Tim

I can cofirm Martin's Answer with my own experience. I came over with two TVs with in built Freeview tuners. The older of the two was a first generation tuner and is onlt able to deal with the 2K signal. Therefore, it does not get the French TNT transmissions. The second set - only a couple of years old, deals with the French TNT quite well. As Martin says - there is no 'Red Button' facility, but I'm not sure whether the French have that anyway (anyone know?) and it produces some slightly strange results when trying to decipher letters with French accents - apart from that, fine Incidentally, I have a quite old Grundig Freeview digi-box and that just about deals with the TNT signals - it does, sometimes, put the channels in some strange order but I always thought it was an odd box anyay! Tim

Ok Ron - I thought later about whether my remark was relevant - I've been away for a few days and have come and poked my nose in a bit late. Regards - Tim

You can only get Channel 4, 5 & Sky 3 with a Sky box and active card - the card costs £20, but will not work on your other box. Tim

Don't mean to highjack the thread, but has anyone have any experience of using the French equivalent of the Ombudsman? I have a feeling that I need one for E.D.F. I have found their details on the web, so I know where to contact him/her so I'm just wondering about anyone else's experiences. Briefly, when we moved into this house in September 2005 there was a single rate meter installed - the previous owner worked for E.D.F. and got very cheap electricity. Within a month we had a dual rate meter installed for the Heures Creuse and we were told that the reduced rate started at 22:00 until 06:00 hours. As we had done in England previously, we made sure that all the heavy consumption machinery was switched on, whenever possible, after 22:00 hours. Our bills confirmed that our heures creuse started at 22:00. The very cold winter passed. We are billed every two months. The bills we received were estimated. They seemed to be very high, so I started to read my meter. It was then I noticed that the peak rate meter was still clocking up units well after 22:00 hours. I checked this many times and discovered that the cheap rate was not kicking in until just after midnight. I took readings on many occasions to confirm my suspicions. I managed to explain to E.D.F. that there was a problem and to be fair to them, within a week a technician arrived and adjusted the clock. He also told us that we had been misinformed and that our cheap rate did not start until 23:00. The next bill confirmed the 23:00 hours start time, until 07:00. From my point of view, we went for 5 months of starting the immersion heater, the washing machine, the tumble dryer, the dish washer and sometimes an electric heater all at the wrong time because of what we were told. I know there is no way to be exact about the amount of electricity we have used at the wrong rate, but at least an aknowledgment and a gesture of goodwill would have been something. My French neighbour, who's husband works for E.D.F. told me to leave it with her. She made a rather long phone call - explaining the problem - result - nothing. She then helped me compose a rather nice letter to them, again - nothing. Three more phone calls and letters and still nothing. I've even sent them copies of the work sheets saying that the meter was incorrect. left by the technician with absolutely no response at all. My next move was to try a recorded delivery letter - after that the ombudsman maybe the last resort. It won't be alot of money so, of course, it's more the principle. Any other suggestions?  You might be thinking of telling me to give up, and I may well do that one day, but that day has not arrived - not yet anyway. Tim

Ah yes, see it now - well done Martin - I'm impressed.

Yes, I did - I guessed they were a small outfit - are you saying that you appear somewhere Martin? - I've only had a quick look as I've been called upstairs (now on the laptop) a bit of community volunteer work for when you're back over here. Tim

Thanks Martin - got Swing going now. Tim

Not tried 'Swing FM' Martin - I don't think I've seen it on satellite. Apart from the local radio for Normandie the one station I quite enjoy for the sheer breadth of music is FIP. It's on FM in Paris and one or two of the other big cities - on satellite, of course, which is where I can listen to it home, or internet - also it's just audible here on 585kHz on the car radio - albeit a bit noisy at times from the power lines. I don't know if you remember - it's the station that someone was re-broadcasting on low power around parts of Brighton. It had been going for some time - not bothering anybody, not causing any interference, and on a spare frequency, quite the reverse in fact, it built up quite a following. Then some miserable oik 'grassed them up' and it was shut down. I'm not sure on the latest, but there was quite a campagne going on in the area to get it back. Not being a betting man - I would still put money on the authorities saying 'no'. There might be a market in the area to install dishes pointing at Hotbird, Astra19 or AB5 and digital receivers with amps and speakers for the good people of Brighton who are missing their daily dose of FIP. I  know it caused great amusement to the guys at FIP. Regards - Tim

Ron, can I just confirm what you are using? You say have a 'digital box' for French satellite but you are getting hiss on the sound of TMC. This sounds more of an analogue problem. Tim

No (serious) news about Arrow's old frequency - 675kHz at the moment. Rumours are rife though - the latest being that the landbased version of Caroline will take the spot. That would seem to be unlikely due to the high prices quoted for running the transmitter. Martin - I don't mind a little informative chat - although I have to say that currently there is nothing being broadcast from the UK that comes anywhere close to the atmosphere that the offshore stations created - though musically, I suppose Radio 2 comes closest. I'm trying not be an old fart here but what has happened to the radio scene in the UK? Everybody is just in it for the money - there seems to be a distinct lack of interest in providing a service. I'm sure 'focus groups' have a lot to do with it. Anyway - back to the topic - as far as Sat TNT is concerned, well luckily I don't have to worry about that now with my improved reception, but I note the comments about the boxes with interest - I'm sure to have a call at sometime from somebody asking for some help getting it all going so I'll have a look in the Bricos on my next visit - thanks. Regards - Tim

