Technology

Technology Satellite TV and Internet by Stuart Wallace

‘Hello gorgeous’ said Mrs W the other night. As I leaned in for the kiss, she walked straight past me and went to the dog. OK I thought, me next. Unfortunately, I forgot we also have two cats… As always, it’s the little things like that which make me happy I’m on the downslope of life. Anyway dear readers, how are you all? Did you enjoy the Jubilee celebrations? I didn’t see that much of them, a little like the Queen.

Starlink internet is flippin’ brilliant. It’s expensive for sure at 99 euros per month, but you get what you pay for. Download speeds of well over 200Mbps and upload speeds over 20Mbps? Thank you very much. Yes the kit is also expensive, but, if you can justify the cost, it really is very good. However, if you do want to use the system, be aware that it only comes with a ground mount as standard. Not ideal. You can order a wall mount directly from Starlink but not until you’ve signed up and have an account. The dish can be made to fit a French bracket or pole but it requires a bit of fiddling around to make it properly secure.

Freesat is not the same as Freeview. Please don’t buy a Freeview box for the reception of UK TV. It’s the ‘sat’ bit we want.

Just to clarify, if you bring your Sky Q box over from the UK, it will not work with a standard ‘universal’ LNB. It needs to be connected to a wideband LNB. Also be aware that a ‘Sky’ wideband LNB does not properly fit into the clamp of a standard French satellite dish. It can be made to, but it’s a pain. Non-Sky wideband LNBs can be purchased online or if you prefer, we have them as well. These fit French dishes just fine. It just needs a 40mm ‘neck’.

Whilst on the subject of LNBs, what do you do if you want to run more than 8 cables from your dish? Whilst this isn’t the worst problem to have, it can be tricky to solve. One option is to install a second dish and go from there. The other, more professional way, is to use a mini-switch (or commutateur) system and a quattro LNB. This LNB is different from a quad LNB as the quattro has specific outputs for each ‘band’ (horizontal & vertical, high & low of each). This special LNB then sends the signals down 4 cables to the mini-switch. This switch can then feed numerous rooms with a single cable to each satellite receiver. The receiver, by way of the mini-switch, can see the entire spectrum of frequencies and it’s like each receiver is connected to its own dish. All are independent of one another. You can even connect a terrestrial aerial and send French TV to all the rooms as well.

It is a little complicated to install and might be best left to a professional, but it’s a very efficient way of distributing satellite and terrestrial TV to multiple rooms. It’s especially handy in more modern houses as most should have TV cabling to each habitable room already.

For those who have their French TV from Orange via a satellite dish, you will have noticed that it has probably stopped working. You haven’t done anything wrong, Orange has stopped broadcasting TV via satellite. They want everyone to have their TV service via the internet. This is great if you have decent speeds, but not so great if like many people, you don’t. So, if you need to keep your satellite service for French TV, you effectively have two options which do not require you to realign your dish. The first is a Canal+ subscription. This is like the French equivalent of Sky TV in the UK. However, it’s quite expensive if you’re also still paying Orange for the internet etc. The second is TNTSAT. This gives all the same channels as if you were connected to a terrestrial aerial. You can also access all the other free to air channels from the Astra 1 satellite. There is no monthly subscription. As always, please feel free to get in touch if you would like any further information or would like to discuss your requirements. Contact details can be found on the advert. Have a great month.

Stuart runs The French House Satellite TV tfhsatellite@gmail.com Other contact details in his advert in the Buildings & Renovations section of the magazine