FTA Digital on 5 Degrees West.

[Anton Redman]

Does anybody know what if any commitment has been made to retaining this ?  The rumours were that it was originally launched/happened as a way of providing feeds to TNT transmitters and would at some stage by encrypted/compressed due to lack of signal spectrum.  I have missed any French updates on this in the French press.

[IAN_S]

I haven't looked today but I think it's gone already, it certainly was not there last week for several days.

 

 

[Martin963]

They have indeed gone but you can get them back.  All that has happened is that the symbol rate has been upped from 19 k approx to 20,000 ksps.   This is enough of a change to throw your receiver off the scent as it were.

There has been a certain amount of "official discussion" about this service,  the situation is that it remains in-the-clear at the moment because the 6th TNT/DTT multiplex has not been allocated which means that the "public service" channels do not have to share the satellite frequency with this sixth service for delivery out to the terrestrial UHF TNT transmitters .  As a result these "distribution" signals do not have to be "compressed" to fit all the services onto the transponder concerned.

At the moment there are no immediate plans to start this sixth multiplex,  and it seems that there is a certain "agreement" that leaving these public service channels "open" on satellite takes the pressure off the protests from some parts of France deprived at present of TNT signals on UHF.

The CSA that controls these things seems about as much use as OFCOM were over ITV and Sky and their dispute - ie do nothing until all the parties get bored with squabbling.....

Do a rescan as follows:

11.591 GHz,  Vertical pol,  20000 ksps symbol rate  Forward error correction 2/3.

 http://www.lyngsat.com/ab3.html

  

[Anton Redman]

Thanks Martin - I am loath to pay a subscription for digital the four main terrestrial channels (as well as a Frenth TV licence via TF/TH) but in new house have the chioce of :

Working out where feed from the relatively new chimney mounted ariel goes and dragging it through the loft to the living room.

Using the 80 cm minus a bite for the down pipe parabole and working out how to get the feed into the living room via the walls with the 10 cm thick polstyrene insulation.

 

 

[Martin963]

Not an easy choice Anton....

For me (when in the UK where all our sets are PAL) the analogue service on 5 degrees west has come back into its own following my discovery that a Philips DVD recorder (inseted into the signal chain) acts as a SECAM -> PAL transcoder of the highest quality.   These transmissions are likely to be around for at least five years (so they say,  because they are the back-up distribution system if the national microwave network goes down) and are of the highest quality....

Sounds as though you're going to get grubby whichever route you follow!