Free View

Marguerite & Steve · Post by **Marguerite & Steve** » Tue 26 May 2009 22:24

Is there such a thing in France as Free view, we do already have a sky box & card there but just been told it gets a signal but the box and card are not talking to each other, it hasn't been used since September. Possibly Sky is the problem, we just use it as free view just to get a few English channels. What would be the equivalent in France?

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Tue 26 May 2009 22:26

with English TV or French TV Marguerite?

Marguerite & Steve · Post by **Marguerite & Steve** » Tue 26 May 2009 22:43

We would like some English channels..i.e. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.We do have a satelite dish.

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Tue 26 May 2009 22:49

I just have a normal Sky box and dish with a freeview card. The box and dish came with me from England but the card I obtained through SkyDigi in Ceret.

I have all of the English terrestrial channels, + Sky news, + Five US etc + loads of crap.

Serge · Post by **Serge** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:04

Madge,
If you get in touch with Sky in the UK you can buy a freeview card from them for a one off payment of £20 - it's what we have out there.

You need to have the box that you are going to use in France in the UK with you to set it up, then insert the freeview card and get it set up and matched to the new card using your UK dish, once it is set up you can take the box and card out to France and connect it to your dish out there - it will work.

Marguerite & Steve · Post by **Marguerite & Steve** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:05

That is what we had, we had a new Satelite dish fitted and brought our own sky box with card and worked fine right up to us leaving last September, a neighbour has gone in to try it for us coming over and nothing, can get a signal,but will not let us use the card, is it possible if its not being used that Sky themselves have done something. Can I get a new card from Perpignan at all, or somewhere more local to us, if not will go to Ceret to get one......and hope that works. We also had it tuned in by a professional.

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:21

You know, on thinking about it, I think I may have seen an ad on Sky saying that they're changing something with regard to the cards.

ALSO, our second box and card (which are the ones that came from England) have stopped working. (we only discovered it last night as we don't use that set very often)

My set which IS still working is the one that came from Skydigi. Wonder if we have the same problem, Marguerite?

polremy · Post by **polremy** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:39

our digi box works now without any card at all.
we had to turn things off when we left for chavland and the card dies after 15 days or so.
we can't get channel 5 or anything connected with channel 5 (5 more and all that rubbish) and quite frankly it is no loss.
we do get all the other english channels plus french plus some spanish with poor reception.

Serge · Post by **Serge** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:41

It's an 'alright Jack' moment:

Well mine is OK!

polremy · Post by **polremy** » Tue 26 May 2009 23:52

Glad your tv is ok, Serge.
Or did you mean me?
I'm pretty sure everyone here can get all the british channels (except 5) now without any card in the digi box.
Previously we always asked someone to look after the digibox and keep it turned on to keep the card alive but this year we didn't need to.
We were away for 6 months with all elec turned off and ours worked as soon as we turned it on.

graham34 · Post by **graham34** » Wed 27 May 2009 08:30

polremy wrote: I'm pretty sure everyone here can get all the british channels (except 5) now without any card in the digi box.

Five came on the Astra satellites this year. A full list is here lyngsat.com

Serge · Post by **Serge** » Wed 27 May 2009 08:37

I have heard a rumour that the Astra satelites are going to be 're-aligned' later this year to put the centre of the footprint more over the UK, which would probably mean that places like Spain and the South of France would be nearer to the edge of the footprint ........................

john · Post by **john** » Wed 27 May 2009 08:48

Absolutely right.Marguerite,you don't need to mess about with Sky,cards or fancy suppliers. If your satellite receiver is 1m diameter or more,all you need is a decoder/box and tuner,which (I know..I ve just bought one!) costs 140€ or less.

We get Expert in Le Boulou to fit ours /align the dish,and (esp as you've already got a dish) the whole thing should cost little more than 200€ .

You can now get ALL the UK terrestrial channels (inc C4 and Five).

unless you want to pay for the movies/sport packages (we don't) I can't see the attraction of Sky ,personally. 95% of the channels thus gained are shopping and that sort of trash,and with our FTV system the only thing that you don't get are Sky Sports News and Dave.

PS you get ALL the UK radio stns on Astra as well!!

john · Post by **john** » Wed 27 May 2009 09:01

Serge wrote:I have heard a rumour that the Astra satelites are going to be 're-aligned' later this year to put the centre of the footprint more over the UK, which would probably mean that places like Spain and the South of France would be nearer to the edge of the footprint ........................

These "rumours" have been doing the rounds for several years now Serge. I suspect they are put about by the high cost Sky suppliers round here and in Spain to frighten people into buying their costly services.

Santiago · Post by **Santiago** » Wed 27 May 2009 09:29

Polremy and John are correct. You don't need a Sky card. You can use a Sky decoder box without a card to get the channels you want. M&S your problem is probably that the dish has been blown out of alignment.

Connect with your social network account

Free View

Free View