Fransat

[egghead]

hello...

first time post - i hope that i'm posting this in the right place. i'm not supertechnical on all of this kind of thing...

my french girlfriend is going to be moving in with me in the uk over the next month or so and she'd like to be able to watch some french (and possibly german) tv channels.

i've seen that the french have launched something called fransat (http://www.fransat.fr/index.htm) which seems to be similar to uk freesat. this looks like the thing for the french tv... but has anyone tried to use it in the uk (and if so did it work)? is it really as simple as buying a fransat box, getting a satellite dish to point in the right direction and hooking them up or am i missing something?

also... would it be possible to watch british satellite (28E), german satellite (19E) and french satellite (5W) using one dish, or would i need two (or three) dishes?

 

[egghead]

hello...

first time post - i hope that i'm posting this in the right place. i'm not supertechnical on all of this kind of thing...

my french girlfriend is going to be moving in with me in the uk over the next month or so and she'd like to be able to watch some french (and possibly german) tv channels.

i've seen that the french have launched something called fransat (http://www.fransat.fr/index.htm) which seems to be similar to uk freesat. this looks like the thing for the french tv... but has anyone tried to use it in the uk (and if so did it work)? is it really as simple as buying a fransat box, getting a satellite dish to point in the right direction and hooking them up or am i missing something?

also... would it be possible to watch british satellite (28E), german satellite (19E) and french satellite (5W) using one dish, or would i need two (or three) dishes?

 

[peapod1]

hello...


also... would it be possible to watch british satellite (28E), german satellite (19E) and french satellite (5W) using one dish, or would i need two (or three) dishes?

OK Egghead, I'll offer a layman's reply based upon my own experience. Others more technically qualified may chime in to guide you on what is possible.

1. A receiver, and a dish aimed at 5W will get you some but not all of the channels covered in the Fransat package. Scrambled channels will include TF1, Canal+, M6, W9 etc for which you would need the Fransat receiver.

2. TNTSat offers a similar package from Astra1 at 19 deg east. Since you already have a sky dish for 28E, a second dish with a monoblock lnb would bring in Hotbird and Astra1 which would provide the Fench and German channels you seek.

3. The route I chose was to upgrade to a motorised dish which allows me to see from 5W to 28E without paying subscription. I accept that there are some mainstream French channels that I cannot receive at present but it offers a good compromise. The new dish, motor and installation onto the existing mast cost me roughly £300 and I am subscription free. A small added bonus is that I get M6 Suisse (in FTA French) from one of the other sats in the limited arc that I can see.

Hope this helps for starters.

 

[peapod1]

hello...


also... would it be possible to watch british satellite (28E), german satellite (19E) and french satellite (5W) using one dish, or would i need two (or three) dishes?

OK Egghead, I'll offer a layman's reply based upon my own experience. Others more technically qualified may chime in to guide you on what is possible.

1. A receiver, and a dish aimed at 5W will get you some but not all of the channels covered in the Fransat package. Scrambled channels will include TF1, Canal+, M6, W9 etc for which you would need the Fransat receiver.

2. TNTSat offers a similar package from Astra1 at 19 deg east. Since you already have a sky dish for 28E, a second dish with a monoblock lnb would bring in Hotbird and Astra1 which would provide the Fench and German channels you seek.

3. The route I chose was to upgrade to a motorised dish which allows me to see from 5W to 28E without paying subscription. I accept that there are some mainstream French channels that I cannot receive at present but it offers a good compromise. The new dish, motor and installation onto the existing mast cost me roughly £300 and I am subscription free. A small added bonus is that I get M6 Suisse (in FTA French) from one of the other sats in the limited arc that I can see.

Hope this helps for starters.

 

[kenrea]

What's attracting me to the Fransat package is being able to access 5 HD
channels for at least 4 years, because with the way BBC and Itv are crawling along we may not get anything from them for another year or two. Tv Corner are advertising the Aston Simba HD with a TNTSAT viewing card for 249 euros, I'me very tempted.

 

[egghead]

thanks for all the help... i was in france over xmas and ended up going for a tntsat box with 5 or so hd channels. fingers crossed it all works out!