Martin963

First step is to take a look at the FAQ's section under telephones/satellites. http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=264&MessageID=79165 Have a look at Will the Conqueror's article about TV in France,  then if anything isn't clear someone on this section will have a bash at answering. It's a lot to take in at first but it all gradually will become clear.   And try and stick with some French TV - if your language skills are in need of brushing up then it is a good way of progressing,  particularly if you get the subtitles working. You mention a box - as you live (I assume) somewhere around Niort I wonder if this is a TNT box (the transmitter at Maisonnay is transmitting DTT (digital TV)) or whether it's merely an aerial signal amplifier.

Thanks LesLauriers for that.   I'll investigate.  It did seem a bit unlikely that it would be on the declaration des revenus,  but then one can never assume that how it would be in the UK is how it will be en France. Without (I hope) being nosey,  it would be helpful to know whether the tax authorities are pursuing you for back payments or whether you have been granted an "amnesty";  will quite understand if you'd prefer not to reveal which!

Can anyone advise as to how (or if) swimming pools are taxed in France. We've had one since 1999 (came with the house) and I had always assumed that the taxes foncieres (or perhaps habitation) were adjusted at the time of installation to reflect a higher rateable value.  However there is no specific mention on either of our annual demands. Recently a French friend said (when asked) that there is a box to tick on the declaration des revenus (2042,  don't know which category he fills in).   Don't remember seeing one. Sorry if this has been covered,  I did do a search and followed a link to a Languedoc site (redirected) but there wasn't anything specifically about this that I could find. The pool is a dug out one and - yes - we have already (at vast expense) installed an alarm.

Hi Nick Sorry – probably didn’t make it clear. You are right – no cheap VCR produces RGB on Scart. But they DO produce composite video which matches the colour system of whatever they are tuned in to. By composite video we mean that the colour subcarrier is carried with the luminance signal, the latter being base-band (ie not modulated onto a RF carrier). If the UK purchased TV doesn’t tune the French L system the connection of an aerial direct to the TV clearly isn’t going to work (the main problem as I’m sure you know is that the sync pulses are the "wrong" polarity). Enter our French purchased VCR. It is set up so that its internal tuner (bought in France so L compatible) receives French signals from the aerial on the house, certainly TF1 FR2 and FR3, and maybe FR 5 and M6 if the local signal is strong enough. Maybe Canal + also, (probably on VHF). The VCR outputs composite video from its internal tuner on its SCART socket: composite video is carried on a different (single) pin to the R G & B pins. Et voila, provided the UK TV is SECAM compatible on its SCART socket it will automatically detect that it’s receiving a SECAM signal on its AV (SCART) socket and switch to SECAM. It (the TV) should spot the absence of RGB and automatically switch back to composite – certainly all our TV’s do. What I was getting at (as a result of a previous post) is that some UK purchased TV’s are SECAM compatible on their SCARTS even if they are NOT L compatible on their aerial input. But of course if the TV is truly PAL only (and many are) then it wouldn’t work.

If you are CERTAIN that your UK sourced TV is SECAM compatible via the SCART inputs but NOT able to receive system L via the aerial,  the simplest solution is to buy a cheap VCR in France.   This will tune in the French analogue terrestrials via the aerial,  which can then be viewed on the TV by linking up with SCART and selecting the relevant AV input.   In other words you use the VCR as a tuner.  However,  if you don't have a SECAM compatible TV this method will produce black and white pictures. Having said that,  the Philips 610 DVD recorder converts SECAM to PAL (in this it is fairly exceptional,  Panasonics bought in the UK don't).  So if you splashed out on the Philips in France it SHOULD (but please don't hold me to it) be able to be used as a UHF (and VHF) system L tuner and produce colour even on a PAL only TV. I haven't actually tried that scenario out,  but can confirm that a UK sourced Philips 610 converts the SECAM French TV signals off analogue Altantic Bird 3 into PAL which can then be viewed (via SCART of course) in colour on UK PAL sets.  But as I said earlier - if you can - buy the stuff in France where it is by definition going to be system L and SECAM capable.

