watching cycling on tv

[rockette]

We are about to ditch our Virgin tv for. Samsung smart TV with Freeview. What is the best way to watch ESPN and Eurosport for the cycling, 'natch. do not want an isp's tv "bundle" again. I have prime Video sub so could add on Channels for Eurosport even if a bit unwieldy .but what about ESpN? Oh does like his US football. anyone got any useful tips. ps we are a pc not an apple household.

[Roadster]

FreeSat offers a lot more channels than FreeView, and a separate tuner/recorder box would allow you to record a programme either to schedule or while watching another.

[akc1]

We ditched Sky, kept the box as a Satellite free view - no disc facilities as Sky disable them. We added a Toshiba free view box with a huge disc, can record two things at once.
Struggle with Eurosport - watch it using iPad, plugged in via an expensive adapter. Mostly ok but the picture doesn't fill the screen.

[cycleruk]

Our Samsung "smart" tv will not show Eurosport. It used to have an App' but it stopped working earlier in the year. I believe other TVs don't show it in their smartview either.
The only way I have got it to work is by using a Google "Chromecast" from my mobile and/or tablet.

[rualexander]

Eurosport Player app on tablet/phone sent to TV via Chromecast.

[RickH]

Look out for any deals on Eurosport player subscriptions - they did a £20 for a year offer last Jan/Feb.

The UCI channel on Youtube has some interesting stuff - they've got most of the current CX World Cup Elite races available & some rather more eclectic corners of the sport that you may never have known existed, let alone realised that there were international competitions.

[mjr]

Point a satellite dish at 19.2°e instead of the usual UK 28.2 and get Eurosport in German, free to air. Add a dual LNB at 13 and get Rai for lots if Italian races.

[TrevA]

Eurosport Player app on tablet/phone sent to TV via Chromecast.

Yes, I do the same using an Apple TV box and iPad mini via mirroring. You might be able to mirror direct from tablet to the TV. Eurosport Player is £6.99 a month - much cheaper than a Sky subscription and you have video playback too.

If you have a YouTube app on the TV, there's a lot of cycling on YouTube, including the UCI channel with live (and recorded playback) of UCI World Cup Cyclocross, Track and Road Racing.

There's also a Freeviwe Sports Channel that sometimes shows cycling. Channel 95 - Freesports. They showed the Junior Tour of Ireland.

[Brucey]

Point a satellite dish at 19.2°e instead of the usual UK 28.2 and get Eurosport in German, free to air. Add a dual LNB at 13 and get Rai for lots if Italian races.

yup. Worth mentioning that the most basic freesat boxes usually also have a facility to operate the box as a basic satellite tuner, in which case it can be tuned to any FTA satellite broadcast, provided that you have a dish that points at the correct satellite.

IME in southern England even a quite small dish (like an old sky one), if suitably accurately aimed, will pick up satellites that are designed to have a broadcast 'footprint' that does not cover the UK. With a big enough dish, it is possible to pick up satellite broadcasts that are aimed at Northern Africa, or the middle east.

I happen to be an F1 enthusiast (don't ask...), and (when they stopped broadcasting all the races live on terrestrial TV) I put together a system which allowed me to watch F1 on RTL satellite TV, (FTA), using old Sky hardware. I think it cost me about £5 in parts (old sky dish and tuner), plus about £15 for an analogue signal strength meter so I could get the dish aimed properly. I tried to set it up without the meter, but it was nigh-on impossible. On any one satellite there are hundreds of channels, and there are lots of satellites. You could get access to thousands of channels with the right system.

cheers

[Redvee]

Look out for any deals on Eurosport player subscriptions - they did a £20 for a year offer last Jan/Feb.

I've got two Eurosport player subs currently running, one ends at the end of the year and the new one ends on 25/11/18 and cost £1.99 through a Black Friday deal.