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We are shortly moving to france and have been told that it is possible to receive Freeview tv. We have a Sony tv with integrated Freeview. Would we need a sky box and satelite dish?
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Your information, as is so often the case, is only half right. You will receive TNT, the French equivalent of Freeview.

It's not worth going through it all again, so a search in the forum on 'Freeview' and 'freesat' will throw up the information you need.

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[quote user="MOBD"]We are shortly moving to france and have been told that it is possible to receive Freeview tv. We have a Sony tv with integrated Freeview. Would we need a sky box and satelite dish?[/quote]

You would receive the French equivalent of Freeview on you set's built-in tuner (which -like in the UK - is a digital version of what you would receive through an aerial).

For FreeSat - yes - you will need a dish and a box. A Sky one if you wish to continue to receive subscription channels, or a digital box off the shelf in any of the Bricos here in France (about 65E) if you are happy with just the free - to - air channels.

 

p

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You can buy a FREESAT box in the UK(they also come with hard drives like Sky+, but more expensive), connect it to a dish pointed at the correct satellite and you will receive all UK free to air programmes (all BBC channels, all ITV channels, C4, C5, E4, More4, Film4 and and many more).

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[quote user="MOBD"]We are shortly moving to france and have been told that it is possible to receive Freeview tv. We have a Sony tv with integrated Freeview. Would we need a sky box and satelite dish?[/quote]

There are 2 issues here and its best not to get confused.

French TV - Your TV with its current 'Freeview' (its called TNT in France, different name but same thing) built in receiver will function in France and pick up French TV stations. There may be a slight issue in that the area you may be moving to may not receive digital signals. Most of France does but for instance where I live I can't get it because there is a big mountain in the way. The signal comes via your TV aerial just like in the UK but obviously with the distance involved it won't pick up English TV stations only French.

English TV - If you want to have English TV you will need to have a satellite dish and box. You can either buy a secondhand Sky box or if you have one already bring it with you or alternatively, as somebody has already mentioned, you can get a dish and box at many Brico's (DIY shops). With the latter option there may be one or two UK channels you can't get (I think it's 5 US etc) but you can if you have a Sky box.

Hope that helps.

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[quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="MOBD"]We are shortly moving to france and have been told that it is possible to receive Freeview tv. We have a Sony tv with integrated Freeview. Would we need a sky box and satelite dish?[/quote]

There are 2 issues here and its best not to get confused.

French TV - Your TV with its current 'Freeview' (its called TNT in France, different name but same thing) built in receiver will function in France and pick up French TV stations. There may be a slight issue in that the area you may be moving to may not receive digital signals. Most of France does but for instance where I live I can't get it because there is a big mountain in the way. The signal comes via your TV aerial just like in the UK but obviously with the distance involved it won't pick up English TV stations only French.

English TV - If you want to have English TV you will need to have a satellite dish and box. You can either buy a secondhand Sky box or if you have one already bring it with you or alternatively, as somebody has already mentioned, you can get a dish and box at many Brico's (DIY shops). With the latter option there may be one or two UK channels you can't get (I think it's 5 US etc) but you can if you have a Sky box.

Hope that helps.

[/quote]

 

That's interesting Q.,

Why are there some free-to-air channels which a non-Sky box won't pick up, yet a Sky non-subscription box will ? 

p

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[quote user="gyn_paul"][quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="MOBD"]We are shortly moving to france and have been told that it is possible to receive Freeview tv. We have a Sony tv with integrated Freeview. Would we need a sky box and satelite dish?[/quote]

There are 2 issues here and its best not to get confused.

French TV - Your TV with its current 'Freeview' (its called TNT in France, different name but same thing) built in receiver will function in France and pick up French TV stations. There may be a slight issue in that the area you may be moving to may not receive digital signals. Most of France does but for instance where I live I can't get it because there is a big mountain in the way. The signal comes via your TV aerial just like in the UK but obviously with the distance involved it won't pick up English TV stations only French.

English TV - If you want to have English TV you will need to have a satellite dish and box. You can either buy a secondhand Sky box or if you have one already bring it with you or alternatively, as somebody has already mentioned, you can get a dish and box at many Brico's (DIY shops). With the latter option there may be one or two UK channels you can't get (I think it's 5 US etc) but you can if you have a Sky box.

