Do you urgently need a sky box?

hi Val

Sky boxes. I've built up a small stock of these over the years. They're just back-up for the ones around our house, and are too old to sell. But if anyone's own Sky or Freesat box breaks down over Christmas (or after) they'd be most welcome to borrow one of ours until they can get a replacement.

Val, I wonder if this is worth putting on TAG, as the blog will be easier to search in the coming weeks than Facebook. xc

chezfoz@gmail.com

It all makes work for the working men to do.

Hi Val,

 First of all: this is no April’s fool message.

Last Saturday there have been made minor changes to the new British Satellites. It means that the signals have become a bit weaker since then in this region. Many people thought it was the high wind which caused their dishes to be out of position, but that wasn’t the case. So again some people who didn’t need to make changes up till now, just have to do that still. So the satellite boys in the region have some work to do again, I’m afraid…

 Hans Buijserd 

Val says Joan Crooks asked me yesterday if we had problems because she had lost her signal. We are experiencing no problems but we have had both dishes at each house realigned. Yet we spoke to Peter Anderson today who after the winds is actually getting more channels than ever! He thought the wind had swung his dish in the right direction.... but perhaps the "minor changes" Hans mentions have improved the position for some installations and made it worse for others.

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Dishy Andrew indeed!

Hi Val, so it seems many are now catching on to the fact that my husband is quite dishy! There have been lots of emails with offers of tea and coffee (no wonder he comes home so late!) So Jacob and I decided to accompany him on his latest satellite trip today just to make sure all was above board. Jacob was more than happy with the result and shouted 'I did it' with remote in hand when the TV came on. Mini Media Man will be making his appearances soon!

Hope you're having a good week!
Becky x

La Famille Brown – family blog about our move to France!
www.lafamillebrown.com

Val says  Look forward to seeing Mini Media Man at work at some point.
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The proof of the pudding

is in the viewing. We eventually had a new dish (parabole) installed yesterday - but only the one on the gite. The storm we experienced last night - rain, wind, thunder and hail - put to the test the hope that this would solve problems of reception in bad weather. And it did. The locataires could watch Man Utd even in HD. We on the other hand totally lost reception until the storm passed. Our installer who did not have time yesterday for us, will be back today to sort us out as well.
Val says  that post was written by Malc, what did I care, missing football!

K says You missed nothing, trust me, terrible display by the Reds. {laughing a lot from me}......Much better game tonight, and as usual, not on tv.....thankfully RadioFive Live comes to the rescue.
K is a Chelsea supporter!
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She loves the website ...and that Saint

Bonjour:  

Just a note to give another accolade to Andrew Brown, the satellite wizard!  I live in Les Cabannes/Cordes and was going crazy as all thechannels started disappearing.  I don't like going out at night and my TV is my entertainment...I have SKY TV...Well, talk about serendipity!  I tried to call someone who I thought might know about these things and wound up reaching a friend I hadn't talked to in a couple of years!  I must have transposed the numbers.  We started talking, I told her of my problem, she told me about your website and that there were a couple of guys "Andrew and James"  who might be worth calling.

I did and Andrew very kindly replied right away and arranged to come last night, however, he was delayed at another appointment and, when 7:30 arrived, felt it was too late to come to my place...but, miracles of miracles, he called to tell me and ask if he could come first thing this morning.  I understood and was thrilled that here was someone who seemed reliable.  He came this morning and, after an adjustment to my satellite,  I not only have all BBC and ITV channels but all 5's and several others that had disappeared!  No need to buy a larger dish, etc... And a lovely guy, to boot.. I will be referring him to anyone who has satellite or computer problems. 

By the way, love your website...I'll try to get news from this neck of the woods to you!

Carolyn Byrne
Val says That would be great Carolyn if you could let me know what is going on there. TAG is only as good as its reporters.... whereas Andrew is a Saint, perhaps instead of Media Man we will start calling him Saint Andrew.
There is also  another St. James

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To the men who give us back our BBC, we are grateful

Both Andrew and James are doing a great job in getting our programmes up and running again for us.
I think we are lucky to have such dedicated people to help us out.
If we get more praise I will send it direct to the two men, who will be pleased.
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Another for Andrew

Hi Val,

More praise for the lovely Andrew Media Man,we were having a problem with
our recorded programmes and Andrew took time out of his evening to call us
and talk us through to a resolution! He is a charming and extremely helpful expert.

David

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The TV situation as of today

Hi Val

At the moment the BBC ITV Astra situation seems to be that we CAN receive non HD TV on 60cm dishes here in the St Antonin area - assuming the dish is properly tuned.

Chez the Jones’s (thanks Michelle for the mention!) their Sky box was no longer showing BBC or ITV but strangely reporting that they had a 75% signal strength and 70% quality.

