Terrestrial TV in France

[Roger Haworth]

Until recently I had a satellite dish on my van but after ten years use it kept breaking down so I scrapped it and I have a terrestrial aerial in its place. I have an equally old Avtex tv whose tuner can only receive SD transmissions. To come to the point, I have just arrived in France today and I can't receive any French terrestrial channels. The only reason I can think of for this is that all their transmissions are now in HD format. Can anyone confirm that this is the case? I had a look on wikipedia and it seemed to be saying that some channels were still broadcast in SD format.

 

[colinm]

IIRC although they might not all be HD, they use the same transmission standard.

 

[witzend]

There was a similar thread no so long ago don't think you'll be getting any terrestrial TV

May be something HERE

 

[Roger Haworth]

Many thanks witzend. It's pretty clear from the link you posted that my old Avtex tv can't pick up French terrestrial channels. I think I'll be in the market for a more up to date tv!

 

[Canalsman]

Beware ...

I bought a TV in France which of course receives French HD transmissions. But it won't receive Freeview HD. It does receive Freeview SD.

I got round this by buying a Freeview HD set-top box.

I imagine an UK purchased TV won't receive HD transmissions in France ...

 

[Mick H]

French Terrestrial TV

Until recently I had a satellite dish on my van but after ten years use it kept breaking down so I scrapped it and I have a terrestrial aerial in its place. I have an equally old Avtex tv whose tuner can only receive SD transmissions. To come to the point, I have just arrived in France today and I can't receive any French terrestrial channels. The only reason I can think of for this is that all their transmissions are now in HD format. Can anyone confirm that this is the case? I had a look on wikipedia and it seemed to be saying that some channels were still broadcast in SD format.

You are quite correct. France changed, to HD transmissions, for terrestrial tv, a few years ago. We bought a Avtex HD TV, and can now receive programmes, whilst in France.
France uses the same European standard, as the UK. The problem is, many of their broadcasts are encrypted, but not all.

Best to use satellite, on the continent. I watched the last F1 race, on RTL, last Sunday, transmitted in the clear, but with advert breaks.

 

[Moped]

We are using a data sim and watching everything from I player, itv player and Netflix
Seems to use about 1 gb per hour
We have a 100 gb sim so no problem and cheaper than buying an oyster
You just need to get a deal on the sim

Remember to check roaming limits if using a UK sim. Three for example allow 19GB even on the unlimited contract with 2 month restrictions. BT permit 4 months of roaming per year up to the full allowance. Whilst Vodafone say you can use the full data allowance when roaming they still have a fair use policy as shown below:-

“Is there a Fair Use Policy for Vodafone Global Roaming Plus?
Yes. Our Vodafone Global Roaming Plus proposition is intended for periodic travel and not for users roaming on a semi-permanent or permanent basis.

We will send you a text requesting you moderate your usage of Services in our Vodafone Global Roaming Plus zone if 50% or more of the days you have used our Services have occurred in our Vodafone Global Roaming Plus zone within any 4 month rolling period.

If your usage in our Vodafone Global Roaming Plus zone continues to exceed 50% (as described above) over a 2-week period following our notification, we may bar your roaming Services. We’ll always let you know before we do this.”

What I have found is that there is some flexibility on the time restrictions as long as you keep your average usage at say 60% of the maximum allowance. You may get 4 months continuous roaming out of Three if only using 10GB per month for example. You do not get go binge when roaming. They claim you do but it does in fact come out of your roaming allowance. What I do is juggle between 3 sims giving me a total of around 60GB roaming monthly but I do have very good deals on each when combined at a lower cost than the 100GB Vodafone offer. We download stuff using any decent Wi-fi that we find and only stream video occasionally to conserve data. We link our mobile devices to the TV with an HDMI cable.

Download from the tv players if possible using the lowest acceptable viewing standard rather than stream or live stream. You will cut your data usage significantly. The only live stuff we watch is sport.

Also bear in mind BREXIT when looking at packages. At this stage only Three have committed to no change after BREXIT regardless of the outcome. Others have said that whilst they plan no changes it could be regulator/operator dependent after BREXIT.

 

[r4dent]

I think I'll be in the market for a more up to date tv!

They make TVs that show colour pictures these days.

 

[witzend]

We are using a data sim and watching everything from I player, itv player and Netflix
You just need to get a deal on the sim

I did try it out a few weeks ago in France/Spain & Portugal and found it equal to satellite limited but enough choice really. So I'd give a try if I ever needed to replace my satellite system which also is limited to the channels it receives past half way thru France.