Sorry to nit-pick,  but mansel's comment: "Some of the transponders on Astra 2d which carry some of the BBC free to air channels are carried on the High Band" is not quite correct.   Astra 2D uses 10.714 - 10.936 GHz,  all frequencies in the lower band of a Universal LNB (local oscillator frequency 9.75 GHz).   Some BBC progs (mainly BBCi) are on Astra 2B in the high band (L.O. frequency 10.6 GHz).    But for the vast majority of BBC progs it doesn't actually matter whether the 22 kHz tone is getting up to the LNB or not (they default to low band).    Channel 4 does require high band coverage

Your new TV will work with the Astra 2 satellite dish via a Sky box.  It will work with any other digital sat receiver provided you hook up using SCART leads. French TV via an aerial is trickier,  the UK uses system I with PAL colour.   The French analogue signals are system L with SECAM colour.   A trawl through the specs of the TV instruction book should reveal whether you can switch the tuninh from I/PAL to L/SECAM.   A few years ago UK retailed sets were exclusively I/PAL,  quite a few now can cope with SECAM via SCART but you may find that L via the aerial simply isn't in the options. A modernish freeview box may work in France if it can cope with 8k symbols,  the UK system uses 2k,  which is inferior for many reasons.   An old Ondigital box will be 2k only in all probability.   But DTT (digital terrestrial TV) coverage in France is limited at the moment to Paris,  Lyon,  Marseille,  most of Britanny,  Niort area and Toulouse and Lille.   If you live anywhere else you'll have to wait and see as the rest of the network is brought on stream over the next five years. Too late now,  but in these circumstances it's probably better to buy a TV in France as they are all SECAM/PAL compatible. If anything isn't clear please post again and we'll try and help.

Good advice from NT.   Curiously enough one of our two Sky (Pace) boxes crashed at 21.13 CET last evening (end of the Dr Who feature on BBC3) and had to be restarted from scratch.  The other one (fed from the same dual LNB) carried on fine.   These things often happen around the time that Sky are fiddling with the current operating software,  and the best thing to do is a complete unplug and restart.

Sadly I don't know.   The problem with C5 is that (I believe) Sky (or one of Murdoch's Co's) has a shareholding in it and so they don't want C5 outside a card operated encryption.   C4 of course would probably have to find space on Astra 2D to limit (officially) their coverage and if they don't do it soon Astra 2D may become full. The last I heard was that Ofcom were hearing the case between ITV and Sky and their carriage/encryption charges,  and that a decision will be made within weeks.   But I am only regurgitating what Digital Spy Forums are saying - though there are a number of experts amongst the guessers there. We shall see....

I know you Corrie fans are pretty liable to withdrawal symptoms (we are the same with the Archers), but if you can bear to wait a few weeks (perhaps someone can record it for you) I wouldn't rush out and get a Sky box and card just yet.   There are still negotiations going on between Sky and ITV over carriage and if these fail (which many think ITV want them to do) then ITV may go Free to air like the BBC.   The last I heard was that the decision has to be taken in the next month or so.  Of course this will leave C4 and C5 encrypted,  and it is all a bit speculative,  but it would be a shame to add to Murdoch's numbers (even with an FTV card) if you don't have to. But nothing (as they say) is certain

Hi Ian.  As I said above,  I was more than a bit surprised when the Philips DVD recorder got up and did its transcoding stuff,  particularly as it conflicted with what I had written to you in the previous thread citing the guy who said he had got his VCR to transcode. I'm going to speculate here,  but my hunch is (still) that MOST French VCR's are capable of recording the colour information as EITHER SECAM OR PAL,  depending on which they are getting through the aerial.   In their ability to record either type of signal they do not have any need to transcode,  so on playback they o/p the same type of signal as they recorded,  leaving it to the TV to decide which it is;  and in the case of France with universal SECAM and PAL compatibility throughout its TV modern population,  there is no problem as a PAL or a SECAM tape will show colour on a French TV. I seem to remember some years ago that if you bought a pre-recorded VHS tape you sometimes were able to specify whether it should be in PAL or SECAM,  and that some tourists came back with SECAM versions that they then found wouldn't play in colour back in the UK. Turning to the Philips DVD recorder,  it is clear that it is actually converting SECAM to PAL to record subsequently onto DVD.  Maybe the DVD standards have specifically "forbidden" SECAM on DVD,  I don't know.  Either way it makes life a whole lot simpler.  (Incidentally,  the whole of French TV is universally originated in PAL at the studios,  the signals being far easier to mix and process,  and converted to SECAM just prior to distribution to the transmitter networks,  gives some idea of what French engineers think of SECAM!). My guess is that the contributor who got his VCR to transcode had a rather expensive one (perhaps genuine multistandard) and was lucky.   But until he comes forward we won't know,  and I can't apologise to him for even questioning what he had seen!!   Unfortunately I'm in Devon at the moment and my French VCR is in France,  so I can't go and test all this out any further.

If by a digital radio you mean a UK originated DAB radio,  then no, you won't get anything.  The UK's transmissions are on about 225 MHz,  these are confined (particularly at the sort of powers used at the transmitters,  typically 2 - 5 kW) to a range of about 40 miles.   So they would only cross the channel in exceptional circumstances. As to French DAB,   it is on a different set of frequencies (about 1500 MHz) not covered by most UK DAB sets.  IN addition,  only a few major towns (Nantes, Paris, Toulouse, and a couple of others) have any coverage.  DAB is a long way behind in France.

