Old Lidl/Aldi Sat box info

Bozacke

biologikal wrote: »

I have a Lidl 80cm dish set up to pull in 13E, 19.2E and 28.2E. You really need to look at sat channel sites to see what you want to look at, but I'd say this setup is fairly common in Ireland and the UK. flysat.com and lyngsat.com would be a good starting point.

To get the LNBs to work with the holder already in place on the Lidl dish, I've found items like these to fit the bill:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Multifeed-Triple-LNB-Holder-Universal-Fitting-New_W0QQitemZ360042858244QQihZ023QQcategoryZ60838QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Those ones above are plastic, though there are metal-alloy ones, which I have, and are probably much sturdier than the plastic. Easy to set-up and very adjustable. Mine haven't budged in over six months outside in our $hitty weather. I haven't seen any other type that would work as well with the Lidl dish and the holder already on it.

Bio,

I'm after just getting the triple LNB holder you mentioned, but I don't understand how the holder with it's semi-circle fitting fits onto the round arm of the Lidl's dish? How is the LNB holder suppose to mount to the arm of the dish?

watty

Most of those adaptors are for Triax dish and may not fit Lidl dish.

Bozacke

Hi Bio,

That makes a lot of sense, and seems quite easy, I'm disapointed I didn't think of that.

Thanks again!!!!:):):)

biologikal

No bother at all Bozacke, just glad to see someone else maximising the potential of the Lidl kit.

A quick tip if you're going for the 13/19/28Eset-up: I'll assume you'll direct the LNB at the end of the dish arm at 19E. When it comes to maximising the signal for 28E, in addition to the required skew, you might also need to "toe-in" the LNB to get all transponders (imagine it approximately pointing to the same position on the dish that the 19E LNB is pointing to. If you're getting ZoneHorror, Film24 and Movies4Men with a stable quality above 70%, you're probably getting it as good as you're going to get it.

Getting 13E is less fussy, though a little toe-in can be done here too. The long peices of the holder have over-sized cut holes to allow this.

Also, when it's all set up, as you look at the dish from the front, LNBs are in opposite position to where you expect them, relative to where you expect to see the satellite in the sky. Order from left to right is 28/19/13, with 28 a little higher than 19, and 13 a little lower than 19.

Bozacke

Hi Bio,

Thanks a million for that!!! I've got the dish set up, but I wont be able to set it up today, I'll let you know how I get on, although I'm not too sure what you mean by toe-in.

Another note, the audio for CH4 is now working, but still noe EPG.

Hopr

Hi,

I have set up the Lidi system (60 cm dish) which i purchased during their last promotion and i have a couple of questions.

1:What is the optimium signal quality? (I get 72%).

2:When i origionally set the system up i received all channells available(astra 28e),but tonight after some heavy rain some channels came up as "Signal not available".I adjusted the shew very slightly and it seems to have solved the problem.Am i correct in saying this?

Note:I have the dish set up (temporarily) on rear wall in back garden, about 5 feet in height.:)

b318isp

Hopr wrote: »

1:What is the optimium signal quality? (I get 72%)

I have seen over 85% in my own and another that I installed on BBC1 NI. Check vertical and skew (rotate LNB) alignment to get it spot on. If not, adverse weather may affect the dish more (usually wind to').

elasticfreak

hi i just purchased the lidl box hoping to use in france when i use my caravan there. can anyone give me any advice regarding what tv channels i can expect to recieve? many thanks

biologikal

72% quality sounds pretty good with a 60cm dish, but value will vary between transponders on any given satellite (I presume your looking at 28E). I'm getting between 70-80% quality on all channels on a 80cm sized dish, but the LNB is off-centre, so I'm happy with that quality. I think you'd have to be pushing below 40-50% before you'd start to see any break-up.

Signal intensity should be higher, typically in the 90's.

Thick clouds and rain will effect signal adversely, so if the skew isn't near optimal, you will likely see some loss of signal on some weaker transponders when it does rain. And given the amount of rain we get here, it's important that dish/LNB alignment/skew is as good as you can get it.

biologikal

elasticfreak wrote: »

hi i just purchased the lidl box hoping to use in france when i use my caravan there. can anyone give me any advice regarding what tv channels i can expect to recieve? many thanks

You should get 13E and 19E easily enough, as both satellites carry French channels, so signal will be strong enough for a small dish, but there is very little English language channels there, BBC World is the only one I can think of off hand. You can check out the various satellites and what channels are carried, from here:

http://www.lyngsat.com/europe.html

Depending on the size of the dish and where exactly in France you are, it may be possible to get some of the satellites in the 28E cluster. You can see the various footprints, and power contours with expected required dish size by clicking on the links in the "Beam" section, eg, the 2D beam on 28E:

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/astra2d.html

Though the only sure way to find out is to try it out (and report back your findings).

