Want to watch French and English TV but...

[le rouge]

Currently I have 2 TVS. An English TV connected to a Satellite dish and I get a large number of English channels from the Astra satellite. A French TV connected to the aerial and I get the French terrestrial channels. No problem.

From October the Analogue is switched off. My French TV is old and small so this is my opportunity to upgrade. I am therefore looking at a nice flat screen with TNT.

Will I be able to just use this one new TV for both the French TNT and the English from the Astra satellite connection? As TNT is built in then I am thinking I would just need to insert the cable from my existing digibox into the new TV to get the English programmes as well. Is that correct?

 

 

 

 

[pachapapa]

Affirmative I am watching one with a TNT on board tuner. TV sets now have a TNT HD tuner built in which will receive all defintions. At moment only three channels are in HD but that will chage when our local antenna stops analogue in november.

[le rouge]

and you can watch both French and English TV on the one set? Not bothered about HD just yet.

[Martin963]

Perhaps to expand a bit.....

In the set up proposed,    the roof aerial is connected to the TV.    This (assuming you have good reception) means that on a TV with an integrated TNT tuner you'll see the 18 French channels in much the same way that a "Freeview" integrated TV would work in Britain.

You also use a Scart lead to connect your Sky box or freesat box or FTA sat receiver to the AV input(s) of the TV.   Using a button on the remote yuo can switch between TNT reception and the satellite box,  the button is often marked AV or is a little screen signal with an arrow pointing into it from the side.

When analogue terrestrial TV goes in your area the powers at the main transmitters (carrying a temporary lower power service) will be whacked up,   and many of the smaller relays will by that time also have been equipped with TNT for the first time.    So almost everyone will have access to TNT via a roof aerial even if it doesn't work properly or at all at the moment.

[le rouge]

Well summed up. Thanks. I do get a pretty good signal from the aerial at the moment anyway. I am in the Cher (18).

[just john]

 I am contemplating upgrading TV, does that mean a TV purchased in Uk would be able to receive both French and English programs, one digibox or two?

[Martin963]

If you REALLY want an all-in-one set up you need one of those TV's that have both "freesat" and "Freeview" integrated.   I believe they exist but have never seen one.

This would need sourcing from Britain as "freesat" is not officially on sale outside the UK.

The Freeview bit will work in France,  and to be sure you should make sure it's got MPEG 4 for the French HD transmissions,  although you don't need DVB-T2 for France (whereas you do in Britain for the new Freeview HD transmissions).

If you got one of these you wouldn't need any external digiboxes,   but imagine if a bit of it goes wrong......

I don't think it's an option if you want Sky as well,   only freesat/Freeview.

Laters:

This is what I was thinking about

http://www.plasmatvreviews.org.uk/panasonic-plasma-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-46pz81-freesat-plasma-tv/

but I'm not sure that the Freeview (DTT/TNT) section is HD capable.   You need as I say MPEG 4 for France but not (for the moment) DVB-T2.   T2 is indispensible for British Freeview HD.

[DerekJ]

Jus this week I took over to France a Sony Bravia TV with Freesat and Freeview built in. Had a satellite dish put up for the Freesat service and that works just fine. Haven't bothered yet with installing a "regular" aerial for the TNT service but may experiment with a small freestanding one as I believe the transmitter can be seen from the house  on the distant skyline.

At a later date I may bypass the inbuilt Freesat receiver and hook up a Humax box so that I can record.

Nice TV by the way.

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Martin963"]If you REALLY want an all-in-one set up you need one of those TV's that have both "freesat" and "Freeview" integrated.   I believe they exist but have never seen one.

This would need sourcing from Britain as "freesat" is not officially on sale outside the UK.

The Freeview bit will work in France,  and to be sure you should make sure it's got MPEG 4 for the French HD transmissions,  although you don't need DVB-T2 for France (whereas you do in Britain for the new Freeview HD transmissions).

If you got one of these you wouldn't need any external digiboxes,   but imagine if a bit of it goes wrong......

I don't think it's an option if you want Sky as well,   only freesat/Freeview.


Laters:

This is what I was thinking about

http://www.plasmatvreviews.org.uk/panasonic-plasma-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-46pz81-freesat-plasma-tv/

but I'm not sure that the Freeview (DTT/TNT) section is HD capable.   You need as I say MPEG 4 for France but not (for the moment) DVB-T2.   T2 is indispensible for British Freeview HD.
[/quote]

Panasonic TX-P46G20B 46-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 600Hz Neo Plasma TV with Freeview HD and Freesat HD

.....this is the one I've been thinking of as a replacement for big CRT's when they finally give up the ghost. Always provided the motion judder if liveable with.

