France Television moves to 16/9 format

ga2re2t

Don't know if this interests anybody, but here's the latest on DTT in France.

As most of you may know, DTT (or TNT as it is known here) is already rolled out across most of France. It started in 2005 and took about 2 years. France originally had 5 freeview analog channels and one encrypted analog channel (Canal+). These 6 channels are available through DTT, as are a further 12 freeview channels. There are also quite a number of freeview regional channels and a further 10 pay-TV channels. All of this can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Télévision_Numérique_Terrestre

From today onwards (April 7th 2008) France 2 and France 5 will broadcast all their programs in 16/9 format. This is to facilitate the launch of France 2 in HD in the autumn. France 4 and Arte will move to the 16/9 format in July and September respectively. France 3, being a regionally organised station, will do so in phases.

From the on-line forums, however, it appears that France Television does not broadcast any form of Dolby digital sound.

I'm not an expert on these matters, I just thought it might interest some people.

Richard

ga2re2t wrote: »

Don't know if this interests anybody, but here's the latest on DTT in France.

As most of you may know, DTT (or TNT as it is known here) is already rolled out across most of France. It started in 2005 and took about 2 years. France originally had 5 freeview analog channels and one encrypted analog channel (Canal+). These 6 channels are available through DTT, as are a further 12 freeview channels. There are also quite a number of freeview regional channels and a further 10 pay-TV channels. All of this can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Télévision_Numérique_Terrestre

From today onwards (April 7th 2008) France 2 and France 5 will broadcast all their programs in 16/9 format. This is to facilitate the launch of France 2 in HD in the autumn. France 4 and Arte will move to the 16/9 format in July and September respectively. France 3, being a regionally organised station, will do so in phases.

From the on-line forums, however, it appears that France Television does not broadcast any form of Dolby digital sound.

I'm not an expert on these matters, I just thought it might interest some people.

Has anything been 16:9 before now? Most sports coverage out of France seems to be 4:3.

Tomas_V

Richard wrote: »

Has anything been 16:9 before now? Most sports coverage out of France seems to be 4:3.

Quite a bit of 16:9 on Arte.

a bientot

I note that Toshiba will have their first MPEG4 tvs in French shops within the next few weeks........yet Lidl are informing their customers here that their bargain (?) tv sets will be suitable for Ireland's dtt service....

watty

.... with an external decoder.
As would any TV since 1970s with SCART.

scath

Dunno if Lidl should do that for the TV sets see: http://www.digitaltelevision.ie/NR/rdonlyres/4D228F0E-3207-4AC5-84BB-1EDBAC4313BD/0/CEDADTTGuidanceNotesFINAL14Feb2008.pdf
page 2: "HOW WILL THIS AFFECT SETS SOLD IN YOUR STORE? •
POS material should make no reference to IDTV, Digital Tuner, Digital TV ready or Freeview ready. Nor should sales staf refer to these features. Selling on these features may breach the terms of Sale of Goods, and Consumer Information Acts. •

If a customer asks about Digital Terestrial Television or Freeview TV, they should be advised that Irish TV is still in the test phase and it may be different to UK Digital / Freeview specifications. When the Irish DTT service is launched, the set may be capable of reception of its own accord and may require a set top box similar to Sky or NTL/Chorus Digital. CEDA recommends that you contact suppliers to obtain details of models that will be compatible with the planned Irish DTT services.


So have lidl checked that the models they are selling with their suppliers are compatible? One would expect they have? If not many refunds will be requested.

a bientot wrote: »

I note that Toshiba will have their first MPEG4 tvs in French shops within the next few weeks........yet Lidl are informing their customers here that their bargain (?) tv sets will be suitable for Ireland's dtt service....

Booms

So that's not a direct translation of soixante-neuf, then?

watty

Tesco is selling Bush TVs. They apologised to me that they know nothing, except that which is printed on is on the box. The box does not give resolution nor Tuner details, other than claiming Nicam support (implies Analogue Tuner). No indication if even VHF supported.

"HD Ready" logo, but this only means an HD signal via HDMI will actually display, it means nothing about resolution. They also have some Philips which a least are revealed as 1366 x 768 (WXGA HD Ready,) on the box. 768 line WXGA sets downgrade all HDTV by 30% to 45% in quality, giving a picture not much better than upconverted SD. The WXGA does however give a slightly better picture esp. for 4:3 material than an Non-"HD Ready" set for regular TV.

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