French staellite TV in SE England

[P3]

Over in France this coming weekend and thought that watching French TV in the UK might help our language skills. So thought it might be useful to pick up a dish and receiver in one of the Bricos.

However, thought I would ask on here if we will successfully receive the signal in the UK.

We will be down in the Midi Pyrenees so would buy the package there. We live near to Gatwick airport.

Many thanks

Paul

[Tim]

No problem in receiving French TV via satellite all over the UK. There are some cheap deals available in French Bricos - some are analogue and some are digital.

The analogue packages are for the satellite system at 5 west - all the main French channels are there at the moment. Bear in mind though, at some time in the future, these will be switched off. Like alot of countries France is 'going digital'.

The alternative is a digital receiver. You can point the dish at the same satellite - 5 west - and get most of the same channels - but not all.

The digital changeover in France means that there are changes going all the time and it's possible that some of these channels may also go at some stage.

There are French free to air channels also available on Hotbird 13 east and the digital receiver will also get these - so in my humble opinion, digital is probably the best way to go. Combined with a 60cm dish you will have plenty to play with.

As I said, these are only my opinions and others on here may differ, but hopefully I've not confused you too much and if you need any more info, we will do our best.

Regards - Tim

[Fridgeman]

Hi Paul

You will receive France 2,3,4,5 and LCP on Atlantic Bird 3 @ 5 west of south, no need to buy the equipment in France, any standard Digital receiver will do the job, I'm a little biast as I have 2 Technomate's which have given me good service the TM 1000 D super is a great receiver for the price about £60 and I would go for a 80cm dish

Hope that helps any other questions just ask

Tim you beat me to it.................

 

 

 

[Tim]

At least we said very much the same thing!!!![:)]

[Fridgeman]

Oppps I made a booboo you will not get France 4 but you will get Arte, TMC and TV8 Mont Blanc and Megasport if you have a Technomate and then let me know and I will tell you how to get it!!

 

 

[Martin963]

Heartily endorse what has already been said.

One other (recentish) option - TNT par satellite.   There are now a couple of boxes on the market,  the cheaper one at €129 at the grandes surfaces if you can find it.

Basically it's a dedicated digital box + specific card that allows you to receive the digital terrestrial channels (18 of them) but via satellite.   Primarily designed for poor reception areas in France where there is no TNT (DTT) signal,  there's nothing to stop you taking it back to the UK.   The card is valid for 4 years,  and is included in the price.

The signal is from Astra 1 and is ultimately provided by Canalsatellite,  but you do not need any sort of ongoing subscription.

In many ways it's like a free-to-view Solus card from Sky allowing access to Channel 4 and Five,  (also with no ongoing costs).

I suspect you would have to register it to a French address at purchase however.

Later - sorry - realise that you probably haven't got a French address.   But you could still ask and see what the procedure is....

[lacote0_0]

We receive TV5 via cable. I believe it is also transmitted by Sky.

It's also possible to pick up French AM radio in the South-East.

[Tim]

TV5 is on the Sky system - albeit part of Mr.Murdoch's packages - so you have to pay to receive it from 28.2 east. It's transmitted Free To Air on 19 east and Hotbird 13 east.

France Inter - Europe 1 - RTL and sometimes RMC - all French radio stations are indeed audible over most of the UK on long wave. Also, many French stations are audible on FM from the high spots of Southern England.

Regards  - Tim

[Martin963]

re RMC - Timco and I ought to go off in a corner here to talk about this,  but RMC 216 kHz has been on VERY reduced power over the last couple of weeks.   It's caused quite a lot of comment as apparently the station is heading for financial trouble and many are wondering if the electricity bill to run a 1400 kW tx is getting too much for them ;  they've also switched off their network of MW relays which they were only allocated a few years ago,  and handed the allocations back to the CSA.

In Devon RMC is barely audible now and the autoseek on the car radio no longer finds it, even in dx mode.   Reports suggest that coverage has shrunk considerably in France too, altough it may have improved slightly in the last few days.

