Wanted to use my US Telly in the UK

Spent a fortune on an HDTV in the states about a year ago. Clearly didn't want to sell and re-buy as I could get the same telly for an acceptable price here in the UK, so had is shipped over. Have a power converter, but now trying to sort out what to do about getting a freeview signal.

If it helps, I have a Samsung LN37A330J1D HD TV and I am trying to connect a hitachi HDB73 free view box to it via HDMI cable. No joy: "Mode Not Recognized"

Anyone with any advice?

Grant

You won't be able to use it unless you use it watch US DVDs or something.  NTSC vs PAL signals and all that. 

How frustrating!  I'm sure it wasn't cheap to bring the TV out either.  But, I mentioned this post to my husband - a techy - and apparently you can buy converters:
http://www.converters.tv/signals/pal_to_ntsc.html

He says you need to get a PAL to NTSC converter to use a US TV here.  The one I found right away by googling ships from Australia, so I would look around for one that is from the UK because you will probably have to pay import duty and VAT on it if you order it from abroad.  I bet if you search around though you can find one for sale in the UK and avoid the extra charges.

Try an analog component video connection if you have matching inputs and outputs.  That bypasses the NTSC vs. PAL encoding issues (although HDMI does so too) and will let you know if the set will synchronize to the different scanning rates properly.

The only problem you might have is that many U.S. model TVs have color-difference component video inputs (Y/Cr/Cb or Y/Pr/Pb) while the component outputs on U.K. digital freeview receivers are often straight RGB (generally within the SCART connection).   Have a look at the RCA jacks on each unit to see what you have.

I recently looked at two HDTVs here in the UK and both could be used worldwide.  Check to see what the input voltage range is on your set; if it's 100-240v, you shouldn't have any problems.  You may need a transformer (not the Autobot kind) but they're not too expensive.  Also, watching HD only won't hinder your viewing as HDMI is the same in the USA and UK.  Hope this helps.

Hi Agnus,

Could you please post up the manufacturer and model number's of the two HD sets you mentioned?

Thanks!

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I recently looked at two HDTVs here in the UK and both could be used worldwide.  Check to see what the input voltage range is on your set; if it's 100-240v, you shouldn't have any problems.

There is far more to compatibility than the power supply, and there are different degrees of compatibility, generally ranging from the most likely compatibility with direct component video inputs through composite and S-video which introduces NTSC vs. PAL encoding issues, to off-air VHF/UHF compatibility which adds extra issues of channel allocations, modulation methods, video/audio carrier spacing etc. 

We use our American tv here and it's perfect. We have UK game consoles hooked up to it and to watch freeview we bought a cheap sat. and run it through our computer with a freesat tv tuner card. The only thing we have ever had an issue with was using a Humax FreeSat box.  We actually have 2 of the cards so we can record 2 programs or record one while watching another.

If this is something you would like to do, I can ask my husband to give you the details. We are very happy with it.

I realize this thread is a month old now, but just wanted to say that if your television is relatively new and LCD/Plasma, than it is almost certain that it supports both PAL and NTSC, LCD screens as supposed to the old CRT televisions don't care whether it's 25 Frames/second, 30 FPS etc, as long as you can physically hook up the relevant connections then you'll be fine.

The only problem you're likely to run into is the lack of scart sockets, in which case you should be able to get a freeview box that connects via HDMI or Component (or composite if you have to but...ew!  ).

And as for power, you could get a Uk/US power converter, but again most modern televisions are made for a worldwide market and as such take 110-230v and so you just need get the appropiate power cable.

I realize this thread is a month old now, but just wanted to say that if your television is relatively new and LCD/Plasma, than it is almost certain that it supports both PAL and NTSC, LCD screens as supposed to the old CRT televisions don't care whether it's 25 Frames/second, 30 FPS etc, as long as you can physically hook up the relevant connections then you'll be fine.

Most of the newer LCD/plasma sets, and in fact many late-model CRT sets aren't fussy about 25 vs 30 fps or 525- vs. 625-line video signals on component video inputs, but a substantial number of U.S. models won't accept PAL video on composite inputs.   

Most of the newer LCD/plasma sets, and in fact many late-model CRT sets aren't fussy about 25 vs 30 fps or 525- vs. 625-line video signals on component video inputs, but a substantial number of U.S. models won't accept PAL video on composite inputs.   

Really? That's good to know. Mind you, I don't think I've purchased any sort of media/digital device in the last 5 years that didn't offer Component or S-Video connections.

Offtopic but it does pain me to see so many people get a nice widescreen digital HD capable television and not only connect their freeview/cable box to the television via the old RF/Coax connection, but also have everything permanently stretched across the screen regardless of whether it's widescreen or not!  (I also put people with 21" lcd monitors who set their resolution at 800x600 because otherwise everything is 'too small', in this category!).

Really? That's good to know. Mind you, I don't think I've purchased any sort of media/digital device in the last 5 years that didn't offer Component or S-Video connections.

NTSC vs. PAL issues still occur with S-video connections.  The chroma signal on S-video is already fully encoded to NTSC or PAL standards on the appropriate 3.58 or 4.43MHz sub-carrier, exactly the same as for composite video; it's just that it's carried separately from the luminance & synchronization signals.  So sets which won't accept PAL on the composite input won't normally accept it on S-video either. 

Going down to component level bypasses the NTSC vs. PAL issues, just leaving the slightly different scanning rates with which to contend (50 vs. 60 Hz vertical, 15.625 vs. 15.734 kHz horizontal).

Offtopic but it does pain me to see so many people get a nice widescreen digital HD capable television and not only connect their freeview/cable box to the television via the old RF/Coax connection, but also have everything permanently stretched across the screen regardless of whether it's widescreen or not! 

Oh, I know the feeling!   Some people seem to think that they have a wide screen so they must always fill it, even when the program material is 4:3.   

I find it sad that in the early days of television engineers put huge amounts of effort into designs to insure the best scanning linearity and overall picture geometry possible, and now sets are provided with options to distort deliberately a 4:3 picture to fit the 16:9 frame.  I can't understand why so many people seem willing to watch such a grossly distorted picture.

The broadcasters are complicit too, with their "compromise" settings in which they expand 4:3 material so that when displayed on a widescreen set the black bars down the sides are smaller.  The only problem is that to maintain the proper aspect ratio the top and bottom of the original picture is then cut off.  That's fine if the original 4:3 recording was made with such a matte in mind, but archived material shown as such suffers badly.