French TV North County Dublin

Ginkgo

I have never had satellite TV so am not great on the jargon. I would be grateful for any advice about obtaining French channels in North County Dublin.

I read here (French text) http://www.afi.ie/fr/comment-recevoir-la-tele-francaise/ that I need a satellite dish that points to Astra (19,2 ° East). Also I need to get a decoder which I can buy online from France and the card that comes with the decoder lasts for 5 years (cost between 99 and 229 euros)

My question is twofold.

Aside from the costs of the dish, decoder, wiring and installation, are there any other costs?

It is important that I retain the existing English speaking channels so is it possible to use both a dish and aerial together? Is it the case of switching a connection on the tv to have one or the other?

Thanks in advance.

polyfusion

Costs: other than electricity, no.

If your "English speaking channels" are coming in on the RF aerial input on your TV (which it sounds like), then connecting a satellite box will have no impact on them. Usually you will connect the sat box using a SCART cable or if your TV is relatively new, maybe a HDMI connection (if your TV is equipped with such inputs). You then switch between the aerial input and the SCART input, usually using the AV button on the remote control, though some TVs may autodetect when a device connected via SCART or HDMI is switched out of standby, and automatically display the AV input.

Ginkgo

Thanks Polyfusion.

Will this decoder suit - Sagem - ISD75?

French text. http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B002RVWA0I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A1FACKKB4P99ZL

Also do I need to order any adapters so it will work with a dish bought in Ireland?

Sattje

@Ginkgo: I am quite surprised to see the link to an Irish site (afi.ie) that offers you a French smart card. Is it legal?

In Holland (where I live) it is not possible. Unless I can give an adress + bank account in France I will not get this card. So it only works 'semi' legally...

If you insist on the French 'Canalsat' you will have to. But in case you would be happy with 'only' the French public channels, please have a look at another satellite than Astra 19.2East.
All French public channels are Free to Air on this satellite: Atlantic Bird 3 at 5.0°W so it's free when you point a dish to 5.0°W

polyfusion

Sattje wrote: »

@Ginkgo: I am quite surprised to see the link to an Irish site (afi.ie) that offers you a French smart card. Is it legal?

In Holland (where I live) it is not possible. Unless I can give an adress + bank account in France I will not get this card. So it only works 'semi' legally...

If you insist on the French 'Canalsat' you will have to. But in case you would be happy with 'only' the French public channels, please have a look at another satellite than Astra 19.2East.
All French public channels are Free to Air on this satellite: Atlantic Bird 3 at 5.0°W so it's free when you point a dish to 5.0°W

I forgot about that (and I have a dish pointed at 5W myself!), but not all the French public channels are at 5W, at least not all digitally, notably TF1, M6 and NT1. If you are French, or really need all the French channels, it's probably worth it opting for a dedicated receiver and card for the EPG and all the public service channels. If you already had a receiver, it might be possible to get just a card and use in a FTA receiver (thinking of doing that myself, as it would free up the dish pointed at 5W as I already have 19.2E).

@Ginkgo - Shouldn't need any other adaptors, except for the plug maybe, I think their voltage is essentially the same, but you'd better double-check yourself. The decoder you linked would be fine, all you need after that is cable, dish, LNB and installation (or DIY). Another thing to consider would be whether you wanted recording (twin tuner). I don't think HD is an option on satellite yet.

Ginkgo

Ok thanks. I'd be happy with the channels available at 5W. So if I go with this option, do i still need to get the decoder mentioned above from France?

Will probably watch French tv on my mac. Apparently this is possible with Elgato EyeTV DTT 2008 http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TS589ZM/A

polyfusion

Ginkgo wrote: »

Ok thanks. I'd be happy with the channels available at 5W. So if I go with this option, do i still need to get the decoder mentioned above from France?

No, all you need then is any SD FTA receiver, cable, dish (60cm minimum) and LNB. You will get no EPG, I think there is "now and next" on a few of the bigger channels though.

