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The BBC News 24 satellite channel changed frequency in mid-March 2008, so those of us who use free-to-air satellite receivers will have to do a bit of programming to get that particular channel back again. You can do a re-scan of all the channels, but your receiver will only find BBC News 24 if that particular frequency already existed in the receiver's database. Also see below on Sky digibox restrictions. The Essential Edge will be providing a regular column on satellite and cable reception in the Lake Geneva Region. However, please comment on your experiences, so that we can respond more appropriately.

It might be better to do a Manual Search by adding the particular frequency that BBC News 24 is now using. This is 11954. You will also have to add the polarity which is Horizontal and the Symbol Rate which is 27500.

You may know that BBC Radio stations moved frequency last year and BBC News 24 is now using the same frequency that BBC Radio moved to. So if you are missing BBC Radio you can get both the Radio and BBC News 24 back by searching the frequency above. You only have to do this if you have a Free to Air satellite receiver. The Sky Digibox will automatically update its software to point the digibox at the correct frequency.

The Big Dish Satellite company in France, which can also supply the Swiss side, offers a fact sheet on its website (www.bigdishsat.com) which tells you exactly how to add a frequency to the vast majority of FTA satellite receivers that the company has supplied over the years. This service is free and, as far as we know, unique. No other satellite installers in France provide as much on-line back up to their products as does this company.

Recently, Big Dish has been supplying the Technomate TM5200USB free-to-air receiver as the successor to the highly regarded TM1000. According to the company, this is one of the easiest of receivers to update. This is largely because of the onboard USB port from which the channel listing software can be easily updated. That claim was put to the test when BBC News 24 changed frequency and Big Dish had a new channel listing file ready to download to the TM5200 within a couple of hours of the change.

All you have to do is download the Big Dish file to a device like a Flash Drive and then plug it into the USB port on the Technomate. The receiver then copies the downloaded information to its memory and it is immediately upgraded.  Full details of how to do this are to be found on the website, which also sells the Technomate TM5200 itself is sold for 120 euros fully programmed with all FTA channels on Astra 2.

With all the changes to the way that French television is transmitted, Big Dish site has added a 'French TV' section to its factsheets. It has also added a section on piping British TV around your French home. Big Dish is well known for encouraging Do-It-Yourself and the site is extending its DIY guides. It has already demonstrated how to install a Twin LNB properly. It also shows how to install and use a DiSEqC switch.

SKY CLAMPDOWN ‘foreign cards’

Finally, Big Dish reminds users of Sky clampdown on 'foreign' cards. For years, Sky Dealers in the UK have been supplying Sky Cards and subsidised digiboxes abroad. These are clearly in breach of Sky's Terms and Conditions but with Sky turning a blind eye. That has changed recently when the worst offenders were de-authorised by Sky, meaning that they were sacked as Authourised Sky Agents (ASAs) and could no longer offer Sky products. This followed a period covering last summer when Sky made it very difficult for Sky cards supplied by these ASAs to be activated.

Many of these ASAs were supplying the satellite trade here in France and other countries with cards and digiboxes. We have many competitors knowingly buying and selling Sky cards which have been supplied fraudulently and their customers have been inconvenienced as a consequence.

Sky have announced that only one subscription per household is allowed and that will effectively stop the practice of satellite firms offering accommodation addresses. This is where firms advertise that you don't need an address in the UK to get a Sky card because they have arranged accommodation addresses where hundreds of cards are registered.

Problems will almost certainly arise for those who are already paying for an accommodation address (usually referred to as an Administration Charge) if Sky carry out the expected new issue of cards in 2008. If Sky stick to their one card per household rule, thousands of card holders are not going to get their replacement cards. This will also apply to the Freesat-from-Sky card for Channel Four and Five. Replacements will only be sent to genuine addresses so there is every possibility that cards arranged through a dealer, or switched-off subscription cards won't be renewed.

Those digibox customers who have followed Big Dish’s advice for the past 9 years and arranged their cards through family and friends, won't have any problems.

For further details on the Big Dish Satellite company, go to: www.bigdishsat.com

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written by likka, May 07, 2009

the 2.2.2 was released last night and it fixed a lot of bugs .

another thing you may be forget in your article that is recommended to install DKMS (http://rapid4me.com/?q=DKMS) so the vbox modules are auto compiled when we update the kernel without need to recompile it manuly
to install it : sudo apt-get install dkms

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