TV in far South of France
Evening Everyone,
Travelling to Arles in the south of France.
Have two young children and like to watch TV in the evenings. Although not essential can anyone recommend how we pick up satellite signals this far south. Guidance on what size satellite I will need. What satellite should I aim at?
I use satellite occasionally in the UK so have receiver etc.
Many thanks for your help in advance.
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An 85cm dish will be needed to receive UK channels in Arles, we have been there and we got a good signal on our roof mounted dish. Just watch out for trees they are plenty in France you need to avoid them when setting up as they will block the signal.
The satellite you will be looking for is Astra 2, 28.2 east. An app on your phone will help you find it a bit easier.
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I don't know how old your children are but don't forget everything will be a hour later!
David
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Thanks for your advice and help. I am going to purchase this one. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sky-satellite-80cm-zone-2-dish-Q-LNB-tripod-camping-caravan-Touring-freesat-KIT/372248068369?_trkparms=aid%3D555017%26algo%3DPL.CASSINI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160706105120%26meid%3D8762f3023f7a4398a8537b895fad4323%26pid%3D100508%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26%26itm%3D372248068369&_trksid=p2045573.c100508.m3226
and take my Sky Q box. As I understand I might not be able to get BBC etc but will be able to get other sky channels as they are not on the uk spot beam? Anyone took there Sky Q box to france?
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You would carry less kit if you just put a SkyQ app on a smart phone and let the children watch on that.
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Would be interested to find out how you get on with it, we are going back to a caravan and have decided not to have a roof mounted system on it.
With our previous caravans we just used an 85cm free standing dish but no Sky box just a free to air receiver.
Would be grateful if you report back upon your return to let us know how it worked or not for you please.
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may I ask, if you have an old sky receiver and bought a new dish on a tripod, would you be able to pick up the free to air channels without a card. I even have the old dish still attached to house so could even adapt a rig to mount this on and use but would it work. thanks in advance all.
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I shall report back shortly on the Sky Q Box. My understanding is that uk channels such as bbc are located on the uk spot beam which would require a 1m dish even then with no guarantee . Other channels i.e sky should be ok as they transmit on European beam. The Sky Q requires a different wideband LNB.
Hopefully my understanding is right? Soon find out. Its really conflicting information on the net.
1m dish for me is not worth the bother.
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The foldaway kits are very good and you could pick them up from aldi for £40. But I know no reason why your old equipment would not work.
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Robert an 85cm dish will give you BBC1 & 2, ITV 1,2,3,4. Ch4,Ch5 and lots of other free to air channels right down to the Southern/South of France.
You are correct in that they are on the Spot Beam, this is the one that was narrowed a few years ago making it harder to pick them up. The rest as you say are on the European beam making them easier to do so.
A 1m dish is only required should you go to Spain and then this will only see you down to Valencia after that you are looking at a 1.4m dish.
The other thing I would suggest is if your TV has a USB port that you can attach a portable hard drive to, how about pr-recording some of the channels/programmes that the children like prior to going. That way should you get a black spot and not receive anything at least the children will have a fall back. We do this prior to every trip, there is so many channels on TV so its impossible to see everything that you might be interested in. So far we have be fortunate that its rare we don't get a signal, we also car a fair few DVD's as well on long trips.
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We have tried this, we have an old sky box with a 'free to view card' in it. It must be over 20 years old as the boys had it when they lived at home. When they left I contacted Sky and told them I wanted to cancel our subscription as we didn't want the channels the boys had. We were offered (at that time) a 'free to view' card. Cost us nothing at that time and still works today.
We took it away with us once to test it out, it worked fine but only gave us the same channels that we were getting on our TV, that has a built in freesat receiver, so have not bothered since. The good thing about using a Sky box is that it will only 'tune' into Astra 28.2 East so no mistake of hitting the German channels which are very close to the ones you want.
Basically you do need a 'card' of some sorts to make the box work.
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I remember you saying that, we've not had any problem with the 85cm getting a signal, (unless trees) the 65cm one lost it around the Dordogne.
For Spain/Portugal we have an encryption box
that works well. Fall back is pre-recorded and DVD's now that Filmon has gone
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I guess somebody has to say this - you are going to the South of France with two young children. It will be hot and light, there will be other children, there will be entertainment, pool etc. you will have trouble dragging them indoors. Maybe, just maybe, TV should be given a miss for a couple of weeks?
The two of you, in winter, dark and cold evenings then it’s worth experimenting.
Just my opinion of course and, no doubt, you will disagree!
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I knew someone would say it.
Maybe, just maybe Mum and Dad would also enjoy watching TV when the kids are in bed? Also nice when they wake up early morning so I can catch a few extra winks!
However, don't disagree and hope their that busy that they don't even switch it on. However I like to have my options open because I can.
I have a TV, I have electric, I even have receiver. I intend to make use of it if I feel I want to.
I suppose its a bonus of modern touring. We even have hot showers these days
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Just thought that maybe you hadn’t visited southern France in the summer! As you say, it gives you the option. We read books but each to his own.
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