Free Practice on TV in UK can be done..

[Steevp]

I'm chuffed..

After much mucking about I'm watching Monaco Live Free Practice here in the UK.

A freind said "DSF" on the Astra Satelite analog service showed it, so I put up a 1 meter dish, got hold of an analog set top box and sat back to enjoy the last race practise.. but, a problem, DSF show the practise time shifted in the evening (why?)

So on a whim I went & bought a multi satellite digital set top box (Technomate TM-1000D £50), and lo & behold, "N-TV" from Germany are showing free practice unencrypted, it's the usual Bernie vision with all the normal graphics, but obviously the commentary is in German.. it's still betterthan James Allen though.

With my laptop on, running live timing from Formula1.com in sync with the TV, can a sneaky day off from work get any better?

-Steve

[josvandeperre]

Question - are we talking of using the standard SKy dish pointing in the normal direction with just an extra channel programmed in or is it using your extra dish facing in a different direction ? Thanks

[Steevp]

It's a different dish pointing in a different direction, but it's an easy job.

-S.

[Valve Bounce]

Originally Posted by Steevp

It's a different dish pointing in a different direction, but it's an easy job.

-S.

How do you determine what direction to point the dish? :confused: It would be great if we could have such a facility in Oz.

[Steevp]

The people who launch the satellites tell you what direction it's in, in my case I borrowed a signal sttrengh meter from a friend and just spent 30 mins up the ladder pointing it all over the place until I found what I was looking for, the bigger the dish the easier it is, and the better signal you will get.

There are people in Austrailia doing it, read this thread: http://www.vetrun.com/forums/showthr...hlight=formula

My next task is to find out what satellite carries Bernie TV feeds to the broadcasters..

[Rob29]

I doubt that german TV can be received in Australia,satellites only have so much of a footprint? I watched n-tv too-in my case all I have done is keep the old Sky analogue system,which still gets around 30 german channels+ Eurosport international.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

How do you determine what direction to point the dish? :confused: It would be great if we could have such a facility in Oz.

Do what me ans Sato did when i put an analogue system up, put the box on the right channel and move the dish back and forwards slowly, it works

[Steevp]

Originally Posted by Rob29

I doubt that german TV can be received in Australia,satellites only have so much of a footprint?

I wasn't implying that German TV can be watched in Oz, just that there are F1 fans using Satelites to supplement their terrestrial choices..

You might want to hook a cheap digital box to your old sky dish when raceworld.tv start broadcasting proper programmes, they're trransmitting already but just the same programmes over & over.. the real service should start soon.

-S.

[Logrence]

Originally Posted by Steevp

DSF show the practise time shifted in the evening (why?)

DSF have a contract to show the practice sessions delayed and also highlights of the race on Sunday evening - the N-TV coverage is better because it's done by the RTL team - who don't show friday practices and have thus done the deal with the N-TV people. If you can get RTL I'd watch the pre- and post-race coverage on there, but if you can get ORF1 then I would watch the race on there, because not only are the commentators better, there aren't any ad breaks.

(p.s. - I think DSF show the GP2 races live as well, I'm not certain)

[Steevp]

Hi Logrence, thanks for the info! You're saving me a lot of time looking at German TV station websites trying to work out what they're saying..

Using that method I'd already worked out RTL's where to see Qually 2..

Don't know of I get ORF-1, I'll check it out later, there are over 200 German channels on this thing so the odds are good..

Thanks again!

-S.

[TheMong]

hi guys great thread i have been dying to find out how to watch the qually and practice session but unfortunatly have none of the equipment to do so and been looking on ebay to find it culd you tell us what i need to do it as i am well up for i and sick of itv's crap coveragei have put a link from ebay on here could u tell m if this would the job or if tere is a cheaper way i already have sky+ but dont think thats much help many thanks lee

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

[Kicking-back]

You can do it a lot cheaper than that - just get an old analogue dish and box - you can pick them up for a tenner!

[Steevp]

As KB says any old dish will do, but not really the oblong sky dish, a good old fashioned round one, but if you can't find an unwanted one bolted to a wall somewhere, or a secondhand one then this will do: http://tinyurl.com/9bmxu

One again KB is right, an old analog set top box will work, the receiver you linked to is a rip off, you can get a new free to air digital box for £50 from http://www.sccdistribution.com you might have to phone them up as it's not on their website, but they are currently selling technomate 1000D's like this: http://sms.sshost.co.uk/product.php?0505310 for £50.. a bargain. ask about 1 meter dish prices to as they might be cheaper then ebay.

Then all you need is an LNB, the bit that aims into the dish to reeceive the signal, (About £8) and some wire and you're away!

Cheers,

-Steve

[TheMong]

Cheers steevp and kb fantastic help...
you can almost guess what i will be doing this weekend in between the gp
cheers!!!!

[Steevp]

Feel free to ask for help, and good luck!

[TheMong]

ok i now have 1 dish 1 reciever lnb and ect had a fiddle about today can get astra1 19e and hotbird 13e i think it was and by then my arm was hurting from adjusting the damn dish and i swear i can still hear the signal tester ringing in my ear so all i would like to know if poss is who shows the f1 practice tomorrow so i know which way to point it or is it neither and i got a bit more fiddling to do :P cheers guys!!!

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by TheMong

ok i now have 1 dish 1 reciever lnb and ect had a fiddle about today can get astra1 19e and hotbird 13e i think it was and by then my arm was hurting from adjusting the damn dish and i swear i can still hear the signal tester ringing in my ear so all i would like to know if poss is who shows the f1 practice tomorrow so i know which way to point it or is it neither and i got a bit more fiddling to do :P cheers guys!!!

19E sounds right.You just have to find n-tv -frequency 11.391 H
F1 is on at 10.55CET & 13.55CET.

[Steevp]

Well done Mong! Rob's right with the where to find it info.. what receiver did you get?

[TheMong]

i got a real cheapy analogue reciever from a 2nd hand shop i dont think its up to much but its works enough for me to experiment and got the dish from ebay 25 quid 80cmthe reciever say istar trak 850 it wasnt to bad to setup considering i had no instructions

[TheMong]

istar trak 850-------------by the way cheers for help rob29 and steevp....
i dont think my wife would thank you though lol

[Steevp]

She'll be very proud at the speed you learn to speak German though..

That long interview with Schumacher was very interesting.. er.. I think.

[TheMong]

PURE QUALITY WATCHING PRACTICE....
and the picture is as good as normal telly sweet....

[TheMong]

i found that conversation very interesting

[Logrence]

Schumacher is usually very good-humoured in his german television interviews - I've gained a whole lot of respect for him, watching german F1.

[Steevp]

I was thinking just that watching him rabbiting away to the German pit lane guy, I guess having said everything in such detail explains why he just wants to get the English version out of the way quickly..

But as the weeks go by I'm definitely understanding more & more..