1st Timer looking for guidance for French TV/Sat channels

H

hotbaws

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky HD
My Location
Coatbridge, Scotland
Hello All,

1st time poster here and I'm looking for information on setting up a system to get French TV in Central Scotland. I've had a search on the forum without much success.

My mother-in-law is moving over from France to look after our new born twins so my wife can get back to work (bloody credit crunch!) As a thank you I'd like to get a system sorted out for her as her english isn't very good and wouldn't understand anything on TV.

We've found her a little house to rent 2 minutes walk from our house and it's got an old Sky dish outside the property and I was wondering if I could utilise the existing Sky dish and set it up to pick up FTA French TV channels using a new receiver that we'd purchase.

Or would I need to buy a whole new system and start from scratch?

Any advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated, I'm quite happy to have a go myself at the install as I'm an ex-alarm engineer.

Thanks
Gary
 
Welcome to the forum hotbaws

Well assuming you mean French Free To Air channels they are currently on Atlantic bird 3 at 5 Deg West on the Super beam and whilst the dish is probably adequate I would personally start again as you have no idea if it and the lnb work and also if it is a particular type lnb you would not be easily able to alter the skew for a westerly satellite. The forum sponsors will be able to supply all your requirements, and it would be a very worthwhile project to ensure a permanent baby sitter on site. There are actually a number of threads for French TV setup but you would have to use the forum search facility for them
 
The other alternative would be for her to bring over a TNT receiver (The French version of Freesat which requires a Free To View card) and move the existing dish to Astra 19.2E.
 
Topper / Rolfw,

Thanks for your replies most helpful, I'll speak to my M-I-L and see if she can pick up one of the French freeview boxes before she arrives on Saturday and I'll see about trying to realign the existing Sky dish.

If this doesn't work then I'll start from scratch with a clean install

Thanks again for you help

Best Regards
Gary
 
Make sure it is a satellite TNT box, not terrestrial.
 
I think that it would be better for her to get used to the English language by watching English channels which might have French subtitles.
But if this is too hard for her, then TNT Sat is an excellent idea.
Also there are few good French channels on Hot Bird 13E like TV5 Europe, TV5 FBS, Arte (also on Astra 19.2E)
You are lucky to have a grandmother watching over the babies, instead of a stranger who might do anything while the parents are not present.
 
HB13DISH said:
I think that it would be better for her to get used to the English language by watching English channels which might have French subtitles.
But if this is too hard for her, then TNT Sat is an excellent idea.
Also there are few good French channels on Hot Bird 13E like TV5 Europe, TV5 FBS, Arte (also on Astra 19.2E)
You are lucky to have a grandmother watching over the babies, instead of a stranger who might do anything while the parents are not present.
Click to expand...


We've already got an english tutor lined up to give her lessons, this is more of a home comfort for her when she's back at her wee house with out the twins keeping her busy.

I'll maybe have a look on some French sites to see if I can pick up a TNT Sat box directly for her.


Yeah we're delighted that she's coming over and it's a big step not speaking english and more so as she was recently widowed 5 days before our twins were born so it's been a tough time for her & the rest of the family.
 
hotbaws said:
I'll maybe have a look on some French sites to see if I can pick up a TNT Sat box directly for her.
Click to expand...

It is not as easy as that.
She has to buy it and apply for a TNT Sat smartcard with a special form, as she is entitled to it while living in France.
It will be cheaper this way.
 
HB13DISH said:
It is not as easy as that.
She has to buy it and apply for a TNT Sat smartcard with a special form, as she is entitled to it while living in France.
It will be cheaper this way.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the heads up!
 
HB13DISH said:
You are welcome.:)
This might be of interest
_http://www.tntsat.tv/
_http://www.tntsat.tv/contact.html
and this thread
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/dreambox-general/139039-french-terrestrial-tnt-astra.html
Click to expand...


Thanks again! I'll have a look at the links above

My wifes found a seller on Ebay.fr who's selling the Speed TNT box and card who's happy to post to us in Scotland if the M-I-L isn't able to get to the shop today which is about an hour away from her.
 
Hi Again Everyone,

My Mother-in-law bought a Strong SRT Digi Box & TNT viewing card when she was back in France a couple of weeks ago and brought them back over to Scotland with her.

I've hooked it up to the existing Sky cable that is already plumbed in, now hopefully all I need to do is re-align the Dish to another satelite to pick up the french channels and that leads me to my next question for you guys.....

The dish is currently lined up for Sky so can anyone advise what position I need to move it to to enable it to pick up the french channels?

Also the tools I require - A Ladder, wrench with correct size to loosen the dish, a compass or should I buy one of the little Satellite Dish Finder Dish Alignment Meter from EBay.

I've seen the website dish pointer which uses Google earth for Dish set up would this be better?

Lot's of question I know sorry !

Thanks
Gary
 
rolfw said:
The other alternative would be for her to bring over a TNT receiver (The French version of Freesat which requires a Free To View card) and move the existing dish to Astra 19.2E.
Click to expand...


As you can see Rolf answered the question in an earlier post, you need to move you dish 9 degrees West and possibly a small amount up, but that may not be necessary. First mark where you currently are on the dish then slacken the bolts and rotate the dish West, it would be best if you could arrange for a tv to be pointing at the window or near where you are working, alter the frequency to a frequency shown for that bouquest and rotate until you get a signal
 
I hope she bought the TNT Sat and not TNT (Terrestrial)
Should point dish to Astra 19.2E insted of Sky (28E)
 
Topper said:
As you can see Rolf answered the question in an earlier post, you need to move you dish 9 degrees West and possibly a small amount up, but that may not be necessary. First mark where you currently are on the dish then slacken the bolts and rotate the dish West, it would be best if you could arrange for a tv to be pointing at the window or near where you are working, alter the frequency to a frequency shown for that bouquest and rotate until you get a signal
Click to expand...


Thanks Topper I didn't notice that in Rolf's earlier post. I'll have bash and I've found the site dish pointer which I can use on my Iphone which should help lining it up.

Thanks again
 
I have been on satellite tv for some time but never
posted a question.Ive read many questions and answers
and Im amazed at the help and advice thats given.

it makes a big change to see so much help offered for
free and with good heart. I only have sky free channels
but I would like to buy a technomate that is listed on ebay and buy a 60mm dish and try to set it up. I expect
I will come back to you all with many questions how to.
By the By why is satellite dishs round and not oblong.???? GEORGER
 
Hi All,

I managed to get my M-I-L sorted at the weekend with French TV and she's delighted!

It was very straight forward in the end, I borrowed a ladder and used the website _www.Dishpointer.com to get the alignment for the Astra 19.2E

We've ended up with 20 channels for her to watch and I've got some brownie points so everyones a winner ;)

Thanks again to you all for your help I really appreciate it!

All the best
Gary
 
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