Analogue vs Digital

[gum]

Being a complete novice here i am after some advice.

Until recently I had an old analogue receiver (about 10 years old) which i used to pick up the main french channels that i watch all the time (being french :-csmile ) this had started to get very bad picture quality and often cutting on and off all the time. I decided to purchase a new digital system which cost me just over £100, I asked at the store if this new system could be set up onto my old dish and lnb etc and was told "yes and you will be able to pick up the same channels you did before"....not so, i couldnt get a thing so installed a new dish and lnb (which came with the receiver) still nothing. Now i have had to call a specialist enginer out at at cost of £150 who did wonders and got me all the channels except of the 1000's I have i am my favourite 1 missing as its scrambled....Its TF1.
The engineer told me he could get it for me but at a cost of another new receiver for about £300 and then i would have to subscribe to get a card etc for yet another £300!!
I know my dish is picking up excellent strong signals from HotBird and Astra, is there anyway i can pick up TF1 for free? I used to get it on my old analogue!

Many thanks
All help much appreciated

 

[2cvbloke]

If your old dish/LNB/receiver were at fault, there's no reason to say why you can't just use a new dish/LNB/receiver to pick up the analogue stuff...

Have you tried your old receiver at all on the new setup?

 

[gum]

Never thought of that, will my analogue pickup channels from hotbird and astra?

 

[2cvbloke]

Never thought of that, will my analogue pickup channels from hotbird and astra?

Depends on how old the box is, but in most cases the answer is yes, until the analogue stuff gets switched off...

But 5w (Atlantic Bird 3) isn't too hard to get hold of using a spare dish, I assume that's where your old dish was pointing as that carries TF1 analogue...

 

[gum]

right......just tried that and nothing....but also realized that I have no remote control to program the old analogue receiver...that broke years ago and I have to change channels on the receiver directly! The old receiver is an Manhattean LT-7600 Plus MKIII.....is this a good receiver or not?

Many many thanks

 

[gum]

ok...simplier idea here....can i get a card that fits into my new digital receiver without having to purchase a new receiver and a box that links to this for a card to work(as told me today by an engineer) - all at the cost of near £600? The receiver is a Fortec Star FSCO-5600 Ultra + but the engineer who came today told me it would not work with a card - yet it has a card slot. I realise i will have to subscribe but have no idea where to look for a subscription etc...is there anywhere on the web?

Thanks again.......
P.s I think my car looks funny too :-)

 

[rolfw]

If you are French, then you can get a relative or friend to subscribe to the basic package of TPS, that should give you all of the channels you need, they may even provide a receiver.