PeteinHeusse

Hi, If the screen is glass and not plasma/lcd, you may find a mild solution of washing up liquid on a slightly damp cloth works well. Obviously disconnect the tv from the mains first!! Also make sure it is well polished and dryed with a soft cloth or paper towel afterwards. I'm sure I've seen a proprietary LCD screen cleaner in Super U as well, if you feel like splashing out!! Pete

Hi, I think the Sky viewing card is still needed for three channels : Sky 3; Five Life (soon to be Fiver?) and Five US. I think the latter two will be some time before they go FTA. Incidentally Martin, (if I can go slightly off topic) I now am the proud owner of a fully motorised sat system complete with 90cm dish!! Pete

As I believe Martin has said before, 'there should be a sticky on this', however, a '100% PAL television' is NOT incapable of receiving French TV. Firstly, French digital tv (both via sat and TNT) are transmitted in PAL and when we first moved, our very old, non multi standard Sony tv, received Secam analogue transmissions, albeit in B/W. Therefore, as far as the French authorities are concerned we could receive transmissions and had to pay our licence. Pete

I bow to your greater technical knowledge Martin [:)] I had quite forgotten that we have never connected to the French Secam system via the aerial socket. Our analogue box was always hooked up to the tv via a scart and it worked just as I described. I guess things have moved on so much since 1978, the last time Iworked on a TV!! Pete

Hi, A UK tv, operating under the PAL system will show sound and pictures under the French SECAM system. It will NOT however display colour pictures, only monochrome. Otherwise everything else works okay. French digital tv can be seen in colour with a UK tv as the signals are broadcast in PAL. Hope this clears up your query. Pete  

Thanks for that Martin. On reflection after reading your reply I think I'll forget about trying the Sky card in the Technomate. It now remains to decide on a one card slot receiver or perhaps just a free to air. I think there was only about a £10 price difference but I'll see, especially as the cost may reduce on Monday next after the reduction of VAT (!) I did find a pair of video senders which connected via scart sockets but they were nearly as costly as the Live Plugs, so I think we can forget that route. Pete

Ok, I'm going slightly off topic but......... My plan is now this, I plan on buying a motorised system (dish, wall bracket, lnb, motor and Technomate receiver with 2 card slots, about £140 all in, thanks to my Mum's Xmas generosity) and mothballing the Orange decoder until a future date. I do however have a couple of thoughts, if the Technomate receiver has two card slots can it (a) use the Orange viewing card (which I intend to activate on Hotbird)  and (b) will it take the current Sky viewing card in the other? I have a feeling that the answer to the latter will be negative, but as it only activates Sky3 and channel 5 derivative channels I'm not too bothered. If this goes to plan (and my other half approves/doesn't find out) I'm going to move the Sky box into one of the downstairs bedrooms anyway, where we sometimes have friends to stay. Whilst still on the Orange decoder attached to your livebox on the other side of the room thread, does anyone know if those wireless video senders would connect to the tv and sat receiver via the scart socket? If so they could be a cheaper alternate to the 'liveplugs' Lidl have a pair of videosenders on offer this week for 29 Euro's I think! Pete 

Hi Quillan, Well, I think that you were as confused as I that to get the decoder to work you must turn the tv/ethernet option off!! The card thing threw me too, but I think they have the chip reader on the base of the unit (really good for cooling!!) Yes, I also think it downloads tv guide info via the adsl, I'm sure there is activity from the 'red' port when you are calling guide pages. I assume you are using Hotbird 13E? I can't try this unless I move our Sky dish (yes I have moved it before and got good quality signals from Astra 19E and Hotbird) and to be honest (a) it's a lot of hassle to set up both the dish, tv and decoder and (b) I panic about getting it back on Astra for the OH's soaps!! Never, ever noticed any porn channels on either satellite [;-)] Unless you have a Cinema bouquet I think the free films will dissapear eventually, and I agree with the subtitle/language options. Yes, the technology is archaeic, (though if the box is made by Samsung surely the technology is not French?). Both the old Opentech box and the Porty II (caravan) box are more versatile, quicker and more sensitive than the load of c**p Orange seem to be content to give people. Oh for some money, a dish motor, 0.1 LNB, Technomate blind search receiver...........  Pete

Hi Quillan, Yes, we got a card with the original digibox and I'm sure we paid the same 49 Euros deposit. We were told to keep the card and use it with the new Samsung box. (Would you believe they even asked for the scart lead back as well as the remote and old box?)  As I said earlier, the Porty II box I aquired from our neighbours doesn't unfortunately have a card slot. If I could afford a receiver with a slot I would get one!! Pete

