Hello! I wonder if anyone can help please. I recently moved to Banyuls sur Mer (south of Collioure) from Malaysia and want to pick up English TV programs in my house. Need to know firstly if it's possible, and if so what size dish to buy. Also is Humax the best option and where can I buy the set top box? Basically ... I haven't a clue and need advice!
Thanks Simon - I'm researching Moochie Media too as they apparently have a once only fee. If their offer doesn't stack up I may go with the link you provided as it looks safe..
Forget dishes, Filmon and all that VPN rubbish Diane - if you want 'normal TV' -i.e. on your TV screen with a remote, cheaply, then use an IPTV supplier. I've used http://expatiptv.com/ for nearly 2 years, about 20€ per month for all the channels and vids you could want. There are loads of other suppliers BUT....you do need a good reliable internet speed of at least 3Mbps.
As expected! Thanks for the link. I clearly have more research to do.
Thanks Peter - I'll explore..
Thanks Anthony - is your suggestion similar to Peter's below? Something like Kodi?
Satellite is pretty hopeless for UK programs in the 66, especially as far south as Banyuls. You would be better getting some form of internet box to pick up on-demand UK TV or you can try Filmon, although the Filmon picture isn't great and it has ads.
See here for more details http://anglophone-direct.com/online-television-in-the-p-o/
We have very recently bought a house in Prades (45km from Perpignan) from an English couple that had installed a dish (which is now too small) and a Humax box. We can get many channels although the quality of BBC/ITV varies according to the time of day and possibly the weather.
So I set up the open-source/free Kodi (http://kodi.tv/) on a laptop, which with various plug-ins such as Filmon (you will need to Google to work out how to do this - there are plenty of resources on the net).
Worth a look.
Peter
You can do it easily on a laptop or desktop computer without needing to buy a dish or a top box (or anything). If that is a solution you are happy with, let me know and I will tell you how to do it. I know alot of people want a telly in the traditional sense (big screen, select channels, remote control, etc); that may be what you want. The 'laptop' computer option allows you BBC, ITV, C4, CBS, etc and allows us to opt out of the audio-visuel aspect of land tax (because we have no telly, no top box, no aerial or dish on top of our house).
Hi Diane
Did you get any joy with Moochie Media?
1.2m dish with an octagon head coupled with a qviart undro2 box and you can even pick sky up too
1.2m dishes cant be fixed on the roof of the house so you will need to fit it in your garden
Hi Colette - Moochie Media provided a great solution. Highly recommended and the service from Andrew has been outstanding. A low cost solution with a one-off payment to purchase the media centre and then no cost for livestreaming TV from many countries including the UK. No dish required which is a bonus when living in the south with the regular high winds!
Thanks Diane - have sent you a private message
Hi,
I have a KODi box at home and they are great for Movies/TV Shows and if you use 'not film on TV' you can get most UK channels but they are heavy on internet. I also use an Openbox here in Ireland and I took it over to France at Easter and plugged it in replacing my Skybox and I connected it to Wi-Fi using a Mi-fi (it doesn't need much internet) I got all of the Sky and BT channels on it (Movies/Sports etc and I also got Irish TV (RTE1/RTE2/TV3/TG4 etc.) You can pick up the Openbox on ebay for less than €50 and a yearly subscription can be had on ebay for around €20-30 - You can also get multi-room subscriptions. I have been using mine in Ireland/France since October and it gets everything including pay to view sports events - Because of the Satellite it will not pick up BBC/ITV/C4/C5 etc but gets everything on the pan european beam Sky1/2/Atlantic Sky Sports 1/2/3/4/5 and all the BT channels. It uses about 100Mb a day but you need to have a satellite that is getting a locked signal (one that picks up 501 Sky News). It's just like paying for Sky but without the Free to Air BBC's etc
I should also have said that I am in Barcares near Perpignan
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/GENUINE-OPENBOX-V8S-UK-STOCK-Digital-Freesat-PVR-TV-Satellite-Receiver-Box-/111748905770?hash=item1a04c0fb2a:g:Z00AAOSwu4BVn-6-
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/12-MONTH-GIFT-Warranty-SKY-UK-EIRE-Ireland-ZGEMMA-OPENBOX-SKYBOX-etc-/262396642371?hash=item3d180f0443:g:pSgAAOSwu1VW7-5I
I don't sell or support these devices, I am just a user, but if you have a satellite dish that is only picking up a few channels such as Sky News etc then for €60 you can replace your Sky Box with an Openbox and a 1 year subscription and get all the Sky Channels, Watch/FOX/DAVE/Comedy Central etc, all of the Sports Channels on Sky and BT including Setanta (GAA and Saturday Premiership), all the SKY Movie Channels, News/Documentaries etc. Your phone (when used as a hotspot) can supply the internet or I use a mi-fi but if you have broadband it works on that as well either hard wired or wi-fi - It only needs about 100Mb a day and the annual subscription is €15-20 - It has a Full remote and 7-Day EPG program guide. The only thing it doesn't have is catch up tv/Boxsets
As we are house and pet sitters, we move around a lot, all over France, Europe, Australia, etc.. we use https://www.uktvfrance.net. It´s a little sort of decoder, you plug one side to your tv, the other side to the Intenet box and there you go. We pay something like about 7 Euros per month and we cancel whenever we don´t need (example, our clients have UK programs) and reconnect online in minutes 24/7 when needed. We have catchup tv and all the british programs. No dish or needed and it works anywhere in the world. You can rent or buy the decoder, we bought ours for under 100 Euros.
Kate and John
If you have any technical nous, Google Kodi and install it on your laptop or tablet. Best addons to then install are Exodus and Specto. It's much easier than it looks. You can then HDMI it to your TV if you so wish. For maximum flexibility buy an Amazon Firestick where it's even easier to install Kodi, plus you have a remote control which makes life easier.
The app is free and will give access to films new and old, boxed sets and live TV.
Just be aware that any streaming internet video will eat up monthly bandwidth caps though.
Hi Paul
So you constantly have the laptop connected to the TV then? What's monthly bandwidth caps? Sorry to be ignorant.
This sounds like just what I want! Can you give a lay-mans description of how it works? i.e. what you connect it to.