[Tim]

Briefly Martin - yes, I had noticed that just recently - not that I listened to it very much. I think it's a shame the way some of the old stations are falling by the wayside - most notably for me being Arrow from Holland - sadly missed on 675.

Right - now back to the original subject - I thought of mentioning the system currently being set up for the French channels - but the last I read about (a few weeks ago, I must admit ) was most people were not very impressed with the choice of receiver - too expensive etc. I'm not sure if this has improved since. I've stopped looking too much at this sort of stuff as my local transmitter (Rouen) has improved it's coverage to me and I get pretty good reception from TNT now.

Tim

[auxadrets]

Suggest you 'Google' TNT SAT, there is quite a lot of info. Even a company selling the system in England and a forum with adverse comments.

[P3]

Thanks for all the replies - and yes, we do have an address in France which will unfortunately remain a maison secondaire for a few years more due to the health changes.

Yes Tim a great shame about Arrow - unless they also continue on MW, must email them about that or do you know anything. Reminded me of the good old days of Caroline and RNI on the MW - brought back memories of when the PO was jamming RNI and I continued listeneing 'cos they were not going to stop me'.

Do not know of a way of receiving the Internet in the car [:D]

Paul

[Martin963]

re Arrow -  sadly it really does seem to be the end.   Although there is no info as to who might take over the frequency, which the present "owners" can lease out until the allocation comes up for renewal next year.   If ONLY a few UK stations would have the humility to learn from Arrow's example - good music,  and no prattling self-obsessed DJ's.

re TNT sat -  the SAGEM (crippled as it was) was far too expensive.   But €129 for the Strong seems pretty reasonable to me.   I shall be getting one for use in the UK next year when we go back over.

[Tim]

No (serious) news about Arrow's old frequency - 675kHz at the moment. Rumours are rife though - the latest being that the landbased version of Caroline will take the spot. That would seem to be unlikely due to the high prices quoted for running the transmitter.

Martin - I don't mind a little informative chat - although I have to say that currently there is nothing being broadcast from the UK that comes anywhere close to the atmosphere that the offshore stations created - though musically, I suppose Radio 2 comes closest. I'm trying not be an old fart here but what has happened to the radio scene in the UK? Everybody is just in it for the money - there seems to be a distinct lack of interest in providing a service. I'm sure 'focus groups' have a lot to do with it.

Anyway - back to the topic - as far as Sat TNT is concerned, well luckily I don't have to worry about that now with my improved reception, but I note the comments about the boxes with interest - I'm sure to have a call at sometime from somebody asking for some help getting it all going so I'll have a look in the Bricos on my next visit - thanks.

Regards - Tim

[Ron Avery]

I heard on the radio the other day, that with the growth of digital TV in France, TNT are going to enable regional broadcasts to be viewed all over France. They quoted that a man from Lille for example staying in Toulouse could watch the version of channel 3 being shown in Lille and vice versa for a man from Toulouse in Lille.  Presumably a new version of the TNT box is being launched to enable this.

[Martin963]

Ron - I think that is ONLY via the sat version;  there just isn't the capacity on UHF TNT to put 15 or so regional versions out.   Certainly it's already running on TNT sat,  although there's a software glitch at the moment which means that many of the boxes have all swapped their PID's round so that if you tune in say FR3 Montpellier you get FR3 Toulouse - they're working on the problem at the moment.

Timco - I think money HAS got a lot to do with the current state of ILR and INR in the UK.  I agree that it's lamentable.  Radio has "forgotten" many of the genres it does best,   but that's what happens when medja students get their hands on the reins.

Most of my time is spent listening to a radio station at Limoges called Swing FM.  In 24 I have a 5 element aerial in a tree with a tuner on the ground,  all wired back to the house with 270 m of cable (it's the only place where there's a ghost of a signal) and here I can listen to it via the internet.  Of course one has to like vintage jazz, but there's no chat which is what really irks me on radio (including all these ghastly "friendly" Radio 3 so called presenters).

