Le Mans 24h veterans....please help?

[stuey69]

Ladies and gents,

I have been going to Le Mans, this will be my 5th consecutive year.

We have decided given the importance of this years events.... Euro 16 & Fords return to Le Mans, it' would be a nice idea to able to watch TV, most likely Eurosport while on the campsite.

What's needed? Sky dish? Projector? A power source? What cables?

Please help?

Regards

Stu

[F18RSC]

Several options....

Private Camping
WEC app on phone or tablet (signal not too good on race days)
Satellite Dish and Sky Box

Freeview box worked a few years ago and got French coverage.

Persuade Bernie to let us have kangaroo tv back!

[Superhoop]

We have a Sky box and dish set up, and welcome others with open arms (as long as you bring beer)..... There are plenty of others that do the same.

[Gingerbread Man]

Just remember the sky box card!

[paulyv]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Printertosh]

Here's last years thread about it. A larger than standard dish is required now since sky focused there signal towards uk.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[RobbyJ]

I take a dish, digital freeview box, a projector, speakers and a flatscreen TV. It's epic for those night time hours in camp! Yes yes I should be at the track, but sometimes we are in camp and it's good to keep the race on there.

You can get the race on German Eurosport and the commentary on Radio LM.

[E36GUY]

Printertosh said:

Here's last years thread about it. A larger than standard dish is required now since sky focused there signal towards uk.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Since when? We used a standard size dish (as we have all previous years) in 2015. Signal strenth isn't nearly as high as you get in the UK but it worked fine.

[stuey69]

RobbyJ said:

I take a dish, digital freeview box, a projector, speakers and a flatscreen TV. It's epic for those night time hours in camp! Yes yes I should be at the track, but sometimes we are in camp and it's good to keep the race on there.

You can get the race on German Eurosport and the commentary on Radio LM.

Robby,

Can you help please as to what exactly we would need? Cables? dish sizes? What digital freeview box?

Also what campsite do you stay at?

[Printertosh]

E36GUY said:

Printertosh said:

Here's last years thread about it. A larger than standard dish is required now since sky focused there signal towards uk.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Since when? We used a standard size dish (as we have all previous years) in 2015. Signal strenth isn't nearly as high as you get in the UK but it worked fine.

To be honest I don't know what the 'standard' size is? All I know is the strength dropped 2 years ago when sky was forced to concentrate there broadcasts towards the UK so if you're in a campsite like Tertre Rouge with a lot of trees, a small satellite dish might be a problem.

When there was talk of the signal dropping we got rid of our sky mini dish and brought an 80cm dish with a twin offset LNB receiver that picks up the sky / freesat satellite for english channels and the german satellite for German eurosport at the same time without altering the dish (I'm not allowed to nick the sky card from home for eurosport!)

Just a note to say to everyone, you need a FREESAT receiver or sky box not freeview as freeview doesn't work with a satellite dish.

(If you attempt freeview (not that we have) you'll need an aerial)

Edited by Printertosh on Monday 1st February 20:22

[indyxe]

Anybody know what you can pick up on Freeview, this year for the first time will be taking a campervan which has a Status 330 aerial and a feeview telly.

[E36GUY]

Printertosh said:

To be honest I don't know what the 'standard' size is? All I know is the strength dropped 2 years ago when sky was forced to concentrate there broadcasts towards the UK so if you're in a campsite like Tertre Rouge with a lot of trees, a small satellite dish might be a problem.

You may well be right on the trees. In 2014 we found our usual position for the dish wasn't working and we found an alternative that we've used since. By standard dish I mean the oval one from sky you see on everyone's houses here at home.

[paulyv]

indyxe said:

Anybody know what you can pick up on Freeview, this year for the first time will be taking a campervan which has a Status 330 aerial and a feeview telly.

I suspect nothing related to the race, otherwise everyone would be using Freeview, and not satellite dishes.

[ukcobra]

You WILL need a Dish and Freesat receiver. A normal TV Aerial will not get what you are looking for.

There are 2 main ways as outlined :

1. You bring a Sky setup and a Viewing card and watch Eurosport in English
2. You bring a Sky Setup without a viewing card and point it to HotBird and get German Free to Air Eurosport and tune into Radio Le Mans.

Bring spares of everything cable wise, and connectors.

Check the campsite you plan to use, sometimes the trees will get in the way. We had issues last year on Houx Annex and had to reposition the dish to get a better signal.

[indyxe]

paulyv said:

indyxe said:

Anybody know what you can pick up on Freeview, this year for the first time will be taking a campervan which has a Status 330 aerial and a feeview telly.

I suspect nothing related to the race, otherwise everyone would be using Freeview, and not satellite dishes.

No worries there mate I'll be watching race from the stands, was more of a general question as to whether i could pick any channels up on a UK freeview telly, possibly watch football on french freeview channels if it were possible?. will not be lugging any sat gear over .

[Printertosh]

E36GUY said:

You may well be right on the trees. In 2014 we found our usual position for the dish wasn't working and we found an alternative that we've used since. By standard dish I mean the oval one from sky you see on everyone's houses here at home.

Yeah think ours was an oval one from sky. Our new bigger dish is easier to get a good signal on but last year I spent hours trying for any signal through the trees only to find out the old sky receiver box was playing up :bang head:

Luckily we had a spare with us!

