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For those using satellite rather than cable or digital systems to receive television programmes and internet, our SatTv expert John Sidwell of BigDishSatellite explores some of the latest items on the market. These include the new superfast satellite broadband system, changes to BBC HD and new Sling-loaded Freesat and box. He also examines a problem with the Humaz HDR. New Generation Tooway Broadband: The beginning of this month saw the switch-one of the new generation Tooway broadband via satellite system. Having learnt some lessons from my involvement with NordNet over the past three years, Bigdishsatellite will be representing 2 Service Providers for this new service: Sat2way in France and Tooway-Direct in the UK. The equipment and service will be exactly the same, eg, both providers will be offering download speeds up to 10 Mb/s and upload speeds up to 4 Mb/s. They can also be ordered from Switzerland.

Sat2way (French) prices start at 27,90 Euros per month and the equipment will cost 329 Euros. There is no minimum contract period with Sat2way. Tooway-Direct prices in the UK start at £25 pm and the equipment costs £199. The minimum contract period for Tooway-Direct is 24 months. The BigdishSatellite site has posted a summary of all prices and offers from both service providers.

New Freesat plus Box: A new Freesat plus box is also on the market. This is the Echostar Sling Loaded HDS-600RS and it's a High Definition Freesat+ box with a 500Gb hard disc drive built in. "Sling Loaded" is the interesting bit. The box is designed to connect to your Livebox, or other ADSL routers. You can then access the box from any computer or mobile device whether it's upstairs in the bedroom or a hotel room half way around the world.

From that computer or mobile device you can watch TV, change channels, set recordings or watch from your recordings library. At 399 Euros, it doesn't come cheap but probably no more than a conventional Freesat+ box and a separate Sling Box.

Just in case you're wondering: Echostar? Well, old time installers like me know the name well as they've been around for years but, just like Technisat, they never got involved with Sky so the name is not easily recognised by the public. The very first motorised satellite receiver that I bought over 25 years ago was made by Echostar. The famous SR5500 was the must-have receiver of that time and I still have mine.

BBC HD: For BBC watchers, the BBC currently transmits BBC One HD and BBC HD UK using a system called DVB-S. From June 6, however, the BBC has changed to DVB-S2. Most Freesat HD boxes (but not all) are designed to cope with both DVB-S and DVB-S2 so there should be very few problems with the transition. You might have to switch your box off and on again to trigger a re-tune or even do a freesat-tune if you lose those 2 channels.

Some free to air HD receivers, eg our combined French + English Sedea S1200, won't automatically retune so you will have to do that manually. You need to do a Manual Search on frequency = 10847; Polarity = Vertical; Symbol Rate = 23.0, Norme = DVB-S2. Just call me if you need help.

Humax Freesat + ... problems with the TV Guide. Following a recent firmware upgrade, the Humax HDR has developed an irritating "Getting Programme Information, please wait" message when you enter the TV Guide to set your future recordings.

The way around this is to not use the 'Guide' button but to press 'Schedule' instead and then press the Red Button. This brings up the main Electronic Programme Guide instantly and you can then press 'OPT+' to select the genre.
Simple.

John Sidwell lives in the southwest of France where he runs BigDishSatellite, a satellite television service tailored to the needs of English-language but also French viewers.