First no UK tv, now no French TV :(

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Wed 18 Jun 2014 17:12

OK, I know what has happened with UK tv here in sunny Baho (anyone want to buy a Humax box?) and am about to try Filmon from laptop to TV. That's what I expected.

What I didn't expect was to arrive and discover we have lost virtually all the French channels that were available at Easter. Has something changed? Do we now need a box?

Now for the technical question: can we move our satellite dish round to the East to pick up French TV and use our Humax box? (If so, the box is off the market

)

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Thu 19 Jun 2014 00:32

Colin L wrote:OK, I know what has happened with UK tv here in sunny Baho (anyone want to buy a Humax box?) and am about to try Filmon from laptop to TV. That's what I expected.

What I didn't expect was to arrive and discover we have lost virtually all the French channels that were available at Easter. Has something changed? Do we now need a box?

Now for the technical question: can we move our satellite dish round to the East to pick up French TV and use our Humax box? (If so, the box is off the market )

Not by turning it to the east you can't, you need to turn it 9 degrees towards the south.

I don't believe you can use your Humax box as you need a viewing card for French TV and there is nowhere to put one. You can pick up a French decoder and viewing card in most electrical shops.

I wouldn't totally give up on your Humax Box just yet, there are still over 60 free to air channels that can be received although most are probably of minority interest.

Depending on the model you can also use it to watch BBC and ITV catch up services (you would need a smartDNS service for this)

montgolfiere · Post by **montgolfiere** » Thu 19 Jun 2014 06:32

'Nothing has changed' with the 'French TV', unless it is 'Local' ie they have changed TV Mast etc. I assume you were receiving it through an aerial so maybe that needs looking at. OF course the Cable could also be damaged etc. Have you done a rescan for the French channels on your TV /Box?
4 of the main French Channels are available via Filmon. (Not TF1)
French TV via Satellite does require a TNT Sat box with FTV Card, so not available on your Humax.

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Fri 20 Jun 2014 19:05

Thanks for the advice which has helped me focus on the master plan.

I won't change the satellite dish or flog the Humax box. Although much of what we still get from Freesat is rubbish, there is enough to merit keeping it. Also, I didn't know about getting catchup which sounds interesting.

Filmon will provide enough BBC/ITV for our needs ) and doesn't so far seem to suffer from as much buffering as I feared. Perhaps our internet connection is better than I thought.

And that leaves French TV. Yes, I've tried retuning several times and only get some 6 or so channels which at least suggested the aerial and cable were ok. On reflection, that was an assumption made in entire ignorance of how these things work and is likely to be completely wrong! The aerial was already in place when we bought the house about 18 years ago and I expect it to receive digital tv faultlessly.

The answer to French TV then will be to call in a nice person who knows about these things to install a new aerial and a box and tune it all in for us. It's called stop pretending you can do everything for yourself especially when you know 2% of sweet fanny about the matter.

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Sat 28 Jun 2014 08:46

Progress!

The nice person came yesterday and installed a new aerial and so French TV is restored to full coverage.

iPortal seems to give a better picture than the (free) Filmon and so we are trying it out. Also the football isn't blocked.

Long-term, I'm looking at Slingbox as the solution to UK TV for us. This is a device which connects between decoder box and tv at home in the UK and "slings" the signal over t'internet to be picked up by your computer wherever you are. It apparently means that you can control your TV entirely as you can at home - changing channels, recording, playing recordings, getting catch-up.

I don't think it's been mentioned on the forum but then it's no use to those of you living here permanently. It sounds ideal for us UK/France commuters.
If anyone has knowledge/experience of it, it would be good to hear from you.

montgolfiere · Post by **montgolfiere** » Sat 28 Jun 2014 11:37

It is possible to stream Filmon in HD without a subscription
on a FTA IPTV System. see my website for more details: www.british-tv-in-france.co.uk
It is also possible to watch 'the football' on Filmon. please PM me for info on this.

Pearsonb · Post by **Pearsonb** » Sat 28 Jun 2014 13:42

Why would he need to PM you or visit your site? It is just a question of using a VPN to fool it into thinking you are in the UK. Covered both here and in other forums on several occasions. It seems to me that you are now regularly crossing the line here with the promotion of your business.

Slingbox is indeed a proven way of watching UK TV when you are away from your home in the UK.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Sat 28 Jun 2014 13:44

Colin L wrote:Progress!

The nice person came yesterday and installed a new aerial and so French TV is restored to full coverage.

iPortal seems to give a better picture than the (free) Filmon and so we are trying it out. Also the football isn't blocked.

Long-term, I'm looking at Slingbox as the solution to UK TV for us. This is a device which connects between decoder box and tv at home in the UK and "slings" the signal over t'internet to be picked up by your computer wherever you are. It apparently means that you can control your TV entirely as you can at home - changing channels, recording, playing recordings, getting catch-up.

I don't think it's been mentioned on the forum but then it's no use to those of you living here permanently. It sounds ideal for us UK/France commuters.
If anyone has knowledge/experience of it, it would be good to hear from you.

Amongst other things, my company installs computer networks on luxury yachts. We have successfully used multiple slingboxes to provide UK TV on board.

To be pedantic, you are not controlling your home TV, you are controlling your set-top box so if you have a full subscription to Sky then you can watch live programs, or recordings remotely.

A few points to bear in mind :-

You need a decent upload speed at home
Someone remaining at home can only watch the same thing as you.
Assuming that you want to watch it on your TV in France then you will need a computer or set top box connected to your TV
Only the latest Slingbox has HDMI, other models use composite or component video. Composite is to be avoided as the quality is dreadful.

There are a few alternative products to Slingbox now on the market, Belkin TV plus for example but I have no experience of them.

You mention that you have iPortal, so why not try TVplayer which is a very professional alternative to Filmon.

montgolfiere · Post by **montgolfiere** » Sat 28 Jun 2014 14:06

Pearsonb wrote:Why would he need to PM you or visit your site? It is just a question of using a VPN to fool it into thinking you are in the UK. Covered both here and in other forums on several occasions. It seems to me that you are now regularly crossing the line here with the promotion of your business.

Slingbox is indeed a proven way of watching UK TV when you are away from your home in the UK.

The way i can advise to watch the football on Filmon is nothing to do with any VPN / DNS etc. and i do not want to publish it openly in case Filmon decide to 'close the Loophole'

I was also explaining that HD Filmon Streams can also be received WITHOUT any Subscription, which i believe is NOT Commonly understood. I see many references to the (poor) Filmon SD output.

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