[F18RSC]

I stayed on SpeedChills two years ago and we tried to get a signal for several hours. Then we contacted a engineer in Le Mans and he turned up two hours later took him ten minutes and charged 50 euros. Well worth it!

[ribiero]

Sky setup's awesome, just don't camp in Houx.. it's all tree's!!

[garethdphillips]

stuey69 said:

Ladies and gents,

I have been going to Le Mans, this will be my 5th consecutive year.

We have decided given the importance of this years events.... Euro 16 & Fords return to Le Mans, it' would be a nice idea to able to watch TV, most likely Eurosport while on the campsite.

What's needed? Sky dish? Projector? A power source? What cables?

Please help?

Regards

Stu

Afternoon Stuey69,

it looks like most of the relevant advise has been given already, but if it helps I can share my experiences with you, and hopefully clarify a few things, as it can be confusing.

firstly, you shouldn't need anything other than a standard Sky mini dish, as although the UK satellite channels have had a lot of their "spot beams" more tightly focused on the UK, this largely applies to the free to air channels, not the encrypted channels (such as Eurosport_). Anyhow, La Sarthe is inside the spot area (just) so you will be fine. However, if you are buying a dish, get a larger one, as the larger the dish, the easier it is to align. You will want a tripod too, or a pole. They are cheap enough on ebay for 60cm ish.

to clarify any confusion around terminology, a "freeview" box generally reefers to a digital terrestrial receiver, used to receive TV via an aerial. Whilst this would receive French digital terrestrial TV, I don't believe any free channels carry the race, so you will need to go the satellite route.

You have two options. A UK SKY box, with a viewing card, and a subscription that includes Eurosport 1 and 2. (most of the race is on 1, but sometimes it switches to 2).
Option 2 is a free to air generic satellite receiver (i.e. not a sky box) which can receive free broadcasts from any satellite. This will receive the free Eurosport 1 channel in German if you point it at the correct satellite. (The links to the other conversations will provide the specifics)

To recieve the UK eurosport channels your ONLY option is an actual SKY box and card. For the German free eurosport 1, you need a generic satellite receiver , as im fairly sure a Sky box cant be used with any other satellites.

Personally, I favour the UK satellite option, as you get both Eurosport channels, and you get all the other UK channels. The free route is great, dont get me wrong, but you wont get anything else in English on that satellite, and re-aligning the dish isnt worth it in my opinion (assuming you want football or any other stuff that week). Really though, it depends what is available to you.

To clear up a long standing myth, any Sky box will do the job, It doesn't actually have to be the box to which the card is paired. I bought a little multiroom box on ebay for £20 which is perfect, its tiny, low power, and HD capable (for the free channels). The caveat is that you wont be able to view HD if your using the card in the wrong box, you will only get the subscription channels in SD. You also wont get Sky moviews or Sky sports 1, 2, 3, 4 etc when using the wrong card for the box, but you will get all other channels in SD. Not sure why,its just the way it is. Always best to test yourself. If you or one of your party have Sky multi-room installed at home, and get Eurosport in that room, you can of course take that box and card, to avoid taking the primary Sky box and card.

power...

Many options. Generator is an obvious one. ScrewFix do a great 800w inverter generator for £169 which is excellent. Personally, we take a couple of large 100ah batteries and a small inverter, and run an LED TV and Sky box that way, never had any issues. If you are using inverter and batteries, try and use a new ish LED tv as they are low powered. We ran one for several hours and still had life left in one of the batteries. We found we only needed a 100w inverter.

Best advise, test it all, well in advance, in the garden or other.

For UK Sky (and UK sky box) you need to point at Astra 2 28.8E
For German Eurosport (generic none sky box) you need to point at Astra 1 at 19.2E

Apologies for the long reply. Lots to say!

Edited by garethdphillips on Tuesday 9th February 16:15

Edited by garethdphillips on Tuesday 9th February 16:17

Edited by garethdphillips on Tuesday 9th February 16:18

Edited by garethdphillips on Tuesday 9th February 16:18

Edited by garethdphillips on Tuesday 9th February 16:21

[garethdphillips]

stuey69 said:

RobbyJ said:

I take a dish, digital freeview box, a projector, speakers and a flatscreen TV. It's epic for those night time hours in camp! Yes yes I should be at the track, but sometimes we are in camp and it's good to keep the race on there.

You can get the race on German Eurosport and the commentary on Radio LM.

Robby,

Can you help please as to what exactly we would need? Cables? dish sizes? What digital freeview box?

Also what campsite do you stay at?

In terms of kit: how about the following as a starter for ten, depending which route you take:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60cm-Mix-Digital-Mesh-Sa...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Satellite-dish-tripod-mo...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20m-Black-F-Plug-Male-to...

(for Free Eurosport) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxview-MXL020-HD-Satellit...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Mini-Digital-Satelli... (also need a short cable such as the below to use a meter)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-5M-QUICK-PUSH-ON-F-PLU...

This is the Sky box we use (its small) but this needs a viewing card ! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/sky-multi-room-box-drx59...

Inverter (size depends on power consumption of TV etc) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Bestek-Dual-USB-2-1A...

Generator: http://www.screwfix.com/p/impax-im800i-700w-invert...