 

p

[Martin963]

That's the one!

Will the broadcast pictures merit it though?

[suej]

  We also wanted to have Freesat channels but at the same time keep our french channels.After a lot of help and advice here- thanks again Martin and others- we 've got a system that works very well for us  which we bought in France .

 Although we could have probably got things cheaper in UK, as we weren't planning on going over for a while and as we  are technically incompetent duffers,it seemed best for us to shop here.   After some really helpful advice on this forum we were able to go off to the local tv shop and at least sound as if we did know what we were talking about. 

We bought the whole caboodle from the local tv man ( I ought to say that we already had confidence in him having bought other electrical goods there in the past)We chose a Samsung tv with TNT Integré which, via our old aerial , provides 18 french channels. We have a Visiosat digi box and a 60cm sat dish which the fitter installed absolutely spot on first go and which provides  all the freesat channels .

I know we  probably spent more doing it the way we did and we could probably have saved money shopping around in UK and /or the Bricosheds here but it really has seemed worth it. The after-sales has been superb- a query after 3days of awful gales here in the winter to check that all was still OK, and again after the change over to numerique in this region.. Having said all that I must stress that we wouldn't have had the confidence to deal with a local supplier ( especially since initially they all seem to assume you want Sky) without the info we'd had here.

 

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Martin963"]That's the one!

Will the broadcast pictures merit it though?
[/quote]

.......... which brings me round to asking a favour.... you wouldn't, by any chance, find yourself in close proximity to a Panasonic dealership to road-test the beast, at any time would you?

 

paul 

[Martin963]

Not me - at least not for a while.  

But maybe someone else can - it would be interesting to hear how it performs.......

[gyn_paul]

Perhaps sometime when you're back in Glorious Devon curiosity might get the better of you: after all, sooner or later your CRTs will end up in the tip, too (or do you have a lock-up garage crammed with 32" Toshibas?).

For me here the Creuse, the nearest Paranoic dealer would appear to be a 400km round trip to Montlucon. I'm trying to persuade the OH that it's a good idea for a day trip, but with little success so far !

p

[Thebiga]

I ordered my flatscreen tv 37" Toshiba (Regza) from Amazon uk with fantastic service and very low postage. Perfectly fine for watching french TNT via in built freeview and running a sky digibox from the satellite at the same time you just change channels.

I must admit with the football on at the moment to switch from normal sky reception to french TF1 (HD) and see the same game the french TNT (HD) is way, way better. Makes me want to get a SKY or other HD box.

[Martin963]

@ gyn_paul

Indeed.   It's only that we won't be back in Devon for long enough to get to that sort of shop for a few months yet.     Unfortunately we live 30 miles in any direction from the sort of places that sell Panasonics.

[gyn_paul]

Ah me.

And there I was thinking that you were a habituee of the High spots and the low dives of Exeter: the boulivardier known and recognised with a merry laugh wherever the happening people congregate, and now I find you are just as much the country mouse as I am !

More illusions shattered! [:)]

 

p

 

 

[Martin963]

Well we're roughly between Barnstaple and Exeter (although not on the direct line between the two).   When we first moved there in 1991 it was relatively easy to get to both,  but in the meantime there's been a 40% increase in the number of cars on the road in the south west,  and as I hate shopping anyway and can get it all on the internet now I just find the whole business of parking and crowds too much for me,  apart from the occasional trip.   (Sounding just like my late father now...)

In fact I had to go into Exeter in spring 2009 and I don't think I'd been there since 2004.    Most of it (apart from the cathedral) had been pulled down in the interim,   they'd actually moved some streets as far as I could see (and I was sober I hasten to add).   It all looked very smart (albeit confusingly different) and as an additional plus-point I was delighted not to be continually knocked over by the crowds of slavering retail junkies who had been there on my previous visit,   apparently their numbers had been slightly diminished by the recession (a side effect to be greatly welcomed).

Barnstaple used to have a Sony shop but even that's gone....

[Martin963]

@ suej

Thank you for the kind sentiments.    We do our best........!

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Martin963"]Well we're roughly between Barnstaple and Exeter (although not on the direct line between the two).   When we first moved there in 1991 it was relatively easy to get to both,  but in the meantime there's been a 40% increase in the number of cars on the road in the south west,  and as I hate shopping anyway and can get it all on the internet now I just find the whole business of parking and crowds too much for me,  apart from the occasional trip.   (Sounding just like my late father now...)

