TNT Television?

[Washy]

TNT television - goes with a bang...sorry I am in a good mood today.

www.darty.fr sent me a promotional e-mail yesterday about TNT tv. It is not a satellite system but offers 14 french channels, quite a variety,  through a set top box (analogue).  It is meant to boost poor signals and states that you can use it with just a small indoor aerial.  This could be useful for people only wanting french tv.  Or it could have its uses in our household if I wanted to watch the news or soaps on french tv and my husband wanted to watch the cricket tests on satellite.

As I said on another topic as a result of the e-mail from Darty we went down to Narbonne but no one in the shop had a clue what we were on about, apparently it is not available in all areas.

[Martin963]

Just to be clear - the set top box is digital not analogue (the N in TNT stands for numerique).

I think Darty have got a bit carried away - as do certain UK retailers.  Although the French TNT (DTT) system is broadcast using a more robust coding system than the UK's,  a small indoor aerial is likely only to give satisfactory results within about 15 kms of a high power transmitter,  if at all.   That is the nature of UHF signal propagation.  All digital systems give pretty good results provided you get a decent signal to them,  but if that signal drops even a millibel below the threshold you lose the entire programme as the error correction ceases to compensate for the problems.   So I'm not sure that Darty are really being very rigorous (technically) in what they have publshed (I haven't seen it).

As Washy says,  we're really talking Paris, Lille,  Mantes, Bordeaux,  Niort (Maisonnay),  Rennes (St Pern),  Brest (Roc Tredudon).  Marseille,  Toulouse town relay, and a few others here.  Not by any means the majority of l'Hexagone.   So check before you buy.   More coverage comes on air in Sept 2004,  but it's likely that the rural areas where many Brits have houses will be the later areas switched on,  several years away in some cases where areas are served by lower-powered relays..

[Cat]

The new TNT website is now (after a bit of a delay) up and running.  It has a section that allows you to check if your postcode area will recieve coverage.  It only checks for current availability though, so you may need to the coverage maps for a date for your area.

Oh, and the first page takes a-g-e-s to load, so be patient

http://www.tnt-gratuite.fr/

 

[Will]

Yes, I had that thing from Darty too.

In simple terms, TNT is the French equivalent to Freeview in Britain. Unless you get a strong signal via your aerial and the transmitter from which you receive the signals is enabled for TNT it is unlikely to work well. Just as Freeview doesn't cover all of UK (our English maison secondaire can't get it, despite being in a fairly large commuter town not too far from London).