When fitting a new LNB to your satellite dish, you need to make sure the skew is correct.

This skew is the rotation angle of the LNB. And is very critical, and can be the difference between receiving channels or not. In some fringe reception areas, like Spain, and southern France, this LNB skew is very critical, and even the smallest amount of change in skew can make channel reception better.

The skew will be determined by a variety of factors, such as which satellite you want to receiver, are they “east” or “west” satellites, your location. The farther away the satellites are from “due south” the greater the LNB skew will be.

Many Sky TV satellite dishes and LNBs used in the UK come with the LNB skews set at the correct angle already.

But other dishes, or caravan or motorhome users, may have to set theirs manually. There are some channels, such as Sky Sports News, that are very LNB skew sensitive, so you can use the reception of this channel as a guide to the best skew angle.

The http://www.dishpointer.com tool helps give an LNB skew angle, although very small adjustments to this angle will be required.

Low Noise Block downconverter – or more commonly known as LNBs, are the “eyes” of the satellite dish.
These LNBs are the box of tricks that site at the end of the support arms facing the dish.

Basically they collect the signals and send them to the satellite receivers via the satellite coax cable.

More complex, they actually convert the relatively high frequencies received by the satellite dish into similar signals carried at a much lower frequency, with less attenuation, so that there is more signal available for use by satellite receivers.

There are various types of LNB, which are determined by the satellite dish you have and the type of signals that you want to receive.

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In an attempt to help reduce costs after having the licence fee freeze for a number of years, the BBC have decided to reduce the number of satellite transponders used by the BBC will be reduced to six.

This means that two underutilised “red button” video streams will be closed / switched off at the start of October 2011.

And that a number of channels, like BBC News, BBC Parliament, and BBC Alba, will be moving frequencies.

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Some Freesat users, with a Humax Foxsat HDR, may be experiencing issues when trying to load the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).

Users trying to access the EPG have been presented with a “please wait” message. This message usually appears for around 40 seconds, but in some cases minutes, before the EPG data and channel guide appear.

Apparently this has been down to a recent Humax software update, and the delay has been implimented to try and stop the receiver from random lock ups.

There is a way around this issue, where you can access the EPG from the receivers cache. Press the SCHEDULE button, followed by the RED button; and this will give you the guide from cache.

Earlier this week a number of free UK TV channels moved to a new frequency.

The channels affected are:
True Movies 1
True Movies 2
True Entertainment
Bliss
Chart Show TV
Dance Nation
Flava
Kix
NME TV
Pop
Pop Girl
Pop Girl+1
Scuzz
The Vault
Tiny Pop
Tiny Pop +1

Whilst people with Sky boxes should not be affected, as their Sky boxes will automatically update to the new frequencies, some Freesat box users and some “generic” free to air receivers may be affected and may no longer be able to receive these channels.

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After many many mamy mnths of promised, launch dates, and press releases, Real Digital now say that they will be launching their satellite TV services in September.

So what is Real Digital TV?

Well, its just yet another name to join Freesta and Sky in providing your satellite TV. They will have their own EPG, their own set top boxes, but use the same “signals” and satellite as the exisiting Freesat and Sky services.

But where they differ, is that Real Digital say they are also able to offer some PAY channels also. It may be that Sky Sports would be made available to Real Digital customers as a stand alone channel, without the need to subscribe to other Sky TV packages.

However, we shall wait and see what happens…if this system does eventually launch…

Earlier this week EU lawmakers have warned that banning satellite dishes on listed buildings, social housing and even private homes could breach the EU laws on Human Rights.

This came around when, in Sweden, two tenants installed a satellite dish on their rented property, and the landlord ordered them to take it down. The tenants refused and the landlord threw them out of the property. The tenants took the Swedish Government to court, claiming the Swedish government had failed in its obligation to protect the couple’s right to receive information.

European judges ruled in favour of the tenants, and said that satellite dishes come under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as it provides required news and information.

Yet, the EU Television Sans Frontiers (TV without Frontiers, now the AVMS Directive) includes provisions within it for landlords rights and planning permission with regards to satellite dishes.

So do we have a case of two “laws” saying two different things..!

Surely this ruling in relation to the Swedish tenants is in relation to “receiving of information”. Maybe a satellite dish is not required, maybe that information is also available on digital terrestrial. Maybe it’s also available on the internet, so not “TV” service is required to be installed…

Is this another case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?

BBC iPlayer: available in the UK and now Europe!

The BBC iPlayer service is a live event, video on demand and “catch-up” service. If you are in the UK, then it is available on various platforms, like internet, and Freesat. It allows you to watch the BBC channel live on the internet, and also, under its catch-up service, view programmes that you may have missed.

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It has been confirmed that Sky TV will be freezing their subscription prices until the 31st August 2012, for customers who join prior to 31st August 2011.

It has also been confirmed that Sky TV will be changing thier channel structure.
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There is a lot of rumours circulating about potential changes to the Sky package in September.

Normally September is the month that Sky apply price changes…usually increases.

But according to reports the 6 genre mixes will be merged into just 2 mixes – Entertainment and Entertainment Plus. And as part of these changes there will be NO price increase for these basic entertainment channels.

Of course this does not mean that the movie or sports package details will not increase, which they may well do so…

There has also been talk that the Sky HD multiroom charge will be removed. This means that if you have multiroom, you only have to pay once for the HD channels, and not for each HD multiroom subscription you have.

Sky HD packages.