb a month.
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From May this year...
Just got this via HUKD.

​
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/vodafone-100gb-unlimited-mins-sim-only-3224797?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=position_3_image&utm_campaign=08-05-2019​


VODAFONE 100gb data, unlimited min & texts
12 month contract
£24 / month before £100 auto cashback
Plus £10 coupon bringing it down to £15.67 / month.
Vodafone allow all data usage whilst roaming​
 
We have never bothered with a dish in17 years it’s not a problem for us (y) (y)(y)(y)
 
Parrot Face said:
From May this year...
Just got this via HUKD.


https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/vodafone-100gb-unlimited-mins-sim-only-3224797?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=position_3_image&utm_campaign=08-05-2019


VODAFONE 100gb data, unlimited min & texts
12 month contract
£24 / month before £100 auto cashback
Plus £10 coupon bringing it down to £15.67 / month.
Vodafone allow all data usage whilst roaming
Click to expand...

That's actually not true.
If you read the terms and conditions of your Vodafone contract you will see this...........
* Roam-free is intended for periodic travel. It isn’t meant for users roaming on a semi-permanent or permanent basis.
Basically this means that if they notice you using data outside of the UK for a prolonged period of time then they are within their rights to charge you extra.
O2 has the same policy where as 3 and EE give you partial use of your data abroad.

Vodafone terms: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/document/vfcon072758.pdf

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