We need a new television aerial

[Oboulez]

We have an account with Orange for internet/phone/TV, however following an automatic software upload of the TV decoder last week, we have lost about 10 channels, including stuff like BFM news channel. We spoke to Orange helpdesk and did the usual switch on/off stuff to no avail. Orange are going to put somebody on to us to give us a quote for a satellite dish which supposidly will give us over 100 channels. Does anybody know how much we can expect to be charged / what the realistic price should be?

[Anton Redman]

I would have guessed around € 250 link below seems in that ball park :

http://forum.pcastuces.com/prix_installation_parabole_tv_orange-f6s41550.htm

[Danny]

[quote user="Louise and Gary"]We have an account with Orange for internet/phone/TV, however following an automatic software upload of the TV decoder last week, we have lost about 10 channels, including stuff like BFM news channel. We spoke to Orange helpdesk and did the usual switch on/off stuff to no avail. Orange are going to put somebody on to us to give us a quote for a satellite dish which supposidly will give us over 100 channels. Does anybody know how much we can expect to be charged / what the realistic price should be?[/quote]

You will not get 100 channels from Orange TV via satellite. The amount is limited compared to orange TV via ADSL

Here

is the current list of available channels. It is dependent on which

satellite you choose - OrangeTV is available from 3 different

satellites. There are very few English language channels in case you did

not know.

http://media.abonnez-vous.orange.fr/medias/pdf/divers/chaines-TV-satellite.pdf

Danny

[Robin]

Hi Nearly R,

Firstly, it's a good idea to get a "digital" antenna to replace yr old one. The few channels you got on analogue were all clustered together in frequency and your local antenna was optimised for the local frequencies. The digital signals are locally spread over the whole band and you need a wide band antenna. That's why they have all the extra elements and X beams. And the same antennas work anywhere.

Yanno, with digital signals, you really can't overdo the antenna but you can underdo it. Even on terrestrial, flapping tree branches can give you pixellations. If you put one in with too low gain you have a problem. If higher than you needed, no problem. All for a few €. Nails in horses hooves spriing to mind.

I did look at antenna prices at the local brico and in UK. They are not that different - like a few € only, and I bought local, saved the hassle of lugging it on Eurost/TGV and losing cheddar cheese space.

If you want your antenna high up and like me, don't care for long ladders, then a local TV artisan will prob do the job (incl antenna and good new cable) for up to 100€. Haggle as usual.

Also, if analogue is still running in yr area (final switch everywhere is in Nov) then the digital signals will almost certainly be on low power till the final switch off of analogue.

I come under Vaucluse for TV, even tho I'm in Gard (local hills) and altho I can just about see Mont Ventoux, I didn't get a digital squeak until they switched analogue off in July and bumped the digital power up by 100. I got Marseile digital OK and now my antenna points half way between both and I get both transmitters. Mont Ventoux is more liable to storm outages.

[Anton Redman]

Too high a gain can be a problem with both digital and analogue which is why attenuators are available.

Unlikely to be a problem unless you can see the mast in France but still a risk.

[Robin]

Very true Anton.

But as you suggest, unless the transmitter is very close, a 30dB gain yagi will be OK. I could see Wintr Hill from S Manch, but 30 mils away, no probl.

[pachapapa]

it's a good idea to get a "digital" antenna to replace yr old one

Now what do those apostrophes mean?

[:)]

[JohnM]

Well spotted PPP.

Robin, I'm not convinced that you are right about the multiplexes being spread all over the spectrum. I thought (and still think) that for each Transmitter they are clustered, much the same as most analogue signals, if I am right, a multi band aerial is not really a good solution. As for the shape of the directors and reflector on modern aerials, I can't see how altering that will have any impact on the tuning of the actual dipole. My studies on the dark arts of radio wave propogation are getting rusty, but I still maintain that there is no such thing as a digital aerial. People in poor reception areas may need to get a better aerial, but that is all.

[idun]

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/how_do_i_switch/your_aerial

And you are right JohnM according the the UK going digital service, there is no such thing as a digital aerial.

[Martin963]

re distribution of MUXs

It depends......   In some areas (eg Lille Bouvigny) it's been possible to keep both analogue and digital in the same part of the band (chs 21 - 34).    However,   for (say) Limoges Les Cars it's a dog's dinner,   and some aerials that date back a while in the area (which we would call group C/D in Britain) have a lot of trouble coping with ch 29 which is in use for one of the MUXs.

Generally speaking a wide band aerial is not as good as a solution as a grouped aerial,   but needs must and if the MUXs are all over the place then probably a wide band aerial is the best solution.   But often a grouped aerial will still cope with an out of band digital signal if you're not too far from the transmitter.

In this respect Britain has done a better job of keeping MUXs within band - but then it's easier for us as we share fewer electromagnetic borders....

[JohnM]

I stand corrected (fortunately, I've never been too proud to admit it when I'm wrong) the transmitters that I looked at seemed to have clustered MUX's and that is what I was going on.

[Martin963]

Not my intention to "correct" you John,   some of them are indeed clustered.

[JohnM]

Martin

I didn't mean to use "corrected" in a negative way, more a positive in that I am now better informed. I.e. I am not put out in any way by your post, indeed, I thank you for it.

[Gyn_Paul]

I love it that we're all such nice polite people on this forum ! (mostly [;-)]  !)

p