In fact I had to go into Exeter in spring 2009 and I don't think I'd been there since 2004.    Most of it (apart from the cathedral) had been pulled down in the interim,   they'd actually moved some streets as far as I could see (and I was sober I hasten to add).   It all looked very smart (albeit confusingly different) and as an additional plus-point I was delighted not to be continually knocked over by the crowds of slavering retail junkies who had been there on my previous visit,   apparently their numbers had been slightly diminished by the recession (a side effect to be greatly welcomed).

Barnstaple used to have a Sony shop but even that's gone....
[/quote]

There's a Panasonic store in Solihull. I have to go back to see my mother in her nursing home there as soon as we are free of builders, so I'll give it the once-over and report back then. Though it has to be said that at their current rate of progress, the assorted team of chippie, plasterer, builder, builder's mate and painter look set to be here for a while longer (20 Jan > today. today < ??? ).

p

[Anton Redman II]

I know it is schadenfreude and its is off post but the assorted team is me and also include electricity,plumbing and removal of nussibles. Though hopefully on next Monday morning the gas man comes to call.

[gyn_paul]

I wouldn't like you to think, Anton, that I have spent the entire last 5 months sitting on the couch with a glass of dry sherry and a good book, idly flicking a speck of dust from my sleeve It's rather that I know when I'm beaten/out of my depth.

I no longer have the back or the muscle to lay 60 sqm of floor screed, or hoik 80sqm of PV13 roof tiles up two floors. And as for plastering: I firmly believe almost everybody can learn to plaster properly. However the trial-and-error learning process would take an entire house, and then you'd be stuck looking at your earlier not-so-hot efforts for the next nnn years and wishing you'd got better sooner.

The plumbing and the electrickery I'm happy to cope with: they require more knowlege then skill, and besides, you can alway box in those perfectly water-tight but not very elegant bits of soldering. And these days with PER it's a doddle.

No, my main input to the project has been in the ordering/fetching/carrying, going-to-Brico-Depot-to collect-stuff yet again. Not to mention endless trips to the dechetterie. There is little charm in picking broken, soggy fragments of plasterboard from the bottom of a trailer in a pizzing rain because you didn't notice that someone has dumped wall rubble, plasterboard and broken windows into the trailer at the same time and then neglected to put the cover back on it before the downpour started, and, of course, here at the dechetterie, plaster goes in one bin, and the rubble in another and never the twain shall meet. 

And, quite frankly, the way both the French and the English governments are becoming increasingly keen on finding new and ever more inventive ways of parting us from our money, it struck me I'd better be spending it while I still had a bit.

It's all but gone now, but - hey - there're no pockets in a shroud, and at least we can be miserable and poor in some well-insulated comfort.

p

ps. Hope you skills run to replacing the skirting board - preferably without discovering dry rot.

[Anton Redman II]

They do run to skirting, some has to come off as I do not share the French enthusianm for surface mounted conduit or drilling through decorative mouldings. Trying to inspire myself to spend another six hours steaming and scraping off underlay after 10am trip to dentist this morning woopee.

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Anton Redman II"]They do run to skirting, some has to come off as I do not share the French enthusianm for surface mounted conduit or drilling through decorative mouldings. Trying to inspire myself to spend another six hours steaming and scraping off underlay after 10am trip to dentist this morning woopee.[/quote]

I was alluding to ...

 

The Gas Man Cometh - Flanders and Swann

'Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call.

The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all.

He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the main

And I had to call a carpenter to put them back again.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

'Twas on a Tuesday morning the carpenter came round.

He hammered and he chiselled and he said:

"Look what I've found: your joists are full of dry rot

But I'll put them all to rights".

Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights!

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

'Twas on a Wednesday morning the electrician came.

He called me Mr. Sanderson, which isn't quite the name.

He couldn't reach the fuse box without standing on the bin

Then his foot went through a window so I called the glazier in.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

'Twas on a Thursday morning the glazier came along

With his blow torch and his putty and his merry glazier's song.

He put another pane in - it took no time at all

But I had to get a painter in to come and paint the wall.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

'Twas on a Friday morning the painter made a start.

With undercoats and overcoats he painted every part:

Every nook and every cranny - but I found when he had gone

He'd painted over the gas tap and I couldn't turn it on!

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

On Saturday and Sunday they do no work at all;

So it was on a Monday morning that the gasman came to call...

 

Sounds like you're working through the list single-handed!

 

p