Kvh Tracvision

markc

markc

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Hi

Maybe someone has some tech knowledge on this system?

I have a Tracvision M3 on the boat that has a TNT sat box connected to the Kvh box inside the boat. The TNT box seems to use Astra1 and understandably receives mainly French TV. Am I right in thinking that I can change the TNT box for a Free sat compatible box, select Astra2 on the Kvh box and it should work, or am I going to need to get under the bonnet with a seriel connection and laptop?

Cheers
Mark
 
If by 'it should work' you mean 'it should pick up UK TV', then no, there's been a lot of discussion about this here, the gist of which is you need a gigantic dish to pick up UK sat TV in SoF, and you're better off with a 4g mifi and using streaming services.
 
+ 1.
UK TV in sofF needs much bigger than m3. I have M7 and it is not much use - I have never turned the kvh system on since boat was first delivered a few years ago. In contrast 4g streaming is excellent - get a Free (as in the brand name, not no money) no-contract €20month French sim, as first recommended by JtB on here, and you'll love it. Has been discussed lots in prior threads
 
There are, essentially, two beams transmitted from Astra 2.
One is aimed at the UK (rather like a torch beam) and upgraded satellites a couple of years ago "crispened" the beam making it impossible for us to receive in the Med.
Virtually all UK TV channels go across this beam.
The other beam is the wide beam (Eurobeam) (rather like a floodlight) which can be received in most parts of the Med.
For someone interested in UK TV, there are some news channels transmitted over the wide beam - Sky News and EuroNews etc.
Hope that helps - the KVH is a bit complicated to set up - my system is Intellian - good luck.

I use my Satellite TV system just for news - and 4G for all my other TV.

However, I wanted to watch the F1 live yesterday and Channel 4 didn't transmit it until much later on.
So, I pointed the dish at Astra 1 and tuned into the German RTL channel.
Then streamed the audio from BBC Radio 5 Live across the 4G.

Hey guys - there is a new problem that has just loomed - FilmOn have started charging - you get 2 mins then a page asking you to subscribe.
Bit off charging for pirated TV channels.
 
Great, thanks for the tips! I think the plan now is to get Chromecast dongles for the TVs and use 4G. I can create a WiFi hotspot with my phone and I have 16GB per month data which can be used in France, so I'll see how that goes. The kids can watch French cartoons though to help them learn the lingo, plus I can pick up BBC news on the current box
 
markc said:
Great, thanks for the tips! I think the plan now is to get Chromecast dongles for the TVs and use 4G. I can create a WiFi hotspot with my phone and I have 16GB per month data which can be used in France, so I'll see how that goes. The kids can watch French cartoons though to help them learn the lingo, plus I can pick up BBC news on the current box
Click to expand...

We've been using the 4G for some TV catchup and a couple of films - plus SWMBO has the Archers on Sundays!!!
3rd May to 15th May my usage has been 11.5Gb downstream and 1.5Gb upstream.
So that would have been within your 16Gb but it can quickly run away with you.
I have 120Gb per month - it was unlimited last year.
 
jfm said:
In contrast 4g streaming is excellent - get a Free (as in the brand name, not no money) no-contract €20month French sim
Click to expand...

Can you give us the name of the Service provider for this SIM card, please John and, if possible, a link to their website?
 
AllanG said:
Can you give us the name of the Service provider for this SIM card, please John and, if possible, a link to their website?
Click to expand...
www.freemobile.fr. You buy the sim card from vending machines, listed on their website. Free has some of its own antennas and when connected to them you get 50 gig/month for e20, cancellable whenever you want. When not on one of their aerials it roams onto another provider and you get less data. There is an aerial or two in Antibes so this package suits the Antibes-ish mob very well. We Netflix plenty with it

I see it is now listing unlimited data volumes! http://mobile.free.fr/
No idea if this applies to my SIM as mine is a year old, when there was a (big) limit
 
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jfm said:
www.freemobile.fr. You buy the sim card from vending machines, listed on their website. Free has some of its own antennas and when connected to them you get 50 gig/month for e20, cancellable whenever you want. When not on one of their aerials it roams onto another provider and you get less data. There is an aerial or two in Antibes so this package suits the Antibes-ish mob very well. We Netflix plenty with it
Click to expand...

Fyi it looks like Free have increased the data allowance to 100gb per month, same price as before.
 
Arggh - so i just took delivery of a new Preditor 58 and spent a fortune on the AV...needless to say the functionality does not work very well. I was advised to install a software called Pepwave. Pepwave links up the boat's wifi to the marina wifi automatically, and then as a fail safe it switches to a sim card if pepwave cannot pick up the WIFI. The idea here being that when in marinas i could stream TV and so not get charged for data. However my experience to date is that the Pepwave does not link to the wifi of the marinas with any degree of certainty and on the odd occasion when it does the wifi signal is not strong enough to stream from.

Hence I have to rely on a Sim card to stream from. And wow does this open up a can of worms.....I was put in contact with a company who then sold me a SIM card at 160 quid per month for 25GB - I only used 3gb per month

Needless to say I am now looking for a pay as you go Spanish SIM card ....i think I have found one called 3 in one 20 plus pay as you go which costs some £30 per month and there is no contract and gives you 12gb per month which you can top up

Hope this helps
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Don't know yet, will dig and advise.
Click to expand...

Pleased to report that the increase does indeed apply to us early-adopters - this is from my account:

Capture_zpsbxfa4qtx.jpg
 
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