I went onto the roof to look at their dish and my meter reported that it wasn’t actually ‘locked onto the satellite’ because the dish was not pointed at it. Some adjustment later I got their 60cm (but good quality Visiosat dish) pointed as best I could and the Sky box then reported 85% strength and 100% quality and they had all their channels back.

James Sweeting

06.21.46.77.43
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Credit where credit is due

Dear Val,

 The British aren’t always renowned for showering people with praise, but credit where credit is due. Andrew (MediaMan) popped round to us at Le Cloup this evening to get our UK satellite telly sorted out. Like a lot of people, we had lost the LOT as of this morning, and were left with nothing but Sky News, Home shopping and religious channels. Within half an hour or so, and in total darkness and absolutely pouring rain, he got our satellite reception better than it has ever been. We’re absolutely delighted with him. Please pass this message on to all the TAG readers who are no doubt still having difficulties like we were, and reassure them that all is not lost when it comes to UK television.

 Best Wishes,

 Steve Trinder.
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Satellite TV success

A reader writes - All British channels now restored to their former signal strength with a bit of dish re-alignment and some checking of connections.  That's a standard French 80cm dish, so no monster Spanish dish required.

BBC now working brilliantly in full HD!  Thank you very much Andrew (Media Man - see his ad here on TAG).

 A reader   xx 
Val says  being  impartial, we have two guys who can fix this for us Andrew and James, both have adverts in the side bar.
Malc says the reader should have signed himself  "a viewer"
Reader says
I think "a viewer" might have taken salt to the wounds of many, if not actually rubbed it in!

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British TV from Turkey?

A couple of weeks before many people lost their channels, our free to air box broke. We were advised to go to leClerc and buy a new French free to air box. LeClerc Albi did not stock them but LeClerc Gaillac did and cost us 79€. We plugged it in and hey presto a wide range of channels including both BBC and ITV from a Turkish satellite. No climbing on roofs and no need to pay for any specialist to come out. There are some channels which we cannot get such as Discovery and History but we are told that there is an free download for a Raspberry Pie - a mini computer which again costs practically nothing - which will enable people to get any missing channels.

Good luck

Ginny Jenkins

Val says well that is a new one thrown into the pot to digest! thanks Ginny

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Astra 2E and BBC HD

Hi Val

I have just read this on Facebook posted by Big Dish Satellite:

“Before the great BBC switch to Astra 2E, it was widely assumed that the footprint would be pretty much the same as Astra 2F ... launched a year ago and home to Channel 5 for all that time.

Now that the change has happened, it's clear that the assumption was wrong ... many people are reporting the loss of BBC channels on 2E but are still able to watch Channel 5 on 2F.

For those in that position, there is a little bit of good news in that the Scottish and Welsh versions of BBC One HD are still on 2F and, according to the BBC site, are going to stay there.

If you have an HD receiver ... Freesat, Sky or free to air ... you should be able to programme it to receive BBC One Scotland HD and BBC One Wales HD.

I've just added that information on our new site with programming details for the Manhattan Plazas that we currently provide:

http://www.bigdishsatellite.com/bbc1-wales-scotland-hd-tuning/ “

Some od my thoughts on larger dishes:

1. Ensure that your support is strong enough for a dish that will  be blown around more.
2. How old is your cabling - weathering can be an issue
3. People with 80 cm dishes still are able to watch the Olympics in HD 😉 - admittedly I haven’t tested it in heavy rain yet.

James Sweeting
06.21.46.77.43
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Now it is in the Connexion

MANY readers have reported increasing problems with the reception of British television via satellite in the south of France due to the recent switch on of the Astra 2E satellite. So far it is mainly BBC channels that have been affected, although there are also reports of problems with ITV and fears that Channel 4 may follow. 
The problem is due to services for the UK being switched to new satellites with a footprint more focussed on Britain and so with less overspill into France. 
It previously happened with the launch of Astra 2F in late 2012, when some people had to get bigger dishes to receive certain channels, notably Channel 5. 
Disruption of remaining British TV channels and radio stations had been feared with the switch on of 2E, which had been expected last year, but was put off until this month. If you were affected by the previous change, it is likely you are affected by this one too. 
It has been suggested that people near the Spanish border may find that they need dishes as big as 1.5m. It is also said that changing the LNB head of the dish may help in some cases, especially if you already have a large dish. 
So, if you have been affected, the answer is likely to be better equipment or finding alternatives such as one of the various methods of accessing television content over the internet. 
Please let us know if your reception has changed, giving us details of where you live and which channels you have lost. Also let us know if you have found a solution. Email details to news@connexionfrance.com or add your comments to the discussion on our Facebook page. 
- See more at: http://www.connexionfrance.com/UK-television-channels-lost-satellite-south-15440-view-article.html#sthash.OVG0AFQk.dpuf

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More bad news from Ann

Hi Val,It just gets worse I'm afraid! I have been reliably informed this afternoon, from the same source that warned me about this all those months ago, that this will be the case! The ITV channels and Channel 4 will also be gone by Tuesday morning!!!