Bozacke

Ch 4 audio is gone again. The audio was back for a a dat or two and now gone again. Is this some sort of testing or is someone just teasing us?

elasticfreak

thanks for your reply il look at the websites. im going to be mainly in normandy maybe 50k from the coast so il report my findings in july cheers

micratoyota

b318isp wrote: »

I have seen over 85% in my own and another that I installed on BBC1 NI. Check vertical and skew (rotate LNB) alignment to get it spot on. If not, adverse weather may affect the dish more (usually wind to').

Hi I am new to Satellite and have purchased the Lidl system. I have it working and get 90 and signal 72 on the BBC's and ITV's except ITV 2 which often has a poor signal. Some of the film channels also are poor as are CNN ,Euronews etc which will be ok on fine sunny days. Now if i want to improve the signals is it the dish or the LNB that I should move. Is it up and down or sidesways and what is SKEW I probably got what I have by sheer luck. Thank you

watty

select the signal viewing and watch QUALITY or BER bar. (use a friend with mobile or a TV you can see).

Adjust LNB skew roughly / angle looking toward face of dish. Move VERY slow and move aside from dish.

If you geting 85% signal only make the SMALLEST, SLOWEST movement change to vertical and horizontal adjustment (separately).

Quality should be Maximised or if it is BER, minimised. Strength is irrelevant once you have a picture.

Bozacke

Hi Watty,

Thanks for the reply!!

"It only seems to work", that's a philosophical statement. I don't know it is working, but I'm only pointing at one satellite, I believe you that if I try to connect to multiple LNBs I might have a problem. When I get around to testing it, I'll let you know how I make out.

Zaphod

You can easily test the philosophical statement. Try watching BBC 1 on the first receiver and Euronews on the second receiver.

gok

Anyone got the teletext working on the SL65 for BBC1-4 or ITV1-4 or film4?
I can't get any text either with the SL65 remote teletext or my TV's text button.

biologikal

All those channels you list have teletext streams. The thing is, the only information they are carrying is subtitles. After going to a channel, wait a second or two, press the "TEXT" button on your remote, and you will get a black page with "100" at the top left. Press "888" or the UP or DOWN buttons on the remote to get the subtitles.

If it is the subtitles you are looking for, you can enable them permanently through the menus.

On other channels with comprehensive teletext, you can press the "OK" button to change the transparency of the text page.

Incidently, although the Irish channels are encrypted, you can still access all the teletext pages these channels offer. And it loads the pages into cache, so if you wait 10-20 seconds after envoking teletext, nearly any page you ask for will be displayed almost instantly (though you still need to wait for multiple pages within a page to cycle).

petronius

I got 888 subtitles on Channel 4 on freesat using my lidl box - I notice also e4, e4+1, more4 and more4+1 are on it now as well.
Also the EPG seemed to be there altough there was some inaccuracies

wil

As an update on these receivers I noted today that Maplins are now selling a few new varieties of the Comag SL we all know and love.
An SL25 and an SL105 or something (memory serves me poorly)
The SL25 is a mains powered unit but looks like a cut down version of the SL65/12. It only has scart output, nothing else, - LNB in, LNB IF out and scart, thats about it.
No idea how good it is but pretty basic at a basic price.
The other I couldnt tell much from the box except it looked similar to the SL65/12 with similar specs.

(Also saw they were stocking the shelves for tomorrows new specials and from the shelf stocking sheets (I'm very nosy:p) looks like they may have a Nikkai Barebones Digital TV recorder. If its the same version that was on sale previously in the UK then most of the reviews I read werent too glowing)

biologikal

Bozacke wrote: »

Hi Biologikal,
I finally got around to setting up the 3 LNB holder now getting Astra 28, Astra 19 and Hotbird all on the one 80cm dish from Lidl's. You were right getting Astra 19 and Hotbird was easy enough, but getting Astra 28 was difficult. In the end I had to mount the LNB for Astra 28 to the holder using only one screw, since the bracket didn't seem long enough to get it in the right position to get a signal. I'm now getting around 93%/73% for all three satellites and I seem to be getting all the channels for Astra 28 including Zone Horror. The Astra 28 LNB seems well secured despite only one screw but I'm worried how it will hold up in high winds. All working great with the DISEQ switch too, but I'm a bit dissapointed with the quality of English programs on 19 and Hotbird, but happy to get EuroSports, CNBC, MTV German & Austria, NPR radio and a few others.

