tigerfeet Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Does any one know the coverage in the Limousin area ?My location come up as n 45`39.454 e 1`40.687 on the sat nav.I can see a transmitter mast about 5 mile away , but do not know what it is for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Link to thread with a link to a coverage maphttp://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1295449/ShowPost.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 According to my guess you're not far from Domps, the mast you can see might be that of Sussac (at a guess) which is just an analogue relay.Your area is principally covered for analogue TV by the main station of Limoges Les Cars which for the moment doesn't transmit TNT (French Freeview) because sufficient channels can't be cleared to accommodate the digital transmissions (Les Cars provokes interference as far afield as the north coast of Spain, and fitting in new channels that don't cause problems for existing viewers is extremely complicated).Les Cars is scheduled for TNT by the end of the year, but I'm not holding my breath as the whole frequency re-allocation project is getting very behind and what has been promised by non-technical people pushing the TNT project is now running very far ahead of the technical reality. And that would rely on your aerial actually pointing at Les Cars and not at some relay whose date for digital upgrade is even further behind.If you're really keen to get TNT the simplest idea might be to get a TNTparSat box + card (€139) and a dish (orientated on Astra 1); this is the "catch all" for people like you with a delay in prospect for the arrival of TNT via your aerial. It all depends how keen you really are!All this should be read in the context that I hope I've correctly identified your location and that my estimates for your signal are all done theoretically rather than by an actual site-visit! So do ask your neighbours if they're getting TNT - there is an outside chance that if you're on high ground a signal would come through from "Ussel Meymac Mt Bessou" or the town relay for Limoges (Puy Las Rodas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 You appear to be an expert on TV's etc, can I ask you several questions.Current situationWe have a sky box with the standard free stations, BBC ITV etc. In addition we also have TNT through or ariel, good reception, about 15 stations, we also have a recent sat dish that was used for canal plus, box gone back as it was not really used. Out local Sat installer is trying to sell us one of the TNTpar box + card that you mentioned for €170.00. He told us we can get not only TNT but italian, german, spanish and english stations with the system. Questions.The information that he has provided, is it accurate and if so do you know what stations in english that you get free. Would CNBC be one of them. ?Is it possible to obtain a box ourselves at the price that you have quoted. ?The provider of our Sky box told us that if we wanted to upgrade the system for sky, we would have to pay a one off charge of £150 plus an annual charge of £50 to the provider for the card and an additional annual charge of £85 for our information to be held in a data base in the UK. All of the above costs are additional on top of the sky monthly charge. Is their a less expensive method of getting the standard sky package. ? ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 How kind, how kind!1) Yes, a TNTparSat box works exclusively from Astra 1. A full list of programmes for that satellite is herehttp://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.html (free channels are marked in pale yellow, the buff ones are scrambled)and CNBC appears to be on 11597 MHz and appears to be free to air. In a minute I'll report back as to whether our TNTparSat box can see it. This box is designed to give you the TNT channels via sat + the FTA channels on Astra 1, but if you already have reliable TNT reception via your aerial then you'd get the same Astra 1 free channels using a €70 digital sat box (DVB-S) from Bricowhatever and connected up to your ex Canalsat dish. Although this cheaper option would not obviously pick up those TNT channels from Astra 1 as they are scrambled (that's why you need the special TNTparSat box and card). I really can't see why you'd need the TNTparSat box unless your TNT terrestrial reception was a bit dodgy or it was just for the convenience of having all the sat channels and TNT on the one box.2) Yes, in LeClerc/Carrefor etc. Be very careful to ensure that you're buying the "TNTparSat" box, not an ordinary TNT terrestrial box (much cheaper). But see 1) above about your current reception of TNT from your aerial.3) You're paying (I suspect) for an element of subterfuge to hide from Sky the fact your box is abroad. Far easier to find a friend in the UK whose address you can use. It used to be fairly easy to persuade Sky that you already had a box/didn't need installation but I suspect that may have got a lot harder. Problem now is that to get a new free box they (I believe) insist on installing and insist that you respect the one year connect-the-box-to-the-telephone-line condition.I don't know how easy it is to persuade Sky to issue a Sky sub to an exisiting box, you would need an address in the UK and it would be easier to phone from said address, although it you use a mobile and/or hide your number when calling I imagine that you will be able to say "I have a box here at 23 Railway Cuttings, bought it second hand, like to have a Sky sub, please issue me a card to go with box number 123456" (have an excuse ready as to why you aren't phoning from the 23 Railway Cuttings landline!) and then take the card to France. I suggest we see if someone has done this sort of thing recently and if they have similar or better advice.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Just to confirm that CNBC Europe does indeed come through fine on a TNTparSat box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Fantastic, what a response, full credit to you and many thanks, fed up with bloomberg off to purchase the box. If ever up my direction give me a bell. email (Saintes 17) ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 A votre service...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 More questions. bought the box and started to install. it would appaer that the maximum signal i can get is 82%. Up and down off the roof like a jack in the box. Anyway, installation complete, buckets of stations including CNBC, works great. just one small problem, the TNT french ground stations do not work, when i try to load any of the french ground stations i get card error, whilst some of the TNT stations work ok, for exampleTF1 not working card errorFrance2 the sameFR3 the sameCanal + okFrance 5 the sameM6 the sameArte okDirect 8 okW9 card errorTMC card errorNtI okNRJ 12 card errorLCP okFrance 4 card errorBFM okTele card errorVirgin 17 card errorGulli card errorFrance 0 card errorWhen i bought the sat the box had been opened before and the card had been removed from its envelope, it was the last in the store and i just wondered was it returned because it was faulty or have i missed something in the installation.Thanks again.ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 All working ok now, found a small amount of glue or other such matter on the card cleaned it off and now working great. ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Phew.... Did you get the Sagem or the Strong?Now back to trying to solve my ADSL problems, has gone very slow and the main computer and the Alice box don't want to talk to each other via Ethernet..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Bought the sagem for €139.99, they had several other boxes as you indicated, one of them was actually more expensive and were also charging €4.90 rent per month, and from what my limited french could understand, essentially the same stations and product. The resident expert in the shop agreed with your advice. Many thanks again, now all i need is to find a second telecommand so that we can operate the system from the bedroom, as we have a system that sends the signal from one TV to another TV, on the other hand i can take the wife's advice and simply bring it from one room to another. Do non sensible no logical wife's exist, i guess not. ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Glad you got the Sagem, I was going to add but didn't have time that the Strong has - anecdotally - a poorer reputation for reliability and build than the Sagem.That €4.90 pcm was probably for BIS which suits some people as they throw in the odd film channel with the TNT's, although M6 is missing from the line up. If nothing else it's competition for Canalsat (who manage TNTparSat). Picture quality on BIS is reputed to be a bit mediocre, they're squashing far too many channels into not enough bandwidth.But that's the way it goes.If I come up to Saintes transmitter spotting I'll get in touch (I want to get into the Velodrome for a closer look at that one). Sad or what?http://pagesperso-orange.fr/tvignaud/galerie/fr-galerie.htm scroll down to Poitou-Charente and choose Saintes-Velodrome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ams Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 I will look fwd to that. ams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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