SteveBarbosa - 18 November 2009 03:38 PM
Hi ukshoppinginspain, what do you mean the bbc, etc are free? Do you mean they are available on spanish freesat digital?
The BBC channels have been available for free - ie without the need of a sky viewing card - for over 5 years.
Many ITV channels have also been available for free ie without the need of a sky viewing card for a smilar time.
Only FIVE is available for free (without a card). For Fiver and FIVE USA you need a sky card - either a freesatfromsky cafrd or a subscription card.
They are only available onthe UK TV satellites, they are not available on the satellites that transmit Spanish satellite TV.
Depending on your location, to receive BBC and ITV you will require an 1m (north east Spain) or a 2.4m (alicante) satellite dish.
You can still receive about 200 plus other free (no sky card required) TV channels on a small 80 cm dish (http://www.satandpcguy.com/Site/uk_tv_channels_available_on_small_dish_costa_blanca_spain.php)
Spain does not have a version of Freesat - as many of the “main” Spanish channels are only available via a pay subscription to D+, Spains satellite TV company.
There are a f ew regional Spanish channels, and TVEi, available for free on Astra 1 (19 east) and Hispasat (30 West), but no main SPanish channels.
SteveBarbosa - 18 November 2009 03:38 PM
Just wondering before I get an engineer out to install a dish and connect my sky+ box to it. I am also going to get TDT digital as I’ve been told that its what we need if we want spanish digital for free, i.e. equivalent to freesat in the uk.
Spanish TDT is a terrestrial system.
UK Freesat is an extraterrestrial system.
They are not the same.
Spanish TDT requires three components:
A tv aerial
An masthead amplifer and power supply
A digital terrestrial tuner.
There is no such thing as a Digital aerial. Any aerial will do, it just needs to be configured correctly!
An aerial with its “wings” left and right is configured for analogue TV.
An aerial with its “wings” top and bottom is configured for digital TV.
If you get some installer out to install TDT for you, always ask him to try your exisitn aerial first - it could save you from buying a new aerial unnecessarily.
Amps and power supplies are pretty much required all the time, to help boost the digital signals. I have found that internal amplifers are not as good as a seperate masthead and PS system.
TDT tuners are either a seperate set top box, or many (if not all) of the new flat screen TVs have a digital tuner built into them (although I have found many TVs with builtin tuners to be very poor comparted to a seperate set top box).
With a good system you can expect over 20 (in my area 30!) Spanish digital terrestrial channels - all available for free.
Recently pay TDT (or Premium TDT) hsa been allowed, and the first pay / subscription TDT channel is GOL TV, with more to come this year.
HD on TDT is still being developed - I have only seen Canal9HD around Valencia area.
Some UK Freeview receivers do work in Spain, but they can be limited as their software may not be totally compatiable with the TDT system and limit some functions.
Hope this helps.
