Château du Plessis

House Guide: TV, Hi-Fi

Château du Plessis is equipped with Audio Video equipment giving full access to worldwide cable TV broadcasts, surround sound DVD viewing and Radio and CD playing.  That is the good news.  The bad news is that the access is via a French satellite system and the challenge is to apply Anglo Saxon intuition to French logic.  Believe me, it is nearly impossible.  The good news is that Jean-Jacques, the caretaker, is somewhat (but not entirely) familiar with the system, the bad news is he speaks limited English.  The following is an attempt at demystifying the system and enable its operation with a minimum of angst and problem.

The Château is equipped with two satellite dishes, one receives local French television programs only, and the other captures all programs.  There are six television sets in the main house (including one Plasma HD-TV in the Salond'Eté) and one set in the caretaker’s Maisonette.  There are three decoders (cable boxes) which can work independently.  One box is in the Maisonette, a second box is in the Living Room (controlling 5 television sets), and the third box is an HD Digital box in the Salon d’Eté.

Since the operation of the Digital HD box in the Salon d’Été is a little bit different, we will divide this guide into two sections: Main House operation and Salon d’Été operation.


TV Channel Guide (as of October 2009 - it changes every now and then):

An exhaustive Channel listing is posted inside of the TV cabinet door in the Salon d'Eté.

English language channels:

• 56 Bloomberg
• 57 CNN
• 58 BBC World
• 59 CNBC
  
• 360 France 24 - english
  
• 361 Aljazeera - english
• 362 SkyNews - english
  

Salon d’Été Operation:

The A/V equipment is preprogrammed for maximum ease of use (if you believe that, I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you).  Please limit yourself to the preset functions.  If you try to be clever, you are almost certain to mess-up one of the program and probably find the system non functional for you and for the guests coming after you.

Every A/V equipments are connected to a surge protector with a Master Switch.  To turn on the A/V equipment, open the left door of the cabinet and flip the surge protector switch to the “ON” or "1" position.  It will power-on each and every A/V equipment.  Do not turn off any equipment individually, just flip the surge protector switch to the “OFF” position when you are finished. 
To avoid disturbing the pre-programmed functions of the system, DO NOT operate the various Remote Control operators unless specifically specified below. Only use the CanalSat Remote.

TV Operation : 

Please check the section on TV-HiFI guide above.  It will list all the English language channels. the complete channel list is pasted inside the TV cabinet door.

• Master Switch: Power system ON by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "ON" or "1" position. Normally, the TV will come on in a few seconds.
• Denon A/V: Verify that TV appears in the window; otherwise rotate the FUNCTION knob until TV appears. The picture shouls appears after a few seconds, and the sound should be syncronised.
• Channel: Select the desired Channnel by pressing the channel number on the CANALSAT remote (ie. 57 for CNN); to change channel press the channel number or push P+ or P- to change one channel at a time. To adjust the volume push V+ or V- on the CANALSAT remote (the Denon A/V volume should be -10; otherwise rotate the master Volume knob until it does). To mute the sound, push the "SILENCE" button.
• Master Switch: Power system OFF by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "OFF" or "0" position.
  
  

NOTE:  You may see a black or blue screen as CanalSat, the satellite company, occasionally decides to reset the decoder.  Not to worry, simply pick up the BLACK CanalSat remote, and push once on the top right button (above the 3 button).  Wait for 15 to 20 seconds and you will see an image telling you that the satellite is functioning properly.  A few seconds later the image will appear.  You are now ready to view your favorite program (see channel selection below).  If that does not work, try turning the CanalSat power button on and off again (wait about 30 seconds each time).  If the fails, the decoder needs to be unplugged for the software to reboot.  You might like to call Jean-Jacques who knows how to do that.

DVD Operation : 

To view a DVD:

• Power system ON by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "ON" or "1" position. Normally, the TV will come on in a few seconds.
• DENON-CD Player: Push "ON?STANBY" button; then the "OPEN/CLOSE" button and insert desired DVD into the tray. Push "OPEN/CLOSE" again.
• DENON-A/V: Rotate the FUNCTION knob until DVD appears in the window.
• FUJITSU Remote: Push the VIDEO button slowly until VIDEO 1 appears on-screen and picture should come on.
• DENON-DVD Remote: follow on-screen instructions using the up/down/left/right arrows and ENTER button. Note: if language selection did not appear on-screen, once the movie starts, push the "TOP MENU" button and follow on-screen instructions.
• Volume: Adjust volume as desired by rotating the MASTER VOLUME knob on the DENON-A/V player.
• At the end of the movie, push the STOP button, then OPEN?CLOSE, remove the DVD, push OPEN/CLOSE and finally ON/STANDBY.
• DENON-A/V: Rotate the FUNCTION knob until TV appars (return volume to -10 by rotating the MASTER VOLUME knob).
• FUJITSU Remote: Push the VIDEO button slowly until VIDEO 7 appears on screen. The TV picture will appear in about 30 seconds after HDMI syncronisation.
• Power system OFF by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "OFF" or "0" position.

