Receiving UK TV in Krakow

Having just arrived in Krakow and will be here until Dec09, I would be grateful for any advice on how to receive UK TV channels.

Cyfra+ has been recommended but can I put a Sky viewing card into the receiver to get the Sky package?

Do a search with "sky tv" in the top right hand corner of this page and you will find loads of related stuff

No. You need a Sky digibox as well as a Sky viewing card (linked to an account which is paid from a UK bank account) and a 90cm dish.

harry is correct ... though you can pick up sky boxes on eBay and "cracked" cards for viewing

Many thanks for your help.

I take it that there will be no issues with plugging a UK Sky digi box into the Polish power supply, just the need for a suitable plug converter?

220-230 V, 50-60 Hz

plugs:

Pssst
If you have virgin broadband in Poland...
Purchase this Ddigital box, connect it to your Virgin Broadband and your tv, install and search the channels via your remote control and VOILA! You have illegal UK satellite with no monthly payments or anything, just the purchase of your Ddigital box and your virgin broadband! No dish needed.

.... I didn't say a thing!

Even if Virgin Broadband was in Poland you wouldn't be able to get the TV package because they block all I.P. addresses that do not originate from the UK. Even using a proxy is a nightmare because as soon as you find one that works they block it and it is a never ending fight trying to keep up.

The only way to get consistent UK TV is by doing what "Harry" says.

Hi AFM,
You'll need:
1. Sky Activated Viewing Card.
2. Sky digibox - unsubsidised. This is very important as subsidised boxes need to be connected to a phone line during the first year of subscription.

3. A larger dish depending on where you are in Poland.

If you have your original LNB from the UK you should be able to get all the channels (not Sky Box Office - need a phone line for that). If not, you'll have trouble getting the BBC channels and ITV channels. All others should work fine.

No. To get BBC and ITV you need exactly the same equipment as to get Sky but you need a 2.7metre dish instead of a 90cm dish. That's because ITV and BBC come off a different Astra satellite than Sky.

Harry's right.
You can get a nice pic of the satellite coverage here:

smart2check.com/images/footprints.jpg

For more information see:

smart2check.com/skyabroad.htm

That works for me i get channel 4, 5, sky 3 most of the news channels all the Foriegn shite channels and true movies, whoopie. Cant get a signal for bbc or itv thoughand I have a huge dish.

In Wroclaw you might just get away with a 2.4 metre dish but I expect you're more likely to need a 2.7 metre dish.

There is another way that I have just heard of and that is slingbox slingmedia.com/ and basically it is a box that sits in a friends UK home linked to the internet and the TV areal, and sends the picture online so you can pick it up anywhere in the world.

Disadvantages with this are that you need a friend or relative who doesn't mind their internet bandwidth being sucked up in the UK, which will be a real bummer if they are on a limited bandwidth. You need broadband internet in Poland to pick it up as anything below 1Mb is too low.

But all in all, it looks quite good and the boxes I have seen on Ebay for under £100 for the basic model free to air TV receiver......prices start to rise when you start including options for receiving satellite TV which is more expensive due to its greater complexity.

Is there a limit to how many people can loggin to one box at a time?

Not sure about that, but I did a quick look at the site and you have to download a program that lets you view the TV stream and I guess there must be some restrictions. Read the forums is the best bet.

Yes. There is a limit.

The number of simultaneous connection is tied to:
1. The slingbox model. ( the "slingbox pro" model allows more connections - but check the slingbox website to be sure)
2. The hosting upload speed. This is usually 384Kb/s which should be fine for 1 connection but as you have connections the video quality will decrease.

I had sky whilst living near Opole. I brought my UK equipment and viewing card over from the UK and got a local installer to set it up. I had a 90cm dish. I couldn't receive any channels broadcast from the Astra 2D satellite (namely BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc..) which was a real bummer as I mainly wanted to get the normal channels.

As has been said you need a huge and very expensive 2.4m or bigger dish to get channels on Astra 2D, and the further east you go the worse it gets.

However I think this new freesat.co.uk - freesat that has just been launched could be another way to get normal UK TV abroad - no sky box needed, no subscriptions and broadcast free-to-air. I have been trying to find out if they also broadcast from Astra 2D or if they are using a different satellite. Does anyone know?

This is potentially very exciting news!

I've just found the website astra2d.com/freesat.html where it says that Freesat will be broadcasting through the Astra 2/Eurobird1 group of satellites copositioned at 28° East. This means nothing to me - do you know if this is good news or not?? Doesn't it also depend on whether their footprint goes outside of the UK or not?

Astra 2 is a group of satellites that are so close together in space that they appear to us on earth as one satellite. They are imaginatively named A, B, C and D. Eurobird 1 is also up there at the same place (28 deg East). The only one with a really tight footprint is Astra 2D, the other ones we can get in Krakow with a 90cm dish.

What we need to know (and I haven't been able to find it yet) is exactly which satellite is going to host which channels. I suspect that BBC and ITV will be on Astra 2D (as they are on Sky) so they can try and stop people outside the UK getting them due to licence restrictions...