microwave mike

"Televes do not have a good reputation, their aerials have a habit of flying to pieces in the first puff of wind." That's a pretty damning indictment of a well known manufacturer's products. I take it you have a source that can back up this claim?

I don't know what happened in my reply above. A Fransat receiver will work absolutely fine with your old Sony tv and your existing dish. The pictures will be in colour and the France 3 regions are now available. Fransat is committed to AB3 so no need to wait.

[quote user="Anton Redman"]Short answer take your TV to Pro & Cie or a decent eletrical retailer who has a receiver set up and see if it works. Longer answer : The first has RGB output - PAL G verus PAL I is only an issue on transmission so it should work. The second has Never The Same Color Twice AKA North American System Colour as an output option so ditto Personally I would wait - either Fransat will become much higher profile or they will need huge numbers of dish aligners when analogue is switch off [/quote] Just ignore this reply. A Fransat receiver will work absolutely fine with your old Sony tv and your existing dish. The pictures will be in colour and the France 3 regions are now available. Fransat is committed to AB3 so no need to wait.

No ... some don't but the Grundig Standard Definition certainly has audio phonos as do the Humax boxes. MM

There's about three different topics running on this thread since Bannon's original post. What Bannon is saying (I think) is that the Sky unsubsidised digibox is coming to an end. This is absolutely true, the present  manufacturers of unsubsidised digiboxes are Thomson and Pace and they were instructed in April to cease production of unsubsidised digiboxes. The way the distribution system works (and the numbers involved) means that stock of these digiboxes will run out by the end of June or July. In practical terms, the independent satellite supplier (no matter where he is, UK,  France or Spain) will no longer be able to legally supply new Sky digiboxes. Bannon is also correct in saying that only official ASAs in the UK will be able to supply digiboxes but they will be subsidised and therefore subject to the conditions of sale laid down by Sky. What Bannon didn't say, but hinted at, is that dealers in France can no longer supply Sky digiboxes legitimately and therefore some of those dealers will certainly go out of business, especially the ones who base their business on the supply of Sky digiboxes.  The reason for all this is due to a continuing and unrelenting crackdown on the supply of Sky services into Europe. That crackdown started some while ago and several Sky ASAs have been sacked for trading outside the Terms and Conditions laid down by Sky. Sky recently subjected their remaining dealers to an audit and supplies to the dealers will be subject to a form of rationing so that any 'abnormal'  trading will be detected and be acted upon. The true effects of this clampdown probably won't filter through to the end-user until the end of the summer but the days of the Sky digibox abroad through legitimate dealers are rapidly drawing to a close. Addressing some of the other points that came up: It's a common misconception that the telephone connection required with most Sky subscriptions is checked by Sky. It isn't. The telephone connection is a contractual requirement and not a technical one, so Sky HD digiboxes work in France without any need for a telephone connection. The only telephone connection that Sky actually check is for Multiroom, this is religiously checked by Sky and if you pay for Multiroom and remove a digibox from the telephone line, Sky will soon make contact with you. Also, in reply to Bannon's statement that dealers in France can't offer bona fide Sky subscriptions, someone said that: Of course there are - how do you think we obtained ours, having not subscribed back in UK ? Sorry to disillusion you, but if you arranged a subscription through any dealer in France it certainly wasn't bona fide. You did it through a dealer who told you he was 'official' but was trading with a UK dealer who broke his Terms and Conditions with Sky. That UK dealer might well have been on Sky's hit list and no longer enjoys that privelege.       

[quote user="joidevie"]     I have 2 lengths of coax coming into the box - one for the TV and one for the SAT.  [/quote] That's your mistake. You should only have one coax coming into the box and that coax carries a combined satellite and TV signal. The satellite signal and TV signal are usually combined up on the chimney and the one coax lead then feeds the wall plate that you show in the image.

[quote user="Anton Redman"]   Just to check you are aiming at 38 degrees East of South ( not 29 degrees)  [/quote]   38° ?  Can you explain why, please?

[quote user="Martinwatkins"]I think it would help if you named a few of these many FTA HD boxes mike.  From what I've read their performance is often patchy,   [/quote] Topfield TF7710 HDPVR Technomate TM6800 HD Technomate TM6900 Combi Humax HDCI2000 I would be interested to learn exactly what is 'patchy' about their performance. Can you give us a link to the source?

[quote user="Timco"]  So, even though the BBC HD channel is FTA (free to air) you have to pay Sky to watch it.     [/quote] Not  true. You can watch BBC HD via one of many free-to-air HD satellite receivers on the market and you do not have to pay Sky at all or even purchase any equipment from Sky. It's a great shame that you have to mention 'free-to-air' and 'Sky' in the same sentence .

[quote user="Anton Redman"]  Does anybody know what the 'Audio' button described as 'Recherche des données multi audio' does ? [/quote]   For those channels that broadcast multi language audio tracks, it allows you to chose your preferred language. Euronews is one such station.

[quote user="J.R."]  This weekend I checked the frequencies that were pre-programmed on the box (I had returned it to factory settings) in the manual and on also the receiver display, they were all as you posted.  [/quote] Are you still receiving Arté and M6?

[quote user="J.R."]  Does anyone know the current correct frequencies for TF1 CH2,3,4 etc which would enable me to check and if necessary input them using the keypad, there is no manual or automatic search function. [/quote] TMC = 11.456 M6 = 12.522 France2 = 12.564 Arté/Fr5 = 12.606 TF1 = 12.690 France 3 = 12.732 all channels Vertical polarisation.  

[quote user="Martinwatkins"] On your display,   does your STB show the true frequency  (ie FR5 on  12606 MHz)  or the IF freq (which would be  1656 MHz for a Telecom LNB and 2006 MHz for a Univeral) or both values?  [/quote] The Telecom LNB has an LO of 11.475 which means the box will display 1131 (12606 - 11475) or thereabouts. Whether or not your LNB is Telecom or Universal, your problem can only be that the missing channels are not tuned in on your receiver. Go to a channel which is working and note down all the parameters from the menu, polarity, audio settings, lnb type, frequency etc. Now go to a spare channel where you get nothing and copy those parameters exactly and you should see that channel in the new position. Now change your frequency (only) up or down and you will eventually find another of the French channels. Store this new channel and then repeat the process. If your LNB is a Universal type, you should find all the analogue channels including TMC. If your LNB is a Telecom type, you will get all except TMC.  

Or you could try a proper installer ... Paul Stevens of www.euroinstallations.com on 06 80 55 06 09 

"... therefore, as I said, if you lose BBC1 - then BBC2 etc are carried on the same stream ..." Only if the BBC1 in question is BBC1 London. There's a good chance that the BBC1 is a regional variation and they are all transmitted on different frequencies and polarities to the national channels.