Using a british television in Spain

Hi there,

I know that lots has been written about using a  uk bought television in Spain but I cant seem to find the info on this new (new since I last used it ) web site.

At present we probably only want to use our  tv  for playing DVD's but may want to get it hooked up to main tv in the future.Will one bought in the UK be ok ?

Thank you,

Gilly

 I think it's due to frequencies used but a UK TV will display a picture but no sound.  The easy way around this is to hook up the aerial through a Spanish video player and then connect that to the TV, then you will get the sound.

We did this for a couple of years when we came over and know it works fine and you can pick up video players pretty cheaply these days.

Justin

Hi,

As Justin said a UK TV will work with just an aerial connected as normal but you will not get audio, just a hell of a lot of noise.

A British VCR will produce the same results; it will reproduce pre-recorded videos OK but if you try to record any Spanish TV it will not take the audio channel.

If you are just going to use the TV for DVD's then no problem; just feed the DVD into the TV via a Scart cable and away you go...

It would be worth checking to see if your British TV and VCR are multistandard; refer to the user manuals Specification pages; If it just says PAL / I then it is single standard and  the comments above will hold true, however if it is Multistandard it will probably say PAL/ I. PAL B/R, NTSC and will auto select when switched on and reproduce both picture and Audio.

In both cases the TV will need to be retuned to the local stations...

All is not lost however...because in any case,

Analogue TV is due to be phased out over the next year or so in Spain and Digital TV will take its place.

The Spanish equivalent of The UK 'Freeview' system is called TDT and requires the purchase of a TDT box from say Carrefour or Alcampo  or Mediamarkt or even your local Ferretaria... These cost from as little as 30 Euros. Also you may need to buy a new aerial; these cost from about 25 Euros upwards.

Connection between the set top box and the TV should be made via a SCART cable normally supplied with the box.

A UK Freeview box MIGHT work in Spain depending on your location but stations broadcasting on Channel 69 may not be reproduced; note also that it will not receive British TV programmes just Spanish...although TDT programmes that were originally produced in other languages can be selected to play the original audio track...be it English, French German or whatever...

There is a website where you can input your Spanish post code and it will display what TDT channels are available in your area.

If like me you find eventually that you have a variety of input sources (like TDT, VCR, DVD, Satellite) for your TV but only one Scart socket on your TV, a Company called  'All-In-One' produce a Scart Switching box which allows 4 input sources and one output source; when I bought ours it cost 55 Euros from Carrefour.

I would not recommend those multiway Scart adaptors as they can cause loading problems if  more than one of the inputs is switched on or even in Standby...

We have a multistandard LCD TV rigged up downstairs with a TDT box, VCR, DVD and Sat TV feeding into a Scart Switching Box and a single Scart feed from the box to the TV,  and a single standard British TV upstairs withDVD, TDT and Sat TV. This TV has multiple Scart sockets provided.

Hope this answers your questions...

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