freesat

[bigears]

hi

Has anyone experience of installing or running a freesat box (e.g. humax foxsat hd http://www.richersounds.com/product/freeview-freesat-pvr/humax/foxsat-hd/huma-foxsathd-box )

or a telivision with built in freesat (e.g. http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd-tv/panasonic/viera-txl32g10b/pana-txl32g10b ) in france.

I am led to believe you can just connect them up to your sky dish whith its current orientation and away you go. 

[Bluebells]

Yes I joined a Humax up instead of a sky box and away you go , instructions very easy, they would have to be for me, took about 5 mins, no movement of dish necessary as long as correctly aligned in the first place

[bigears]

hi

We have just bought an lg with both freesat and freeview.  If anyone is interested I'll post how we get on

when we get back to france.

[Will]

We\have installed a Humax HD box in France. Freesat uses exactly the same satellites as Sky, so if you have a dish that is correctly aligned for Sky the Freesat box will work perfectly.

In fact we have found that the Humax HD Freesat box has a particularly sensitive tuner, better than most if not all Sky boxes, so is highly suitable for use in France.

[David_Janet]

Yes, it will work perfectly.

Don't forget, you will need a dish with a twin (dual?)  LNB (and therefore twin cables) to feed the Humax box, if you want to make full use of it's capabilities.

We have a Humax Foxsat HDR and it is excellent.

David

[bigears]

hi

unpacked the lg telivision and it had freesat working in a few minutes.  Needed to enter a valid uk postcode, which wasn't difficult.  Only station I havn't got is sky news, not a loss really.  Will try and see what I can get with the in built freeview connected to my old analogue french tv arial that has been on my roof since we bought the house.  If nothing then no matter.  Telivisions are cheap in the uk.

[Jazzer]

If you go from menu to Settings, STB mode and then highlight Freesat, change to non freesat and you can non freesat channels including Sky news

[bigears]

hi

thanks for that tip, I've just done it for the non freesat channels, not a bad deal all this built into a television.

[tazara]

As an absolute non tekky I have been trying to follow all the various posts regarding sky cards and freesat boxes and am still pretty confused. Please can I ask what I think is a very straightforward question?? (and hope to get a very SIMPLE answer????) A few years back we had a sky satdish and sky box installed in France. now after several days of constant warnings about inserting a new card we have lost the sky programmes. Following advice on this site I removed the sky card and now we have BBC and ITV channels but of course not the Discovery channels which we usually watch! Is installing a FREESAT box (NOT SKY FREESAT!!!)  the best way forward? Will said that he had sucessfully installed a HUMAX HD BOX...Did you buy this in England Will???  There seem to be lots of different freesat boxes...which to buy ...and where??? I'm going to GB next week......

[krusty]

tazara , I do not think you will get Discovery on freesat.

[Anton Redman]

As above the Discovery channels are subscription channels. 

[Clair]

If you are receiving the Discovery channels, it means a subscription is being paid.

You should receive a replacement Sky card at the UK address last known by Sky as part of the subscription.

See here.

[suej]

   

  Please can anyone tell me whether, if you have a french tv with TNT installed that runs off the ordinary aerial,it is then possible to add-on a dish and a Freesat digibox and so receive BBC /ITV channels via the sat dish and French channels via the aerial?  Is this technically possible? Or would it involve lots of complex fittings/manoeuvres?

[Clair]

[quote user="suej"]Please can anyone tell me whether, if you have a french tv with TNT installed that runs off the ordinary aerial,it is then possible to add-on a dish and a Freesat digibox and so receive BBC /ITV channels via the sat dish and French channels via the aerial?  Is this technically possible? Or would it involve lots of complex fittings/manoeuvres?[/quote]

This is exactly what we have: flat screen with built-in TNT receiving French TNT channels via an aerial + Humax Foxsat-HDR receiving UK freesat channels via a satellite dish.

[suej]

 

 

 I thought I'd posted a reply but seem to have lost it.....

'Twas just to say thank you Clair for such a quick and clear repy to my question. It seemed as if it could be a possible solution but I was afraid it was going to turn out to be one of those too good to be true ideas! Thank you for ticking the box, as it were!

 

Sue

[Martin963]

Just to elaborate a little,   you connect the freesat box to the French TV using a SCART lead (or Peritel as it's sometimes known).

That way your TV can display either the French TNT channels,  or the freesat material,  as required.   It shouldn't be difficult to set up (although aligning the dish can be tricky the first time you do it) and we're all happy to advise as you proceed.

[suej]

[quote user="Martin963"]Just to elaborate a little,   you connect the freesat box to the French TV using a SCART lead (or Peritel as it's sometimes known).

That way your TV can display either the French TNT channels,  or the freesat material,  as required.   It shouldn't be difficult to set up (although aligning the dish can be tricky the first time you do it) and we're all happy to advise as you proceed.
[/quote]

 

 

Thanks Martin.

As far as the dish is concerned , anything to do with that would be absolutely beyond us so we're going to go back to our local tv man and ask him to do it....I just need to make sure that we do at least sound as if we know what we're talking about- a bit of a bluff ,I know!  Thanks for the encouragement.