CD Operation: 

To listen to up to six CD's:

• Power system ON by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "on" position. Normally, the TV will come on in a few seconds.
• Turn the picture off by depressing the RED button (top left) on the FUJITSU remote.
• Select CD on the DENON receiver by turning the FUNCTION dial until CD shows in the display.
• Push the STAND BY/ON button to power on the ONKYO: CD player.
• Open the CD tray by pushing the button with an up arrow.
• Insert 1 to 6 CDs in the carousel; push DISC SKIP to move to the next CD slot.
• Close the CD tray by pushing the button with the up arrow.
• Push the "PLAY" button.
• Select the desired CD number.

Note: To adjust the Volume, rotate the DENON: MASTER VOLUME (start at -10); to turn on the kitchen and outside speakers, push the DENON: FRONT SPEAKERS button until bothe A & B are lit.

When finished playing:

• Push the STOP button on the ONKYO: CD player.
• Open the CD tray by pushing the button with an up arrow.
• Remove the CDs from the carousel; push DISC SKIP to move to the next CD slot.
• Close the CD tray by pushing the button with the up arrow.
• Push the "STAND BY" button.
• Select TV on the DENON receiver by turning the FUNCTION dial until TV shows in the display.
• Turn the picture off by depressing the RED button (top left) on the FUJITSU remote. the TV picture should come back on withi a few seconds.
• Power system ON by flipping the master switch in the left cabinet to the "on" position.

Tuner (Radio) Operation:

• Should you want to listen to the Radio (you might find it much more convenient to use the BOSE Radio in the kitchen), you will need to be prepared to mess up the system and lose all signals.  If this does not scare you, you can enjoy listening to your favorite music or other radio station for as long as you wish.  First turn the TV on as you would for watching CNN (see above).
• Once your favorite TV program is on:
• Pick-up the FUJITSU Remote and push the RED button to turn the TV screen OFF.
• Rotate the small left dial on the DENON Receiver to “TUNER”. 
• Select the radio station of your choice by pushing the “Channel” + or - button on the DENON Remote.
• At the end of your listening session, put the CDs back in the drawer (or wherever they came from - this is pretty obvious), and reset the system to watch TV: (1) – push the “RED” button on the Fujitsu Remote; (2) – get back to “DBS” rotating the small left dial on the DENON Receiver.  If the TV does not come back on go back to the trouble shooting section above.

Speakers - Kitchen & Terrace: 

Should you want to listen to turn on the speakers located in the kitchen and on the Terrace, simply press the small FRONT SPEAKERS knob on the lower left hand side of the DENON-A/V Receiver until the little green light under both “Speaker A” and “Speaker B” green lights are lit, speakers in both rooms are live.  K

Main House Operation:

The CanalSat (international satellite) requires a decoder box which isinstalled in a hidden cabinet in the living room.  In theory, only one TV is connected to the decoder and therefore to the satellite.  However, with a little trickery, we were able to connect all 5 TV sets in the main house to that one decoder.  This is done via a radio relaying system (you will note a little black box near each TV set).  Since there is only one decoder box, one and only one Channel can be viewed at any one time, and all five TV sets are automatically viewing the same channel.  Should someone decide to change Channel, all 5 TV sets will be switched simultaneously (see below for detailed instructions and channel selection). 

The second satellite dish (also mounted on the north side chimney) connects all five house TV sets to a standard French channels allowing each TV to operate normally by selecting channels 1 through 6 (channel 4 is pay view and therefore scrambled most of the time).  This means that any TV can watch any of the 6 French channels at any time. This is only convenient if one viewer is desperate to watch a French channel when everyone else is glued to CNN or BBC!

TV Operation:

To turn any TV “on”, pick-up the appropriate remote control (grey colored “Philipps” remote near the TV or in the nightstand drawer, or Sharp-Aquos in the kitchen). To select a Channel press Channel 7 (the power comes on automatically on the three Philipps sets; you need to push the Power button first on the Sharp-Aquos set in the kitchen).

To select a channel push the channel number (ie 57 For CNN) using the black CanalSat remote (and not the TV remote).  To change the volume, look for the icon with a triangle (European are very found of pictograms, most of them totally non intuitive!).  Next is a “+” and “-“button to change the volume. To change channels, you either push the channel number (see below for the list of channels), or the “up” or “down" arrow toward the top of the remote.  This will change channel one at a time (use the CanalSat remote ONLY).

We hope the operation of the A/V Equipmentr will not cause you too much anxiety.  It is unfortunately a little tricky.  We urge you not to play with the remotes beyond the operation described above.  Any change in some of the set-up might throw the whole system into total chaos with painful and frustrating recovery procedures to get back to normal operations.  On the other hand, you are unlikely to be here to watch much TV or movies.  If that is the case, you won’t need to fuss with the remotes and worry about these instructions.

Nevertheless, we hope these instructions will enable you to enjoy music or watch TV or DVDs.  As always, we welcome your comments on how we can make them clearer and simpler.  Feel free to comment on these instructions if anything is unclear or incomplete (or unnecessary for that matter).