French TV in the UK

The novice

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Can anybody give me some basic information on the options available to access French TV channels in the UK.

thanks.
 

rolfw

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The cheapest is probably to buy a second hand analogue receiver and 80cm dish and point it at 5W, this will give you the free to air french terrestrial channels. You will need a TV capable of receiving S*caM pictures to anything other than a balck and white picture.

The digital options require some sort of decryption to open a reasonable range of channels, but give more potential choice. This link shows all of the free to air channels transmitted from France http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/France.html
 

The novice

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Thanks for the info. Ideally, I would like a digital solution, because I would also like UK freeview channels and I haven't got a box to do this yet either. The video has also just packed up, so a box with a PVR would be even better. Is there a one box solution for all this? The people who owned the house before had a Sky and the dish is still installed. Would I be able to use this dish? At least the cabling is there if need be.
 

The novice

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Is anybody out there? 40 people have read this thread - can anybody else help please. As you can see, I'm new to this. I'm happy to read a more basic introduction to satellite if someone can recommend a source - thanks
 

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The novice said:
Thanks. Can I use an existing sky dish? (it looks like quite a new one)

Yes although it would need to be re-aligned.
 

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@ The novice, you'll need to be a bit patient, most of the members here work for a living and are not around during the day, so cannot answer immediately, many people who have viewed may be from outside Europe, so would not have the relevant information.

I believe that Technomate do a combination digital satellite and Freeview receiver, but you would have to ensure that your aerial was up to the job, you will not get all of the terrestrial channels with a receiver other than a Sky digibox with a Free to view card.

Did you have a look at my link for free to air French satellite channels, you will see that there are very few unencrypted ones transmitted in digital.
 

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I agree with Analoguesat (he advised me to do the same) that analogue would be a really good option for French FTA tv. I have a Pace MS500 box - good receivers in their day. I should think they cost 5-10GBP now plus around 8GBP postage on ebay.

Good luck
 

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rolfw said:
I believe that Technomate do a combination digital satellite and Freeview receiver, but you would have to ensure that your aerial was up to the job, you will not get all of the terrestrial channels with a receiver other than a Sky digibox with a Free to view card.

Satalogue definitely do one by Fortec:

h**p://www.satalogue.com/section1/page3.htm


The-novice - this kit is FTA satellite only - you cant get the Sky pay tv services with this.
 

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The novice said:
Can anybody give me some basic information on the options available to access French TV channels in the UK.

Depends what you want in the way of French TV. The simplest option is to connect a Sky digibox to the existing dish. This gets you all the BBC and other 'free-to-air' satellite channels plus with a card the 'free to view' channels such as ITV, CH4 If you now set French as the default language, you will get the free channels Euronews, MotorsTV and FashionTV with a French language soundtrack. This is OK for a bit of French listening practice. Mind you there's not much speech on FashionTV.

The next step up is to take out a Sky TV subscription which gets you the French 'best off' channel TV5. A lot of money to pay if you're not interested in the other Sky channels.

The cheap alternative, as others have pointed out, is to get an analogue satellite receiver and dish. The French DIY sheds (e.g. Leroy Merlin) are selling a new receiver, 80cm dish and LNB for about €30 at the moment. You just have to buy a bit of cable and install it yourself. You could possibly reuse your existing dish. This gives you the French terrestrial TV stations in mono. If you don't reuse the Sky dish be aware of possible problems with two dishes on the house because of planning law.

Next you could get yourself a digital receiver with or without hard disk. Most French digital satellite channels are encrypted so this poses an immediate problem. TV5 (mentioned above) is still free on some satellites but for the rest you could take out a subscription for the French bouquets TPS or Canal+ You have to overcome the same hurdles as expat Brits who want to sign up to Sky. (Either you provide a French address or you go through a middleman who rips you off). If you do take out a subscription, consider the sort where you pay a year in advance (as offered by some of the last few independent French satellite retailers). Contracts in France where you pay monthly by direct debit are notoriously difficult to cancel.

TPS is generally cheaper but CanalSatellite is supposedly better according to the critics. TPS gets you TF1 and M6 which aren't in the CanalSatellite package because of commercial rivalries. You need to make sure that your receiver has a Conditional Access module that decrypts the desired bouquet or at least a Common Interface slot where you can plug-in the right sort of CAM. By the way, TPS uses a notoriously weak encryption system which has encouraged pirate viewing in and outside of France.

Going further, you could get a motorised dish. This would allow you to use the same receiver to watch your French channels at 19°E or 13°E and the free-to-air British channels at 28°E. You can't watch one satellite and record another at the same time with this set-up. Rolf has for a long time recommended getting a Sky digibox and mini-dish for the British stuff and a separate receiver and dish for 'playing with'. These days, even a cheapskate like me would have to agree especially if your budget is big enough to stretch to a hard disk receiver.

Some places to look for info:

www.lyngsat.com (you can check what channels are available free or by subscription and what size dish is needed to capture the signals at your location).

the French satellite newsgroup fr.rec.satellite or something

the French Tele-Satellite magazine's website (which also has links to some of the satellite dealer sites in France)

PS I would have replied sooner but I was out at work and then I had my Dutch class.
 

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"Mind you there's not much speech on FashionTV. "

Thers none at all on Sky as it was pulled off the platform a month ago! :D
 

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Analoguesat said:
"Mind you there's not much speech on FashionTV. "

Thers none at all on Sky as it was pulled off the platform a month ago! :D

The proof that my satellite viewing isn't mainly directed at scantily-covered women!
 

The novice

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Thanks everybody for your help. Sorry for being impatient, I'm new to this idea of bulletin boards. It's a brilliant idea, though, I wouldn't know where to start. If I buy French kit and bring it to the UK, will I only get black and white pictures?
 

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Only for the analogue SECAM channels, unless of course your TV has a SECAM option, many new ones do. :)
 

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Don't be put off if your tv's manual or menu doesn't mention Secam. Mine doesn't and it works perfectly with the cheapo analogue system I bought in a Calais DIY shop. I realise it's a question of luck though. Check castorama.fr (look under "Electronique & Antennes") and leroymerlin.fr (under "La Sécurité La Domotique") for the sort of systems available.
 

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The novice said:
Thanks for the info. Ideally, I would like a digital solution.....

Your luck might be in, French channels are popping up Digital FTA on Atlantic Bird 5W.... if they all pop up I'll be getting rid of my analogue 5W set up.... h22p://www.kingofsat.net/en/freqs.php?&pos=5.0W&standard=Digital&filtre=Clear
 

The novice

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So that means buying a digital FTA reciever - any recommendations anybody?
 

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The novice said:
So that means buying a digital FTA reciever - any recommendations anybody?

an answer to a post in this thread suggests they might not be FTA forever... h22p://www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/forum/showthread.php?t=38150
sorry for any previous misleading info

-cts
 
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