Problems Recording TV5

[jerryyyyy]

I know this is asking for it, but I am wondering is there is a new French conspiracy against the USA because I seem to never get the timing right on recording TV5. They are always off, sometimes as much as 20 minutes or just change the show. They (and E*) are not impressed by complaints (in Engligh or French). Any suggestions- or am I the only one left listening to this station? BTW, I have to do this as my wife is French. BTW2, you really have to listen to their news for a new perspective on life....

[BobMurdoch]

I've got TV5 also (my wife speaks French as well). We don't record from it, we just tune in occasionally, but we agree that the guide is just kind of a loose blueprint for what they are going to show sometimes.

I just wish that they came with an SAP channel so I could understand more of it......... (I get about 20% of what they are saying. I know just enough to be an annoying tourist)

[larrydj]

I've recorded the Journal at 3Pm Pacific (6PM Eastern) flawlessly for some time (BTW, English subtitles on the news at that time). However, I haven't tried other items. 2 or more years ago, their guide was really off, and it had to do with what TV5 was sending to Echostar (I think it was even the wrong service). I had a French friend actually discover the problem, document it, and get TV5 to fix it! Some examples to TV5 of the problem may motivate them to fix it again.

BTW, what shows do you like most to watch. For me, it's the news, I haven't watched any of the movies.

[jerryyyyy]

You have more options if you understand French well or at least a bit, but the classics to watch are Thallasa, which is an award-winning show on the oceans and there is another on the mountains. The 3pm news is subtitled and is their main news from channel 2. This is good and middle of the road. Their every two hour (CNN news) is nice to get the European perspective. A good show on now is Maigret- the Simeon detective stories (French only).

If you get the published guide from TV5, they list the subtitled material. They also do "A day in the life of...." a city... last was St. Petersburg and was excellent.

Commentary shows tend to be heavily antiamerican- but that is the perspective over there and is interesting to see the cultural differences- which are quite real. I listened to the radio over there for about a week during the war and it really was in your face antiamerican 95%. This TV is somewhat sanitized, but not much.

[DmitriA]

I've seen some of the foreign coverage during the war and if you just had that information to go by, you might have imagined that not only was the US losing, but that Saddam was just about to capture Washington or something. It was completely unreal.

[jerryyyyy]

Yes, on the coverage. They only problem is that most of the world gets that for coverage.

[xgrep]

We get TV5 and I agree, there's little consistency between (1) what's on the TV5 web site, (2) what's on the program guide, and (3) what's actually shown. Most stuff is shown within 5 or 10 minutes either way of what either PG or web site say, but some stuff is totally different (was especially the case while the war was in full swing). And I haven't managed to record Carte Postale Gourmande in weeks. All I can say is, it's French (ce que tout francophile peut comprendre :-)

As for shows, we like:

1. News
2. Carte Postale Gourmande
3. Those great fashion shows (D and Griffe :-)
4. Movies and police shows (too bad Nestor Burma is over :-)

What I really would like to see is:

1. Those funky summer game shows (Fort Boyard, Intervilles, etc.)
2. Advertising !!!!!!!!!

x

[jerryyyyy]

I have figured out the Carte Postale Gourmande. Believe it is on Saturday at around 330 PST. But I record 20 min before and after to get it- very unreliable. I feel that show has deteriorated recently with the notorius Petirenaud losing it more and more. 5 min of this will make you swear off fois gras for a year.

[xgrep]

Yup, know what you mean. It was better when he was driving around in his little Minor (or whatever it was). The new format, with him not traveling as much, hints that his health might be poor, lately. Aside from that, how many shows on museau, tripe, and andouillette can you do? :-) Still, it's better than most of the stuff on the Food channel (iron chef, sheesh, give me a break, I'd rather watch Ron Popiel selling countertop rotisseries or Tony the Knife Guy)

I managed to get the timing right, the problem is it hasn't been on at all reliably lately, due to the Iraq programming. I managed to catch it one week out of the past 4 or 5.

x

[larrydj]

There are some shows available in France that are pretty good taht TV5 doesn't broadcast. I wish they would have Les Guinols, a satirical adultish muppet show on Canal Plus. It's a hoot! Also, Le Velo Club is a show/interview after every Tour de France stage that analyzes that day's stage and talks to the winner. Lance Armstrong's french has become noticeably better over the years!

[xgrep]

True, Les Guignols would be fabulous. A friend of mine asked about it, and as they have to pay for programming, it was apparently too much. What I find strange is that they have taken to producing so much of their own material (news, anyway). That must be cheaper than buying all of it from the big "chaines".

