Ours is a Samsung and it turned out to be a bit smarter than I wanted.
It was bought new in the UK for the French house, took it over plugged it in and started to set it up, as you do.
Unfortunately I’d plugged the network cable in - currently it is connected to a VPN which runs back through the internet connection at home in the UK so that iPlayer etc work - however before I’d set the VPN up it had allocated itself an IP address via DHCP and obviously reached out to Samsung’s servers to ask “where in the world am I?”
The result was a TV which, despite being bought in the UK, thought it was French and which did not even offer the UK catch-up apps. Not what I wanted at all
Had to trawl the 'net to find out how to get into the “secret” factory menu to re-set the country (very much a case of “there be dragons” as there are options to reset minor things such as the panel colour calibrations in that menu as well so you have to be careful which “reset” you push).
That’s interesting Paul.
Simon Armstrong shared this link about resetting your country/region.
I haven’t had the balls to try it tbh as I firmly subscribe to the maxim “if it aint broke don’t fix it” and I can do without most of the UK crap offerings these days
It’s a pretty good reason to buy in France - if you live in France. It doesn’t make much difference when we’re coming and going. Not so much, as it happens, because transport of a faulty item back to the UK would be easier but because I could have an electrical item fail after a few months of use only to find that it is well out of guarantee because that 3 months use has taken three years to accumulate.
You must have been lucky, or it was a while ago when the £ was a bit healthier - I’ve generally found electricals more expensive in France (for the same or as close as possible model) and t hey are significantly so at present.
Our local “supplier” of all things electrical - has matched the best web price OH could find, for a washing machine and later, for a fridge. He was happy and we gained his watchful eye for after-sales care.
The local Peugeot garage has done the same - obviously with car bits rather than kitchen equipment.
I’m not sure that @Hislop1 was specifically saying he watched the rate in order to buy a TV so much that he watches the rate to decide when to transfer sterling to euro (which is what we do).
I’m sure if that’s different David will correct me…
Hello, John
Some useful thoughts here, but if you are still confused, here’s how you can watch the widest range of English and French channels and a back catalogue of films and TV series.
1 - Order the “TV décodeur” [box[ from Orange if you want French channels
2 - Upgrade your current Orange subscription to include TV
3 - Upgrade Orange internet to the fastest for your area - fibre if you are not too rural
[These are effectively combined if you visit an Orange shop]
4 - Sign up for an internet TV service [which streams UK channels by internet] – and the “black box” which connects and controls it. This is known as IPTV [internet protocol Tv}
Some IPTV firms bundle the box and service. Most of them use a gadget called a MAG box. If they don’t supply it, Amazon sells them - the service provider will tell you which model to buy.
When we arrived in France three years ago we tried a couple of different IPTV firms but for the last two years have been with Expat Vision.
The onscreen instructions / programme selector are easy to follow, the service is very reliable and they have an online chat facility at https://www.expatvision.tv. Ignore the ‘rebranding’ msg, go straight to chat.
5 - Once you have the Orange and IPTV subscriptions, the décodeur [if wanted] and MAG box, connections are straightforward:
Livebox to décodeur = ethernet
Livebox to MAG = ethernet
décodeur to TV = HDMI
MAG to TV = HDMI
note wired connections faster / more robust than wifi
the chat service at Expatvision are very helpful but not sure if they are UK office hours
I’m definitely NOT a techie, but I’ve been around this sort of stuff for a while, so if you need more, just ask – and there are other folk here who know far more than I do, particularly about the technology.