 

 

 

[Martin963]

As for the dish, the first step is to impress on the "local TV man" the fact that you need the dish to be set up for

Astra 2 at 28.2 degrees East.

He'll know all about

Astra 1 at 19.2 deg East

but you must "discourage" him from Astra 1 and make sure he's really understood that you need Astra 2. Maybe the words "le satellite britannique" would do the trick, but the technical description above is better. You do not want "le satellite Canalsat", that's Astra 1.

It's also important that he checks the signal when he's finished, as not all French installers realise that you have to give the LNB (the "aerial" on the end of the dish arm) a twist of about 20 deg clockwise (when facing into the dish) to optimise it for Astra 2.

You can get away with not doing that twist (known as "skew") on Astra 1, and any *competent* installer will know about the need for it, but as I say......

[suej]

 

 

 I like that Martin- almost have the feeling you must have met the man in question. He's really nice but  we  suspect he does have a bit of a list toward 19 East so we want to be clear about what we need to say to him and  make sure we are able  to explain exactly what we want at the end of the day.

That  tweak of the LNB is new one to us- will make sure I've worked out my french for that, don't want any accompanying gestures misinterpreted....

Thanks

[Martin963]

After (quite a bit of) searching I now know that "skew" is "rotation de polarisation" or "angle de polarisation",  which makes sense.  I didn't know what it was in French before,   and -  confirming what I said about its not being so crucial for Astra 1 (or Hotbird or Atlantic Bird 3) - there's relatively little mention of it in the installation guides on-line that I've found.

It's not difficult,   before finalising the installation it's worth checking a BBC transponder (of which one of us can provide details) and rotating the LNB slowly clockwise from its conventional position until the signal quality peaks to its highest level.

It can subsequently make all the difference between rock solid reception and flaky reception,   and seems to be more critical for Astra 2 D   (BBC and ITV and ch 5 and ch 4 free to air) than the other satellites in the Astra 2 cluster.

[Anton Redman]

 Astra 1 ,Hotbird and Atlantic Bird 3 are set up such that the LNB is almost vertical in France therefore skew  appears not to be an issue to French instalers till they mean Sky or UK FTA. 

[Martin963]

Funny really because -  as Anton may remember - the original generation of "French" satellites (the TDF's and Telecoms at 5 deg W)  actually had an artifical skew of 22.5 deg (from memory) so you HAD to rotate the LNB to match the skewed polarisation of the satellite.

All no doubt in the best tradition of 819 lines,   positive picture modulation,  AM sound,  SECAM colour,  and now a non standard digital radio system on the horizon....

Vive la difference!!

[suej]

 

Reviving this thread just to say thank you to Clair, Martin and Anton too. You explained and encouraged us  and  Hey Presto , job done this afternoon!

We now have a rather dinky parabole surprisingly discreetly placed on the back roof.  All its gubbinges must be pointing in the right direction because via that it seems that we are getting all  the channels listed on a freesat channel page we found and then we've safely got our french TNT ones coming in via the existing aerial. We've spent the evening hopping from Coronation Street to Carmen and from Parliament to Plus Belle la Vie - bit like children let loose in a sweet shop - but I expect we'll soon settle down. New tv is only a 66cm but after our ancient wee portable I feel as I'm at the cinema!

We are going to have to spend some time reading the book and trying to fathom out our way round the menus etc but I'm sure there'll be enough wet days in the next few weeks when we'll have time to try. We're so pleased it's finally up and running, so a big thank-you.I'm not sure though we will have time for much viewing this week as my husband has to go into hospital, hopefully very briefly, to have his own little camera angle job done- need that out of the way before we can really sit with feet up and relax.. apart from that everything's great!

Just think , if I wasn't so tired I could go and watch LOADS of telly, even at this late hour....

Thanks Sue

 

[Martin963]

Delighted that you're sorted.

The sweet shop syndrome will wear off - sadly.    It's surprising how after a few weeks with "loads-a-channels" one realises how little there is to watch that's worth it.

But obviously there are gems and without the correct set-up one would miss them.

Personally I love the whole "television sans frontieres" concept  (in both directions,  I'd be a lot more "homesick" for France when I'm stuck in Devon watching the rain streaming down if I couldn't see a few of my favourites on French TV) and I will continue to fight tooth and nail against those (mainly oh-so-precious rights holders) who want to make TV intra-national again,  and paying.

Murdoch is one who springs to mind,   but so do the bosses of Canalsat.....

[Jamesdee]

I have just bought a Humax PVR-9300T to install on my existing satellite system  here in Mirambeau on which I currently watch Sky freeview. I was struck by the capabilities of the machine but I am struggling to install it. Doing my homework, sadly after the event,  I picked up the information that I will not be able to install it here. Is this really the case? Reading some of the posts here it seems a number of you have some experience of this particular equipment. Have I made a foolish purchase? Is the situation redeemable? Most grateful for any help that can be offered.