Page 1 of Playback of SECAM disks

I have recently bought a Wharfedale 750s DVD player which I am pleased with so far. My TV set is a dual standard PAL/SECAM, which I bought in France a few years ago. Does anyone know (or is prepared to hazard a guess) if I will be able to play back DVD`s bought in France on this set-up? My experience with playing back UK VHS (PAL) tapes on French hardware is that the colour is lost, so maybe the same thing will happen here.

Many thanks, Trevor.

I stand to be corrected on this, but I think that the VHS problem might have had more to do with the player than the software or the TV.

Without knowing what your kit is it is difficult to say, but as France is Region 2 the same as the rest of Europe, I would have thought that their DVDs are PAL. If you are using a UK sourced DVD player I would have thought you would have no problems. The only real way to find out is to buy a cheapie DVD and try it.

I have read somewhere that French DVDs are PAL, French DVD players convert the signal to SECAM.
Hope this is of help

Ok yet again I strain my college memories on this one. (I can hear the Oh-no`s from here already !)

The main technical difference between PAL and Secam is very small indeed - the timing signal is a negative voltage and not positive I seem to remember.

But as a non technical answer I`d guess that it would work fine because if it didn`t why would we get region 2 DVD`s with french audio and subtitles !!

OK, had the similar problem of having a Pal/Secam video and a Pal UK TV.
If you go through the normal antenna, then yes, you`ll get UK Pal in b&w on your French TV. But if you go through the Scart socket (and ALL French Tv have had one for the past 15 years) then you won`t have a problem. The difference between Pal europe and Pal UK is on TV signal, not on video.
Now that is if the DVD is PAL, if it`s SECAM, then you`ll get it in B&W bcause the DVD player is PAL only
I think (but I haven`t bought any myself) that French DVDs are PAL so no problem.

After verification (on a website for French DVDs), They`re in PAL anyway, not in SECAM so you won`t have a problem if you buy DVDs there.