Tim

Satfinders are ok - up to a point. They certainly do find satellites, but unless you get hold of a very expensive one, they don't tell wheher you've got the right satellite - and there's quite a few up there. I usually take a spare satellite receiver (not a Sky box, they're useless), a portable TV and a short piece of cable and link it all directly to the dish. That way I can see what's going on whilst tweaking the dish for optimum strength and quality. I admit it's a bit of a pain and obviously weather dependant, but I've always managed to get a reliable end result.   Tim

I didn't know that, but I would have guessed - the old number was 0800 something. The new one you quote is an 09 number - that series of numbers are not free to call. Thanks for the info anyway - luckily, I can't remember the last time I had to call them. Regards - Tim

Whoa! Before you start moving the dish around, does it work ok on your Sky box? If it does, then you have to assume that the dish is correctly aligned for the set of satellites at 28east and it must, therefore, be the set up of your new mystery box that is the issue. Regards - Tim

No, I'm afraid it's not. Five along with the BBC and other main channels are FTA (free to air) - no card required. Fiver & Five USA are what Sky call FTV (free to view) which is not the same and not quite true. They are not subscription channels as such, but you need to buy a FTV Sky card and have a Sky box to watch them. This is mainly to do with satellite transponder availability which I will go through if you wish. Regards - Tim

Good luck - if it's Humax you're looking at, perhaps this website will help. http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/   Regards - Tim

Like some others - you're getting confused between freeview and freesat. Freeview is the terrestrial TV system that transmiited to the UK - French equilavent of TNT. freesat is the satellite system that uses the same satellites as Sky do. It would seem that the box you've bought is Freeview. This, when connected to a suitable antenna will receive the French TNT channels. Regards - Tim

Just coming back to this thread and you've answered my question Will. Have just been looking at the Humax site and realised what this model was. Thanks - Tim  

What information is it that you've seen that means this? I've got a Humax PVR and it is a very nice machine and extremely easy to install, so I'm a little confused. More info please.   Regards - Tim

[quote user="tuppence"]Thanks for that Krusty, new car bought last year,much easier than a sky card too[:)]!!  in answer to other replies, I do like to watch the channel 5/5usa etc as I am an avid CSI fan. Don't really want to lose them, so if i arrange for a card to be sent to a UK address what do I have to do to activate it when received?[8-)] thanks,  tuppence [/quote]   Well, as I said, your Sky box is quite capable of receiving Channel 5 without a card. It's just the non-user freindly way that the Sky box is designed that makes it a bit tricky at the moment. 5 USA is not possible. If it's the CSIs that are worrying you, then you can still watch them on 5, it's just takes a little bit of fiddling about. I, and several others on here can talk you through the procedure if you wish, although, if you have a quick 'nose' through the threads on here, I'm sure you'll already find the information you need. If not, then come back. Regards - Tim

Firstly, can I ask you a question? Do you actually need a new card? I am assuming that you are not a Sky subscriber and only receive the free to air and free to view channels. If this is so, then you will loose Sky Three and Fiver and Five USA - you will also have a small problem with Five, but it is still receivable. If you do need a card because you don't want to loose the channels mentioned, then Sky will not send any new card to your French address. Come back to us if you need anymore help, or with more info about the channels you receive.   Regards - Tim

I've had no problems and I'm sorry to tell you that my subscription hasn't gone up either.   Regards - Tim

Simple answer - Yes. There may an issue as to whether your local TV transmitter has been equipped with the digital transmitters, or perhaps, whether your current antenna will be ok though.   Regards - Tim

To me, that doesn't sound as if you're watching the UK channels from 28 east - more likely that you're getting these from 19 east. One of my friends has this same message from their French satellite system on Sky News. It seems as if there are also some changes going with other satellite providers. If this is the case, I don't think you'll need to do anything as your provider will make the changes for you - unless you're just using a box you bought from a shop and tuned it yourself, in which case, you'll have to manually re-tune to the new frequency. Regards - Tim

Forgive me, but I don't think it's possible to watch recorded content and watch any TV channel at the same time on the same TV. You can watch one channel whilst recording another (sometimes 2 -  depending on satellite transponder) and you can certainly watch recorded programmes whilst recording another. This is, of course, assuming you've got a twin  (or larger) LNB fitted to your dish pointing at 28.2/5 east. Regards - Tim

