France and HD television

[P]

We are currently in the process of purchasing a house in France. Unfortunately, it will have to be a holiday home until I retire in a couple of years time.

We are now thinking of how we will furnish it. Having looked at settees in the French furniture stores have decided to bring these out from the UK.

Another thought is to bring out our existing CRT TV (Philips that ill receiv PAL and Secam) and replace it with a panel TV (Philips again because of the tuner) and bring it with us when we make the big move.

My questions are:

has France or are they planning HD TV

is there anything else we should consider

Many thanks

Paul

[LisaJ]

I would bring your bed (or at least the mattress.) I have never found a comfortable mattress in France!

regards

Lisa

[P]

Thnks Lisa, we were thinking of that.

However, about a year ago the OH said 'this mattress is so uncomfortable, we will buy a new mattress'.

So off we went to look at mattresses. My thought is always 'I need to sleep on it for a night to know if it is any good' but I have yet to find a store that will allow this.

We ended up buying a quite expensive mattress. The conclusion is that it is at best as comfortable (or should that be uncomfortable) and at worse less comfortable than the other one.

Is there anything else you would recommend us bringing?

Paul

[Bob T]

Funny that, I tried many French mattresses and found that I had about the same choise that I had in the UK, cheap uncomfortable or pay a bit more and comfortable. I don't think that the manufacturers of mattresses make a special lumpy model for France!

As for TV. Bring a sky digibox with you, a HDTV one if you wish, and you will have the same sky channels that you have in the UK. You can get TNT and some other digital terestial channels in some places here and they will beam HDTV just as most countries in Europe will.

[hastobe]

I think we must have been lucky - bought two three seater sofas with removable covers in the sale at Fly for 500 euros for the pair. At that price doesn't seem worth the shipping costs.  Similarly with our whirlpool american fridge freezer - which we paid 1,000 euros for last week in a sale (at electromenagers at Trelissac nr Perigueux) (French RRP 1,400 euros).  The same model (in the sale!) at UK Dixons is £899 - (approx 1,300 euros (RRP is £1,100 or 1,600 euros)).  Most of the oak furniture we picked up at the troc - oak table to seat 10 plus chairs was only 400 euro etc etc - certainly a lot cheaper than buying and shipping fom UK (It's a second home for us for the next four years so we would have had to buy anyway....)

I guess it depends what you have already and the additional cost of shipping....but don't assume UK stuff is cheaper - do a bit of window shopping first.

As an aside we were warned that UK TV's won't work in France - we don't have one so have not tested the advice but....

Kathie

[P]

Kathie

Seems like you did ok with the fridge freezer.

We have just sold a second house in the UK and therefore have a whole heap of stuff piled up in the one we are living in so we will have to use a van to bring it over (it will be cheaper than ditching it and buying new in France).

As for TVs, Philips (most) have tuners that cover both PAL and Secam.

Paul

[Deimos]

I notice that over autumn and winter they have mattress sales in the local villages. Some company (presumably with a lorry) visits villages in turn (just for one day) and sells mattresses. Signs appear around the place a week or so before "the event".

Of course, since I've been wanting to get a mattress to make a spare double bed there has been no sign of any of these sales locally !

Ian

[Martin963]

At present (AFAIK) HD broadcasts for France are taking place on a couple of channels on each of the satellite bouquet operators.  You need an additional subscription, a special (rent only) proprietary box,  and the choice is very limited.

It is unlikely that terrestrial will have the bandwidth required for HD,  at least not for a while and only for a very few channels.

Personally I'd bring your Philips over as - as you say - it should work in France.  To be sure you should check that it tunes system L (system I is in use in the UK).   This is even more important than colour compatibility - a SECAM set that does not tune L will NOT work in France;  but most modern Philips are OK.

There is an emerging problem witb so called HD Ready TV's in that some of them will NOT work with the French satellite HD boxes - all to do with digital outputs and film copying/piracy problems.   Personally I still prefer the quality of a good old CRT,  and if you look in the technical forums there are many folk of the same opinion.   If you can bear to wait then I would,

[More2Learn]

If thinking about moving on a more permanent basis in the near future it might well be worth looking at your present Sky set up if any or taking out a new Sky HD contract. This way you have all the UK channels and films etc if you subscribe to them. the Sky HD set up looks as if it will be offering the most coverage of channels on HD format.

As with all Sky deals to get the low price there is a period where you have to be connected to a phone line and at least as with the Sky + box this is normally for a year. Once the initial year is over then you can disconnect the phone line and just  continue to pay the subscription,  in theory if you keep a UK address for the subscription the box and dish set up can be anywhere.

More2Learn.