I can now confirm that NOT ALL DVD recorders will do this conversion;  I 've just tested a Panasonic DMR-E55 (an otherwise excellent machine incidentally) but it just splurges colour lines and patterns all over a SECAM signal when viewed on a PAL TV. The devil is in the detail - the Philips handbook mentions recording in SECAM & PAL but playback in PAL only,  the Panasonic book carefully avoids any mention of SECAM.

A couple of months ago someone reported on the forum that he had got a French sourced VCR to display colour on a UK sourced PAL TV using French terrestial off-air signals and linking the two units by Scart. I must say that I was surprised that this set-up worked, as although French VCR’s naturally recognise and record SECAM colour, it seemed unlikely that they would transcode them back to PAL for display on a PAL only TV (though the SECAM would of course be fine on a French TV). However, a bit of research using a Philips DVD recorder (DVDR 610, widely sold in Comet etc) shows that my doubts were unfounded and that indeed this transcoding can take place. In my case I’m feeding the baseband output of an analogue satellite receiver (fed by Atlantic Bird 3, French terrestial channels in analogue, SECAM colour) via SCART (composite video only of course, no RGB involved here) to one of the Scart inputs on the Philips DVD recorder. The output is then going off to the TV (UK PAL only) and bingo – it’s in colour, of a far higher quality than obtained with a dedicated SECAM to PAL transcoder. There’s no need to do any actual recording, the transcoding seems to take place just by using the Philips as part of the signal chain. Even our Hitatchi UK TV which resolutely refused to recognise colour from the dedicated SECAM/PAL transcoder without being given 20 minutes notice seems to be entranced by this new set-up and working fine.   Interestingly if the Philips drops into stand-by,  the o/p reverts to black and white,  so presumably the transcoding process stops. Worth a try if you have the SECAM problem, as although a Philips DVD recorder is double the price of a transcoder you get much better quality and a recorder thrown in. I doubt it would work with all makes of DVD recorder though. Maybe Philips are OK because they have a large penetration into the French market – and they presumably don’t bother to disable the SECAM facility even on recorders sold in the UK

Just to be clear - the set top box is digital not analogue (the N in TNT stands for numerique). I think Darty have got a bit carried away - as do certain UK retailers.  Although the French TNT (DTT) system is broadcast using a more robust coding system than the UK's,  a small indoor aerial is likely only to give satisfactory results within about 15 kms of a high power transmitter,  if at all.   That is the nature of UHF signal propagation.  All digital systems give pretty good results provided you get a decent signal to them,  but if that signal drops even a millibel below the threshold you lose the entire programme as the error correction ceases to compensate for the problems.   So I'm not sure that Darty are really being very rigorous (technically) in what they have publshed (I haven't seen it). As Washy says,  we're really talking Paris, Lille,  Mantes, Bordeaux,  Niort (Maisonnay),  Rennes (St Pern),  Brest (Roc Tredudon).  Marseille,  Toulouse town relay, and a few others here.  Not by any means the majority of l'Hexagone.   So check before you buy.   More coverage comes on air in Sept 2004,  but it's likely that the rural areas where many Brits have houses will be the later areas switched on,  several years away in some cases where areas are served by lower-powered relays..

The 6 main terrestrial channels are duplicated in analogue on Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 deg west.   They are however broadcast using SECAM colour so will only display in b/w on 90% of UK sets.  NO probs on a French sourced TV. All 6 channels are also on Hotbird 13 deg east in digital,  but encrypted (disgracefully,  in my view, as they have achieved an unfair monopoly on some of the channels,  but that's another story) by TPS.  Sadly, France has no mechanism for issuing viewing cards for national channels in the way that cards for ITV/C4 are issued via Sky in the UK. Astra 1 at 19 deg east has some of the nationals (2, 3, 5 and Arte) encrypted via Canalsatellite. At present you can also get the public sector channels in the clear in digital on Atlantic Bird 3,  but this may only be temporary as there is talk of scrambling these too. The analogue AB3's will almost certainly be around for some years,  enough to justify the £30 or so for an analogue set up.   The reason for this is that France's analogue TV transmitter network relies on these signals in the event of a failure of the microwave distribution system that is the prime carrier.

In my reply above I should have written S-Video instead of S-VHS which is something entirely different.  My apologies.    I've just checked the back of our new PC and it has the same mini-din type plug for TV output as the laptop,  though I have not actually tried it out.

