French digital tv standards query

Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.
--
Froggy

Blackadder: There's something wrong with your fiancée, sir.
Melchett: Oh my God, she's not Welsh, is she?

(Blackadder Goes Forth)

In the message ...
"Froggy" wrote:
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.

AFAIK, the initial 14 FTA French digital terrestrial TV broadcasts ("TNT" in
French), including simulcasts of the six existing analogue terrestrial
programmes and having coverage of about one third of the population, should
be compatible with those in the UK in the sense that:

- the UHF transmission channels (21 - 68) are the same;
- the baseband digital video signal is the same
- all but the oldest Freeview STBs, PC cards etc. should handle the FTA
signals OK

However, the second stage (due to begin in the autumn) will consist of a
similar number of payTV channels AFAIK few UK boxes make provision for
Pay-TV decryption, and so far I have no information about EPGs etc.

Further information (in French) should be available from
http://www.csa.fr/index.php

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels - where the one digital multiplex is a simulcast of
existing analogue programmes)

"Alan (in Brussels)" wrote in message
...
In the message ...
"Froggy" wrote:
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in
Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.

AFAIK, the initial 14 FTA French digital terrestrial TV broadcasts
("TNT" in
French), including simulcasts of the six existing analogue
terrestrial
programmes and having coverage of about one third of the population,
should
be compatible with those in the UK in the sense that:

- the UHF transmission channels (21 - 68) are the same;
- the baseband digital video signal is the same
- all but the oldest Freeview STBs, PC cards etc. should handle the
FTA
signals OK

However, the second stage (due to begin in the autumn) will consist
of a
similar number of payTV channels AFAIK few UK boxes make provision
for
Pay-TV decryption, and so far I have no information about EPGs etc.

Further information (in French) should be available from
http://www.csa.fr/index.php

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels - where the one digital multiplex is a simulcast
of
existing analogue programmes)





Ah, but the good bit is that, by usual standards, they will be
considerably cheaper across the water, so if they are UK compatible it
will doubtless become yet another tax-evading import!


--
Woody

harrogate2 at ntlworld dot com

Ah, but the good bit is that, by usual standards, they will be
considerably cheaper across the water, so if they are UK compatible it
will doubtless become yet another tax-evading import!



You'd have paid French VAT, so no tax will have been evaded. It's standard
practice down here in the SE to consider hitting the M20 and the Chunnel
after hours to shop. But go to the Auchans at Boulogne or Roncq instead of
Carrefour at Cite L'Europe - it's nearly always worked out cheaper for me.

It's quite spooky watching TF1, France2 etc - they have an Anne Robinson
lookalike on Le Weakest Link (whatever it's called as I can't remember), "On
Echange Nos Mamans" instead of Wife Swap, Qui Veut Gagner des Millions for
WWTBAM etc. Thing is, watching these after a couple of decent glasses of
Merlot and they're funnier than the original British versions... and it's a
great way to learn the lingo. In fact most European TV is similar -
"Urgences" is "ER" dubbed etc. Makes you almost feel at home. Given Kent's
house prices and that you can pull from the Dover transmitter, it can be


- Basil

Thus spaketh harrogate2:
"Alan (in Brussels)" wrote in message
...
In the message ...
"Froggy" wrote:
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.

AFAIK, the initial 14 FTA French digital terrestrial TV broadcasts
("TNT" in French), including simulcasts of the six existing analogue
terrestrial programmes and having coverage of about one third of the
population, should be compatible with those in the UK in the sense
that:

- the UHF transmission channels (21 - 68) are the same;
- the baseband digital video signal is the same
- all but the oldest Freeview STBs, PC cards etc. should handle the
FTA signals OK

However, the second stage (due to begin in the autumn) will consist
of a similar number of payTV channels AFAIK few UK boxes make
provision for Pay-TV decryption, and so far I have no information
about EPGs etc.

Further information (in French) should be available from
http://www.csa.fr/index.php

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels - where the one digital multiplex is a simulcast
of existing analogue programmes)





Ah, but the good bit is that, by usual standards, they will be
considerably cheaper across the water, so if they are UK compatible it
will doubtless become yet another tax-evading import!

But it's not tax evading as VAT of 19.6% will have been paid, and it's not an
import as it's within the EU, buying from the rest of the EU is the same as
buying from a UK store.

Froggy wrote:
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.

