Zattoo does freeze occasionally. I would guess at a ratio of 1:10 to 1:12 of Filmon freezes though. Apparently, as yet to be confirmed after sis-in-law does the Chf65 subscription next week (Christmas present, so being Swiss she will almost certainly subscribe as of 25 December exactly), the quality is a bit better than the free service, and that is good as it is, which without the ads will be great.
yes Great for films but if you want uk IPTV then there are several operators. however they are grey market and not licensed for UK TV so how long they will last is anyones guess. radio is not a problem as main uk progs are available and free The only reliable solution at the moment is still satellite . just means a larger dish for most of France 1.2-1.8 in the south. 60-80 in the middle. Careful alignment is also needed. I will be putting some of the tales installers give for poor reception on face book Expat TV in France soon
I have no idea about these things technically but listen to people who know. One is a German man who lives in the next commune. The village itself is UNESCO heritage so that the whole commune gets the same rules foisted on it. I've no idea what he does, but he needs satellite coms for his job and has a 2.4m dish. My French friend and I go to the village for a coffee now and again. He is a techno addict so has everything that is of the moment, new, innovative, etc. He had just bought a several thousand € smart TV and a ground mounted dish in order not to need planning permission from the mairie. His reception was not as good as the installer had said. So, the German guy also being at the café and whose dish he knows from when he is out riding, he asked him how his larger one is and any problems.
What he said was interesting. When it was installed he had a cast concrete plinth put in the ground to anchor it but still had reception problems. When a work colleague visited from Germany he had a look at it. The problems arose with strong winds, sometimes with torrential rain and certainly with heavy hail falls. The man asked around in the village for a tuning fork for his colleague, then once he had it the friend used it to check how much vibration the dish suffered. The outcome was that he said the plinth was not enough. He recommended two pieces of construction scaffolding to anchor the dish in its optimal position, clamped solidly onto the mounting frame. A new plinth was put in with the scaffold poles. The colleague advised, any fine adjustments would then be LNB issues. It seems it worked.
My friend was on the phone to his installer to tell them immediately he got home, they came out and reinstalled free of charge. He has used a single piece of scaffold for his 1.5m dish and now his reception is fine.
Yes, we have no problems with Zattoo with 2MB whereas Filmon freezes very often. Another reason to use the former as good as Filmon's range may be.
Most of the IPTY services (BT, SFR, Orange, Sky etc) both in the UK and France seem to want a minimum of 4MB. I assume this is to ensure minimum buffering and good picture quality.
I have FilmOn installed on my 7" Android tablet (you can find it in Play Store) and it works fine but then it is a very small screen. Once I connect it to my TV however the quality is not so good but it is viewable. The types of program you really notice the poor picture quality is wildlife programs with close-up photography.
At the end of the day you really can't beat having a dish.
The other thing to understand is that you need a good LNB with excellent signal to noise ration. I bought some Inverto Black Ultra LNB's which are highly recommended. They certainly pull the signal in power wise but the quality is not so good and the installer changed them over for a different make. I don't know who made the one they installed and I cannot get to it to read the name but it has made quite a difference especially when it rains or snows.
Rain is another problem. Installers tend to come on sunny dry days and leave with everything working just fine. A couple of days later it rains and no picture. You will always get problems when it rains (or snows) but the difference is how much rain.
You also need an installer because the bigger the dish the more difficult it is to carry it up to the roof but more importantly it becomes more difficult to align as the focal point (remember that from school) has to be spot on as does the skew (the rotation of the LNB). The bigger the dish the more accurate this needs to be. Trying to align one yourself with either a meter or one of these boxes with lights is hit and miss, more miss than hit really.
The other reason to use a qualified and properly French registered installer is others may be working ‘on the black’ and should they have an accident like falling off the ladder carrying the dish up to the roof under French law you can be held responsible which could cost you lots (like thousands of Euros). Also if you have a problem you have legal means of getting your money back.
Just because your English installer has all the 'kit' it does not mean he/she is registered with a proper SIRET and TVA number nor that they carry insurance. You should always ask to see both before allowing them to start work. You should alway ask for a Devis as well and make sure you BOTH sign it.
Hi Clive...sorry, didnt see this before. I got the kindle for Xmas and we were in the UK for a month...so everything on it I downloaded before returning to France...but it was a right royal fiddle...I went online and searched because a lot of what I hoped to get I couldnt....but there was lots of info on line...in the end I downloaded Silk I think as a browser....I can watch live film on and live iplayer in France...but cant watch programmes again...as in missed progs...so not much use in the sense...I tend to use it as a radio in France....and listen to Radio 4 extra..
I had to download a different browser...
I have today succeeded in getting filmon.com on my son's kindle. It is quite a fiddly thing to do but if anyone is interested in how to get it from abroad without dealing with Amazon, let me know and I will post it here later.
If you have problems then call mike G my local engineer in France on 06 30 28 81 43 we supply and install any size dish up to 4+ m and have over 25 yrs in the business or contact me Mike@tts-media.co.uk
Be very wary of these internet companies offering UK TV as they could soon disappear if the big boys decide they are taking revenue from them
I only read as far as page 5 I am afraid so forgive me if I am repeating what others may have said.
UK TV will be broadcast from Astra 2E and 2F on narrow beam. Astra 2F is already functioning with a narrow beam which is why some people may have lost C5 etc and some BBC HD channels. Astra 2E was delayed in launch due to the previous rockets failing to function, it was finally launched a couple of months back and is still at 43.5E where it has been tested.
SES via Facebook have made the following statement on December 11.