Glad you've found it Ian.  I'm told by my spies in Paris that the picture quality is niticeably superior on these satellite feeds than on the TNT signal being broadcast (on test) from the Tour Eiffel. BJSLIV is correct, and that's why TF1 will be carried on a different transponder on AB3,  along with other components of its relevant TNT multiplex.   The sad part is that what we are watching at the moment is likely to be the only "visible" frequency on AB3 in this context.   TDF have got to distribute all the other components of TNT (DTT) round the country but will apparently be "concentrating" the other multiplexes in pairs onto single satellite transponders,  which will render them unuseable on ordinary satellite receivers.   It is just luck that with only 5 TNT multiplexes one of them is "odd",  and it just happens that the public sector multiplex is the one that we can see as a result of its not being paired off with another. If you see what I mean.... Festival is I believe being used as a place marker while they sort out France 4.  I have no idea what programme content will be like. Finally, bear in mind that even this public service TV feed may slip into encryption at some point.  

In the case of our DELL laptop it was a question of obtaining a lead with a mini DIN plug on one end and a phono plug on the other - this also combined the picture signal (which if I recall was S-VHS type) into composite video,  although with visible degradation of the picture.  The phono then went into the TV,   although you might need to get a phono to SCART adaptor if your TV doesn't have a (yellow) phono socket for video in.   The sound was obtained just by using a mini stereo jack (3.5 mm) out to phonos and thence to an amplifier.    We got the lead from cpc (www.cpc.co.uk) and used part AV04578,   I guess (stress that word) that AV08373 would get you through to SCART.   However,  suggest you see if anyone else has any better ideas - as I say I don't know about the second option,  and the one we use is not brilliant picture quality.   All numbers from last year's catalouge,  and not sure if they are 0 or O's.

Actually even as I wrote the post above France 5 and 4 vanished.   So please heed the warning I gave that this may be only temporarily available.    Tant pis...    Ah,  ils sont de retour!   (Elles actually if they're chaines).

As I mentioned might be going to happen a few weeks ago,  it is now possible to receive France 2,  France 3, France 5, the Parliament channel and Arte DIGITALLY from Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees west.  For those of you with the dreaded analogue SECAM compatibility problems,  this route offers a way out in that most digital receivers are capable of using this new signal and will then work with PAL-only TV sets.   The details are 11.589 GHz,  Symbol rate 19634 kB/s,  vertical polarisation,  FEC 2/3   The unusual symbol rate means that a Murdoch Sky box will NOT be suitable for reception.   I should also stress that these transmissions are not primarily aimed at public reception;  the transmission  is in fact a feed to transmitters all over France providing them with the input signal for TNT (Digital Terrestrial TV).   There is a possibility that they may go scrambled if the rights people start fussing.   So do not waste a lot of time and money on new installations.   However,  if you already have a dish pointing at AB3 (and many French houses do) then it may be worth trying it out.   No TF1 (not part of the TV public sector) but a new channel will be available,  France 4 (original title eh?) 

With a respectful nod at Mazan who I know hates (rightly) speculation,  in answer to the original question I would do nothing for the moment.   ITV and Sky are squabbling at the moment,  with Ofcom struggling to arbitrate.   There is a good body of opinion (and I know,  it is just that) who read the eventual outcome as being that ITV will follow the BBC's lead and shed the encryption shackles of Sky and go free to air.   We should know one way or the other in the next couple of months. Isn't the Grand Prix on TF1 anyway? So you would be kicking yourself if you went through all the Sky hoops just in time for it all to be unnecessary.

I should perhaps have added that if your DAB radio has an FM section then that part will work fine,  Haute Vienne being served by a crackingly strong signal from the high powered transmitter at Les Cars.   It's just the DAB that won't work.

In a word NO. DAB radio has not been the success in France that it has been in the UK.  In consequence only a few towns (Paris,  Toulouse,  Nantes and a couple of others) have any DAB coverage at all.   But in addition the French coverage is in the frequency band around 1500 MHz,  and almost all UK sets only cover the band formerly used by ITV in black and white with 405 lines,  ie from about 175 - 230 MHz.   The BBC use a frequency of about 226 MHz. So you are neither in a zone of reception nor equipped with the right waveband!! It is possible that France will eventually leapfrog the UK by introducing a form of digital radio much more technically advanced than the UK's.  Germany is already actively investigating this.   It's always the way,  if you are first in with a new technology (cf 405 lines in 1936 for TV) you often pay the price by being lumbered with an inferior system,  even if it was state of the art at the time of introduction...

I doubt it. Same problem, in that the room-to-room link would send composite video rather than RGB, and there would be no reason for it therefore to include a SECAM to PAL conversion. I am guessing here, but I doubt it. I'm not surprised the VCR made no difference; without in any way doubting the veracity of what was written about French VCR's managing to convert SECAM to PAL, I just wonder whether another effect was coming in to play. It would be interesting to know more about how it was hooked up and what channels were used etc.... And the little French cat is now safely back in Devon - though what he makes of l'humidité anglais is anybody's guess.