Think the FTA DTT system in France is MPEG2 via DVB-T, and so assuming the
channel allocation is the same (will the French be using VHF for DTT?) then
you should find some compatibility. However there may also be pay TV on the
French DTT platform, and this might use different conditional access (as
well as possibly using MPEG4?) - so it might be FTA only that UK boxes are
best for?

Be interesting to see what happens when people with holiday homes in France
have a go.

Froggy wrote:
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.
It's due to start broadcasting on the 1st of march next.
I was wondering if the standard used will be the same as in Britain.
Would a Freeview box purchased in the UK work in France?
Or is it the Pal B/G/I versus SECAM L story over again?
Thanks for your answers.

As others have said transmissions might well be receivable on UK DTT boxes.

An engineer from one of the major French networks tells me that the
government will only allow the output on DTT to be *exactly* the same as
present analogue transmissions. Therefore everything (at least from
existing terrestrial channels) will be 4:3 !

He was astounded when I directed him towards documents explaining the
shanalagins that UK broadcasters go through with AFDs and ARCs.

Alan (in Brussels) said the following on 19/01/2005 20:02:

- the UHF transmission channels (21 - 68) are the same;
- the baseband digital video signal is the same
- all but the oldest Freeview STBs, PC cards etc. should handle the FTA
signals OK

Do all UK boxes store channels with foreign country codes and/or without
LCNs?

Also do they select the "default" or "English" soundtrack?
(e.g. it might not be possible on some UK boxes to select the soundtrack
you want on Arte, and some might give you silence)

Also will French STB's output Secam or PAL via RF, and will they have
adjustable soundspacing? (RGB SCART should naturally work)

Interactive in the UK is MHEG, most of Europe is MHP (although I belive
boxes carrying the government switchover mark - i.e. NONE - are meant to
support MHEG and MHP - can anyone confirm or deny this?)


However, the second stage (due to begin in the autumn) will consist of a
similar number of payTV channels AFAIK few UK boxes make provision for
Pay-TV decryption, and so far I have no information about EPGs etc.

Few do, and those that do tend to support Mediaguard - no idea what
France are going to use, although i belive Canal Satellite use
Mediaguard (IIRC Canal+ developed the software for British Digital
Broadcasting (AKA on digital and ITV Digital)?
(And some like the Pace Twin have the hardware, but annoyingly, not the
software!)

Kev

"Froggy" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone.
France is to have its own digital tv at last.

I presume you mean terrestrail digital tv. The French have had digital
satellite tv for some time. Some of it is encrypted. They also have analogue
satellite TV.

In the case of a satellite STB the digital channels would likely be output as
RGB (on a Scart socket) in which case you would get colour in any RGB enabled
TV.Likely a French satellite STB would also ouput digital channels as cvbs in
SECAM on the Scart socket, and SECAM on the aerial ouput.


--

Michael Chare

In the message ...
"Basil" wrote:

Ah, but the good bit is that, by usual standards, they will be
considerably cheaper across the water, so if they are UK compatible it
will doubtless become yet another tax-evading import!

You'd have paid French VAT, so no tax will have been evaded. It's
standard
practice down here in the SE to consider hitting the M20 and the Chunnel
after hours to shop. But go to the Auchans at Boulogne or Roncq instead of
Carrefour at Cite L'Europe - it's nearly always worked out cheaper for me.

It's quite spooky watching TF1, France2 etc - they have an Anne Robinson
lookalike on Le Weakest Link (whatever it's called as I can't remember),
"On
Echange Nos Mamans" instead of Wife Swap, Qui Veut Gagner des Millions for
WWTBAM etc. Thing is, watching these after a couple of decent glasses of
Merlot and they're funnier than the original British versions... and it's
a
great way to learn the lingo. In fact most European TV is similar -
"Urgences" is "ER" dubbed etc. Makes you almost feel at home. Given Kent's
house prices and that you can pull from the Dover transmitter, it can be


The preparations for the launch of the French DTT service (notably the start
of test-card transmissions from the Eiffel Tower, on 17 Jan.) have already
stimulated a flood of press coverage in the local media. These indicate that
'TNT' set-top boxes will initially cost about EUR 100 (ie a bit more than
Freeview boxes). If you can read French, or untangle Google's on-line
machine translations, see eg:

TNT, mode d'emploi
par Joséphine Simon-Michel, in L'Express du 17/01/2005
http://www.lexpress.fr/mag/arts/doss...asp?ida=431314

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)