Can you utilise a hard drive with a plug adapter to the cd socket?
I have absolutely no idea.
BTW. We are talking about a classic car that will be 29 years old in a couple of months. Therefore I need to find an original piece of kit and not a modern alternative.
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I am not sure what problem we are trying to solve on this thread. The solution to have both UK and French apps on a Samsung TV suggested by @billybutcher in the original post worked for me but I found it inconvenient.
You need an Internet signal with a VPN on it. Modern Samsung TV does not support VPNs. Mine connects to my Livebox using ethernet cable. Livebox does not support VPNs either. So I must use my router with VPN to get the correctly geolocated signal. But then I cannot use other apps at the same time which require the VPN switched off e.g. Credit Agricole app.
The solution is very simple and cheap. Use the TV for all French stuff and a Firestick in the HDMI port for UK stuff. Once the firestick is set up, you can take it anywhere in your pocket. The idea of humping TVs from country to country seems illogical
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The problem I have, and would like to solve, is how to receive UK television in France once my existing satellite TV kit becomes useless in a couple of years time when the satellites stop working.
I know it is a boring reply but a Firestick, with a VPN app and all the UK apps such as Iplayer, ITVX. 4,5,U Netflix can be put in your pocket and taken anywhere and used on any TV with an HDMI port.
Exactly ..except fire sticks will not cut it . Amazon are actively spanciling the ability to add unauthorised software. Now I have a satellite receiver of the Linux Enigma 2 software type and one of the options allows 5200 TV channels ..via the internet . The trouble is that they are extremely unreliable and new channels can appear and disappear at a whim ..obviously I have never checked 5000
No, panic not! As said, you can buy modules that plug into your lighter socket but they are not very pretty.
I have the same problem as you looming and do not want to lose the Becker quality or have a module sticking out of my lighter socket. I am looking at building this into the centre console:
It needs a new aerial on your windscreen which is easy enough. This module then becomes your rafio broadcasting into an FM channel of you present radio.
My car radio is 16 years old- has FM but no Bluetooth like yours. I have a module that plugs in the ‘cigarette lighter’ that connects to the Bluetooth on my phone where I get internet radio and broadcasts to the FM tuner of my car radio. Works pretty well and only cost 2 euros on Ali Express. Not super high fidelity but not really bad with car noise etc. Not pretty but as the socket is on the console it is behind the gear stick so I don’t really see it.
Ah, so retaining the old is more important. Only I did something similar the relatives years back as the multi cd had packed up and I was sur6to see a converter plug available that allowed them to store 1000’s of tracks on a hard drive.
That was a discreet hard drive in the boot but it replaced the 6 cd also in the boot (Mercedes)
I havent found DAB to be all that good in France compared to the UK, have things improved? I mainly stream to my car head unit or listen to what’s stored on the pen drive.
Indeed but there are many other TV sticks that will do the same job. I just bought a Xiaomi one for €55 and it’s much more flexible than Amazon’s offering.
I’m afraid that you are going to have to accept the intrusion of modern technology and, dare I say it, new equipment in your life to achieve that, perhaps even a new TV 
I just noticed your comment about the Bluetooth widget - modern TVs have Bluetooth built in, obviously, but normally it’s an all or nothing proposition where audio output is concerned, however I see the Samsung has a “Multi-output audio” option which would allow madame’s hearing aid to be connected as well as the TV speakers.
But as already noted at the moment I would wait. Hopefully it will be at least a couple of years before the demise of Freesat during which time you can get used to a new fibre internet connection when the inevitable “upgrade” comes along.
None of us likes externally driven change - but most of the time it is not as bad as you fear - resisting the inevitable just causes stress. As they say, be like the trees and bend, don’t break, in the storm.
They are OK, I have one in the Celica.
Worth letting us know the model so people can check it out, “a Xaiomi one” is a bit non specific 
One of these I presume.
Moving back to a point I touched on earlier - if you value your Internet privacy it is worth considering all smart TVs and similar as hostile - and any Android TV device from Ali Express as simply a malware vector.
LG has been caught somewhat with their pants down over this (why it is not in more mainstream media I do not know), using automatic content recognition to track what you are watching, monitor “drivers” that do the same, with “drivers” that are basically malware.
I suspect other manufacturers do the same.
More here (though I’m afraid I find Steve’s voice rather grating after only a short while).