"As part of SES' ongoing fleet renewal programme, we will be transferring all the UK Spot Beam transponders currently operating on ASTRA 1N across to ASTRA 2E.
This move at the 28.2/28.5ºEast orbital location will take place over several weeks beginning early February 2014.
The transfer will have no adverse implications for viewers in the UK and Ireland as the affected channels will continue to operate on the same frequencies and will be broadcast at the same, or slightly improved power levels, across the UK and Ireland.
TV viewers outside the UK and Ireland may see an impact and may not be able to receive channels from ASTRA 2E UK Spot Beam, which has a smaller footprint than ASTRA 1N. The new footprint on SES’ replacement fleet has been designed to meet the requirements of UK and Irish broadcasters who target their channels for distribution in the UK and/or Ireland. UK and Irish broadcasters hold broadcasting rights only for the UK and/or Ireland but not for other countries."
If you want to see where Astra 2E currently is then you can use the following link (there is a 24h lag)
The current rule of thumb is if you have lost C5 but everything else works (BBC1 SD, ITV, C4 etc) then you will loose these other channels when they move to Astra 2E. We live just south of Limoux (near Carcassonne) and used to have a 90cm dish but have upgraded to 1.4M and there is no problem with C5 (and HD channels).
TV via broadband may not be an option for those living in rural areas due to download speed. Sites like Filmon may appear OK on a tablet but certainly when we connected it to our TV the quality was terrible but then we only get 1mb (just) download speed.
Hi Carol,
I was interested by what you said about your kindle being able to use filmon in France. Did you download the Ap from Amazon in England or France?
The reason I ask this is because our Son has a Kindle Fire and try as I may, I cannot get Filmon to work on it. When I go to Amazon to try to download the "Free" app they spot that our ISP address is in Spain and won't supply it. When I mask the IP addresss they refuse because their syatem detects that it is masked!! I just wondered how you achieved it?
We have it on my PC my Wife's laptop and also on our Android phones but not Kindle. I guess the message in this is never buy a device like this from Amazon because they want to control everything.
never heard of Zattoo! have been using Filmon in France...as my kindle wont pick up anything other than Filmon...we have BBC iplayer and ITV, Channel 4 equivalents...but for limited time....about 8 hours a week...in the UK I can pick up everything on the kindle....its when I get to France there is a problem..!
;-)
Less English, yes. Sorry, this is a multi-lingual family. So yes and no, overall if you use four or five languages Zattoo comes out better. However, there is a lot of dross on both Filmon and Zattoo, or any of the other services so it more or less squares up in the end.
The JUSTOP Android 4.2 is cheaper than the ROKU models, version 3 is not supposed to be available here yet although Amazon are indeed selling it. The JUSTOP has built in wi-fi as well. When I can afford any streaming media I'll buy one or the other anyway.
The only charge I've seen on Filmon is for HD. Frankly the normal quality is brilliant on my PC, my wife's Pc and both our mobiles. Having a big problem getting it to work on my son's kindle though - any ideas anyone?
Clive, even better is Zattoo - it knocks spots off Filmon for offer and quality. Get the free version with 180 odd channels (in English, plus similar in other languages) which is less that Filmon. However, the premium version offers a vast range (mostly total garbage mind you) costs Chf 65 (€53) a year, it being part of Orange Switzerland, which my sister-in-law who already has it is giving us for Christmas. It needs a Smart TV to see it that way, otherwise I watch it on my PC, daughters on their laptops and great.
Hello Peter,
I realise that this is nearly one year on from your post and hopefully your Channel problems have gone. We get this a lot in Spain but generally when you retune thr reciever they all come back.
If you lose them altogether and want to keep up, may I suggest you go to www.filmon.com there once you have given a user name and password BUT no money or debit card - that is important to say, you just log in and you can get over 200 channels free in saplendid quality on your computer.
From thre UK you get all the BBC channels, ITv channels, Ch4, Ch5 and so no. You can even put it on your android mobile and watch wherever you are as long as you have internet or a wifi hotspot.
It really is a winner! My sun has it on his Kindle, my wife on her laptop and her mobile and I have it on my pc and we can all watch different channels!
In the words of Micheal Cane "Not a lot of people know that"
Cheers
Clive
Hi all,
Finally Astra/ SES the satellite company broadcasting the UKTV channels has announced the shut-down of the current satellite for the beginning of Feb 2014. In a statement Wed evening they said :
"As part of SES' ongoing fleet renewal programme, we will be transferring all the UK Spot Beam transponders currently operating on ASTRA 1N across to ASTRA 2E. This move at the 28.2/28.5ºEast orbital location will take place over several weeks beginning early February 2014. The transfer will have no adverse implications for viewers in the UK and Ireland as the affected channels will continue to operate on the same frequencies and will be broadcast at the same, or slightly improved power levels, across the UK and Ireland. TV viewers outside the UK and Ireland may see an impact and may not be able to receive channels from ASTRA 2E UK Spot Beam, which has a smaller footprint than ASTRA 1N. The new footprint on SES' replacement fleet has been designed to meet the requirements of UK and Irish broadcasters who target their channels for distribution in the UK and/or Ireland. UK and Irish broadcasters hold broadcasting rights only for the UK and/or Ireland but not for other countries."
This means you will without doubt need a larger dish. Size will depend on your location but you need to remember that anything over 110cm diam needs to be floor fixed for safety, but there is still no guarantee that you will get a signal!
BBC World is ubiquitous and one of the low number channels initially. What we found said BBC1, but it was simply the guide and we left it that without looking.