Analogue TV Closedown in Paris Region

[NowhereMan 1966]

Can you buy digital to analogue converter boxes to continue to use your old TV?

[etype2]

Hello all,

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?

[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

[old_tv_nut]

Here'a an extract from a French report (in English) on their "1000-line" system experiments in 1947.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

"1000-line" system experiments in 1947.

Looks like a modern HDTV luma signal, at 1080i 50 fields a second would be nearly compatible with a set built to receive these experiments.

Some HDTV receiver boxes may have hackable firmware to convert the digital HD signal to output a luma signal that would produce the old 809i (IIRC that was the number of lines) high res standard France had years ago. This would be difficult to do, to reverse engineer the existing firmware, modify it correctly and burn it back to the box, and hope you don't "brick" it.

[jhalphen]

Hi wa2ise,

you wrote:
"Some HDTV receiver boxes may have hackable firmware to convert the digital HD signal to output a luma signal that would produce the old 809i (IIRC that was the number of lines) high res standard France had years ago. This would be difficult to do, to reverse engineer the existing firmware, modify it correctly and burn it back to the box, and hope you don't "brick" it."

Such a device exists, type HDFury into a search engine. Will output Full res YUV & RGB.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France