DirectTV is not receivable from any part of Europe (the sats are too far west and/or the beams are not directed to Europe).
Some US stuff is receivable across here though, but the "raw" stuff (ie the stuff not explicitly intended for Europe) uses the NTSC transmission standard - so you need a sat receiver & TV capable of processing NTSC signals.
Same principle applies to the reception of French SECAM transmissions.
You need to do some basic research on satellite reception I think. The satellites lie directly above the equator at a precise distance from the Earth such that they are "geostationary". I.E. they complete one orbit in exactly one Earth day. That means they appear from the ground to hang stationary at a fixed location in the sky. Handy, otherwise your dish would need to constantly move to follow them...
The circle in which they appear to lie is referred to as the Clarke Belt. From any given location on the Earth, one can only see a part of the belt. The rest is below the horizon. And the further you are away from the equator, the greater the proportion of the Clarke belt that will appear below your horizon.
So you see, there are already limits on which sats you can see.
Then there's the question of the signal beams - most sats transmit their channels on various different beams, each typically directed at a particular part of the Earth's surface, targeting a specific region/audience. This is particularly true of the Ku-band signals used in Europe. So even when the sat you want is clearly visible from your location, it may be that the channels you want are carried on beams directed somewhere else.
The site http://www.lyngsat.com is very useful for seeing which sats there are, which channels they carry (and how they are encrypted) and the "foorprints" of the beams carrying those channels.
Yes, if you want to watch Mediaguard AND Viaccess channels you need in principle a Mediaguard AND a Viaccess decoder. But those decoders can take different forms. They can be built-into (embedded in) the receivers, or they can be loose, interchangable "common interface" modules that fit into any common-interface (CI) receiver. Here too, though, you will benefit from a good deal of reaearch - there are too many variations and provisos to list here. Some receivers with embedded decoders are only available from the satellite-package providers. Others are provider-independent. Some are only available in specific countries. Etc etc.
Note that with the latest hacks, it is now possible to reprogram a few specific receivers/modules in such a way that they can effectively decrypt multiple systems. For example, a Humax5400 with a suitably patched embedded Irdeto CAM and the right kind of hobby smartcard can decrypt not only Irdeto but also Viaccess and Mediaguard - without the need to buy separate modules. Similarly (with a few restrictions) the early series of Irdeto CI CAMs can be reprogrammed to do that too. And then there are the various PC-based emulators that can emulate one or more encyption systems using something called a Season interface to the card slot of your receiver.
There are many roads to Rome...
Have a good look though this board (there's a good search function) - you will find that most questions you can dream up from here will already have been answered.
2old