Ginkgo

I rang an Irish company that provide equipment and also install for a quote. I gave the spec as per above. Their response was that I needed a special receiver for French channels and that they didn't supply them.

Anyway I also saw this package: http://www.tvtrade.ie/french-hd-satellite-tv-kit.html.
Would this be ok?

Thanks.

Sattje

To me this doesn't make sence. There should be no difference. When you have a modern TVset (with HDMI) even this receiver (from Germany, in German) would do nice...

polyfusion

They either didn't want to do it, only know how to install Sky, or possibly thought that those French channels are the FTA ANALOGUE ones, which would require an analogue receiver, which are hard to come by these days, although I saw some guy offering one for free on jumbletown a few weeks ago.

If you go to this page http://www.flysat.com/abird3.php and search for SECAM, you'll see what analogue channels are available, TF1 and M6 are 2 of them which aren't available FTA digitally on that satellite. But I believe they are to be removed later in the year, so probably not worth the effort if you hope to keep the French channels past October or Novemeber.

Anyway, a cheap FTA receiver like a €20 SL65 that's currently on adverts will do fine, you don't need HD, as the FTA digital French channels on 5W are transmitted in standard definition. If you have a good HD TV, maybe a HD receiver with upscaling might be a nicer option, but it'll cost you more than a SD receiver.

The kit you linked would work, but I don't think that includes installation, does it? 60cm dish is also big enough for 5W, though I'll probably be shot down for saying that. I have a Zone2 Sky dish pointed at 5W right now, and can tell you that the signal intensity and quality is more than adequate, and that's with a dish that has limited LNB skew. Also, there is no mention of a card, but since it mentions HD, I think it's presuming you will get a French subscription TV card yourself, and point the dish at 19.2E. So, if you are planning on getting your FTA channels from 5W, that kit is overkill. If you wanted the FTA English channels as well, a multi-sat setup with an 80cm dish pointing at 19.2E and 28.2E would be a much better option, but you haven't expressed any interest in English TV and want to go FTA with the French channels, so my advise would be to stick with 5W.

So you have a few things to think about; 5W or 19E, completely FTA, or official box with extra channels and EPG. Deciding between 5W and 19E might depend on your location and where you want to place the dish, so you'd need to check that out as well. You can do this at www.dishpointer.com, place the marker on your back wall, or side of house, or where ever, select each satellite in turn, and see if any satellite might be restricted.

Sattje

I'm sorry, polyfusion that I do'nt agree with you. Don'nt mix up analogue and SD. Analogue is over, forever. Next year you won'nt be able to see any channels in analogue. The French channels Ginkgo wants are decent SD stations, but digital. No use for analogue. It's better to buy a Linux based HD receiver like Clarke Tech

polyfusion

Sattje wrote: »

I'm sorry, polyfusion that I do'nt agree with you. Don'nt mix up analogue and SD. Analogue is over, forever. Next year you won'nt be able to see any channels in analogue. The French channels Ginkgo wants are decent SD stations, but digital. No use for analogue. It's better to buy a Linux based HD receiver like Clarke Tech

I think you misread my post, I didn't endorse the analogue, and did say that they will be gone before the year is out. I was just offering it as a possible reason why Ginkgo was told by the installer he contacted that he would need a "special receiver". And I then went on to say that a simple SD receiver pointed at 5W would be my recommendation. Was I not clear enough?

Whether SD or HD, that's up to the OP; seeing as the channels are in SD, is HD not overkill? Maybe his TV can upscale the input from an SD receiver? Why recommend something that costs nearly €400, when a €50-100 box would do just as well?

Sattje

Sorry I misread your post. 1 Good excuse: I'm dutch.
Anyway: I agree in advising a cheap SD receiver. Just found a few.
Good luck to you!

Ginkgo

Just an update to say that I now have the FTA French channels and to add a correction. I had been told by a sales person that the following product would allow me to watch sat TV on my mac. I bought it and found out that it doesn't.

