Hi,

My company wants to send me to live and work in Paris, therefore my Virgin Media STB will not come with me. However, I was wondering if I bought a HUMAX freeview box for example, would it work both in the France, and the UK whenever I'm supposed to return? Would it work in other parts of europe, or are they supposed to just work in the country they are purchased from?

I know france, in my case use SECAM, most of europe is PAL... would this be an issue for a digibox?

Thank you!

The fact that France uses SECAM is not an issue to you because you are using a STB and you would use the RGB output from it via the SCART connector.

The Humax freeview box should pick up the free MPEG2 channels, but they don't use MHEG so digital text and interactive channels won't work.

France has its own version of Freeview called TNT-gratuite - http://www.tnt-gratuite.fr, it should pick up some of these French channels.

What is MHEG

MHEG is an acronym for the "Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group" (MHEG). It was developed in the mid 1990s as part of the DAVIC (Digital Audio Video Council) standardisation effort to support interactivity and navigation of multimedia services. It was first implemented by ONdigital in the UK which subsequently became Freeview.

Hi Keith, thanks again. did you have a good celebration?

So its better that I just wait and get one in France i presume?

Tim

I had a good day, thank you Tim.

Given the quite low price of STB's I would get a french unit. All french STB's also output in PAL and RGB

Perfect. I am happy to hear that you had fun,

Ill go for the French ones, should my STB-C software be ok? Or will i need a fresh French datatable?

The STB controller table includes STB's from many countries.

Do you know what STB table version you have ? Either look on the back of the Beovision for a very small blue label with black writing or you can go into the Service menu and it will state it.

i think  its SW3.0? or 3.1?

You have a software version and a table version, its the table version which is important.

You can download a list for Table Version 3.0 HERE

The latest table versions are 3.90 & 3.91

Does this mean I can simply install a freeview box in France and receive the Freeview channels I would receive in the UK? 

If this is true, this is great news for me, because I have just bought a flat in France which does not allow satellite dishes but only a communal arial

NO, you can scan for channels and pick up France's version of Freeview with the French channels. Look at the link I provided further down this thread.

Thanks Keith.  So only French channels, then.  Not  a stimulating prospect!  Is there anything I can do to receive English channels in France, given the restrictions I have already mentioned?

Well, that depends. Does your new flat has any south or south East facing windows ?

thorne:

Thanks Keith.  So only French channels, then.  Not  a stimulating prospect!  Is there anything I can do to receive English channels in France, given the restrictions I have already mentioned?

Get Sky!!!
You must have a UK address to subscribe though. (a relative perhaps)

Thanks again.  Yes, we do have south and sout east windows, but again the problem is we are not allowed to install a satellite or indeed any other aerials apart from the communal one

As you have South/South East facing windows you could purchase a portable unit like the one HERE and place it just inside the window on the floor. You will then be able to pick up all the BBC & ITV free to air channels

Thanks a million.  Cant wait to give it a try