Colour on French Sat Box

[Dubna]

I have installed a French Analogue Sat box and am watching a really clear black and white picture via the SCART connector to a UK TV. I was under the impression that I would get colour through the Scart Socket but not via the RF input.

Do I need a French television?

CHRIS

[Andrewjspencer]

Hi,

your TV Set must use the PAL standard and not the SECAM standard of French TVs. Some newer TV Sets are multi standard and can take signals from either PAL or SECAM. The use of a SCART lead to connect rather than the RF won't help you get colour pictures.

If you are interested I have a SECAM to PAL decoder that connects to the decoder scart output on analogue sat receivers and will convert the SECAM feed to PAL for your English TV. For a few quid and postage etc I'll post it on to you.

Send me a private message thingy to my inbox here if you are interested.

 

[Nick Trollope]

Your sat receiver is outputting PAL into the SCART socket, rather than RGB. SCART is for RGB (individual colours, red green & blue), PAL is the same PAL as would come via your aerial (without the UHF bit), so it isn't going to work.

Your sat receiver should/may have an RGB setting (like the "services" menu of a Sky Digibox), if you can set the output to RGB, then do so & it will work.

[Martin963]

This isn't quite correct Nick; the sat receiver won't be ouputting PAL if it's looking at the analogue sat channels on 5 deg west.

Analogue satellite receivers (apart from very expensive professional ones used by the broadcasters) output the same type of colour signal as that that they are receiving. So if you point the dish at AB 3 and tune in the French analogue channels you'll get a SECAM signal on the composite video pin of the scart output. If you swing round to Astra 1 and tune in the German channels you'll get PAL.

So a UK TV set which does not respond to SECAM (and all but the most up to date don't) will indeed display the French analogue satellite signals in black and white.

RGB gets round the problem by separating the colours into their component primaries (as you correctly surmise) but it is unlikely that the analogue sat receiver in question can be switched to RGB.

[DMC]

If you're considering buying a Video Recorder they are usually dual standard in France. This will cure your problem if you connect the sat box to the video and then the PAL output from the video will feed your TV in colour.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]This isn't quite correct Nick; the sat receiver won't be ouputting PAL if it's looking at the analogue sat channels on 5 deg west. Analogue satellite receivers (apart from very expensive professional...[/quote]

Ahaa!

You are, of course quite right. I was about to call you all the names under the sun, until I realised that the OP was talking analogue...

Proves  that it pays to read before you post.....