BBC channels - satelite frequency change

First topic message reminder :

I understand from our friends in Liguria that the BBC channels are no longer available.  Apparently the BBC has changed their frequency and to continue to receive them, you need a satellite bigger than 80 cm.
 
Does anyone have any further info or suggestions?  I must admit that although I seldom watch telly, I do like to catch up with the news while we’re there.


Thanks 

For a FREE VPN here probably the best. Anchorfree

Thanks for the tip Flip. How long have you been using the s/w? I've just loaded it (make sure you pick "Custom" if you don't want their settings for your search engine etc..) and the indication are you do not get "virtual location" with the freebie. It's present at the moment, but I suspect as a trial of the paid version. Not sure if this would be much use for watching UK TV...

been using 'My private network' for some 5 years, costs a fiver a month...............free sounds better value though !!

V

Vicino

I think it is 1metre or maybe slightly larger. Will check next time we are over (end of April).

VPN works OK by giving you a UK presence (ie the various services think you are based in the UK and therefore are OK). Excellent value if it is free!

Steve, have been using Anchorfree for about 9 months now, and I can use all the iPlayers (BBC,ITV, Chanel 4 & 5 etc) with no problems I also use Filmon for TV and various other for free films and series.
PM me if you want links to good Film and TV series sites, all trusted.

Flip wrote:Steve, have been using Anchorfree for about 9 months now, and I can use all the iPlayers (BBC,ITV, Chanel 4 & 5 etc) with no problems I also use Filmon for TV and various other for free films and series. PM me if you want links to good Film and TV series sites, all trusted.

Thanks Flip, 9 month will do me. Still not too sure I'll like it as it just prompted Google to stop it signing in to my email via Outlook. A bit OTT by Google, but nice of them to think of protecting me... Simply stopped/paused the VPN and all was well. The VPN was tested using BBC Iplayer and worked fine. Not that we watch TV here, but do occasionally want to look at Lotto or things like that and they do the same - block if none UK IP address...    

I guess most of these solutions involve watching TV on small screens.  I've long been an advocate of the little Apple TV box as a way of relaying what's on your i-pad to the TV but this looks even better  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I4WQ618/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00I4WQ618&linkCode=as2&tag=ah4-21

New to the UK it is a £30 thingy to plug into the HDMI port on a TV. After that anything that can be reached on a tablet/PC can be shown on the big screen. No wires it's a wi-fi link.  If you supported one of these with a VPN such as 'Hide-my-ass' which gives a world wide switchable Proxy you'd be able to watch the usual UK and US channels, Netflix and more. You can make it better by running 'Boxee' on your PC and the Chromecast is supported by 'Plex' which is highly acclaimed.

Sagrisolar, beware of Chromecast. I've got the Dongle and it doesn't always work, you need to have a powerful up to date PC running Google Chrome and a modern Smart TV. I use a long HDMI cable to run from my laptop to TV and that works fine.

Same here Flip !!

V

Flip wrote:For a FREE VPN here probably the best. Anchorfree

.. tried it and it is absolute rubbish on this PC. Perhaps it's the current version or whatever, I don't know, but I've not seen such blatant a freebie almost forcing an upgrade to the paid version.... DO NOT LOAD IT IS MY ADVICE... In fact I'll make every attempt to warn others about it... Anyone looking for a free VPN, then do a google search oN "best free vpn", this wont come top... Off to remove it....    

Luckily our son-in-law, who is a PhD student, has a VPN at his university in London.  And, even luckier still, he lets us share it!   

So, when in Italy, we log onto his VPN and can watch BT Sport and Sky Go.

(Smug Ghiro!     )

ghiro wrote:Luckily our son-in-law, who is a PhD student, has a VPN at his university in London.  And, even luckier still, he lets us share it!   So, when in Italy, we log onto his VPN and can watch BT Sport and Sky Go.(Smug Ghiro!     )

Lucky you could be Ghiro, but although I've never been a VPN advocate (simply because I've had no need of such), I now wonder just how secure this is? Route your web traffic via an unknown server... Mmmm...  

Slightly embarrassed to tell you this ,we had every channel.  Nothing had changed for us, yet friends who live 3km away and others who live less than a kilometre away had nothing. It seems as if it’s a bit temperamental as for some the channels come and go…

Casa Monal wrote:It seems as if it’s a bit temperamental as for some the channels come and go…

Exactly our experience.  Some days nothing, other days full coverage.  It doesn't appear to be weather dependent either.  I wonder whether the satellite isn't exactly geostationary relative to our dish.