The story on advertising is less clear. They presumably don't have to pay for that (au contraire), and they did try some advertising for a while (and they still run some CFE spots), but they don't seem to show any interest in "real" pubs. That would be a heck of a lot better than having to watch Thierry Ardisson for hours on end.

But their programming has changed somewhat over the past couple of years, and at least to the extent that the news programming is much better, it's an improvement. My kids would love some of those moronic teen shows (Les Musclés, for example), but I'm not complaining.

x

[jerryyyyy]

Well, it is interesting that there are enought people to pay $10 extra a month for this. I wonder how many of us there are and if there would be any way to influence them to straigten up their scheduling. We get the published guide and it is usually off. I think the main problem they have is that some movies run longer than 1:45 and this sets off a cascade of errors when they add in their news. Also, seems to me the news is often longer than 15 minutes and that screws things up too. Worst part is missing the last 5 minutes of a movie or mystery because it actually started late. It is a pain to add 10-20 minutes to both ends of a recording

[xgrep]

It's an interesting question, how many TV5 subs there are. They claim "millions". Is that possible? Perhaps. Don't forget, E* isn't the only way to get it, and, in any case, I seriously doubt many TV5 subs are reading this forum (you see more discussion on French expat discussion forums).

Aside from that, while I agree it's an inconvenience, it would probably require a significant change to the way they do programming for them to be able to deliver a schedule they can commit to broadcasting. They have flexibility the way they operate now, and no expectations on the part of subs - we just know that it may or may not be on at the time stated.

If we're going to ask them to change something, I would prefer to see it in the content (along the lines I mentioned) rather than committing to a reliable schedule. Of course, I'd love to have both, and would willingly ask for both, but my priority would be on content.

x

BTW, this topic doesn't have much specifically to do with PVRs.

[larrydj]

The reliability of the schedule has to do with PVRs, though the programming content doesn't. [Gallic shrug inserted here] C'est la vie.

[jerryyyyy]

Hey, I am back on the forum. My 721 has been cooking along without trouble and I have not posted for a while. I do have a TV5 question and not sure if anyone who posted to this one is still around?

We are considering a HDTV upgrade, but saw TV5 at a friends house and looked not soo good, i.e. pixilation. Are any of you watching TV5 on HD and how does it look with your set-up. If I go that way, I do now want to make life worse for myself. I currently look at a 36" 4:3 ratio 1995 Mitsubishi tube monstronsity that weights 120lbs... The signal on this does not look bad for a tube.

I will post this question in a couple other spots too. Cheers and hope my 721 keeps cooking.
Thanks

[ieee1394]

We are considering a HDTV upgrade, but saw TV5 at a friends house and looked not soo good, i.e. pixilation. Are any of you watching TV5 on HD and how does it look with your set-up. If I go that way, I do now want to make life worse for myself. I currently look at a 36" 4:3 ratio 1995 Mitsubishi tube monstronsity that weights 120lbs... The signal on this does not look bad for a tube.


Hrmmm. Look at that. After lurking for 4 or 5 years I finally registered because of this thread.

I used to have TV5 back in Canada and have been wanting it ever since. But $10 plus another dish just to get one channel is crazy. Tant pis.

And I too have been considering upgrading to HD. Just got a 37" widescreen LCD with native 1080. This replaced a 21" tube that I've had for the past 8 years. Now here's the thing: since sometime last year I noticed more and more of the channels (at first maybe just the locals) were suffering from artifacts. Noticed it first in the backgrounds which tend to get compressed the most (since they don't move/change much). This was annoying because I can remember a time (only a few years ago) where satellite was just awesome in PQ. So here's the WARNING: if you are noticing pixellation or other bad PQ issues now, you will definitely see them on a better tv. Now, I can barely stand to watch Dish at all. Especially when you switch from upconverted DVDs (over HDMI) back to Dish.

My feeling is that because they also compress the $@$* out of their HD transmissions, it's probably a waste of time (and $$$ since you don't get much for the money).

[jerryyyyy]

Well, I am back after carefully studying this question some more. You should see TV5 channels in France in the original PAL... really nice. I have decided to stick with my 36" tube Mitsubishi and S-video because I think E* is just compressing these broadcasts so much the pixilation will get to me.

Anyway, it is amusing to look back and see this thread stared in 2003... had Bush only listened to Chirac and stayed out of Bagdad we would be a lot better off 3 years later.

A bientot