PCTV in Europe?

[John_5114775]

I'm considering buying a USB or PCMCIA plug-in TV tuner for my laptop, hoping to be able to watch the Olympics in Europe this summer, specifically when staying in Italy (by Lake Como) and France. Has anyone any experience of using similar technology in Europe? I'm considering the 'hybrid' type which receive analogue and digital (DVB-T) broadcasts and I'd be using a Status 530 directional aerial.

 

[rob_jax]

John,

I think you'd need to exercise a bit of care here - and read the USB stick product technical information quite carefully.

Each country decided on it's own implementation of analogue transmission standards - aside from the French deciding to use SECAM, the rest of Europe uses PAL.

The bad news is that the UK and Ireland use PAL-I, Western Europe uses PAL-B or -G, and Eastern Europe uses PAL-D or -K; and that's right, they're all different - but not that different. The carrier offset is usually either 7MHz or 8MHz but that's enough for picture and no sound or sound and no picture.

So if you want analogue TV - you might need to do a bit of research and make sure the USB stick is "multi-standard" - and supports all the PAL standards (and SECAM if you go through France)

Happily DVB should be a different story - there is a 2004 European standard that has standardised DVB transmission standards - but check the USB stick technical data again...

Robert

 

[Reg]

Hi rob_jax

Does this mean that a UK DVB box is tunable in any country (european)?

 

[AdifferentJim]

John

I don't know much about the device you mention but I've got an Acer Aspire 9800 (belongs to my business actually) which has a built in media centre and tv tuner. I've picked up around 20 digital channels in a hotel room in Lille and digital and analogue channels in Biarritz with it. I don't particularly want to watch tv on holiday (Desperate Housewives in Spanish isn't my 'cup of tea') but tried it just to see the results.

At around

 

[rob_jax]

Reg,

Inside Europe it should do - obviously you only receive the local Digital broadcast in the local language.

I know some countries, like Norway, make much greater use of the encrypted channels but that's unlikely to be a problem if you want to get the local weather...

Robert

 

[John_5114775]

Thanks for the replies. I've done a bit more research and believe that the Pinnacle Hybrid Pro USB stick is multi-standard (for analogue)and will work in Italy for DVB-T. I've found an Italian website (www.dgtvi.it) which has a searchable database giving DVB-T reception by location.

Thanks Rob-jax for the reply to Reg. Has anyone used a UK freeview digibox in Italy? Any feedback on this alternative (i.e. portable TV + freeview) would be welcome, as the PC USB stick is going to cost about