Tv reception

I’m not denying help, just that you could have used a previous thread & made it rise to the top of the list. Yes, technology moves on but that could be added to an existing conversation, with plenty of the info in that same conversation still being relevant.

That’s pushing it a bit, isn’t it? :wink:

2 Likes

It must be available in fits and starts then, when I last looked, typically just before I bought the Chinese sat receiver, there were none around ! Those ones are really expensive though, wow !

It’s just as crap, so why not :rofl: :rofl:

1 Like

Blimey, so you reckon French tv is better than uk tv ?

1 Like

I think all nationality tv has something to off. This is plainly clear through netflix and More 4 which both show international material. At the moment my main issue is my lack of understand of french, so at present I am where I am.

We found a local one-man-band to put the satellite up for us. He had never positioned one for Astra before and didn’t have a gadget like big modern firms. So he balanced the box and a TV on the roof until he got it right…

As has been mentioned this has been covered ad nauseam on the forum and I encourage you to look through the old threads.
However, to recap the options, you need:
Standard aerial for French digital telly
Satellite aimed at the Astra cluster at 28.2°E for UK Freesat (basically the same channels as Freeview in the UK). A UK Freesat decoder (or old Sky box) is also needed. If it says it supports Freesat it probably does not matter where you buy it. If not it might work but will have no programme guide. EDIT: For Suris you will need an 80cm dish at least for reliable operation
Fast internet connection and (e.g.) Livebox for French streamed TV
Fast internet connection and VPN for UK catch-up services such as iPlayer
The above also needs a TV which “thinks” it is in the UK

Fast in the above context means “more than 10Mbps”, 4G might be an option depending on coverage and offers.

Hope that helps.

Many thanks for your help everyone.

2 Likes

I assume to get a tv that thinks in the uk, you buy it in the uk?

Not sure it does have to be Billy. We very happily watched Netflix and Prime on our smart TV with an internet speed of no more than 2mb. And in fact we now have fibre with 400mb and don’t notice any difference.

Yes and you make sure that the first time you set it up and start it off, you “connect” it in the UK. Then you don’t update that location setting even using it somewhere else…ahem…later.

This is the way to do it without having to find out with other equipment if it works, work out the settings possibly by trial and error, etc

Covered in previous thread.

Just to expand on this… If you are using an older TV you might need an outboard HD (High Definition) TV tuner in order to watch French TNT. Even if a TV says it is “HD ready” it may still only have a Standard Definition (SD) tuner inside; it just happens to have an HD screen that will show HD stuff from external sources (e.g. DVD player, satellite receiver etc.).
French terrestrial broadcasts went over to being solely HD a few years ago, so a TV with an SD tuner won’t see them, hence the need to buy a 30€ outboard tuner to avoid binning your otherwise perfectly good TV.

If you’re just using a satellite decoder or non-smart TV, it doesn’t matter where you buy it. Connect using an HDMI pirt

10Mbps is desirable, especially if you wish to do anything else online - Prime, for instance wants to stream at 10-12Mbps if it can.

But, yes, things do work at lower speeds.

1 Like

True, but if you want to use UK smart TV features…

Probably not, Peter, but to be honnest I haven’t watched UK TV for over 16 years now so can’t comment :man_facepalming:

Having said that, I really couldn’t give a monkeys about what’s going on over there but do want and need to know what’s going on here, where my life is. When in Rome and all that…! :wink:

3 Likes

5 miles from me. We use a 80 cm dish onto the freesat satellite and a goodmans box. We have 100% signal quality. Terrestrial you will only get french channels no uk ones.

No we have a German TV. Those days are gone with the differing G pal D pal etc. only required for analog terrestrial.

Anyone know is there a limit to how far South/East freeview signals can be picked up? Or is it a question of just setting the dish / its LNB to the correct settings.

Do rusty old satellite dishes work? There seems to be one here even though it’s not connected