It was a generic point rather than a specific recommendation but, since you asked, TV Stick Gen2. It was a bit of an impulse buy as I’d become frustrated by Amazon’s geographic constraints on app availability and, in one of those repent at leisure moments, I hadn’t realised that it wasn’t directly supported by iPlayer. I’m not too fussed as I don’t use iPlayer very often and I’m comfortable with sideloading the app but I recognise that’s not for everyone.
I have pihole for that 
Yes, I understand that can be useful.
As I run a lot of OpenWrt there’s AdGuardHome which fulfils much the same role.
So far I’ve not felt an acute need for either and use browser plugins (specifically uBlock Origin). Maybe if more devices for which I can’t add to or change the functionality start spying on me I will have to place filtering on the edge of my network.
Our TV is only about 5 / 6 years old, is flat screen, and has USB ports, HDMI ports, and Scart sockets. When Mme uses the audio connection to her hearing aids the TV still emits sound from the speakers for myself.
Apart from the cost of a new TV, perhaps we should also consider the carbon footprint of perpetually having to throw away perfectly good kit and buying new stuff.
On the subject of cost, by the time one has purchased a Freely box, then a second router, and a chap to come and install it all we are coming to a not insignificant total. If one has to have a new TV as well then I surmise that we are in the 1,000 to 1,500 €uro bracket. There are many OAPs who would find it very difficult to find such a sum simply to keep their UK television working.
For the car, the important thing is to maintain the original appearance of the dashboard / center console. Also, anything that requires the use of a touchscreen device (smartphone etc) is an impossibility as they simply don’t work for my fingers. Anyway, it would be illegal to use such a device while driving whereas I could quite lawfully press 1 button to change the radio station or select a different CD from the stack in the boot.
As for maintaining privacy it is also new cars that are ‘hostile’. Driving up to Baltimore in an American rental car, and with the radio turned off, we were chatting from time to time as usual. Suddenly, the car announces, “I’m sorry but I didn’t quite catch that. Could you repeat it for me please”. You might imagine our surprise that the car was listening to our conversation. Needless to say that we completed our journey in silence, and we no longer talk to each other in US rental cars.
So it’s not just internet privacy one has to keep in mind, but privacy in general when in the presence of any electronic device anywhere, because ‘Big Brother’ is not just watching, but listening as well.
DAB is very fussy about its antenna , so I have grave doubts about a third party addon working satisfactory in a car. It’s something which has to be designed in ..like the little" shark fin "with active amplification on a lot of car roofs. ..And DAB at home is equally poor . However I came across a DIY ..It works very well …and it’s only a 2 euro sat lead and few minutes with a Stanley knife.
And yes Corona ..DAB + is very good in Bretagne…espically in the car .No fading on Radio Classique
The little gadgets that broadcast FM to your (classic) car radio aren’t DAB though - they rely on your phone streaming whatever you are listening to from the 'net and then just provide a (somewhat circuitous) route to your car speakers for the phone to use.
Oh dear 
are you sure you mean 5-6 years and not 15-16 years?? I suppose it must be a French set?
Joking aside I think you are overestimating the cost. You won’t be forced to buy a new TV unless you want the convenience of having everything nicely integrated to the set. A Freely box (the Manhatten Aero 4k) is about £90 - this little travel router runs OpenWrt with OpenVPN support and costs 31€ - I think NordVPN, Proton and Surfshark, among others, support OpenVPN so the odds are you will be OK to set it up yourself even without much tech know how.
So, nowhere near 1,000 to 1,500 €, if you want to keep costs down.
Quite, can’t disagree with that one. I seriously considered whether buying an old classic sports car would be a better bet than the RS3 for precisely that reason but decided I wanted a car which spent more time on the road than it did in the garage
There is no requirement to change the TV … The current TV I have taken to France dates from 2012 and that has just taken over from the older and smaller ..and even heavier 2008 model. None of these is going to landfill until they wear out ..
None of these have Sat tuners. ..but they have HDMI inputs. If you have a seperate sat receiver plugged into the TV HDMI ..that covers that , and if you have a media player / Fire stick or equivalent or even a Chromecast ..then that gives you whatever level.of SMART you want with internet. Indeed many a Sat Receiver or Blu Ray /DVD players have wireed ethernet access . . I don’t know about Freely ..but I assume it’s really no different than Freesat in that it has nicely ordered the UK channels , and delivers them in a geographically limited area ..via internet.
You can buy low end DVD players in France today that have both Scart and HDMI ports (because 720p).