Can anyone help?; My wife has been after getting Thai TV & I saw the Lidl offer from 28 August (www.lidl.co.uk) Would the Lidl offer of the Sivercrest receiver & dish be sufficient kit for us to obtain the Thai TV; its got Hotbird 13 E & the dish is 57 cm

Is that size sufficient? We live in Herts close to M1 between Watford & St. Albans. If anyone can help would be much appreciated?

Hi Peter.

Looking on the Lidl website I can see the following system.

Lidl Website page

The specifications are as follows

Digital Satellite Dish & Receiver Set

* Complete satellite set, consists of:
* - 57cm Ø satellite steel offset dish
* - Digital free-to-air sat receiver with remote control
* - Twin LNB
* - Wall bracket
* - 4 x F-plugs
* Coaxial, optical and S-VHS connection
* Pre-programmed satellites: Astra 19.2°E, Astra 28.2°E, Eutel W2 16E, Hotbird 13°E, Sirius2 4.8E,Amos/Atlantic 4-5W, HellasSat 39E,Türksat 42E and HispaSat 30W
* Features:
* - Plug & Play
* - Auto search with 4500 programmable channels
* - MPEG-2 and DVB compatible
* - LED display
* - OSD (On-Screen-Display)
* - Radio
* - Child lock
* - and many more
* Free 3 year manufacturer's warranty.

The size at of the dish at 57cm is the part of the package that would put me off the most, as an 80cm dish is generally regarded as the minimum size for a dish situated in the UK capable of receiving a consistent reception from the hotbird 13.e satellite.
Having said that it is possible to view this satellite with the dish from certain parts of the UK.

On the Thailand-UK Thai TV page HERE you can read a bit more about what is required.

Given your location if you decide against the Lidl offer you might consider contacting forum sponsors Spectrum Satellite who could probably set you up with a full system with a much better specification for less than £200.

Bets wishes
Lee

Hi Peter,
We've been using the large dish to get our Hotbird for a few years now. However, reception has always been intermittent during times of bad weather.

We recently changed to Broadband and apparently, my wife can get every Thai Tv channel via broadband, not just the 'TGN' compilation channel which is broadcast on Hotbird. Broadband could be a viable alternative if you had reservations about erecting a large satellite dish. Just a thought.

Anyway, I hope you get everything sorted.

I bought one of those last year but then it came with a 80cm dish, works fine but would be better with a mesh dish as the dish does wobble if its windy hence loss of picture.

In our local Lidl they've been selling the same brand 80cm dish, single LNB and brackets separately for a few weeks now. Perhaps if you bought the kit and asked to swap the 57 for the 80? Even if you bought the 80 I think it would still be cheaper (an extra 20 quid ish) than the stuff I bought from Maplin which was around 120 quid.

If you are in west Yorkshire , Alphawave Installations supply and install a technomate reciever and dish installed fully from £200. depending where you are , if you are more than 1 hour away they put on a bit extra to cove rthe fuel/ extra travel time.They can be found on Yell.com .