Portable UK TV to use in France on holiday?

[Laurier]

Does anyone know if it is possible for me to take  a very small portable UK TV  with me on holiday to France with portable aerial, plug it in to the mains and receive French TV?

I have no idea if this is possible/legal but  when I travel I often stay at places with no TV and would like to be able to switch something on  for company during the evening.

If a UK TV won't receive French programmes, I wonder if I can buy a small French TV but then what do I do about a French licence as I'm a UK resident at the moment?

Would appreciate any solution or advice.

Laurier

[Anton Redman]

Many cheap and chearful sets now support SECAM - the French system because it is now cheaper to have a standard production line. If the menus support French langauge and the documentation says  SECAM  then it should work in France. The last Proline LCD TV I bought is dual standard as was a very cheap French supermaket special we bought 10 years ago.

The bad news is loads of French towns and the countryside you need an outside antenna to pull in a decent picture.

When we bought VCRs and TVs in France but were not resident they notmall took the uk address but used 99999 in the post code.

[Laurier]

Tks Anton. That has answered all the questions.

Rgds

Laurier

[Martin963]

I say this again and again but you need to check that the spec of any purchase says L/SECAM or SECAM L,  or system L.

SECAM is merely the colour system which is bolted on to the transmission standard.   Transmission standards were dreamt up BEFORE colour TV came on the scene,  and are fundamental to the set's ability to work - if it can't "get at" the black and white information it won't decode colour even if it has the facility.   

There are SECAM sets around (purchased outside France) that work fine on SECAM when you plug an outside SECAM source into their SCART socket,  but won't tune in to system L signals via their aerial sockets.    SECAM is not the same "thing" as system L,  you can use SECAM with other

transmission standards,  the East bloc used D & K with SECAM,   and

such a set would NOT work in France.

It's a distinction that becomes less common as the years go by - as Anton says a number of sets sold in the UK are now suitable - but for absolute certainty I would take a magnifying glass to the instruction book of anything you intend to buy.    Normally I'd say buy it in France as then it's guaranteed to be system L compatible,  but with the € so high against the £ that route could be expensive. 

As Anton also says,   signals in many remote areas can be weak,  many French UHF tx sites had their powers roughly halved in the 1990's as set design came on and could cope with lower field strengths,  but it makes portable reception in areas far away from a main station a bit hit and miss,  at least compared to th UK where power levels were maintained at their authorised maxima.   There are many many relays however which fill in many of the gaps.

As Anton says,  give a UK address.   Although we have a licence in France (and have done for ages,   long before the "amnesty" that was granted some years ago),  I've always registered our sets as UK based

[Tim]

Well put Martin. Many years ago, when I obviously must have had a lot more time on my hands, I was interested in long distance TV reception. To do this I ended up with two portable black and white sets - the first one was Pal and you could select system I or B/G - so this was able to receive UK and most of the rest of Europe except France.

So, when over here I got another portable - this one received Pal system B/G and Secam L, so this one got most of Europe and France, but not the UK!

My wife at the time thought I was crazy - she may have had a point.

Tim

[Gyn_Paul]

Ah those where the days, when a sunny early afternoon 'hop' would bring a snowy NED 1 from Lopik, or MTV (that would be Magar, not Music) from Eastern Europe.

Rummaging up and down Band I and III was far more fun than swinging a satellite dish round!, Eh Timco ?

paul

[Keith CHANNING]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, though, is it?

[Martin963]

As indeed was long distance Band II.  

Now all but impossible now that Chav FM etc clutter up the band.

[Laurier]

MW

Thanks - now have SECAM/L imprinted on the grey matter and I will certainly scrutinise the manuals as you suggest. Sorry if you have repeated all this before - I did look in the 'search' facility but couldn't find anything.

I had thought of purchasing in France but I am a TV/Video, etc. technophobe with capabilities limited to the on/off button and, although I speak reasonable French, thought I would be more comfortable buying something in UK where I would have a fighting chance of understanding the manual.

Many thanks

Lau.

[Tim]

Where I was living in southern England one of the most frequent channels that used to come through on band I was NRK Norway, but I always found it facinating that I could leave the receiver on one frequency and within seconds one station would disappear and another from a completly different location would appear. You never knew what you were going to get. I also got on many occassions the Canal + signals on band III.

It's an interesting part of the spectrum - I frequented the four metre band (70mHz) at this time and alot of the eastern european countries used that for their FM broadcast transmissions and it was not unusual to have my inane chats with someone just down the road  wiped out by an incredibly loud burst of a Polish station via sporadic E.

I had a friend on the Antarctic expeditions and we sent him a transistorised portable 405 line TV and he quite happily watched BBC transmissions on band I quite often. I always thought this was amazing - I suppose I still do.

I still have a listen around on band II when there's a 'lift' on. Only now it's to see what I can get from the UK and the rest of Europe instead of what's coming in from France.[geek]

Tim

 

[Martin963]

:Laurier,   no problems,  I only wanted to emphasise that sloppy nomenclature (which abounds in the technical world) might land you with something that did everything EXCEPT what you actually need.   Anton is quite right - you probably WOULD be OK but it's not worth the risk.   For instance,  we have a Sagem DVD recorder that is fine on SECAM off satellite but would not actually work with an aerial in France - the colour chip is dual standard but the RF (tuning) section is system I only (for the UK) and won't (can't) switch to system L.

Belt and braces and all that....!

That old ch 1 transmission from Crystal Palace was regularly viewed in S Africa in the late 50's so I suppose Antarctica wasn't much further.   Not surprising when in essence one is using a quasi-short wave band frequency.   Nice to have another confirmation of just how far it went.    Maybe Carcassonne Canal + still does (ch 3 L').

I do miss VHF TV (I know we've still got it in France) - tx spotting was so much more interesting when you could see the aerials rather than just the shrouds.   Still,  my visit to Stockland Hill last October did allow me to finally get in close to an EMI slot UHF panel,  I even now have two of them at home in Devon.

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/stocklandhill/dso/shdso7.php

[AnOther]

You might consider one of THESE, with a SCART output it will work into any SCART equipped TV.

They can be a little fiddly to setup at times but we took one with us when on house hunting trips and it was great for the quiet evenings.

 

[Laurier]

ErnieY

Thanks. I appreciate the suggestion but it looks anything but 'easy set-up' to me. These things always assume a level of basic technical knowledge and understanding. Normally,  I would have to get a satellite man in to sort out something like that for me. I will keep the info as it looks as if it could be really useful (once you understand it). I feel quite stupid when it comes to things like this. I suppose if I want the creature comforts, I must make an effort to try and understand how these things work.

Rgds

Laurier

[AnOther]

No problem, I do understand [:)]