Question for the French residents

[nickliv]

re. TV and sky / satellite TV in particular.

I know you get Motors over there subs free, but what satelite is it on, and would it be possible to buy a sky box in France that will receive the transmissions, and then bring it home and fix it to a mahoosive jodrell bank on the side of my house so I can get motors without paying Murdoch?

Ta

Nick

[termietermite]

I get motors but on a paid for Canal+ sub.  It's not free, afaik. (About 12 € a month.)

[DelBoy]

You'd need a French TV set as well - they use a different format for picture and sound transmissions than the UK.

Del

[termietermite]

Not really, Del.  Modern sets are normally dual format (well, put it this way, both my UK TV sets work fine!)

[IanB]

Nick,
      Just flicking around  ,I have found MotorsTV

         on Hotbird 13E unscrambled

    Ian

[nickliv]

HeyHey. Cheers Ian. I'll have a look...

[Piglet]

Nick,
      Just flicking around  ,I have found MotorsTV

         on Hotbird 13E unscrambled

    Ian

How does that work then?  Can you do that with a normal dish or do you need some kind of directional satellite?  Do you need some other form of receiver than Sky?   I'd really like to dump Sky but can't live without Motors 

[Kev_mk3]

my dads doing something with this at the moment. because of where the satellites are you needs either a motor to move the dish or 2 dishes.

due to where there going, where having the 2 dish system installed in france. we are in contact with a english bloke over there who is installing it all & supplying it all but its not cheap!!

[termietermite]

Kev, if I may say so, this is bonkers!  A French TV supplier can do this just as easily, and usually for about 30% of the price that an English bod will - in general (although not always) these companies who target Brits abroad are a total rip-off.  Picking up the UK satelites is not difficult, and you can get a digibox in the UK before coming over.  I was quoted about £300 by one of these Brit abroad companies, and  my local Pulsat bloke charged me 90€ to install both dishes and set up the boxes.

[Kev_mk3]

Kev, if I may say so, this is bonkers!  A French TV supplier can do this just as easily, and usually for about 30% of the price that an English bod will - in general (although not always) these companies who target Brits abroad are a total rip-off.  Picking up the UK satelites is not difficult, and you can get a digibox in the UK before coming over.  I was quoted about £300 by one of these Brit abroad companies, and  my local Pulsat bloke charged me 90€ to install both dishes and set up the boxes.

ok cheers ill tell him once i get in and see whats going on - ill be honest i dont know totally what he is up to but ill find out

[termietermite]

Certainly worth looking around, as it's pointless just chucking money away - moving costs quite enough!  Tell your parents to have a look at this:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1124646/ShowPost.aspx

This forum is also quite useful for finding shortcuts to things, and ways of getting round the French system.  Martin Watkins - the TV guru - is a particularly helpful chap (unlike some on there who can be pretty miserable at times!)

[Kpy]

If I can add my two penn'orth her, I'm totally in agreement with Termie. I have two dishes installed at my house here in France. The French system was installed free by the local TV shop - free dish and installation plus a cashback of €100 against a monthly subscription. The English system I installed myself with the help of a friend - it's a Skybox I bought off Ebay, complete with free to air viewing card, for £15.00 including postage, along with a dish I bought cheaply at a local supermarket.
Friends of mine live about 5 miles from your parents' house and have a virtually identical system to mine.
The English guys who set up systems like this in France charge a fortune, because they can - they rely on the fact that there are plenty of timid English people around, who'd rather not deal with the French.