Digital Terrestial TV - France

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

I have learned that since our last visit to France that the area where our house is situated has "gone digital". So, to watch French TV, I presume we now need a set-top box and just maybe a better aerial and perhaps point it somewhere else. We have a couple of UK digiboxes in the back of the cupboard which are redundant as our UK sets are now the integrated type with the digital tuner.

Is a UK box compatible with the French signal ? Does this mean too that once a working box is connected, that any TV (UK PAL & French system) will work OK ?

If the answer to Q.1 is no we won't bother to bring the UK boxes and just buy locally.

[Anton Redman II]

Freeview (UK terrestrial digital televisition) and TNT are identical so a UK box will work in France. TV should be OK.

Edit - Only question a small number of very early UK and French boxes did not have  enough memory to cope with the full list of channels - Still worth packing IMHO.

[Tim]

There maybe one other possible issue.

Early terrestrial digi-boxes were only capable of receiving 2K signals. France, and now the UK, use an 8K system. If you are unlucky enough to have a 2K box, it won't work.

Other than that, I agree with Anton. It's certainly worth trying.

Regards - Tim

[Martin963]

As Tim says.    But you'll almost certainly know if your box is in that category,  it'll say OnDigital prominently on the front!!   (and even some of the later generation OnDigital branded boxes may work).   

So I'd leave an OnDigital box at a recycling centre (even if it works it'll probably be very slow) but bring anything else with you and give it a try.

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Thank you for the responses. It's a Humax box, allegedly one of the best, so we'll take it and see.