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#1
03-07-2011, 07:01 PM
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Analogue TV Closedown in Paris Region
Hello to all,
Tonight, monday march 7th 2011 at midnight (UTC +1:00) all french TV transmitters have gone off the air in Paris and the surrounding ile-de-France area, ending 76 years of analogue television transmissions. SECAM, rest in peace. During the night, Broadcast TV engineers and transmitter suppliers will be busy connecting the DVB-T exciters to the converted analogue and new digital transmitters. Service is due to startup tuesday march 8th at 08:00 AM with the 6 legacy ex-analogue OTA channels, then throughout the day all 19 FTA channels will progressively come online. By tuesday evening 20:00 PM the transition should be complete. A re-scan of DVB-T tuners will be necessary because of multiplex channel allocation frequency shifts once the analogue service has closed. 12 million households in the Paris area are concerned. The new spectrum will include 19x DVT-T SD 625/50 UHF channels broadcast in MPEG-2 plus 4x HD channels, 1080i/50 broadcast in MPEG-4. All VHF Band I & III TV transmissions are terminated. Band III is to be reassigned to digital radio and services to mobile phones. DVB-T and analogue SECAM L have coexisted in Paris since 2005. with the digital channel frequently co-channel sited alongside the SECAM transmission, the DVB-T signal was broadcast at a - 15dB power level to avoid interference. With the switch-off of analogue a considerable power increase of DVB-T will take place, the 19 transmitters on the Eiffel Tower being increased from 15KW EIRP to 50KW EIRP. Final analogue switch-off for the entire country is planned for november 2011. Except for a small ceremony at the Eiffel Tower tonight, no special event was planned. Photos courtesy of Bruno Piffret, Paris vintage TV collector Best Regards jhalphen Paris/France Last edited by jhalphen; 03-07-2011 at 07:13 PM. 
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#3
03-07-2011, 07:18 PM
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Hi Sandy,
Just posted 2 photos at the time of shutdown, courtesy of Paris friend Bruno Piffret. Pix 01 is 10 min before shutdown, pix 02 terminates analogue transmissions showing TV presentation celebrity Jacqueline Joubert presenting the new TV service in ...1950. Bruno's vintage TV site: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/radio-piffret/ Best Regards JH/Paris Last edited by jhalphen; 03-07-2011 at 07:27 PM.
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#5
03-07-2011, 09:24 PM
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Jerome, many thanks for the report. This reminded me of the French 819-line system, which was last broadcast in 1984 according to this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_...evision_system Did you ever see the 819 line broadcasts? Any comments on the quality?
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#6
03-07-2011, 09:46 PM
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Aw jeez... first they turn on digital in October 2008, an' now they're turning off analog. So much for my dreams of some extreme-DX'ing of French TV....
 Quote:
 (with sincere apologies to Jerome, the French people, Canadians, Diplomats, Francophiles, and Cajuns....) Who is next in the OTA analog-to-digital conversion? Still seeking 2SC1034's for mon ami,
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Brian USN RET 22YRS (Avionics/Cal) CET-Consumer Repair and Avionics ('88) "Capacitor Cosmetologist since '79" When fuses go to work, they quit!
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#7
03-07-2011, 10:11 PM
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Hi old_tv_nut,
You're welcome! You asked: "Did you ever see the 819 line broadcasts? Any comments on the quality?" Sure i did! i'm 57 years old and got interested in TV around 1960 at age 7. My grandmother had a 17" B&W 819 line TV and i clearly remember seeing the 800 pts/line bars resolved clearly on the test pattern shown below. This test pattern is known as "The Chevaux de Marly" - Marly horses because of the equestrian statue shown in the central photograph. In 1964 the second TV program opened in 625 lines UHF whereas 819 line service continued in VHF bands I & III. A new color UHF/SECAM/625 service was created starting in 1968 to duplicate in color the entire 1st TV channel network nation-wide, this was called "duplication". The 819 line service was shut down in 1985 when the 625 color service covered the entire country. Very interestingly, the British followed exactly the same path with the 405/625 service for BBC-1. As for today, some french TV vintage collectors are hoping to see full resolution 819 lines again by using the Y channel of a BluRay DVD cracked with the HDFury decoder device: http://www.hdfury.com/ and some big help from Darryl to make a special wideband version of his 819 converter. From memory, the 819 line system E specs allocated 8.75 MHz bandwith to the video signal and the entire channel occupied 13.15 MHz. Best Regards jhalphen Paris/France
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#8
03-07-2011, 10:24 PM
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To Findm-Keepm,
1) "Mon Dieu! Have you forgotten French FRIES and French DRESSING?" Don't worry! i have a solid sense of humor! 2) "So much for my dreams of some extreme-DX'ing of French TV...." You still can, the southern part of the country is still in dual illumination analogue + DVB-T. it all ends Nov 2011. However, DX-TV is best in VHF Band I (30-60 MHz) and no french TV has been there since the closedown of 819. 3) "Who is next in the OTA analog-to-digital conversion?" Basically, all of Western Europe. Transition should be completed for all 27 Euro countries by dec 2012. Best Regards jhalphen Paris/France
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#9
03-08-2011, 01:09 AM
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Quote:
__________________
Chris Quote from another forum: "(Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did."
