woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Mr spoilt brat was given a satellite dish for his Xmas present with installation. Which means he spends more time than ever watching TV. But he is still in a state of shock over the very, very low quality of BBC 1 generally; is there such a thing as dumbed down dumbed down?However, the system, which was installed by a French electrician can't get BBC 4 which seems to be the best channel; it is not even on the list, and he has checked through all the dross.How do I get it please and how do I get things like the Discovery Channel, Alan, Yesterday etc?Am I on the wrong satellite; how do I know; if so, which one do I need?Help needed please so my life can be perfectttt? ....... Wellll!I can get the other BBC stuff (BBC 1 is weak) as well as ITV as far as 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Firstly what size dish?What is the make and number of the decoder (the box that is connected to the dish)?Secondly when you say poor quality or weak do you mean pixels, picture freezing and sound breaking up and going on and off?If you have a compass you can roughly check that it is pointing in the right place 28.2 deg East.which is around 151 deg from North.Discovery I is 'pay to view' so you need a Sky subscription and box. It is also available via the TV packages of Virgin Plus and BT via the internet.You need to ask your French installer if the dish is pointing at 28.2 deg for Astra 2E and 2F. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Thank you Quillan. I will gather information and get back to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Dish appears to be about 60 cms diameter.Checked with boat compass suggests it is pointed ok but that aint gonna be too detailed.Black box is an Optex ORD 9540-HD designed apparently for free to air HD.BBC 1 (only) pixellates and disappears regularly.How many real channels should one expect, please, and should BBC4 be one of them or is it on a different satellite?Are there two satellites involved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 At an educated guess 60cm will be too small where you are (if you're in the Vendee). You need to look around Brit houses where you live and see what size they have. I reckon you need an 80 or 90cm dish.The other possible issue is the box which when I Google find there is only information in French (or Czechoslovakian) on it. Do you know if this box has ever worked properly with UK TV reception? Further research on this website shows that people were having problems with this bix back in 2006/2007 when trying to get UK channels properly.So you seem to have two possible issues, the first being the dish size and/or not aligned properly, the second the box being not the best for UK TV in France.For more posts on this forum search on 'Optex ORD 9540', theres quite a few of them all with problems. Unfortunately somebody gave a link to another post where they were said to have it working but that post or thread is now deleted as out of date (always the way when you want something).Sorry I can't help further other than to suggest, if you can, to borrow a box that works from somebody and try it. You only need it for five minutes and it will 'prove' the dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 No reason that the box should not receive the UK channels the same as any other FTA decoder.Assuming your reception is OK, don't forget that for BBC3 and BBC4 you will have to do another manual scan in the evening after 8 pm French time.Also for HD channels, you will need to use an HDMI cable to the TV....assuming you can receive them with this decoder - some of the UK HD channels are slightly different standard.Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Only 60cm, somebody really doesn't like him don't they [:D][:D][:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Thanks, chaps. Happy to say that BBC 4 was masquerading behind cbbc. Phew.And now have a list that tells me what I can and can't get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Oooop, BBC 1 has now taken over CBBC and I have lost BBC 3 and 4. What fun!Any ideas well received, guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I can't answer for your box Wooly but when we were testing dishes etc for 2e and 2f I was lent a French Humax box and it could not pick up the UK EPG (program guide) which I think you are saying your does. You couldn't also 'auto tune' it we had to put the channels in manually. In one of the other threads somebody said about reprograming the box because it was geared up for Astra 19.2 and Hotbird, you had a choice of the two in the menu. Somebody else said it didn't matter, you point the box at the satellite, any satellite and it wil pick up whatever channels are there. As I said Iyou can't see if it worked because the post has been deleted/lost.One thing my humax box recieves BBC3 and 4 in both HD and SD. If you use a scart connector rather than and HDI one the box sents the HD picture out in SD through the scart. In other words you can get HD and SD channels even if you don't have an HD TV or only using a scart. On FreeSat the first channels should be as follows asumming it follows the EPG for FreeSat.101 - BBC 1102 - BBC2 HD103 - ITV104 - C4105 - C5106 - BBC3 HD (after 20:00 hours)107 - BBC4 HD (after 20:00 hours)I think you need a bigger dish and until you get one you won't have anything stable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Thanks Quillan. I'll keep working at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 The decoder is not a 'freeesat' decoder.http://www.optex.fr/Fichiers/Notices/m709540.pdfThere is no freesat EPG, no automatic channel sorting and no automatic updates. If any channel changes frequency, you will have to manually input the new setting in a new scan to receive it again. See manual pages 14/15.It will only receive free to air channels on any satellite the dish is pointing to. You definitely have it pointing at the correct (group of) satellite(s)Assuming the set up is adequate, i.e. the dish is large enough and it is properly aligned for maximum signal reception, you will receive all these channelshttp://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.2E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clearif you do not receive all these channels your dish set up is not aligned properly and/or the dish is too small.In the Vendee, I think an 80 or 90cm dish should be OK. Anything smaller is likely to give you a problem on certain channels. Especiallythese http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&b=288&sat=159&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clearand also these http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&b=270&sat=149&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clearand more so in poorer weather conditions.Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Wooly, I would get a 90cm dish, they are not that expensive and then buy a Humax box off Ebay for as little as £15 (plus about £12 pp) or a basic model and £34 for a twin decoder with HDD. It's a much better bet, you will get the EPG and you will be as happy as Larry (or in your case BoBo). If you mount the new dish in a different place when the guy turns up to align it get him to turn the old one to 19.2 , use the box you have and you will get all sorts of foreign channels like French, German etc. If you can afford it get the guy to put a twin LNB on your UK dish with twin cables. That way you can get a twin decoder with HDD to record now or just go for a cheap decoder and upgrade later. At least you won't have to get him back plus you have a spare working cable. Satellite stuff is not that expensive, it's the labour that screws you if you can't do it yourself.Second hand Humax satellite decoders on Ebay link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobandvicky Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 My husband has had a place in the Granada region of Spain for a few years, but we have had very little time to go there, but he has said that over the years he has lost more and more tv channelsWe are now ( well me which of course means us lol ) looking to buy in France and more or less live there permanently, we are looking at the area around the Loire Valley and back toward Caen, will a 90cm dish get him his sport and more importantly his Cricket, I think the one he had in Spain was a 1.4 mtr dish with a quite old sky receiver as they are better regards the tuning.hope you can help, regards Vicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I would think a 90cm dish would be fine there.Welcome to the forum by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 [quote user="bobandvicky"]. . . we are looking at the area around the Loire Valley and back toward Caen, will a 90cm dish get him his sport and more importantly his Cricket . . . [/quote]We are well west of that in south west Brittany and get excellent reception with our 30 euro cheapo 60cm dish bought from Castorama years ago. SueEdit : coo, what a load of rubbish appears in front of my post just 'cos I have quoted. Is that because I am using an android tablet ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Same load of rubbish appears with iPad, too, Sue. Best not to use the Quote button, but to copy-&-paste the bit you want to comment on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Loiseau or the forum could be written to support other browsers than IE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I have problems with IE so I don't think it is just non IE browsers that have a problem. Actually I have always had a problem since the forum was updated years ago. Personally I don't think they are going to do anything with the software because Archant runs several forums for its different publications and it is all done on the same platform which is what they always wanted as it makes it easier to maintain. I agree that it needs updating or changing but I won't hold my breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Bob and VickyA 60cm dish should be no problem at all in the area you are looking at.I have a 60cm dish in the Ardeche and it generally works well except in very heavy rain and the occasional and unexplained drop out of Channel 5 - complete loss of signal, while all around work with 75% quality.Suein56 - Rubbish quotes is nothing to do with android. I use IE with W8.1 and get the same load of rubbish. This is a forum software problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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