Thanks again for all the help.:):):)

No bother at all, glad to help, and seeing someone else getting the most out of the system. Mine is the same with 28E, only the one hex nut/bolt holding it on, but if you're using the washers that bite into the bracket, it should be ok; still, with the frequent high winds we get, expect to have to do some adjustments during the year (I'm lucky in that I have my dish in a relatively sheltered position). If you wanted a bit of extra security with the 28E LNB, you could be on the lookout for a suitable bit of plastic that you could drill holes into and use on the other side to make it extra secure.

Next thing you'll want to do is get another dish (or be on the lookout for a 2nd hand one) so you can make use of the 4th input on the DiSEqC switch, and muck around with pointing it a different sats, see what else you can get.

Stan 10

Hi,
How do you delete transponder on Silvercrest Sl 65, my friend has one and would like to know how to do it

Stan

biologikal

I think there is a way, but you would need to download software (Ali Editor), make/buy an RS232 cable suitable for the SL65, download the firmware from the STB to the PC, edit the firmware on the PC by deleting whatever TPs you want removed, then upload the edited firmware to the SL65.

Might be easier to just delete unwanted channels when they've been scanned in.

Bozacke

biologikal wrote: »

....be on the lookout for a suitable bit of plastic that you could drill holes into and use on the other side to make it extra secure.

Next thing you'll want to do is get another dish (or be on the lookout for a 2nd hand one) so you can make use of the 4th input on the DiSEqC switch, and muck around with pointing it a different sats, see what else you can get.

Hi Bio,

Thanks!!

Yes I was already thining of modifying the bracket to secure the Astra28 LNB a little better, but I thought maybe I was doing something wrong when I had to move it so far away. I suppose a slightly larger bracket might have been more suitable, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something to secure it better.

I already have another 80cm dish setup for the 4th DiSEqC input and already wondering what Satellite(s) I should point it at, any suggestions for someone who doesn't speak anything other than English?:):)

biologikal

Depends on what you like to watch. I think you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of channels with English audio on any sat (excluding 28E of course).

If you like National Geographic, then you'll find it FTA with English audio on 12.5W or 16E at the moment. According to kingofsat ( http://en.kingofsat.net/ ), Eurosport2 and others have gone FTA on Sirius (4.8E). Be aware that these are usually temporary, and could go back encrypted at any time. I think Sirius is also a decent enough place for feeds (http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2006/11/13/feedhunting-for-non-feedhunters/).

Best bet is to just muck about with it, try different positions, and get to know the equipment. Also, if you're going to be moving the extra dish, keep an eye on flysat.com and kingofsat.net for latest updates (usually sooner than lyngsat.com, though lyngsat has the best footprint maps, I think). Also, even though you might'nt be able to understand some languages, that doesn't mean that you won't stumble upon something entertaining, or bump into a film that hasn't been dubbed from english.

CO19

I deleted the astra 28 east setting from my box by accident the other day and after getting it back working I did an autoscan to get back my channels but it's missing a few such as Nuts TV,Playboy,Audi Channel.Movies for men (I have Movies for men 2 but can't get the first one).
So does anyone know how I can get these back in ?

Bozacke

Hi,

Someone may have a more elegant approach, but have seen this before as well. I think it might be connected to the fact that you may not have a clear signal and if you rescan again you may pick up some of those channels. I suspect if you try to optimize your signal strength by tweaking the disk alignment and\or LNB skew before rescanning it may help. Also scanning on a day with clear skies may also help, but doesn't guarantee you'll be able to get those fringe channels when it gets cloudy. If you know what Transponder the missing channels are on you can just scan the specific TP.

Boz:)

CO19

Thanks for that Boz -Got it sorted I had the LNB on the wrong setting-I put it onto 'Universal' and it picked up most of them that I was missing but still no sign of Movies for Men .

oneeyedman

Hi all, a newbie here to the world of satellite (God bless Lidl) with what appears a silly question .... I have the Lidl sat woking well, all chanells showing up clear etc. what sat am i looking at? (told ya it was a silly question) the recever is telling me that it is recieving Astra 19.2E but is the BBC/ITV/C4 not on 28.2E? or am i missing something. I ask because i was considering options for a second reciever for the sitting room and would prob get the freesat from the lil' bro in engerland if i didn't have to climb up on the chimney again!

Now, i'm off to watch the story of one womans struggle ..... on True Movies 2; I can#t wait:rolleyes:

oneeyedman

thanks Bio - i thought that it was something like that .....