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French TV through a parabole


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Can anyone help?

Until last november I received the usual 5 French TV channels broadcast in analogue format through a roof mounted dish, because the location of the village makes an aerial unuseable. The setup was:- dish>analogue decoder>2 year old TNT loaded TV. Since the digital switch in November for my area (Northern Yonne) I can no longer receive a picture. I have tried a cable directly from the dish into the TV, and from the dish via a new digital decoderto the TV, but neither work. I have not moved the dish, but realise that digital signals are less forgiving than analogue, so wondered if I need to try that. But has anyone else got experience of moving from "dished" analogue to digital, and if so what is the correct set up. Thanks in advance.

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Firstly does the TV have a TNT receiver as opposed to analog? Is the TNT receiver for terrestrial (signal transmitted from a TV transmitter) or satellite (i.e. you need a dish)? I am asking these questions just to make it 100% clear what you do have. Even better if you happen to know the make of the TV and it's model number (usually located on the back of the TV) so we can look it up.

If you have a dish and a decoder you cannot plug the dish directly in to the TV. Probably won't do any damage but it definitely won't work.

If your dish is for analog then you need to move to digital. This will require a digital TNT satellite decoder available from most Brico shops and you will need to change the LNB (that's the thing on the end of the stick attached to your dish). You will then need to to possibly point the dish somewhere else.

I do not mean this to sound rude but your like many who don't understand these things so your not alone, perhaps it might be better to get some help. Try your local village or town they normally have a shop that sells TV's and can come and set it all up for you. You can still buy the decoder from a brico which may be cheaper, the LNB's are not that expensive so let them supply that. In the end you will have a working system plus if it goes wrong you can get them to fix it. The new LNB and getting it aligned should work out at between 100 and 150 Euros and you will have a guarantee on the LNB and the work.

You might try asking in the shop if you can get TNT via an ariel where you live. You know what the French are like so you have to ask the question as they won't tell you unless you ask. If they say yes and your TV has a TNT tuner built in then it will be even cheaper to sort out.

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So you used to watch analogue TV via satellite. As you now know this was switched off in November 2011.

However all is not lost, all you probably need to do is buy a new digital satellite labelled Fransat. This can then be connected in exactly the same way as your old box. Do not buy a receiver marked as Freesat TNT. If you buy one of those you will have to have the dish moved to point at a different satellite.

http://www.fransat.fr/comment-ca-marche/jhabite-en-maison-individuelle/?page=34

If the installation is fairly recent you probably won't need to change the LNB (head). However if it's been in a while, and the Fransat box doesn't pick up anything , then you will have to get the LNB changed.
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Thanks Quillan, you raise some good points. I think it may well be worth getting some help from a local shop, but I'll find out how the neighbours have gone about it first. The TV has  a TNT decoder built in a far as I know, but don't know if its for terrestrial or satellite. Neighbours have said the aerial is no good in our village, but so far have suggested that I just need to swap to a digital decoder - but that hasn't solved the problem. The LNB chnage you mention hasn't been raised before.
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Indeed ppp.   But those "Telecom" LNBs that have been mentioned were designed to work for (mainly older) sat receivers which didn't tune right up (at I.F. of course) to 2150 MHz.    And the French analogue SECAMs were all right up in the 12.6 - 12.8 GHz band,   so a special "French" LNB was designed to bring those very high frequencies into the range of ALL sat receivers of the period.

So what was current for Astra 1 wasn't necessarily the case for the French.   Not for the first time of course.

Advice already given to the OP is spot on;   analogue sat gone,   try a Fransat box as suggested - it's the simplest solution *IF* you have the dish already AND you don't have a terrestrial UHF signal.

I'm slightly surprised that the OP didn't see all the running ticker-tape annos last November on the analogue services,   or indeed the fact that France 2 and TF1 both carried days (or in TF1's case weeks) of a trailer explaining Fransat.    However,   having said that I suppose that if it's a holiday home only then all those annos could of course have been missed.

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My only practical experience of presumably french LNBs was rescuing a complete parabole and furnishings from a "poubelle" after the Grzat Storm in 1999. It was finally removed after giving sterling, not stirling, service until the termination of analogue on AB3. If I can find it I'll check the identity of the LNB.

I rather think they are almost as rare as meeting a marsupilami whilst walking in the woods.

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I've come across a couple when installing Fransat boxes round here.    Probably fitted in the mid 1990s although of course the people concerned couldn't remember the exact dates..... But as you say,   the vast majority of LNBs were universals by that time.

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