# spanish digital tv



## psavage (Sep 15, 2008)

Hi, as we use a digital box to watch Spanish tv (Best Buy brand bought in Spain which has an audio change button) I was wondering if anyone was using a recording type digi box which allows the change of the audio menu which had been brought from UK? I am not residing in Spain yet and dont want to invest in an expensive dish for a satellite box which could be stolen( have had 2 burglaries already), but I want to record 1 channel whilst watching another when we stay over,and my english thomson box doesn't allow me to change the audio other than in the initial setup.If no one has an english bought one can anyone recommend a good Spanish make with this facility?
cheers
Pauline.


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## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

Generally digital terrestrial boxes in the UK , which are "freeview branded" only allow you to chanle the languges to "English" "Welsh" and "Gaelic" - the only options they have on their software.

One or two channels in Spain use the word "English", but other channels use a variety of options for the second audio track - QAA, DOS, MUL, VO, UND - which are not available on Freeview boxes.

So you may find that "non freeview" branded boxes should work - as they will not be limited to the three langusge options on Freeview boxes, and should be able to slected the other langauge options that are used in Spain.

Have not seen many terrestrial boxes with the "watch one and record another" functionality, so cannot recommend any i am afraid


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## psavage (Sep 15, 2008)

Thankyou for that information, I have found 2 boxes on carrefours website with hard drives, but as I dont know if they would allow the change of the audio either, hence the hope some-one out there has one that does have an audio selector.Obviously I would love English tv but we don't have the confidence the dish would still be there when we return, and cant get english tv to work on my netbook which I take, but as yet only youtube allows access and that doesnt give us much in tv programmes.


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## Twain (May 24, 2009)

psavage said:


> dont want to invest in an expensive dish for a satellite box which could be stolen( have had 2 burglaries already)


Do they take the satellite dish or the box inside the house?
How can one prevent that they steal the dish?


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## psavage (Sep 15, 2008)

I have never had a dish installed, but I have had a total ransacking of a 5 bedroom house(£20,000 value) and the insurrance( LaCaixa bank)wouldnt pay out and last year had another burglary and lost inside and outside property taken.Given that a large dish is so expensive I dont want to tempt fate again.I am sure an angle grinder could easily remove it, and it would be worth something to someone.


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## tonyinspain (Jul 18, 2011)

Last time i was in Bauhous they had a complete package comprising dish box brackets 79 euros you will need cable and plugs set it to ground level on a pole and when you leave to teturn to the uk take it down and hide it making sure you mark the pole with white paint so when you come back you can then replace it to watch tv
If you have a iphone or android download a free sat app and it will help you set up your box
Once set up all you need to do is mark the dish direction with white paint and rwplace it in the same direction 
Hipe this helps


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## .JD (Aug 15, 2012)

Hi,
If you only want to watch live TV whilst your here and you have a decent Internet connection then use www.tvcatchup.com, I tend to use it on my iPhone and it's actually really good. Works well on the IPad too.

Of course there is also the BBC iPlayer website but that's just BBC content.

I lived in Spain many years ago and used a guy called Mark from www.skytvinspain.es, he use to give me lots of free tips regarding AV stuff like this. I eventually used him to install Sky+ but it did mean I had to keep my sky account active in the UK. Might be worth giving him a quick call.

Hope this helps,

John


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## psavage (Sep 15, 2008)

tonyinspain said:


> Last time i was in Bauhous they had a complete package comprising dish box brackets 79 euros you will need cable and plugs set it to ground level on a pole and when you leave to teturn to the uk take it down and hide it making sure you mark the pole with white paint so when you come back you can then replace it to watch tv
> If you have a iphone or android download a free sat app and it will help you set up your box
> Once set up all you need to do is mark the dish direction with white paint and rwplace it in the same direction
> Hipe this helps


Hi, I hadn't thought of a small dish satellite for spanish tv, at least that dish isn't as expensive as the dish needed for UK tv even if it was left up, I will definitely explore that idea as I need to know if they have audio preferences, thanks for that.


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## psavage (Sep 15, 2008)

.JD said:


> Hi,
> If you only want to watch live TV whilst your here and you have a decent Internet connection then use TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again, I tend to use it on my iPhone and it's actually really good. Works well on the IPad too.
> 
> Of course there is also the BBC iPlayer website but that's just BBC content.
> ...


Hi John, I do take a netbook, and use spanish vodafone dongle and tried to watch tvcatchup but it kept blocking my access even downloaded various vpn's and still couldn't get anything via iPlayer or any UK website.I have never tried by phone( which hubby does here now since changing his phone) so we could try that, but if you use it abroad on the english contract doesn't it cost a fortune? I have read up many forums regarding people trying to get UK tv abroad on pc.s but I still haven't got anywhere other than YouTube.We do watch films, but theres a lot of good programmes via TDT but they always conflict on time and the various audio channels pose a problem with most TDT boxes hence my original post regarding a recordable TDT box with audio selections.I will contact Mark to see if he has more information and thanks for your reply.Having seen hubby watching tvcatchup on his new phone I.d be very interrested in how you were able to get access, were you using UK sim or Spanish and did you not get blocked access problems?


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## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

psavage said:


> Hi, I hadn't thought of a small dish satellite for spanish tv, at least that dish isn't as expensive as the dish needed for UK tv even if it was left up, I will definitely explore that idea as I need to know if they have audio preferences, thanks for that.


None of the Spanish TV channels available for FREE via a TV aerial are available for FREE via a satellite dish. YOu will need to subscribe to Canal+ if you want to receive Spanish TV channels via satellite. Only a few local Spanish TV channels are available for free on a satellite dish - eg TVMadrid




psavage said:


> Thankyou for that information, I have found 2 boxes on carrefours website with hard drives, but as I dont know if they would allow the change of the audio either, hence the hope some-one out there has one that does have an audio selector.


Most, if not all, TDT Terrestrial boxes in Spain have the ability to change the audio from dubbed to original... most with a button on the remote control.

One on box I have, the USB recording recorded the audio that was coming out of the TV. It did not record all audio. This means that you need to make sure that channels audio is on "original" before recording.


tvcatchup is geoblocked outside the UK. They have even blocked some VPNs.
something like filmon may help
or use a torrent p2p site to download the individual programmes you want to watch - rather than trying to look for full 24/7 access. sites like thebox.bz have programmes to download withing minutes of them finishing on TV.


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## .JD (Aug 15, 2012)

psavage said:


> if you use it abroad on the english contract doesn't it cost a fortune?


Hello.

Absolutely, please don't do this! I'm staying in a holiday let with wifi, it does use a lot of bandwidth so would cost a small fortune on an English contract whilst roaming.

If you don't have Internet or at least a Spanish 3G dongle then Internet TV probably isn't the best option, sorry :-(


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