Computer and TV question for the experts

[Coral]

I live in Japan and am doing my final pack-up before moving to France. I  am not bringing my computer - just popping the hard-disk into my handbag. but I have a fairly new printer/scanner/fax.  It runs on 100V not 240V but  I am thinking of bringing it and using it with a transformer. 

Can any of you experts tell me if this would work or if I would have unsolvable problems ?  would there be any difficulties with the fax?

Also my TV is supposed to be multisystem PAL/NTSC/Secam/Mescam but a friend says that the Secam in France could be different.  Huh???? 

Help/Comments please!!!  I have been pulling my  hair out over the  so many problems in my move to France that I think I am going bald!!

Any advice or information would be really appreciated.

Coral - almost in Ariege

 

 

[IAN_S]

I have run nearly all my small household electrical stuff with transformers in the past with no problems so don't see why you would have any with your fax.

As far as the tv is concerned, secam was invented by France and is their standard so again I don't think you would have any problems. Also, if you are using it for any satellite digital service here your set has PAL to handle a digibox or similar, and secam for the French analogue transmissions, so I think you are covered in every respect.

[Martin963]

There are two aspects to the TV standards issue;  one is the colour system,  the other (more important and frequently mis-understood) is the transmission standard.   SECAM and PAL are just bolt-on colour systems sitting "within" the transmission standard.

What you need to check (assuming you want to watch analogue terrestrial TV in France) is that your TV tunes system L.  In the old east-bloc they used systems D and K with Secam colour;  there is not much difference between D/K and B/G/I apart from the audio/video frequency offset,  and most multistandard sets cope with all of these,  PAL or SECAM.

Unfortunately system L is VERY different,  (opposite video polarity,  AM sound, as well as yet another offset) and a lot of multistandard TV's - even SECAM - don't specifically work in France.

If you haven't got the manual any more (look under specifications) you'll just have to see....!

One way round it (if you have a problem) is to use a French sourced VCR to tune the French terrestrial analogue signals and then feed them for display on your TV - this should work as the VCR will tune the signal and output (via SCART) the sound and picture separately;   the SECAM should then display corretcly on your TV (along with the sound).  This doesn't work for the majority of UK sets because they can't cope with SECAM - even via Scart.

But if you just want to view DVD's/satellite via a scart input and aren't worried about French TV it would be fine (as long as you solve the voltage problem).

[Anton Redman]

http://www.alkenmrs.com/video/standards.html

I thought system L was 405 lines, and mainly former French colonies in West Africa ? ? . Nearest System K  SECAM to Japan is probably North Korea who selected SECAM , via Russia and China. Worst case scenario is buying a TNT or Digital receiver in France if TV is good quality and expensive.  Suspect any recently purchased TV from Japan will be flat screen and it is now probably cheaper to build true multi standard with self selecting than prodcue different variants for other markets. Our seven year old very cheap French portable self seeks/tunes all European standards but not NTSC. 

[Smiley]

I agree with Martin. When I first got my house I purchased a new TV in the UK and took it with me to France. It didn't work of course!!!  All I did was as Martin said, purchased a French DVD / Video and routed all the other aerials and Satelite through this. I simply connected the Scart from Video out to TV and Hey presto one converted TV. The savings I made on buying the tele in the UK more than covered the cost of the Video, so I was still happy. 

[Coral]

Thanks for the comments and advice.  

I dug out the specs and the list shows PAL B/G PAL D/K1 SECAM B/G D/K1 (OIRT) as well as NTSC 4.43 /5.5.  So Martin your info about L (whatever that is) is probably the reason for the friend's comment.  So if I buy a French DVD/Video and route everything through it I should be OK. Right?  FYI it's quite an old TV but it would cost more to dispose of it this end in unburnable goods disposal charges than the shipment cost and it still works really well - great picture.  I'd better touch wood somewhere!!!  

BTW most people suspect that Korea's choice of Secam was very much controlled by Koreans' easy access to Japanese programs. but that's another topic concerning TV licences and taxes.

Coral - almost there - ariege  here I come!

 

[Martin963]

Anton - the 405 lines (old UK standard) was system A (just for the record).

Coral - you SHOULD be all right.  The only snag might be that some far-east TV's do not have SCART (peritel) connection(s).   It's a 2-row 21 pin (hideous from all points of view) affair.   Have a look round the back (as it were!).   In the absence of this there might be a phono socket (like audio plugs,  sometimes called cinch or RCA) for video in,  possibly another one or two for audio in.  This would allow you to get round the problem as well,  in that if the TV copes with SECAM via systems D and K from an aerial it will almost certainly cope with SECAM fed in to its non-aerial inputs (ie Scart/phono plugs.)   I hope...!   But as you say the lack of L suggests that to receive French TV you will need a French sourced DVD recorder or video to act as the bridge.

OUt of (minimal) interest,  System L was chosen in conjunction with SECAM by - apparently - none other than De Gaulle himself in an effort to keep out foreign imports,  even though positive picture modulation is inferior,  AM sound is inferior,  and SECAM signals do not bear up as well as PAL in weak signal areas.   L is about as different as it can be, short of having a different number of lines (which of course for many years the French did - ie the old 819 line system,  in use on TF1 (la Une) until 1983.

teeroe 1 - great!   But for others: do be careful,  particularly when using a French VCR as the bridge between aerial and TV.  Because the majority of VCR's will not convert SECAM to PAL,  whereas some DVD recorders do (certainly the Philips range seems to).  As I believe that DVD recorders have to output PAL they pretty much have - if they're designed fot sale in France - to accept SECAM for off air recording and convert it,  so I guess that one is reasonably safe to rely on this method of conversion (ie French sourced DVD recorder) to enable a UK PAL only set to display French SECAM off-air signals.   But I can't be certain.   For a French VCR the chances are that it won't convert SECAM to PAL and a UK set will still only display a black and white picture.  Although I know that someone on the forum got it to work this way.

As you can tell I'm being careful to cover myself here as I haven't (and can't) test every combination.   So if you buy any kit for this purpose make sure that you have a few days to take it back for a refund if it doesn't do the business.

Anton - yes the TNT (digital terrestrial television) route would work - but only if Coral is moving to an area with a signal.... 

 

[Anton Redman]

Seem to be getting myself into a reply for the sake of a reply but I was fairly sure that early versions of SECAM were also 405 and are still being broadcast in West Africa. Unlike versus Never The Same Color Twice I could never see any great advantage on either side in PAL versus SECAM. 

Before solid state electronics and digital sat I owned a Russian VCR sourced in Aden once you had got over Nice One Cyril  in the manual it would receiver and record anything . Provided you lived above the third floor it doubled as an anti tank device you walked toward the balcony waited until something was passing beneath and dropped it.  

[Martin963]

Well it could be Anton - I only have accurate (ish) documentation for the EBU area.   But generally it was felt that use of colour on 405 lines was a bit of a waste;  the BBC spent some time testing it in the 50's,  first on Band 3 (I think) from a temporary aerial on Crystal Palace, then on Band 5.   By this time 625 lines had pretty much become universal in Europe (apart from ONE country,  the identity of which is not difficult to guess!) and the largely invisible line structure of 625 made colour a worthwhile improvement.

If you can remember which countries it was in Africa it would be interesting to know,  but don't worry too much....

[Anton Redman]

I will have a search on the web. Fairly sure not Rwada or Burundi as my memories of TV there are being amazed at 12 inch video discs of films. Ditto Djibouti which used to broadcast The Avengers ( series 2 to 7 ) on Suday evenings in the 70s.