Thanks guys. As far as I know the sellers put their house on the market with an agent without the potential purchasers knowing about it. As with alot of this sort of thing I suppose it's a question of reading the small print. Thanks for your thoughts. Regards - Tim

Some friends of ours have been looking to move home in France. They have just found out that some other people they know have put their property on the market with a local agent. Our friends would very much like to buy this property but are not ready to move right now (they have a small business to wind down) - in addition, this property is right at the top of their price range. They think that the agency has a three month contract for the sale. Their question is - how long is it after the 3 month contract has expired can they put in an offer on the house without incurring the wrath of the agency? This is, of course, assuming that the property isn't sold by the agency in the mean time. Any thoughts? Regards - Tim   p.s. This really is for a friend - honestly.

That crossed our minds as well, but this has been going on since March, so how long is the mating season supposed to go on? I sneeked a peak the other day ( he always flies off when he sees you looking) and after he had flown off, his place was taken by a baby wren who seemed to think that it was also a good idea to tap the window. He didn't quite make it though. We have lived here for four years and this is the first time we've had this and as far as the noise goes, well, you wouldn't believe how hard this little blighter can tap. You'd think he would have broken his beak some time ago. It's loud enough to be heard around the whole house. Regards - Tim

Does anybody have any ideas please? Since around March we have been plagued by a chaffinch tapping very loudly on our bathroom window. He's loud enough to wake us up very early in the morning. When we put a towel over the window, he flies off to tap on a different window. He now has three windows he chooses from. If we close the shutters he then goes out and does the same thing on the car wing mirror. He obviously seems to like his reflection somehow. I have printed out a nice colour picture of a sparrowhawk and put it in the window, but, so far, it hasn't deterred him. We like birds and encourage them in to our garden, but this has become a real nuisance. I'm about to print out a picture of a cat to put in the window, but does anybody have any other ideas - or, if you have experienced this kind of behaviour, what did you do?   Regards - Tim

Perhaps this should be in the 'Wildlife' section - so I will put a copy there as well.   Regards - Tim

Does anybody have any ideas please? Since around March we have been plagued by a chaffinch tapping very loudly on our bathroom window. He's loud enough to wake us up very early in the morning. When we put a towel over the window, he flies off to tap on a different window. He now has three windows he chooses from. If we close the shutters he then goes out and does the same thing on the car wing mirror. He obviously seems to like his reflection somehow. I have printed out a nice colour picture of a sparrowhawk and put it in the window, but, so far, it hasn't deterred him. We like birds and encourage them in to our garden, but this has become a real nuisance. I'm about to print out a picture of a cat to put in the window, but does anybody have any other ideas - or, if you have experienced this kind of behaviour, what did you do?   Regards - Tim

Thanks Clair. As I said, I also used it for several years, but was put off last year as they seemed to make much more difficult to update and use, and it never found anything on Vista anyway. So, bearing mind what you've said, I may give it another go. Thanks again - Tim

Glad the information was of some use. Please guys, let us know how you get on. Regards - Tim

It is possible to adjust the number you can delete or move etc. If you look towards the bottom of the page you can change the number of messages displayed. I've changed mine from the default, I think, 20 messages to 100. Once you have done this you can put a tick in the box under 'Supprimer' and this should mark all the messages on that list. Once done, you can then click on Supprimer and they should go. From what you say no more than half a dozen clicks will probably get rid of the lot. It's quite easy really, so give it a go. Regards - Tim   P.S. - I should have added that this will move the messages into the Corbeille box and you will probably want to go there to get rid of them. You can repeat the procedure and mark the deletion and you will then be asked if you are sure you want to delete them - just say oui and they will all be gone.

Thanks for that Clair, although I used to use Ad-Aware, I got fed up with all the messing around they did with it last year. In addition, most of my time, at the moment, is on a laptop running Vista and Ad-aware never found anything. So, I removed it. How do you find it now - if it's ok I may put it back on my XP machines. Regards - Tim

Well there is no such thing a digital aerial. Aerials are passive things - they don't know or even care what sort of signal they are working with. I can't answer your question about your current aerial. What I suggest is take a look at it - does it look old - how does it compare with your neighbours' - perhaps you need to install a larger aerial. Generally, the digital transmitters are running on reduced power until the digital changeover. Sorry I can't be too much help - regards - Tim