HDTV Satellite Receiver to work in the South of France

[captvx]

Can anyone please help? I live in England but have a holiday home in the south of France and would like to receive HDTV programs via a satellite receiver dish in the south of France. I have bought a Voom Motorola Satellite Receiver DSR550 thinking that this would do the job but now I am not sure. All I want to do is buy a receiver, point it in the right direction and hopefully watch programs via HDTV. I have an Hitachi projector as my TV. Suggestions please as to which receiver to buy, where to buy it and has anyone else had this problem? In anticipation, Thank you.

 

[ramcm7]

You might have a hard time getting a signal, given Voom's sat location at 61.5 West Longitude. Clicking the map at the link, below, suggests an elevation of less than 7%. You would need to mount the dish pretty high and/or have a very clear line of sight to have a chance of getting Voom. Also, Voom is big on requiring a phone line connection for the STB.

http://www.lyngsat.com/tracker/rain1.html

 

[mkm4]

Can anyone please help? I live in England but have a holiday home in the south of France and would like to receive HDTV programs via a satellite receiver dish in the south of France. I have bought a Voom Motorola Satellite Receiver DSR550 thinking that this would do the job but now I am not sure. All I want to do is buy a receiver, point it in the right direction and hopefully watch programs via HDTV. I have an Hitachi projector as my TV. Suggestions please as to which receiver to buy, where to buy it and has anyone else had this problem? In anticipation, Thank you.

First, the Voom satellite transmits its signal to the USA. None of it is aimed towards France.
Secondly, what made you think that Voom would authorize you in France? They won't even authorize second hand boxes in the US. I hope you didn't pay a lot for it. It's useless.
Third, the closest your are going to get to HDTV is with what Astra is doing.
Promoting HDTV in Europe

 

[cpdretired]

Correct me if I am wrong. AC current in France is 110 volt 50 cycles. The US is 60 cycles. Another problem is the transmission type. NTSC is the North American standard. I think that Europe uses PAL transmission. It has been a long time since I have been to France but this was the standard then.

 

[mkm4]

France uses SECAM for tv transmissions and many tv's sold are multistandard.
For power, you can always buy an adaptor.

 

[Cyclone]

Its sort of like seeing a car at night that is driving away from you. Sure you can see it, but its headlights are shining away from you.

Its the same with the Voom satellite at 61.5. Sure you might have it above the horizon, but its signal is being beamed away from you and towards North America. Hopefully Europe will adopt HDTV quickly. Once HDTV DVDs start to take off, I'm sure broadcasting will follow. Europe already has many HD capable Flat Screens from Asia like we have in the US. They just don't have HD to drive it yet.

 

[Foxbat]

Correct me if I am wrong. AC current in France is 110 volt 50 cycles.

Close, it's 240V, 50Hz. Fortunately, most switching power supplies will work as long as you have an adapter. I don't have access to a Voom box, so I couldn't say if its P/S is agile enough to handle it.

 

[bradley]

Use of VOOM DBS Reveicer Highly Unlikely

The VOOM DBS STB receiver will, more than likely, not be compatible with Euro SAT standards. As mentioned previously, the broadcast standard for the US is NTSC. I will say almost any TV set outside the US can handle all global formats including NTSC, and in most cases up process the signal to the set’s native operation.

CODEX utilized for VOOM DBS and security sequencing are and will be, for most part, unique to VOOM DBS; to prevent unauthorized hacking.

It has been also discovered, in SWv 7.33, the STB will not function as a stand-alone. It must have both a valid card and authorized authentication to function at all. SWv 7.34 is in the process of being downloaded and it is not presently known if it would facilitate stand-alone OTA function without committed service.

With the demise of VOOM DBS it is unknown what the final outcome of the STBs will be; anyone’s guess at this point.

Simply put, it is extremely highly unlikely you will get any use out of the Motorola VOOM STB.

I hope this information is helpful to you.