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The audio-visual system has a stereo/CD player, multi-format video-cassette recorder/player (VCR), a cable TV box with over 50 channels and a television. The VCR plays both US and European format tapes. Please make sure to turn off everything when not watching TV as the electronics can heat up quite a bit. Especially make sure not to leave the remote controls on top of the cable or VCR as the heat will ruin the batteries. We suggest leaving them on top of the TV.
To Watch Basic TV Stations
Press the button on the lower right of the TV. Two red buttons should light up to the left of this button. Generally, if the previous tenants haven’t changed the settings, the TV should come on with a station.
If a broadcast station doesn’t come on, please do the following:
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On the TV remote, find the “PROGR” area of the remote (lower left) and press the + button until a TV station appears. In this mode you can look through the basis 20 cable stations most of which are in French. Volume is controlled by the two buttons to the lower right of the remote that have a little triangle above them. Recently, we’ve found that sometimes that stations can only be displayed via the cable box so if the picture is not great, please go to the next section using the cable box.
Please turn off the TV when done.
To Watch Extended TV Stations (i.e. CNN, BBC, etc.)
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1. Make sure the Cable Box is on. When it is off, it indicates the time. Press the green button at the upper right of the above remote. The cable box will show the words “init” and in 5-10 seconds, it will show a number which indicates the cable channel number. This action should automatically switch the TV to cable viewing.
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2. If the TV doesn’t switch to cable viewing automatically or the image looks "red/pink", press the last button on the right in the 3rd row (see above, it looks like TV screen with an arrow) until the number 1 (indicating video channel 1) appears on the TV screen. There are two number 1's so please pick the first one.
3. On the cable remote, you can then use the “P” region and the +/- buttons of the cable remote to change the stations
There
are quite a
number of stations (over 50 and growing). The
vast majority of them are in French, though there are stations in Spanish, Japanese,
Egyptian, Polish and, bien sur, in English. Here are the ones that are in English or of
some general interest (e.g. news, stock, weather). To go through just the English ones, press the B button. The “default” language is French with French
sub-titles. To change this to other languages,
press the Info (I) button on the remote and, if available, you can change
the language and/or sub-titles to English. (This functions particularly well on Canal
Jimmy.)
|
Station
number |
Short name |
Description |
|
11 |
NOOS |
TV guide
(in French) |
|
18 |
Teva |
Women’s channel
with some shows in English: Ally McBeal, Sex in the City, … |
|
23 |
Bloomberg |
Finance and
business |
|
30 |
CNN |
The European
edition, entirely in English |
|
31 |
BBC World |
British news
and interviews |
|
32 |
Meteo |
Weather (in
French) |
|
33 |
Traffic |
Traffic (in
French) |
|
34 |
AFP |
Airport information
(Orly and CDG) |
|
133 |
Canal Jimmy |
Shows in
VO English such as Friends, The Sopranos, NYPD Blues, etc. |
Please turn off the cable box when done.
Cable On-line Program Guide
For those who are more adventurous and know some French, there is a full program guide available through the remote. Below is a very brief explanation of the functions. Please look at the guide in the manuals area of the bookcase to the left of the door for more information.
The “I” (INFOS) button brings up information about the current station. The “G” (GUIDE) button provides a very complete description of the programming for this week. Some quick translations of some of the primary categories are:
"Maintenant" – Programs playing right now
"Ce soir" – Programs playing this evening
"La Semaine" – Programs playing this week
The up/down arrow in the middle of remote controls the movement of the highlighted area. You can select the channel by pressing the OK button in the middle of the remote. The R (Retour) button returns to the previous menu and the Q (Quitter) quits the program guide. There is lots of functionality here but if you get lost, then press the Q (Quitter) button the remote until you get back to normal operation.
To Play Videotapes
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Switch the TV to Video 1 by pressing the last button on the right in the 3rd row of the TV remote (see above, it looks like a TV screen with an arrow) until the number 1 (indicating video channel 1) appears on the TV screen. There are two number 1's so please pick the first one.
Press the "MARCHE" button on the far left of the Toshiba VCR. Insert a tape and press the "LECT" button to the right of the VCR. The buttons and icons on the buttons are those typical for any VCR.
Please turn off the VCR by pressing MARCHE when done.
Philips Stereo
Radio
Using the remote, press the tuner button (2nd row labeled TUNER) to turn on the radio and the standby button (upper right) to turn off the radio. The system normally has automatically stored the stations so you can use the forward / reverse keys in the middle of the remote to move between the different stations. If the system has lost its automatically stored stations, press and hold the PROGRAM button for several seconds and it’ll perform an auto-programming.
CD Player
On the stereo itself, press the CD 1, 2 or 3 button to open the drawer and insert a CD. On the remote, press the CD DIRECT (3rd row) 1, 2 or 3 button to start the CD. To turn off the player, press the standby button (upper right). Please put away the CDs when you depart.
For more information, the manual is located in the bookcase.
Telephone
To obtain a dial-tone you must press the button in the upper left-hand corner of the handset.
The Philips telephone is also an answering machine. If the red light is on the base, you have messages. To play the messages, press the above “message button” on the handset. In this mode, the “6” button will delete the messages. To record an incoming message, press the "message button" then press “4” for outgoing, “5” to start recording and “8” to stop recording. More details can be found in the manual located in the bookcase.