Will probably watch French tv on my mac. Apparently this is possible with Elgato EyeTV DTT 2008 http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TS589ZM/A

tapfit2004

Ginkgo wrote: »

Just an update to say that I now have the FTA French channels and to add a correction. I had been told by a sales person that the following product would allow me to watch sat TV on my mac. I bought it and found out that it doesn't.

hi.

the usb stick looks to be a dtt (terrestrial) receiver which is only for tv signals broadcast from ground based transmitters. it could possibly receive the rte's dtt signals but it will not receive france's dtt signals in north dublin.

it is not for use with a satellite dish either. you can get usb satellite receivers for windows pc's so i'd assume there would be one for the mac as well.

i would try to get a refund as it was mis-sold to you by the sales rep or see can you get the rte mux on it and maybe keep it for that.

Ginkgo

tapfit2004 wrote: »

hi.

the usb stick looks to be a dtt (terrestrial) receiver which is only for tv signals broadcast from ground based transmitters. it could possibly receive the rte's dtt signals but it will not receive france's dtt signals in north dublin.

Yes that's what the guy who installed the dish said. I was buying it as a cheaper alternative to buying second TV. I should have researched it better before buying. Hopefully it won't be too much hassle to return.

Would the one below work? Not sure I'm going to buy this now (might get second TV at some stage) but just curious.

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TS588ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDExOA&mco=MTA4ODQ2ODg

polyfusion

Ginkgo wrote: »

Would the one below work? Not sure I'm going to buy this now (might get second TV at some stage) but just curious.

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TS588ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDExOA&mco=MTA4ODQ2ODg

No, that's a DVB-C device (the -C part signifies "cable"; if you want to connect to your dish, you need a DVB-S device).

The USB DVB-S devices are usually much bigger, about the size of a compact camera, you can see some examples here, the boxy examples. DVB-T and -C devices usually look similar in size and shape to USB memory sticks.

EDIT: Actually, reading that page more, it refers to the device as being DVB-T in some places and DVB-C in others. Either way, it'll be no good for connecting to your satellite dish.

BTW, what setup did you go for in the end, 19E or 5W, TNT card or completely FTA?

Ginkgo

Thanks Polyfusion.

I think this is what I needed but I will just get another tv sometime instead.

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TW128ZM/A

I have FTA French channels on 5w but I should have more channels. I have only 9:
TMC
France 2,3,5,Ö,LCP
Berbère TV,Berbère Music,Berbère Jeunesse.


Any ideas how I can get the other free channels?

polyfusion

Yes, that DVB-S box will work with your satellite feed.

On 5W, I have 17 French channels scanned in, but not those 3 Berbère channels (are they any good?), possibly because they may have encrypted flags on them, and I usually only do FTA scans. If you go to this page here, you can see what's available (ignore the first half of the page, as they are circular polarised, you'll see R or L with the frequency).

The first 2 that you're missing are TéléGrenoble Isère and Mirabelle TV at 10972 V 29950, so you'd have to scan that transponder on your box for it to find them. Alternatively, do a full scan of the satellite, and it should find everything, but you'll then need to delete what you don't want. You'd have to try and figure out how to do that yourself, by reading the manual, or posting up what type of box you have, and see if someone knows the box. The typical way would be something along the lines of Menu>Installation or Setup>Auto Scan or TP Scan.

There are also a good number of radio channels available as well, signified with "-R-".

Ginkgo

Thanks Polyfusion.

The guy who installed the dishes is going to talk me through getting the other channels so it should be ok.

I haven't had time to check out those Berbère Channels. Will let you know.

Ginkgo

I have the other FTA French channels now. Also, I realised after my last post that those Berbère Channels aren't French language channels.

Frisian

Just on the subject of french channels.
TF1 is available now as well as M6 on Eurobird 9A. 12.034 V 27.500 3/4.
Advertising is intended for switzerland otherwise identical with french original.