Briefly Martin - yes, I had noticed that just recently - not that I listened to it very much. I think it's a shame the way some of the old stations are falling by the wayside - most notably for me being Arrow from Holland - sadly missed on 675. Right - now back to the original subject - I thought of mentioning the system currently being set up for the French channels - but the last I read about (a few weeks ago, I must admit ) was most people were not very impressed with the choice of receiver - too expensive etc. I'm not sure if this has improved since. I've stopped looking too much at this sort of stuff as my local transmitter (Rouen) has improved it's coverage to me and I get pretty good reception from TNT now. Tim

TV5 is on the Sky system - albeit part of Mr.Murdoch's packages - so you have to pay to receive it from 28.2 east. It's transmitted Free To Air on 19 east and Hotbird 13 east. France Inter - Europe 1 - RTL and sometimes RMC - all French radio stations are indeed audible over most of the UK on long wave. Also, many French stations are audible on FM from the high spots of Southern England. Regards  - Tim

At least we said very much the same thing!!!![:)]

No problem in receiving French TV via satellite all over the UK. There are some cheap deals available in French Bricos - some are analogue and some are digital. The analogue packages are for the satellite system at 5 west - all the main French channels are there at the moment. Bear in mind though, at some time in the future, these will be switched off. Like alot of countries France is 'going digital'. The alternative is a digital receiver. You can point the dish at the same satellite - 5 west - and get most of the same channels - but not all. The digital changeover in France means that there are changes going all the time and it's possible that some of these channels may also go at some stage. There are French free to air channels also available on Hotbird 13 east and the digital receiver will also get these - so in my humble opinion, digital is probably the best way to go. Combined with a 60cm dish you will have plenty to play with. As I said, these are only my opinions and others on here may differ, but hopefully I've not confused you too much and if you need any more info, we will do our best. Regards - Tim

Yes Anton - glad to hear that all is ok now. Tim

I assume from your message that your local BBC region is not London - the default region - I can't be sure about this, but that region should be for the area that the card was registered in, if it's not already. If it's not, it may change when the card springs into life. Someone else on here may know a little more about that. One of the problems with a Sky box is that you don't have the same control over the channels it displays as you would with an ordinary Free To Air receiver. The box will show all the channels broadcast, whether you subscribe to them or not - and you cannot change the order of the channels either. You can, however, have favourite channels, accessed through the services menu I believe, and then selected via the remote's blue button. Any problems - let us know. Tim

Not sure if this helps - but I'll put it into the discussion just in case anyone else has a problem similar to the one I had. A neighbour's computer was hit by lightning - it was running Windows XP (English) - she is an author and could not be without a machine. She was about to pay a visit to the UK and purchased a replacement whilst there. I rescued the old machine from it's trip to the dechetterie and set about rebuilding it. The motherboard had been fried from, I think, a 'hit' on the phone line. I bought a new motherboard and set about getting it going again. I've got my own copy of XP bought some time ago, so I put this into the machine - initially just to see if it was going OK. Then, of course, I got into the Microsoft authentication system. I entered the XP numbers from the label that was on the side of the machine - i.e. the OEM copy that had been on the machine when purchased. All went well, but to cut a long story, I ended up having to ring up the Microsoft helpline because their kit had noticed something 'funny' going on. When I got through they asked a couple of questions and when I explained about the rebuild I had no problem. They supplied a re-activation code and the machine's been fine since. I've since done this a second time, for a friend who somehow managed to blow up his machine - followed the above procedure, and rescued another machine. I suppose I could say I'm keeping servicable equipment from the landfills.

Well, you said that the card is a 'Yellow House' one - there's two possibilities here - one, the card needs to be activated, which doesn't seem likely as you said you had inherited the box - the second is more likely - has the box been left unplugged for some time? If so, the card will not have received it's 'stay alive' signal from the satellite. If the card is ok, then just leave the box switched on, or standby overnight, and within 72 hours it should get it's signal and burst into life! If it doesn't, then it's a problem with the card. Just one other thing - and this is easy to do - make sure you've put it the right slot!! Tim

[quote user="Anton Redman"] FTA = Free To Air means not encoded in anyway can be viewed by any digital decoder connected a dish aimed correctly. FTV = Free To View as above but you need a card in a Sky Digibox to view ( mainly UK Channel 4 and Channel 5 these days) [/quote] And 'freeview' is the name given to the digital terrestrial broadcasts in the UK - what the French call TNT. Tim

The latest info I've seen is that if it happens it will not be until around this time next year. Tim

As the others have said - if your existing set up is working ok, then just changing the box over should be straight forward. When you switch it on you will have to wait for the channel info to be downloaded - normally takes a minute or two. You should get the channels you're used to - in addition, if you've also got the card for the box, and it's a 'yellow house' one - this should also enable you to receive Channel 4, 5, Sky 3 and a few others. If you've got the remote control for the box you should have no problems. If you do, come back on here with the question and we will do what we can to sort it out. Tim

May influence your decision - previous message is correct - LCDs have come a long way in the last couple of years - we are very pleased with our Sony - and - the important bit for me - they're cheaper to run than plasmas, my dear.

Well Maude - you have seen the other thread, but one thing I will add - you don't say who your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is but most have a spam filter and you should go to your ISP's home page and mark these messages as undesirable. If you need more help then come back and we'll do our best. Tim

Exactly - it's called a 'Twin LNB' Tim

Absolutely!!!! - what Pierre said. Tim