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The Siemens stove top is very “iconic”. The surface is touch sensitive so you simply press on the items closest to the front edge. The icon to the left which looks like a double-circle with a vertical line in it is the on/off button. The four sets of icons to the right that have a - / + on them control the various burners. The + turns up the intensity and the minus turns down the intensity. The icon with the double circle to the right increases/decreases the heated area for larger pans.
Hood
The icon that looks like a light turns on the hood light. The + button turns up the fan speed, while the – button turns down the fan speed. The circle button turns off the hood
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The manuals can give you all the more detailed functionality. The knob to the left turns on the oven in a variety of different modes. At 12 o’clock, the oven is off. Starting clockwise, there is:
· Grill with the rotisserie adapter
· Grill
· Grill with convection oven (fan blowing the hot oven air around)
· Convection oven (oven with fan circulating the hot air)
· Normal oven (no fan circulating the hot air)
· Defrost
The knob to the right controls the temperature level in CENTIGRADE. Turning it all the way clockwise turns on the broiler. Some quick conversions:
|
Temperature C (Rest of the world) |
Temperature F (US) |
|
50 C |
122 F |
|
100 C |
212 F |
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150 C |
302 F |
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200 C |
392 F |
|
250 C |
482 F |
Microwave
The numbers 90, 180, 360, 600 and 900 are the cooking levels in Watts. The lower the number, the lower the power of the microwave. After choosing a cooking level, you can turn the round knob just above the buttons to set the number of minutes and seconds, then press start. The button with the * and a “water drop” below it indicates defrost. Some uses for the different power levels:
|
Power level |
Usage |
|
900 W |
Quick heating of beverages and liquids |
|
600W |
Heating and cooking of meats |
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360 W |
Cooking of meat and heat-sensitive meals |
|
180 W |
Defrosting and simmering |
|
90 W |
Gentle defrosting of heat-sensitive meals |
Dishwasher
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After open the dishwasher door with the handle, you can see the controls on the top of the door. The button to the left turns the dishwasher on/off. Press this button first. The four buttons to the right control the washing temperatures. In general, choose the button labeled 55 to the far right. The dishwashing time lights up. Add the dishwashing liquid and close the dishwashing liquid cover by pushing it to the left. If the rinse indicator is on, add rinse to the receptacle next to the dishwashing liquid area. Close the door and the dishwasher will start automatically.
Washer/Dryer
For Americans: Yes, this is a washer AND dryer! Properly set, it’ll wash your clothes and dry them in one session. Warning: it does take about 2.5 hours for a full load wash (1 hour) and dry cycle (1.5 hours) so plan your time accordingly. This is probably the most complicated looking appliance because of all the buttons but you can avoid the majority of them for basic washing. Here are the easy steps:
1. Start with the knob farthest to the right. Turn it to pick the temperature of the wash. 60 is good for whites and 30 for colors. There are other numbers for everything down to wool.
2. IF you want the system to go directly into drying, turn the next knob to the left entitled “Drying time (mins)” to the time necessary. 90 minutes is for a full load and 60 minutes for a light load.
3. For the buttons on the left, all the lights should be off except for potentially the button entitled “short”. If you have a small load that is not very dirty, press this button and the total time will be much shorter. If pressed, the light should be on above the button.
4. Add
detergent. This is quite a different concept than the
5. Press the start button which is the button all the way to the left.
If you have fabric softener, it should go in the middle compartment of the pull-out drawer to the left. If you decided not to dry, or need additional drying time after a load, turn the right most knob to the red drying area, choose a time as noted above and press the start button.
It should
be noted that the drying capacity is a half load (2.5 kg, 5 pounds) because
it is a
condenser dryer as opposed to a forced air electric dryer. If too many clothes are put in the dryer,
they may not dry fully and they will come out very wrinkled. For large amounts of drying, it could be faster
to go to the nearby laundromat with your washed clothes since they have high-capacity
electric dryers which will dry a big load in 10 minutes. It is located on nearby 5 Rue Saint Anastase,
just off Rue Thorigny near the Picasso museum.
For drying only: As noted since this is a condenser dryer, you can only dry a half load at a time, and it takes a very long time (e.g. 90 minutes for towels). Just set the far right knob to drying/cottons (for example) printed in red, then set the smaller knob beside it to a time (probably 90 minutes), and then hit the start button on the far left. At the end of the 90 minutes there's a cool-down period where you won't be able to open the door right away. This is normal. You can turn the machine off at that point and then return in 5-10 minutes or so and it will let you open the door. This is just to prevent you from touching too-hot clothing.
Bedroom Radio Alarm
Alarm – set radio alarm
Alarm – set buzzer alarm
Alarm – turning alarms on/off
Radio On/off
Radio – Adjust station
Radio – Storing stations
There are also the usual snooze, etc. buttons.
Bedroom Fan
[This fan and the one in the living room are usually in the apartment during the late spring and summer months. If needed and it is not there, please contact our property manager]. The fan has various settings that allow the fan to run for a specified period of time, all the time and oscillate or not. For “normal” fan operation.