[jhalphen]

Hi to All,

For NowhereMan 1966:
"Can you buy digital to analogue converter boxes to continue to use your old TV?"

Well yes and No:
- All French color TVs since 1975 have by law a SCART or EuroConnector, as later on all Western European nations adopted the device. This is a 21 pin dual-row of pins pins connector which provides composite A/V in/out in stereo + RGB input + a fast-switch used to insert for instance teletext & subtitles for the deaf. Since the original connector, variants have approved to output RGB-Sync, YUV & S-Video.

If your vintage TV has a SCART connector, connection is easy: a SCART cable connected to the DVB-T tuner sends Composite AV to the TV. If your TV is more recent, it can also be used in RGB/YUV for the best picture.

If your vintage TV only accepts an RF input, some DVB-T tuner boxes have a built-in RF modulator, usually for PAL B/G, D,D',I, K,K '. Alas, since the first wave of DVB-T tuner càommerliazed in May 2005, suppliers are scimping on the RF mod, so you need a 2 step approach: DVB-T tuner, PAL output then a modern synthesized UHF or VHF/UHF modulator.

Note 01: PAL in France!! - well yes! since the early 90s, most TVs sold in Europe are PAL and SECAM compatible. One market, one format, making SECAM only sets for France had become a silly proposition.

Now if you are the owner of a really "historical" SECAM-only set dating back to the earliest days of color TV, a 1 or 3-pronged solution is needed:
1) A DVB-T tuner with a SECAM L modulator, that means finding a 2005-2007 model which has already self-destroyed, courtesy of £§!!@ chinese caps!

2) A DVB-T tuner + a PAL to SECAM baseband video transcoder, dirt-cheap at US $10.00-20.00, a leftover of the 8mm camcorder era (Sony) which were PAL only. The SECAM signal is then sent to a modern synthesized RF modulator.

The PAL to SECAM transcoder performs an essential function: it generates the (in)famous SECAM "Bottles" V-interval Color Ident signal which tells the vintage set that it is receiving a SECAM Color transmission. Without them, B&W reception only. Line-by-line Color Ident only became mandatory in the early 80s, so TVs of the 1967-1984 era are left out in the cold.

This may sound like a Rube-Goldberg contraption, but actually it works very well. See my pictures of a genuine 1976 Sony KV-1340DF SECAM only TV receiving DVB-T today - it's the first screen to the left 12"), not bad for a 35 year old TV!

Note 02: A nice thing about DVB-T transmissions is the possibility to switch between the dubbed in French main soundtrack and the original English version. As most of the US police-TV series and many others are popular in France, maybe the French will learn some English after all !

.For E-Type2 - Hi Marshall!
"On the subject of TV transmission, I purchased a Philips 3LC2050/05G Micro TV from a UK seller. It has the Pal channel range indication of Pal, but I can receive the low power, analogue, NTSC, UHF stations in the U.S. ? How is this possible? Multi-Band?"

I can't really answer your question, but this has been my experience: I own several Philips 3LC50 PAL/SECAM "open the book" type LCD color TVs. With both the PAL B/G and NTSC transmitters running, a channel search will first find the NTSC channel and stop. Picture is in B&W with a 1/3 screen V offset and no sound. As oubviously your has a locked-in picture (+ Color ?) it is obviously System M compatible.

Got to run! just heard a loud bang ... turned out to be a can of my prized US (unobtainium) Root Beer which blew its vacuum, got to cleau up the mess ;-(

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France