Freesat installation

Thanks for that tip, just looked at it, do you need good internet? I’m sure where we’ve bought internet is not very good

This is something posted just 3 months ago not 5 years ago. I know this forum pretty well so know those who are current posters and re-posting useful information doesn’t prevent newbies from posting too.

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I’m watching BBC2 at the mo.

I have a terrible 790 kbps with Orange sometimes a bit more, try and avoid. Get another provider if poss.

Mike Aitken

Speed is more to do with the cabling between your house and the exchange, switching provider wouldn’t change this.

Have you considered 4G service by Bouygues Tel?

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Before switching to 4G with Bouygues, we had TV through our Orange internet account and can verify what @Mat_Davies and @lago suggest.
Orange “tweaked” our réseau to balance performance between internet and TV but we did notice that when the Orange TV was in use, the réseau dropped considerably - suggesting that the Orange TV box wasn’t particularly efficient. From about ±4 Go down to less than 1 Go!
Using our Samsung Smart TV with an RJ45 cat5e cable from the router (through a switch) to access the TV app provided by Bouygues (molotov.tv), we noted no perceptible drop in speed of internet access using fast.com so seems to be more efficient.

I live in France and we have our tv set to talk in french but read in English.Or you could do it vice versa. It would save money on any extra instsllations…just a thought.

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Hi if you buy a humax box you only have to put an English postcode into it to pick up English tv. Voilà. No fees or contacts.

Thankyou I guess this is like the freesat box you need satellite dish?

Yes, you still need a dish, all free after installation though,

Yes any dish you could put it in your loft or anywhere really

Only if you cut a big hole in your roof :thinking:

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As Mark suggests satellite dishes need a clear view of the sky!

We have a 1.2 metre dish mounted on the ground. Forget how much we paid but a local TV tech should be able to install and line up with the satellite. We have had various boxes over the years but have now got Manhattan Freesat box from Amazon (UK) - excellent.

Thanks Micheal that’s the one I’ve been looking at, to me it just seemed expensive to pay €560 euros for freesat receiver and dish plus installation in France when I can buy the receiver box you mentioned and 80cm dish for £100, now to find someone local to do the alignment :joy:

Is the box from Amazon (UK) the same as the one from Amazon.fr

Apparently the same box but the
UK price is about half. Even with postage it should be much
cheaper to buy in UK. It is a very small box so postage is not
high. I am about 50 km south of Toulouse so needed a big dish.

I installed my Freesat set up last year and it was extremely straightforward. Cheap 80cm dish from Amazon. Humax freesat box with 1gb memory for recording programmes, purchased on eBay. (Obviously ensure that it is a Freesat box, not a freeview box, which runs via an ariel but only the UK). Some decent co-ax cable from screwfix and some f-plugs.
Main item to make the process easy is this:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07429RZGG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is your satellite finder. Instructions with it are poor, but a bit of googling will find out what you need to know. It is very straightforward. You select the satellite you want, connect the finder outside to the dish and adjust the dish in the three planes in the correct order, and simply rotate the dish until you get the highest percentage reading on the digital meter.
Great thing with the freesat is that you can set the BBC local news to your UK home region.
Catch up does not work because it knows you are not in the UK, but someone on here will no doubt know how to get round all this if you get your signal via the internet. However you can record programmes and pause programmes. You need at least two cables from the dish to the Freesat box so you can watch one channel while recording another.
Hope this helps.

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Thank you Ron, this has been most helpful and what I had in my mind would be cheaper, I’m not tight but thought €560 a bit over the top. I will def purchase the stuff myself now and bring down with me. Once again thanks.

Hi Tracy
Glad it was useful. In case I wasn’t very clear, you need at least a twin LNB on the dish, which basically means two cable connections. So one to record and one for the channel you’re watching. Also, if you have a TV with SAT built in, you can go for a LNB with more than two connections. With this you can record two programmes on your freesat box and watch another on your TV. It may not sound that relevant, but over Christmas there was a few occasions when I wanted to record a couple of channels while watching another channel. You have to get used to the fact that you don’t have catch up, so you have to use the guide more and plan recordings if there is something that you will want to watch.
I hope I don’t sound like I spend all my time watching TV, but It is very handy to have it when you need it!

Lol Ron I’m sure your not glued to the tv, it’s just nice to have it, we don’t complete for another 4 weeks but like to be organised next to get the internet which is a must. We going to be semi retiring so hopefully spending half our time in France if we can! I guess it all depends if we get a brexit deal.