OK so you two seem to be confirming what I suspected vis a vis the UK terrestrial channels received via Sky (uk) in Italy. That is that if you can get Sky in Italy, you should be able to get all the channels in your UK package because the transmission is via Sky and not cherry picked from whatever transponders the signals originate from (if that makes sense). But what size dish(es) do each of you have?

Not quite right Carciofo. It is dependent on the satellite/transponder and the footprint. Because of the recent changes you will not receive the UK terrestrial channels (BBC/ITV/Channels 4 & 5 and all their various associated channels as these use a spot beam which is tightly focused on the UK and covers into northern France but generally not as far as Italy). What you should receive are those other channels that are part of your package

Yes, but I would have thought that when you subscribe to Sky you receive whichever channel you want to watch from the Sky platform.  It is up to Sky to collect the channel from wherever onto the Sky transponder and then retransmit it.  If that's the case, then the change in the terrestrial channels' satellite footprint wouldn't make any difference.

That said, I'm not sure how Sky works exactly.  The above method is how cable retransmits channels and I always assumed that Sky worked in a similar way.

We have Freesat, not UK Sky.

Does anyone here have UK Sky in Italy?

I have it only via VPN to UK SKYgo,

V

I would have thought Sky will be like everyone else and subject to copyright. Therefore they can only offer "Sky Italy" in Italy and "Sky UK" in the UK, they could however also offer any program/channel that is not subject to copyright. Of course they can also offer you any of their own channels as they own the copyright.... Why would anyone want Sky UK or otherwise...?

Yes, contractually I think you are right, but it will in the end be a matter of technical delivery.  If they capture and deliver the individual channels as I suggested then the only way they would be able to curtail reception by satellite in Italy would be to reduce their overall footprint, not reduce it channel by channel.  

That said, I am surprised that Sky is as available as your link suggests, if only because it's kind of canabalising the audience of it's sister organisation Sky Italia.  I do know someone who works in the cable business who might know more about the technicalities and I think I might contact him to see what he thinks.  I'm reluctant to unhook my UK sky box and go to the expense of buying another dish for Italy if it's only going to provide half a service. Particularly as I could go the SkyGo + VPN route if needs be.

I think (and hope!) I now might have a modicum of understanding.

When we originally got Freesat (buy a box and have free TV for ever [as if!!]) it was transmitted from a particular satellite.  This satellite happens (happened?) to be the same one that transmits/transmitted Sky.

Recently the major channels (BBC, ITV, Channels 4 & 5 etc) have moved to a different satellite with a much reduced 'footprint' meaning that for much of the time we in northern Italy can't receive their transmissions on Freesat.

However theoretically, with a large enough dish, we should still be able to receive UK Sky with the appropriate box and card.  I've never tried it.  Has anyone else?

But all is not lost!  With an HDMI cable and broadband you can connect your laptop/computer to the TV.  The major channels are available free on Filmon.  And if you have a VPN and Sky Go and My BT (as we do) you can watch pretty well everything else.    

How am I doing?    

Top marks Ghiro!  That is my understanding also (although, I bow to anyone with greater techie expertise than me).

The reason I am not that enthusiastic about the VPN route is because recently when we've been in Italy we've had fairly intermittent wifi reception.  I still need to work out if the problem is with CloudItalia or our router but it's jolly annoying when you're in the middle of a gripping programme to have the whole thing stop.

I'm a fan of the vpn route - I pay iportal.me to persuade BBC iplayer (plus William Hill and Paddypower, or to buy machine guns off e-bay!) that I am in the UK.

Anyway - with the 'new' iplayer (having downloaded the 'new' download player while using the vpn) I find that I can download stuff (BBC TV) without pretending that I'm in the UK.

I failed to reproduce this facility on a friend's computer - but maybe one of you would like to test it?

When you say new Lax, do you mean in the last few days? I noticed it was saying 2-3 days ago that iPlayer was changing. I downloaded iPlayer whilst in the UK 2-3 weeks ago, so want to know if I need to re-download to test it. Just for the hell of it as I don't watch TV whilst here, but know many that do....