Scrapping French TV by aerial?

[Chrissie]

Am I way behind the times?  Went to my lacemaking class yesterday and they were all saying that in a year we won't be able to get (French) TV except by satellite.  Now, bearing in mind we are all grannies there, I assume this is old hat, but it surprised me!....

Is it true?

Chrissie (81)

[Tim]

Not as far as I know Chrissie.

There is a lot of work going on with the terrestrial transmitters and it's possible that some areas may have issues with coverage of the digital signal but they will still be working.

 

Regards - Tim

[Martin963]

It does depend where exactly you are,  but as Tim says most places will still be able to use their *existing* TV aerials,   but with the addition of a TNT set top box to "convert" the TV to digital.

That said,   there are approx 3500 TV transmitters in France for each of the three main programmes.    Some of these are high powered and serve areas with a radius of 50 miles or so,  others are tiny tiny flea-powered relays that might serve - literally - five houses.   (cf the criteria for the BBC which was that construction of a relay was only justified if it served more than 200 people).

During the course of digital switchover many of the tiny relays will be closed down for good;   if this is the case it's generally because the more-robust digital signals will be able to overcome whatever technical obstacle was preventing the reception of analogue signals from the parent station.   In those areas you would either need to renew or at least re-orientate your aerials onto the parent station,  or go down the satellite route   (TNTsat or Fransat).

I think it's over a thousand of the small analogue relays that are closing,  which sounds a lot.   In practice they actually serve less than 5% of the total population,   so you have to have quite bad luck to be thus affected.

Can you get digital TNT signals at the moment where you are?   If yes then you'll be fine after switch-over.  If not it may be that your relay is on the waiting list to be converted,  in which case you'll be fine.   If you want to know if your relay will close the full list is here:

 http://www.csa.fr/upload/TNT/Elus/Tableau_emetteurs_eteints.pdf

Do bear in mind that certain antennistes are putting out scare stories;  certainly in Britain there's a nice little industry going amongst unscrupulous contractors telling people they need "digital aerials".   Be re-assured,   there is NO SUCH THING as a digital aerial!!

Please post back if you're worried or if you want further details,   or off list with your rough location and I may be able to predict the situation a bit more specifically.....

[Chrissie]

Thank you, Tim and Martin.  We don't seem to be on the list, so am happy to wait and see what happens in due course.  Very re-assuring.

Chrissie (81)

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Most of the aerials were scrapped in my village due to the high winds the other week...

[Théière]

[:D][:D][:D]

[Judie]

It went from our area on the 9th of March.

[Martin963]

Yes Judie but presumably you can still get TV via your aerial,  it's merely that the analogue signal has been turned off,  and replaced by a digital one.... non?

[Judie]

Yes Martin that's what I meant.

[Martin963]

Excellent Judie.     I'm just trying to make sure that the "myth" that had been sown in the minds of the group-of-grannies mentioned by the OP was being properly "debunked",  and from what you wrote I did wonder whether you had lost out.

Yes a very small % of the population will lose all terrestrial signals by Nov 2011 but the VAST majority of folk will find their analogue signal satisfactorily replaced by the digital ones,  if indeed the digital ones are not already up and running (at lower power) in parallel with the analogue.

We're waiting with bated breath in rural Limousin where our (extremely important and high powered) transmitter has had more delays for the start of TNT than the baker has baked baguettes.    Latest date fin avril but in view of the fact that a lot of the ancillary work at relays hasn't even been agreed let alone done I'll believe it when I see it.   It will happen eventually,  but I doubt it will be before June.

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Martin963"]Excellent Judie.     I'm just trying to make sure that the "myth" that had been sown in the minds of the group-of-grannies mentioned by the OP was being properly "debunked",  and from what you wrote I did wonder whether you had lost out.

Yes a very small % of the population will lose all terrestrial signals by Nov 2011 but the VAST majority of folk will find their analogue signal satisfactorily replaced by the digital ones,  if indeed the digital ones are not already up and running (at lower power) in parallel with the analogue.

We're waiting with bated breath in rural Limousin where our (extremely important and high powered) transmitter has had more delays for the start of TNT than the baker has baked baguettes.    Latest date fin avril but in view of the fact that a lot of the ancillary work at relays hasn't even been agreed let alone done I'll believe it when I see it.   It will happen eventually,  but I doubt it will be before June.
[/quote]

Now then Martin, we Limousiniains don't want the south of our region to be sullied with you Perigorians... 'Rural Limousin' indeed !!

p

[Martin963]

My dear p

Ha! - I must defend my position!!    Curiously enough our village actually WAS in Correze before the Revolution,  but I'd have a job pretending that Napoleon had in place a spinning mirror system at that time for the disemination of radical politics.    But our end of Perigord does in some cases look more towards Limoges than to Perigueux or indeed Bordeaux....