But nuff said.

[Ron Avery]

Thanks Martin

Shows how much I know, I thought TNT was principally a box and CANAL + were the satellite provider, I will have to see if TNT would be any good for us. We have a digital box for French TV via a satellite as the reception even with a signal booster on the aerial on 4 and 6 was appalling.

We have just discovered by complete accident a new channel on 32 on the French box in addition to 1-6 called TMC, doesn't look as though there is much to see but I cannot get the sound right, although its mostly dubbed French it will not lose a hiss, so two points do you or Tim know the settings for TMC and if there are any other TV channels lurking up there on the French TV satellite that are FTA?

[Tim]

Ron, can I just confirm what you are using? You say have a 'digital box' for French satellite but you are getting hiss on the sound of TMC. This sounds more of an analogue problem.

Tim

[Martin963]

There IS a feed of TMC on analogue satellite at 5 deg W (Atlantic Bird 3) and there is a known problem with the sound in that it isn't Wegener Panda or J17 or flat or anything known to the sat world.   No one quite knows why TMC have gone up on that sat but you might as well "enjoy" it while you can.

Canal + (and canalsat) are indeed sat providers,  but when the govt announced the legal requirement for a TNT via sat service they upstaged the other party (who were preparing an offering on AB3, and have for the moment given up the idea)  with this current "TNTparSat" plan,  up and ready to go the day after the govt issued its edict.   Of course this wasn't as difficult as it might sound as all the 18 channels were already on Astra 1 one way or another and most already part of Canalsat's bouquet. 

So it made sense for them to market a box and card with the canalsat badge on it,  presumably as it heightens public awareness of them in the market.

Having said that their original plan would probably have been like Sky's, ie a free-to-view box with ALL the other channels listed on the EPG and frequent messages on screen telling you to take out a Sky subif you want to watch them.   This was I believe scotched by the terms of the govt edict.

[Tim]

Not tried 'Swing FM' Martin - I don't think I've seen it on satellite. Apart from the local radio for Normandie the one station I quite enjoy for the sheer breadth of music is FIP. It's on FM in Paris and one or two of the other big cities - on satellite, of course, which is where I can listen to it home, or internet - also it's just audible here on 585kHz on the car radio - albeit a bit noisy at times from the power lines.

I don't know if you remember - it's the station that someone was re-broadcasting on low power around parts of Brighton. It had been going for some time - not bothering anybody, not causing any interference, and on a spare frequency, quite the reverse in fact, it built up quite a following. Then some miserable oik 'grassed them up' and it was shut down. I'm not sure on the latest, but there was quite a campagne going on in the area to get it back. Not being a betting man - I would still put money on the authorities saying 'no'. There might be a market in the area to install dishes pointing at Hotbird, Astra19 or AB5 and digital receivers with amps and speakers for the good people of Brighton who are missing their daily dose of FIP. I  know it caused great amusement to the guys at FIP.

Regards - Tim

[Martin963]

Yes someone sent me an article from - I think - Telerama about the Brighton FIP "relay".

It's thought that someone bidding for a frequency being offered there by Ofcom "grassed" them up, but I doubt anyone knows for certain.

I should have made it clearer - Swing FM isn't on sat (more's the pity) but can be found at www.swingfm.asso.fr

[Tim]

Thanks Martin - got Swing going now.

Tim

[Martin963]

Hope you noticed who translated the web site (at least the "unchanging" bits) into English (if you looked at the English version of it). 

A very nice bunch of people who run the station on a shoestring;  it's a "radio associative".

[Tim]

Yes, I did - I guessed they were a small outfit - are you saying that you appear somewhere Martin? - I've only had a quick look as I've been called upstairs (now on the laptop) a bit of community volunteer work for when you're back over here.

Tim

[Martin963]

Yes - you have to look quite carefully,  but down the bottom of the brief history of jazz.   Very difficult to translate as the original French was so "nice",  that's the problem of being there for long periods,  it's difficult to think in colloquial English any more....