How to tune a TV with built in satellite receiver to get RTL (To watch F1 live)

[Brynl]

I am sure this is doable, but I can’t figure out how to do it..

Live F1 coverage is now only on Sky (apart from the British Grand Prix) but I think all racees are still broadcast live and unscrambled on the German channel RTL, but only in fuzzy vision the HD channel requires decoding.  My TV is set-up for Freesat and works great.  I have tried the non-Freesat re-tune and get 500+ TV channels, but RTL  is not there.  Also nearly all of the 500 are in English… 

RTL is on the Astra 19.2 east satellite, which I think that is the same as the Freesat…  The RTL frequency is 12.188 GHz Horizontal.  I am in the South of England and get a good strong signal. 

Anyone know how to do this tune on a Samsung TV or is there same magic built in thing to restrict non-English channels?   

Thanks.

Update:  I was going to delete the post, but I will leave it here for others to read.   Done some more digging on the web and realized that Freesat is on 28.2 E, so even telling the tuner in the TV to look for 19.2 E it won’t find it as my dish is pointing at 28.2E, all the channels it finds with a 19.2E search, are in fact from the 28.2E.  So, solution is an additional dish to point at 19.2E, then some kind of switch between the two dishes, or even a motorised dish…  Unless anyone else knows how to get F1 live, without paying over £500 pa, to Sky?

[Brynl · Accepted solution]

Here is how to do it, if anyone out there wants to view live F1 for both 2019 and 2020 seasons for free…..

Buy an additional dish, I got mine from Amazon for £34 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077DR5XWW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this includes a satellite finder and the 5m of cable.  I also bought a https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AAAZJZG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 a DiSEqC switch from Amazon for £6.99.  You need this to connect two dishes to one receiver.  

Unplug the TV (or receiver) from the mains. Fixed the new dish on the wall just above my existing dish.  Used the satellite finder supplied to find the Astra 19.2 satellite, which is facing south, 9 degrees to the right of where the 28.2 dish is pointing, is was easy to find.   Also fix the DiSEqC switch near to the two dishes. Disconnect the cable from the existing LNB /dish and screw it into the REC port on the DiSEqC switch, so don’t fix the switch too far away from the existing dish.  Make up two cables with the F-plugs supplied, connect one from the existing LNB/dish to port 1 on the switch and one from the new LNB/dish to the LNB 2 port.  Plug the TV (or receiver) back into the mains.  Switch on and go to set-up.  You need to tell it you have a DiSEqC switch and which satellite is on which port, I did 19.2 on port 1 and 28.2 on port 2. Then do a satellite auto tune, NOT a Freesat tune.  My TV found 1600 TV channels!  Find the RTL Television channel and add to favourites, then find all the other channels you want, e.g. BBC 1 HD, 2 HD, ITV HD, and Channel 4 HD (yes CH 4 HD is there !) and add these to your favourites. 

Of course, RTL is in German, so you need to tune a radio to BBC 5 Live to get the commentary English.  It is in sync, may be less than a second diff.  Note for qualifying I had the get the sound from the BBC sports app.  Feel free to ask me a question. SKY would have charged £800 for two years, this cost me £41 😊

[Nicksellick]

Hi, I read your post concerning F1 coberage with great interest. I currently use a Humax Freesat receiver which has twin tuneers. Do you know if the 

Technomate TM-4S 4 x 1 HD Ready Satellite DiSEqC Switch

will accomodate that?

Thanks for your help.

CVheers Nick

[Brynl]

Hi Nick,

That’s a good valid question, but I don’t know the answer.  My old Humax box died a year or so ago, so I now rely on the tuner in my Samsung smart TV.  The TV manual did say that it supported the DiSEqC Switch, check out your Humax manual or may be find a Humax forum and ask there.

I am fairly sure that RTL have the rights to show the next F1 season, but worth checking on the web to confirm before buying the dish and switch.  Note: the RTL free FI coverage is not HD, and it has adverts during the race, so not perfect, but a lot cheaper than Sky.

Cheers

Bryn

[Nicksellick]

Ok, thanks Bryn,

[Dave291]

Hello,

I found your post by searching for a similar question. I have a Technomate TM-2S diseqc (similar to TM-4S) connected to a UE49MU7000. Port 1 is astra 28.2 and port 2 is hotbird 13. This works absolutely fine on the Main Tuner switching between the two satellites. What I am wondering is if I can connect a second diseqc switch to my second tuner. As the manual is poor I think the only way  I will find out is by trying it!

[Brynl]

Hi, sorry I can't help you on this question  as you say try it and see. Good luck,  bryn

[Pidster]

As I have noo dishes installed at the moment does this mean I need to install 2 dishes and the switch from scratch?