Digital terrestrial TV

[Bannon]

I know this may have been covered elsewhere but just a thought..... when the UK and France finally go entirely digital, will a digital TV bought in the UK work in France, or are we going to have a repeat of the PAL/SECAM scenario ?

Cheers guys.

[Pickles]

UK Freeview (ie UK DTT) boxes and digital televisions work in France and French DTT boxes/televisions work in the UK. They use effectively the same standard.

Regards

Pickles

[Tim]

Beware though -  a few early Freeview digi-boxes will not work in France. The technical specification of the broadcast signal is slightly different and some older boxes cannot cope with the change. Anything recent though should be ok - mine certainly are.

Tim

[Martin963]

....and a further beware - French DTT  (TNT) boxes will work in Britain but only to a limited extent,  in that they don't seem to be able to cope with the (MHEG4?) data and interactive (red button) stuff.    There was something else mine wouldn't do (only minor) but I'm blessed if I can remember what it was now.

Generally DTT/TNT boxes output PAL on the composite pin,  so even if you don't use RGB a French box will work with a PAL-only British set,  the French boxes I'm familiar with can be reset to SECAM on composite if the Gallic-only TV in question came out of the Ark.

A further complication is also on the horizon - MPEG4.    Although at the moment it's only going to be used on DTT/TNT for HD broadcasting,  I would be amazed if at some point all the broadcasters - lacking spectrum space - move over to it.   All new French TV's MUST be equipped with it from Dec 2009 (I think that was the date I read) so it could just be that buying an integrated TV with MPEG 2 only at the moment is a bad idea.

I've said before that I would always personally buy a separate DTT/DSat box as you can bin it and buy a current version a lot more easily than modifying something inbuilt into the TV.    I hate this technical throw-away-progress but it's something I suspect we're going to have to learn to live with.   DAB in Britain being a good example of a technology that has got "stuck".   Did anyone else notice that ch 4 have pulled out of the consortium planning the use of the third (and final) national DAB multiplex?   If ONLY Ofcom would now grab their chance to restore the audio quality of this much compromised transmission platform and give the third multiplex to the BBC on the understanding that bit rates are returned to 192 kbps on all programmes.

Wake me up someone.  Ofcon - not a chance.

[Tim]

I agree Martin, DAB has it's problems and critics but as you say, most of this is because of the appalling bit rate. Still, living in France, that problem doesn't concern me too much.

These HD ready DTT TV sets are already about - a friend of mine bought one six months ago over here.

Tim