Hope that helps.

[/quote]

 

That's interesting Q.,

Why are there some free-to-air channels which a non-Sky box won't pick up, yet a Sky non-subscription box will ? 

p

[/quote]

 

Q seems to be away so I'll try to help.

A proper freesat receiver should be able to receive any free to air (fta) channel. You need to switch the box to non-freesat mode and it will download them and put them into a non-freesat channel list.

If you are specifically referring to Five US and Fiver - well, they are not fta channels. They need a Sky card to be able to receive them, although no subcription is required. They are, therefore not fta channels - they are FTV (free to view) channels. Confusing sometimes, isn't it?

 

If I've not made it clear, my apologies, but if you have a Sky box, with FTV card, try taking it out and Five US and Fiver will disappear.

Regards - Tim

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Well, although I haven't watched them, I'm pretty sure that they appear on my freesat box.

Have just checked - they are on freesat so they are not scrambled - i.e. fta - no card needed and any fta box should be able to get them.

 

Regards - Tim

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That seems to have answered OP question, Permission to hijack this thread for a minute.

When I got to France last week armed with my how to retune for chanel 5 instructions. Switched on the box and still have 5 right where I left it, still using the yellow house card.

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  • 2 weeks later...
It used to be the case that you needed a french TV to watch french TV (Secam v Pal).

Alot of TV's in the UK now mention Secam in passing, but none of the manufacturers will say whether they will pick up French tv or not. Buy one in France they say!

Can anyone give me a definitive answer on this.

I don't want to spend alt of money on a TV in the UK only for it not to pick up French TV.

Thank you.
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My Philips TV which is about 15 years old and bought in the UK is PAL, SECAM and NTSC, you just set it in the setup menu and yes it does work, or did till they turned of our relay station so we now have to have TNT via satellite.
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[quote user="Piddy"]It used to be the case that you needed a french TV to watch french TV (Secam v Pal).

Alot of TV's in the UK now mention Secam in passing, but none of the manufacturers will say whether they will pick up French tv or not. Buy one in France they say!

Can anyone give me a definitive answer on this.

I don't want to spend alt of money on a TV in the UK only for it not to pick up French TV.

Thank you.[/quote]

Indeed!     For analogue TV terrestrial reception the key fact is not so much the PAL SECAM issue (although it's important of course) as the I/L discrepancy.    Britain uses system I (with PAL colour),  a standard which is not far from those used in most of the rest of Europe (apart from the crucial separation between the vision and sound carriers on each channel).    However France uses system L with SECAM colour, where almost every parameter apart from the number of lines is different to everywhere else in Europe.

So not so long ago even "multi-standard" TV's sold in Britain rarely worked in France,   although they would often work with SECAM in - say - Hungary or Czechoslovakia (as was!),   as these former east-bloc countries used SECAM colour but based on systems D and K (which are far "nearer" to I).

Most spec lists will mention the (analogue) TV systems covered by a set so are worth a careful check in the shop.    If the set covers system L with SECAM as well as I with PAL then it will work in France for analogue French TV.

However,   the problem has nearly gone because in the brave new digital world all the standard def terrestrial transmissions in Europe use DVB-T with MPEG 2 and -  apart from early OnDigital sets - a British Freeview box or TV will work in France (but receiving TNT of course,  not Freeview).    With French DSO gathering pace the last system L with SECAM transmitter will be closed in Nov 2011 and some areas have already been completely "digitised".

 

For HD the situation is slightly more complex as a French HD STB or TV will NOT work  (or I'd better say is unlikely to work) in Britain for HD channels as Britain is using DVB-T2 with MPEG 4 for HD while France is still using DVB-T with MPEG 4 for HD channels. 

If I haven't covered all the eventualities please ask again!

 

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Bought a flat screen tv from amazon uk at a very good price, came very quickly at a very small amount on postage costs to. It works fine on its own built in freeview (TNT) box and its also fine for uk sat aswell.

All round a very good buy 'Toshiba, Regza'.

Also our old tv's (10 years+) will pick up french via a TNT box with no messing about just pressed AV1 and presto its on.

I don't think you will have any problem with a tv you buy now as the inlaws bought one in the uk and brought it back to france and again just plugged in a TNT box and french tv no problems. Go on get a nice flat screen you know you want one..
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