Hi, Sorry Quillan, our posts crossed in the ether (net). If I could find someone with either long ladders to get up to our eaves or a crawler ladder for the roof (the AB 3 dish is high up on our end wall) I (or perhaps someone with more of a head for heights than me) would take both dishes down (there's an old analogue Astra dish there too) and I would mount the AB3 dish more conveniently above our Sky dish and set it to either Astra 19E or Hotbird 13E as you can pickup many more channels. On AB3 I have 34 channels with the Samsung box, though because we do not pay a subscription some of these are scrambled. Let us know how you get on. Pete

Hi, Yes, I think it was 69 Euros that I saw on the Orange site too, about 60 Euros too much right now. I will look at Ebay France for a couple of Liveplugs though at the moment I don't have a lot of time to watch TV at all, let alone French TV, so it's not a priority. I do wonder, having looked through the postings on the French 'Orange TV' forums, whether there will be movement on this problem from Orange. A lot of posters have found that their dishes must be absolutely spot on alignment, or they lose channels. This leads me to surmise that the tuner is not very sensitive, perhaps because it has been constructed to a budget which must have made provision for the decoder to include ADSL and possibly cutting back on it's satellite component. Perhaps I'm living in vain hope, but they've changed it once..... Pete

Hi, Thanks for the replies. Pierre; as far as I can tell, Orange are insisting on having the old box back for 'recycling'. They have even gone as far as to supply a pre paid label to stick on the box so you can return it. If you do not they will apparently charge you for the old box, which seems strange to say the least. Martin; yes I am fed up!!! Quillan; thanks for advice and searching for the cable. It's an option I can look at but I'm reluctant to have cables trailing cross doorways. It would also mean having the sat cable trailing cross the living room. Pete

Hi, Some time ago, on a different thread, I mentioned that as part of our Orange adsl package, we received a digital satellite receiver. This worked fine on our dish, lined up to Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees West. Subsequently we had both an email and a letter informing us that the receiver would be changed from the existing Opentech TVS 70 to a new Samsung SHD85. This duly arrived and the old box had to be sent back. The new box has TV via ADSL and satellite capabilities. I eagerly set up the new box only to find out that it must be connected to an ethernet port on the Livebox, despite the fact that we do not receive TV via adsl and confusingly to set up the receiver I had to disable the TV option on the Livebox! The receiver will NOT function unless it is connected via the ethernet cable. Unfortunately our TV is in the opposite corner to our livebox. A solution offered by Orange is to purchase 'Liveplugs' so the receiver can connect to the livebox without the need for a fifteen metre ethernet cable. There is no way we can justify paying for these and the cable looks a cheaper option. On the plus side the SHD85 did come with an HDMI cable, shame we don't have an HD ready tv!!! However, our (english maison secondaire) neighbours have recently changed their old brico bought receiver for a Sky box. I persuaded them to let me have the box and it now happily receives French tv, although as it has no card slot, and I can't use the Orange viewing card. (and if Martin reads this, the box has lots of preprogrammed satellites and is USAL's ready). I was wondering if anyone else was as dissapointed with the new box as I was? Or am I the only one with an Orange sat box? Certainly the quality of the new box has not gone down well with some posters on a French 'Orange tv' forum that I looked at today. Pete

Hi, Sorry to bring this posting back to the front, but some of you may be interested in the following : I rescanned AB3 this morning and found in addition to the previously mentioned colour bars / tests for movie channels, there was a new looped promo for ''Orange Cinema'. No doubt this is why the other 'chaines' are running a test transmission, and equally I have little doubt that these will be subscription only. I live in hope that there may be a 'clear' period to entice subscribers! We also are apparently having our Opentech digibox (supplied by Orange) exchanged for an updated Samsung model. I think, reading the email that arrived to inform us about this, that it is capable of receiving TV both via ADSL and satellite. We have yet to receive broadband quick enough to sustain the ADSL option, but I'll be interested to see if this receiver performs more efficiently than the other. The arrival of the 'factrice' in her yellow van is eagerly awaited. Pete 

My OH, Debbie, would definitely describe a motorised dish as a 'want rather than a need', so I can unfortunately put that desire on hold!! I would have fun yes, but money and spare time are both in short supply right now. So, I'm quite happy with the UK and French channels we receive at the moment............there is that old Astra 19.2 dish on the gable end though..........it only needs a new cable..........hmmmmm. Pete