For BBC radio (if fact any radio) you can download www.tunein.com/radio or alternativelywww.radioplayer.com. This is available for PC, laptop, i-player or android. I know we listen to this when we are in France so can vouch that it is receivable loud and clear. As it is internet based, there shouldn't be any problems as it doesn't depend on satellite.

If you are lucky enough to still have a TV aerial in the UK you can use a slingbox - it gets plugged in to your aerial in the UK and you can log in to it and change channels etc. anywhere using your laptop. Having investigated at Maplins, they tell me that a slingbox is about £150 - £300, depending on model and definition.

But maybe someone local will also have an answer. Hope so for all concerned!
Ann

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Andrew gives advice at our time of need

Hi Val, 

my advice would be

1. Rescan for channels either by resetting the Sky/Freesat box (Note: you could loose recorded programmes) or selecting the option in your menu

2. Check your signal level in the settings menu and see if this has changed. If the signal is low you may need a slight realignment or unless you have a small dish (below 60cm) you are likely to need a new one. 

3. Get someone to have a look. Checking cable and fine tuning alignment could do the trick.  In this hour of need, I for one will come and see people at no cost and advise on next steps!

Andrew

07 85 20 01 66

Info@mediaman82.com

www.mediaman82.com

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Malc says: I did reset our Humax box last night (it said no recorded media would be lost), but it had no effect. I will check the Sky box in the gite later. I think James is right in thinking most people are adopting a "wait and see" attitude and think it will come right soon! I note ITV etc are still with us today.

Astra/British TV

Hi Val
I think that people having a problem with their signal because:
1.  Their dish is not aligned optimally (what worked before is no longer good enough).
2.  The cabling, connections are causing some signal loss - due to age or perhaps just the connection need redoing.

The theory that the boxes need updating I am not sure about but I would worry about losing recorded data so I would advise not to reset the box. There is no harm in redoing the channel search though.

I think your readers prefer to air their worries on Tag (that's what its for isn't it!  ;)  ) rather than calling out someone to look at their system; as proof have had only one phone call about it.

If anyone wants to setup a rdv I am available on Monday.

Regards
James
06.21.46.77.43 - james@rysuk.com

Val says  I think we have all been waiting to see what happens today and next week the phone calls will come

Probably a dish problem... probably!

The transfer of all BBC and ITV channels to the new satellite was made a couple of days ago so if you are not receiving a good signal it is probably a dish problem. However HD signals are subject to small breaks in transmission resulting in short picture pixellation problems.

 Tony Coles

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Disappearing TV channels

Hi Val and everybody who is suffering from disappearing BBC channels:

It is obvious that there have been some changes to the BBC channels on the 28 East position. The new satellite, where they are on now, is weaker indeed in this region. But it appears that some receivers still give all the channels and some are not.

It is NOT a matter of size or readjusting the dish. According to calculations they should all be received with a 60 cm dish in this region. Only not properly pointed dishes need adjustments. And of course 80 cm will be better and will give you a better signal especially during bad weather conditions. Less than 60 cm gives problems.

But the main problem now is that some receivers don’t do an automatic update on the channels. So here some advices:

-          The real SKY boxes should do an automatic update. If not, set it on a channel which you cannot receive anymore. Then take it completely off the mains. After some seconds plug it in again and start it up. Hopefully they will update then. Otherwise just wait…..

-          Most of the freesat boxes (like Humax) also should do an automatic update. If not, try to put it in Factory Default situation. Sometimes also called (re)initialize. In that case it are not configured anymore. Follow the directions om your screen, including an English postcode for the regional channels. After a while everything should be there again.

Hopefully this solves the problems.

Regards, Hans Buijserd – VIDEPC St Antonin www.videpc.fr

 Val says  Malc has just tried this reinitializing with our humax box to no avail. Tomorrow we will try the TV in the gite which has a different box and dish. Perhaps our dish needs a bit of realigning here.

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Live channels on your computer

Hi Val,

 I’m following the TV stories with interest from England and hopefully we’ll know what is required by the time we come over for the summer.

 Meanwhile some people might be interested to have a look at this website:

 http://www.filmon.com/tv/live

 Hundreds of live channels from around the world for free through your computer.

 Best regards

 John

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It is not a matter of size!

Hi Val, thanks for the recommendation. Just to update on the signal vs dish size situation, I have just helped someone in St Projet realign their 60cm dish that was knocked completely out of position, and got all BBC channels.

I’m happy to give free advice over the phone for anyone experiencing problems.

Thanks again

Andrew - Media Man

05 63 67 33 01
07 85 20 01 66