whats going on with the tv companies??

[traciered]

ive read an interesting article on solproductions tv website today about the reasons that we lost our television last summer for a number of months....can anyone explain to me whats going on now??

[saminthesun]

Ive read it.. I have the torresat system, and to be honest, i really couldnt care less anymore! all it is, is 2 competative companies trying to get one over the other.... And for the record, my partner bought the "EL MUNDO" newspaper yesterday and today, and its NOT a direct translation...

[molloyp]

TV in Spain

My oppinion is that all re-broadcasting could be stopped eventually some companies are legal because they pay taxes etc, but is it 100% legal what they are doing if you read everything in the papers last year whe TELEMICRO went down then no as it was stated re-broadcasting was illegal, what happened to Solaris and GB TV re-broadcasting your only real alternative is your own dish direct from Astra satellite with your own box.

Pete M

[torremed75]

channel 6

I'm not sure what is happening. Still unsure whether to pay simulsat..just incase. However their channel * channel 6* is broadcasting stuff that some would not like to watch, ok it's late! but as I have children thought i should make you all aware

[moaninggit]

All of these re-broadcasters will be shut down as eec clamps down! if you decide to get a big satellite dish Make sure you choose an installer that is member of european satellite engineers association... "e-s-e-a.com"

[videokeith]

go satellite

At sometime in future, the Pan european agreement about Broadcasters being able to send signals outside of their regions will come into effect. It looks like a minefield of rights negotiations but sooner of later, probably later this should be pushed through.

From what I've read and been told by police sources, it's perfectly legal, as an individual or community to use satellite and watch any free to air signals, as long as you do not have to pay a subscription charge (from a rebroadcaster to do so).

Spend a few more euros and enjoy hundreds of channels via Satellite rather than risk being turned off sometime in the future.

Just IMHO.

Nobody really wishes to see the end of Torresat, superbeam or others as they do provide a valuable service to the expat community.

Cheers,

Keith
Costa Blanca TV
PS. we are NOT a satellite TV installer.

[leilton]

Torresat

At sometime in future, the Pan european agreement about Broadcasters being able to send signals outside of their regions will come into effect. It looks like a minefield of rights negotiations but sooner of later, probably later this should be pushed through.

From what I've read and been told by police sources, it's perfectly legal, as an individual or community to use satellite and watch any free to air signals, as long as you do not have to pay a subscription charge (from a rebroadcaster to do so).

Spend a few more euros and enjoy hundreds of channels via Satellite rather than risk being turned off sometime in the future.

Just IMHO.

Nobody really wishes to see the end of Torresat, superbeam or others as they do provide a valuable service to the expat community.

Cheers,

Keith
Costa Blanca TV
PS. we are NOT a satellite TV installer.

Be more concerned with both of them,if they took a bit more interes in the people who fork out money to them every month.
Have written to Torresat on three occassions, with general enquires re their service,and am still to receive a reply.
Yesterday sat and read their info channel regarding the wonderful premier football they were offering on Goltv. Did you see it, nor NOR DID I. And today,I can watch a screeen thats says No Video, but according to their info channel,I can yet again watch football.

So glad I have spanish TV, but Oh how I wish some company,that offers even a little bit of service,would step into the breach. Yes I had one of the sat dishes,and got told by the community that it was too big.

Am I the only one who thinks we are taking for suckers?

[videokeith]

Our community put in a Sat Disc as part of the community. It worked out at less than €100 per household for over 100 channels, albeit without BBC2.

Many households subscribe to Torresat and other providers regardless and use our communities' free service in their bedroom or kitchen, or wherever.

It's a quam system and all that is required is a set-top box, which costs less than €100.

Thus, for a one time fee of less than €100 all households receive free, legal, non subscription English, Spanish, Scandinavian, French and German TV.

There is only a need for the siting of the Satellite Dish and I realise that some communities shall neither allow this not wish to spend their community money on such a project.

However, it's just another option.

Again, I have no financial or personal interest in promoting this. I'm the VP of our community and it was something that we thought would add extra value to our properties plus additional services. It was a popular choice for those that are only here a few months or weeks each year and those that rent, as they are not paying a subscription charge for a service that they do not watch, if they are not here.

It is now an additional item that Home Sellers can promote when they put their houses for sale or rent.

I've never had Torresat so cannot say anything about their programing or service. I usually watch the Premiership football on TVE2 (la2) on saturday or/and Sunday afternoons. It's free too.

Cheers,

Keith
Costa Blanca TV

[maddogingo]

Hello Keith
Read with interest your positive contribution to this thread. I agree this is the way forward for urbanisations and I'd like to put forward your idea at our forthcoming AGM. I'd appreciate answers to a few questions please:
1. What did the dish installation cost and what size dish is necessary (I'm in Los Altos)?
2. Other than BBC2 can you receive all the other Freesat channels?
3. What is "quam"?
4. How is the signal from the satellite transmitted to individual properties - cable or wireless?
5. What is the additional cost for individuals that 'subscribe' to this service?
Many thanks for your help.