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#10
03-08-2011, 03:27 PM
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Quote:
Heard that Australia will be converting to digital and dropping analog, but not sure when.
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| Audiokarma |
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#11
03-08-2011, 04:05 PM
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Hi Wa2ise,
Yes, European DVB-T uses COFDM carrier coding but the number of carriers may vary (UK vs mainland Europe for instance). My reception is A-OK with a rooftop antenna, but indoors with a handheld 3" DVB-T receiver on a 10" whip antenna, ahem, not so good, yet i am located less than 5 miles away as the crow flies from the Eiffel Tower powerhouse. Well today is only day one of all DVB-T broadcasts and maybe the transmitters have not yet been powered up from 15KW EIRP to the planned 50 KW. Wait & see... As a 57 year soon "old codger" i have a pet peeve: i believe that good RF engineers have deserted consumer electronics. I have tested many DVB-T receivers and Wi-Fi TX/RX and in my opinion, all have the sensivity of a grounded anvil. I remind youngsters that in 1968 i was receiving the Eiffel Tower 80 miles away, VHF Band III, on a Sony TV9-306UM, built-in whip, 819 lines, car battery power, in the midst of a field while having a picnic. I have never seen better sensitivity since, and all this in spite of noisy 1960s transistors and a 14 MHz wide TV channel. Shame on today's RF designers... Best Regards jhalphen Paris/France
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#12
03-09-2011, 02:48 PM
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Quote:
Not much if any consumer electronics in the USA either, it all comes from Red China.  All our RF engineers work for dept of defense contractor companies. Designing RF systems for fighter jets and radars and whatnot.
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#13
03-09-2011, 04:58 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
__________________
Chris Quote from another forum: "(Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did."
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#14
03-11-2011, 06:07 AM
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Hi to All,
Thanks for your replies. In the meantime, via Bruno P. we learned some interesting facts about the energy savings DVB-T will allow. The now defunct Eiffel Tower SECAM L transmitters had the following EIRP: TF1 channel 25 - 300KW France 2 channel 22 - 215KW France 3 channel 28 - 215KW ARTE channel 30 - 100KW M6 channel 33 - 100KW Total power used: 930KW DVB-T network: Multiplex R1 channel 35 - was 41KW - now 50KW Multiplex R2 channel 21 - was 22KW - now ch 25 - 50KW Multiplex R3 channel 27 - was 21KW - now ch 22 - 50KW Multiplex R4 channel 24 - was 23KW - now ch 30 - 50KW Multiplex R5 channel 29 - was 21KW - now ch 28 - 50KW - all HD channels* Multiplex R6 channel 32 - was 22KW - now 50KW Multiplex R15 channel 23 - was 5KW - now ch 33 - 5KW *4x FTA, 2x $$ subscription Total power: 305KW So, all in all, 7 times more channel, 1/3 the power. The Eiffel Tower is the main transmitter, located in the center of Paris. It is relayed by 4 secondary transmitters for the suburbs & greater ile-de-France region located North, South, East and West of the city. Apparently they use a locked carrier technology so that for instance a Ch 35 transmission by the northern transmitter can be broadcast on the same frequency as the Eiffel Tower and have no beat interference. Wonder how they do that... Also, all transmissions must convert to HD by 2015 so buyers of the cheap SD only adapters (MPEG-2) will need a new one (MPEG-4) for HD. FYI, the cheapest adapter seen so far was a 19.95 Euro product, roughly US $30.00 Best Regards jhalphen Paris/France
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#15
03-11-2011, 01:32 PM
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Quote:
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