From SECAM to PAL

[Maarten]

Except for the Sony TV which looks like an older multisystem model to me, those are all really new. Very late 90's or rather early this century. At some point in time decoder chips (such as the Intermetall MSP series) got so cheap and had such a low component count that it was more economical to include both NICAM and A2 even for destination markets that only had NICAM (but since Catalunya used A2, Spain might have been considered a multisystem market anyway).

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by ben

Ahhhh, my mistake. For some reason I was thinking of the really early equipment. You are quite right, the Zweiton and Nicam features were offered on a whole lot of stereo sets here. I even worked on or own some of the kit you pictured!

Interesting that Catalan local TV kept the zweiton system going.

Do you know if TVE still broadcast on VHF in the 2000s? I remember finding it on Channel 2-4 but that may have just been the antenna distribution system in the building I was living in then.

Quite a few countries use VHF for digital TV, but many on Band III only.

[Tester.]

Originally Posted by ben

Do you know if TVE still broadcast on VHF in the 2000s? I remember finding it on Channel 2-4...

Yes, they did; apparently at least until mid-2009 when Navacerrada (one of Spain's bigger transmitters/repeaters) turned off TVE-1 on Ch. 2 (as part of the digital switchover).

[emeritus]

The modulator of my UK-bought Icecrypt T5000 STB turned out to have undocumented European PAL and NTSC (but not SECAM) output functionality. While it searches through VHF Band III before searching the UHF band when re-tuning, its modulator only provides an output in the UHF band..

[kan_turk]

Most countries continued to use VHF right up to DSO, although many closed down Band 1 transmitters earlier for different reasons, interference etc - there was absolutely no migration to UHF, as has been implies elsewhere, as there was absolutely no benefit in doing so - quite the reverse - more transmitters of higher power to get the same coverage = more $£€s - UHF was only used when additional services were required and no unused VHF spectrum was available - Spain adhered to this logical progression

[Phil Reed]

There were SECAM vision mixers, which basically decoded to RGB, did the mixing and recoded to SECAM. Some only decoded during the transition, which meant the picture quality fluctuated a tad.

[red16v]

Do you have any manufacturers names? I worked in broadcasting, looking after many vision mixers and I’ve never known of anyone offering this product. Just curious.