FTA in Ireland and France

ISAW

I am getting a FTA box from satellite.ie which I can use in Ireland and/or to take on holidays to France. Assuming I have the dishes and connectors.

1. Is there a book which tell me how I can set up satellite in a house/mobile home/car/ caravan? On a related issue a book on encryption/ setting up a home system/locating new satellites.

2. How do I ALSO get the French F1-6 channels here in Ireland or in France? This is really important for me as I need French language TV and the meagre NTL offering of TV5 is a joke.

3. If I record in France or use a TV from Ireland is there a problem with Pal and Pal secam?

4. Do I need a second French TV licence for FTA French channels in France?

5. any other ideas you might chip in?

I would consider the Sky FTA but I don't like anything to do with Fox - but a once off payment would be okay and I like to have a laugh sometimes comparing Fox to real news.

Charles Slane

ISAW wrote:

I would consider the Sky FTA but I don't like anything to do with Fox - but a once off payment would be okay and I like to have a laugh sometimes comparing Fox to real news.

You wouldn't have to worry about being upset by the bias of Fox News as it's a subscription channel so you wouldn't see it with any FTA set-up.

watty

1) Yes. See www.satcure.co.uk
Forget about learning anything about encyrption. For Sky pay channels you need a Sky Digibox and subscription. Any continental providfer you might buy a subscription from in france will tell you the kind of CAM you need, The French shops would have a suitable satellite receiver. A FTA satellite receiver can't show encrypted channels or take a viewing card.

2) Atlantic Bird @ 5W Digital has F2 to F5 and LCP free. Will Work on any TV. I get those fine.

Also 5W analog has F1 .. F4, F5/Arte and M6, but is SECAM. Will work here on a Thomson TV. I see it in B&W on my ordinary TV, but my PC Tuner card does SECAM. A bit sparkly on my 80cm dish.

French Pay TV is available. Not sure but think it is Canal+ rather than ABSat. It has F1 .. F5 + M6. Works on PAL TV. Need a different Satellite Receiver with CI + CAM or suitable built in CAM.

M6 Suisse is available FTA Digital. Forget which satellite, but I have it. TV5 Europe and TV5 FBS are also FTA (but not on Sky, TV5 is Pay TV on that). Astra 19E and Hotbirds 13E

3)French TVs use PAL and Secam. Esp. Thomson, French Digital TV comes out of the receiver as PAL. Some VHS recorders work with Secam or PAL, but the TV needs to be SECAM. If you only use Digital Satellite, then forget about Secam.

4. Irish TV licence is for Ireland, no matter what you view in Ireland, you don't need a French TV licence to view French TV in Ireland, but an Irish licence, even if you only watch French TV. French "la redevance" is for France, no matter what you view in France. You don't need an Irish or UK licence to view Irish (difficult) or UK TV (easy) in France.

5. A motor and 80cm dish will get more Free French channels from four satellites or so than a single satellite Fixed Dish. Add 100 Euro to Satellite.ie

6. Fox News is not FTA anywhere. A fixted dish FTA or your motor will get all these from Sky:
http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Free+To+Air+on+Sky

See www.lyngsat.com/europe/ and www.lyngsat.com/atlantic/

from 28E to 5W for various french language Free channels.

Icehouse

ISAW wrote:

I am getting a FTA box from satellite.ie which I can use in Ireland and/or to take on holidays to France. Assuming I have the dishes and connectors.

1. Is there a book which tell me how I can set up satellite in a house/mobile home/car/ caravan? On a related issue a book on encryption/ setting up a home system/locating new satellites.

2. How do I ALSO get the French F1-6 channels here in Ireland or in France? This is really important for me as I need French language TV and the meagre NTL offering of TV5 is a joke.

3. If I record in France or use a TV from Ireland is there a problem with Pal and Pal secam?

4. Do I need a second French TV licence for FTA French channels in France?

5. any other ideas you might chip in?

I would consider the Sky FTA but I don't like anything to do with Fox - but a once off payment would be okay and I like to have a laugh sometimes comparing Fox to real news.

This excellent site explains clearly how to install yourself a satellite dish and receiver. It's aimed at caravan owners but is useful to everyone. I used it to install my kit a few years back, and I've never even set foot in a caravan.

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

If you want to get the French channels and the UK FTa satellite channels at the same time, you'll need a motorised dish or one with several 'heads' or LNB's. There are several sites which list all the channels available and where to find them. Pour le moment, les chaînes du service public (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, ARTE, LCP) sont disponibles en numérique clair sur le satellite Atlantic Bird 3 (5° Ouest). If you record in France, you'll need to be sure that your VCR can record French channels (SECAM) in PAL mode - most modern VCR's do this. the VCR I have cost me 100€ in a French supermarket a few years ago and I have brought tapes back to Ireland and they play fine.

watty

Icehouse wrote:

If you record in France, you'll need to be sure that your VCR can record French channels (SECAM) in PAL mode - most modern VCR's do this. the VCR I have cost me 100€ in a French supermarket a few years ago and I have brought tapes back to Ireland and they play fine.

Secam applies only to TV from Aerial and Analog Satellite. Many VHS record Secam as Secam. Most Irish VHS will play back Secam, as Secam. Some Irish TVs will do SECAM colour, others will show B&W. Most Thomson TVs sold in Ireland will do Secam. Most new French TVs will do PAL and Secam, but via aerial socket there may be no sound from Irish TV aerial or an Irish/UK bought VHS machine (Irish/UK tapes will be fine in any French VHS).

Icehouse

The original poster's best bit is maybe to buy a cheap VCR over here in France, set it to PAL by default and record everything in PAL - it can be thus watched here and in Ireland.

Hagar

The TV Licence in France is being included in your Taxe de Habitation. So every household automatically pays for a TV licence. You can make a declaration that you do not have a TV and get a reduction. However if you are later found to have a TV they will haul you off to the Bastille or somewhere like that for making a false declaration. An interesting French solution to a universal question.

watty

I think they do this inculsion of TV licence recently in Taxe de Habitation because they were even worse than N.I. for not paying TV lincence.

spuddy

watty wrote:

...M6 Suisse is available FTA Digital. Forget which satellite...

It's on Eutelsat W3 @ 7'E

I've come across a few Philips TVs in Ireland which handle secam.

Ulsterman 1690

Like Watty says the PAL/SECAM thing is not a problem with digital.

Even with analouge most TV's nowadays will handle SECAM and even if they dont yoll still have a B&W picture

watty wrote:

they were even worse than N.I. for not paying TV lincence.

I thought only the Italians were worse than us (mind you from what Ive seen of Italian TV I find it hard to blame them)

watty

RAI didn't have the rugby today. I suppose Sky italia had it? Anyway the Rugby maniac here watched RTE's version.