suej Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 I have been scrolling back trying to find out what I can about receiving French and British tv in France because my husband and I ,being complete duffers as far as any of this stuff is concerned, know what we would like to have in the end,( i.e.,to be able to receive UK and French channels through one tv set,)but have had only very muddled ideas about how to achieve this. Until, that is , I came upon the thread 'Set Up to Receive French and British TV', active in January this year, where Martinwatkins was advising Ian how to go on. Superb! Thank you both for such a clear informative lesson. Ian asked the very questions that we have been asking each other but posed them in such a logical and precise fashion that even those questions clarified our thinking. Martinwatkins replies were so detailed , practical and easy to follow that even beginners like us could understand and thus feel confident enough to make a list, get ready to go out and buy what we need and feel that we know exactly what to ask of an installer.Before dashing off with cheque books, I would like to ask your advice please on two points:1. We live in north-east Maine et Loire, Dept 49, so am I right in thinking that the details for Ian in Indre (e.g. Astra 2 at 28 deg E and Astra1 at 19 deg E,) will be applicable for us here in Maine et Loire?2. I looked at ww.ausene.fr only to find that the business has very recently been forced to close but then by following a link I found that Serge Surpin's brother continues to operate at www.surpin.fr and the catologue appears to have the visiosat paraboles...I trust we could order via them?Hopefully we are now on the way to getting organised thanks to you both (and to France Forum ofcourse!)Martin, and Ian too,I really have appreciated finally being able to understand what needs doing, Thanks SueJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 What a nice post to find! Much appreciated.Yes, the satellites are exactly the same for you. Giving them their full titles (as you have done) ensures that there is no confusion when describing them.The two Surpins apparently (so I believe) have spent most of their adult lives shafting each other commerically. I can't remember where I read that, but there's certainly some sort of histoire involved. However, I believe both to be entirely reliable when it comes to dealing with the public!Please post back if you need further help, as I probably said before I've never actually installed a Visiosat myself but it would appear that they're no more difficult than a conventional dish, and in this case more convenient....Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Laters: were you planning to get a TNTparSat box for the French stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suej Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 [quote user="Martinwatkins"]Laters: were you planning to get a TNTparSat box for the French stuff?[/quote] Yes, Martin, that's the conclusion we came to after reading your thread. It's time to chuck the 10 year-old portable and its twisted old roof-antenne , and to get a new tv set and "start all over again".... which is why we want to go the whole hog and get ourselves set up with a new system and be able to see a bit of British tv (at least we'll know then what the grandkids are talking about..)while at the same time keeping the option to watch some of the French programmes we've grown attached to.We were muttering on about this all last winter but did nothing about and then as soon as the wisteria is out and you start being in the garden again the idea tends get put in the cupboard along with the knitting, the dominoes box and the other 'dark nights 'stuff. This time we really are going to get organised, especially now we know, I think ,what we need to do- and, after all, tis June 22nd and the nights will start pulling in soon!Let me know please if you have any more advice- we shan't start shopping before the end of this week- catching up on that gardening again after three weeks away.Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 I'm envious of all your mention of outdoors - although we've finally had a better week I can't remember so much rain and grey - worse than Devon in winter..... (where the hay has been in for two weeks - here in Perigord it's just being cut).Anyway, we have two Sagem TNTparSat boxes which do the job they are supposed to do well, but not much else! The Strongs are reputed to have very poorly made remotes. You can only hook the Sagem up with Scart - it would be more convenient for us if it had an RF modulator but it doesn't.Apart from that, keep us posted..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suej Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Have made a note of what you say about boxes Martin , thanks. Now then, I know what Scart means (and since my recent in-house training session I now know what a Scart selector box is too) BUT I haven't the foggiest what an 'RF modulator ' is- sorry!Do I need to find out?? Agree with you about the weather over here- our three weeks away were in Herefordshire and Shropshire where we saw rain just twice. We're gardening frantically now because those 3 weeks must have been pretty rainy here and we are knee-high in weeds. Can't grumble today though , despite a few menacing clouds it's been good and we've had a couple of hours sitting in the sun listening to a jazz group in the park- cor, tain't half hard work being retired...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Sorry - a bit of a red herring. An RF (radio frequency) modulator is the thingy inside a box (could be a video taperecorder, DVD player, sat box) that allows you to connect it to the TV using the aerial cable rather than a scart. Before scart was thought of the only way you COULD connect a VCR to an exisiting TV was by RF, aerial plugged into VCR then VCR plugged into TV aerial socket.In order to save money a lot of recent boxes don't bother with the RF modulator, which for many people doesn't matter, but in my particular case I use the aerial cable to pipe TV and added on sat boxes round the house to several TV's in several rooms. This means that someone in one room can watch a different programme (including off satellite) to me just by changing channels on the TV, without having to come and find the scart selector box.As I say, for many people it isn't a problem, but I'm cursing the Sagems as we have a TV (under cover) on the terrace and whilst I can easily post a bit of coax through a roof tile to the outside world a scart cable would be a different matter! Using the RF system I can change from the BBC box to the analogue French box without going indoors, something that can't be done with scart where the selector box is indoors too.Sorry to ramble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Ah, shucks!(Glad it helped. Martin is the real hero. My set-up is as he recommended, and it works a treat!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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