[satandpcguy]

1. What did the dish installation cost and what size dish is necessary (I'm in Los Altos)?.

ideally for a community you do need a 2.4m dish - you need as much signal as you can get to feed around the cable systems.
for a dish on its own expect around 1100-1300e, which should include dish, supoport, lnb and concrete base.
but on top of that for a community you will be talking about long cable runs and amplifiers and distributors.
without actually seeing a community, the distances, location for dish etc noone can even start to guess.

although i do not operate in your area you can try:
broadbandcostablanca.com (nortons) - try and speak to micheal - the boss and community installation expert!
or
lee-digital.com
or
a2bsat.com
or
televisiontechnology.eu

normally the community will pay for the installation of the dish, cable and distribution infrastructure.
each home will pay for their cable from the distribution point to the home (not ideal to do this yourself as you can invalidate the gaurentee on equipment should you "cock this up"), a receiver, and a viewing card.

2. Other than BBC2 can you receive all the other Freesat channels?.

many channels should be able to be receive 24/7.
those on the weaker horizontal frequencies will not - these include bbc2,3,4, cbeebies, cbbc, (you can go to stronger other regions) channel 4 (although you can currently use an alternate frequency), five.

all free to air channels on available on a freesat receiver can also be recieived on a sky receiver, and generic receivers.
all free to air channels HD on available on a freesat HD receiver can also be recieived on a sky HD receiver, and generic hd receivers.

a freesat receiver wil use the freesat epg to navigate channels
a sky receiver wil use the sky epg to navigate channels

channels on freesat and sky all (apart from five) use the same channels and frequencies.

sky receivers have the benefit of a viewing card slot and can allow you accss, with a freesatfromsky card, to five (a stronger version than the free freesat version), fiver, five usa, sky three, a strong ITV and a strong c4, setanta sports news.

freesat hd has bbc hd, itvs hd service (1 programme a day if you are lucky), ann luxe hd
a sky hd box with a freesatfromsky crds gets bbchd, itvhd (new epg only!), c4 hd and luxe hd.

3. What is "quam"?.

the system for distributing a signal from one dish to many homes / receivers, using a series of amplifers and distribution points.

4. How is the signal from the satellite transmitted to individual properties - cable or wireless?.

all via cables. ideally a new installation will also require new cables from the dish to distribution points to points in the house. each house will require their own receiver.

systems with a stack of receivers in one place, each programmed to one channels, and that combined signals sent to each home, who just plug straight into the tv could be classed as rebroadcasting. under certain rules and laws this type of sytsme can only really be employed in special buildings....like hospitals and military bases.

the amount of data means that wireless is not ideal...especially for HD channels and the amount of data there!!

5. What is the additional cost for individuals that 'subscribe' to this service?

for viewing free to air channels - like bbc and itv - not monthlysubscription

Freesat Channel List Details

For free to air channels on a sky box use this link Freesatfromsky Channel List Details and forget about Five, Fiver, (and timeshifts), Sky3, Setanta Sports News.

for viewing free to air channels and free to view channels (like five, fiver, five usa) - no monthly subscription but need a freesatfromsky card - (uk about 20quid) Freesatfromsky Channel List Details

for viewing free to air channels and free to view channels and sky subscription channels - depends on how much they want to pay each month and on what package of subscription channels they want.

Sky Subscription Package Details

Many thanks for your help.

a lot more on the differences between freesat and sky can be found here

Freesat Sky UK Satellite TV for Costa Blanca Spain

you may have seen a version of this on the "other" forum also.

hope this helps

[videokeith]

All good info about Freesat and the companies he suggested I also contacted. Some would do communities, others would not.

The only disadvantage for our community was that most of the residents did not wish to purchase their own decoder and they system was more expensive to install for the community. BUT the advantage is that one has acess to all of the FREESAT Channels.

The QUAM system takes the freesat signal, and then via a transponder sends it down the standard coax to each house, although some booster amps are needed in the houses furthest away from source.

Thus, we have 10 QUAM Transponders giving us about 120 channels, of which about 25 are worth watching.

The cost was less than €10K.

The advantage is that there is not any additional cabling required and only a set top box needs to be added to your set up. This also means that you can add boxes in any rooms of the house were you have an antenna outlet. Very handy if you have visitor and want to have extra tellys with all the channels in the bedrooms.

We don't get all of the channels so this is a disadvantage.

However, as new channels come on line, we can add transponders, each one giving us about 10 more channels.

Since everyone is involved with the community from lost of different places, we thought this was the best system as not only do we offer UK and Irish programs but from other parts of Spain (especially Madrid and Andalucia), German, French, Scandinavia, Belgium, Japan and the Mid-East.

Thus, we are offering something that everyone can benefit from, in some small way, and so those that maybe would like to have seen the money spent elsewhere can not really complain too much about not receiving anything for their money. This would/could have been a problem if we had installed a UK based Freesat style system, if the channels were only English.

However, I'm not a Sat guy, just the VP of the community but my background is in TV production, so I have a little knowledge only.

I hope this helps a little.

In Los Altos you'll need a 1.9 min or 2.4 metre dish, I would think.

Cheers,

Keith

PS. We have 116 houses in our community.

[maddogingo]

I really appreciate your impartial and comprehensive advice you two have given me. All I now need to do is agreement at our urbanisation's AGM!
Once again, many thanks.