Newbie: thinking of getting canalsat / canal+

[Fulama]

Hi there,

I'm thinking of subscribing to canalsat (french tv), but would be grateful of a little advice on the self setup, particularly which satellite receiver/decoder i would need and what kind of subsciption to go for. Anyone familiar with canal+ / canalsat setup, any advice is appreciated.

I live in the West Midlands, UK. For the past few months I've been watching free french tv with my analogue receiver on free-to-air satellite atlantic bird 5w, to quench my thirst for French language. There's only about 6 channels on there though, so i'm thinking of getting canalsat. I understand the satellite to use is Astra 1 19E. Using a satellite finder I pointed my satellite (which is in the garden on a tripod) towards astra 1 (pointing it south-southeast about 155degrees) until I got a strong signal, and then I found I could view some of the FTA channels using my analogue receiver, so I now know the dish can find the Astra 1 satellite (the dish is oval -about 80cm wide, 60cm high - I think it was designed for Sky digital). I've never tried to get a digital signal before because I don't have a digital receiver.

Anyhow, I guess, next I need a good digital receiver/decoder. Is there a specific one needed for canalsat? ..... And as for a canalsat subscription -- I looked on totalsat.co.uk which sell 12month subscriptions, but it I don't want to pay a whole years subscription in one go. Are there any 3 or 6 month subscription viewing cards... or alternatively, at canalsat.fr I noticed that you can subscribe to canalsat and pay monthly -- does anyone have any experience with this or is only available to residents of France? .. . I guess these are the only two remaining issues to overcome... 1) getting a receiver/decoder and 2) getting a canalsat subscription. Let me know if I've left out something important.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks, Fulama (matt)

[BGonaSTICK]

Hiya, welcome to the forum.

Don't know much about CanalSat subscriptions themselves, so unsure if you can get 3m or 6m cards.

I do know that the old TPS channels (and ABsat/Multivision channels) are open on a patched receiver (i.e. illegal) on Hotbird 13E. These can be had with a £60 digital receiver at the moment.

There are quite a few FTA French channels on Hotbird too.

I have a feeling that the official line on CanalSat subscriptions is that you need either an Aston receiver or an Astoncrypt CAM. The latter should work in most receivers that have a CAM slot, but there is always the odd one or two that are incompatible.

The unofficial line is that any Mediaguard/SECA2 CAM will work, including the MultiCAMs like the old Magic/Matrix/Dragon etc. This is far nearer the reality

The final point to note is that (again, officially) you can't get a CanalSat subscription if you live outside of France. The cards that you can buy 'overseas' are not sold through official channels, and you will therefore pay a premium. For pay-monthly options, you would need a French postal address and a French bank account AFAIK.

Hope this helps you.

[Fulama]

thanks