TV question

I have been reading a bunch of old posts on TV's but I am still a bit confused.  I have been offered a job in London and when we move I am super concerned about making sure I am set up with TV.    I currently own a Samsung LCD which I am going to sell to my brother in law.  I have seen on a few websites "multisystem" TVs.  I am thinking this is what I might need.   The kids and I have quite a collection of DVD's that we want to bring over and be able to watch.  I am assuming that we will need a DVD player that is also "multisystem" and can handle multiple zones.

Any thoughts if it's better purchase this in the US and ship it (I was thinking it would be cheaper.....my company is paying for the move)  I have no experiance with this so I don't want to end up with something I can't use.  The company I have been looking at is BHphoto.  I have bought stuff from them before.

I was sad to find out that my XBOX won't work over there.  At least that is what xbox told me when I emailed them.  The power pack doesn't look like it is dual voltage.

Thanks

I'm very unsure of what a multi-system tv is, but we are looking to get a new one so I'll ask dh.  They should have the same brands here with the same features as they have in the US.  You should be able to get a Samsung LCD here too.  I have seen some at Curry's and some of the electronic stores in town. 

For the dvd player, multi-region dvd players are cheap to get here.  In fact, I think we got a cheaper one here in the UK than my dad did in the US.  Just make sure you get a multi-region, and you're good to go.    If you are bringing one from the US, make sure it can handle the change of voltage and bring a power adapter. 

Good luck with your move. 

I can absolutely confirm that you can get most of the identical TV models in the UK:
1) UK BF bought a model there after I made a trip to Best Buy in the states to check them out in person
2) I used to work for one of the big TV companies

Hiya tikifrei

Could you send links to the details of the TV's you've seen which have Multi system capabilities please? I've so far not seen any, not saying they don't exist, but there's really very very low demand for them in the mainstream.

Persephone - a multi system TV or Video product is one that has the IC's inside that can handle the various television 'systems' that exist in different territories of the world. The USA uses the 'NTSC' system to (basically) generate the video picture you can see. The UK uses the 'PAL' system. Products that are one or the the other, are not compatible with diffrent video systems (a UK PAL tv cannot display an NTSC signal and vice versa)

The multi region DVD players you can buy for relatively cheap, can provide a solution, they'll 'playback' a US NTSC DVD and be able to 'display' it on a UK PAL TV. In that respect you'll be able to move forward.

If you look through the gaming posts, you can bring over your US XBOX, I'm not a gamer, but some of the members here are and can give you the low down on how you can (or maybe cant!) use a US Xbox here.

Alternatives could be that you can 'rip' your USA Film DVD's to computer files and playback from your computer to your tv, not sure if the same type of thing would work with games though.

Lastly, shipping over a large flat screen TV is possible, but the insurance quote will go up quite a bit once you mention you have one in the container. I 'Think' all big screen TV's like this need to be transported vertically, if they go horizontally, it's possible with the vibration the middle of the screen can flex can break. It's generally not a good idea to ship large screen TV's like this.

Hope this helps
Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

  We brought my Son's Wii and Playstation from the US over here.  What we did was buy the UK plug online for it, presto it worked like a charm.  What might be a problem with the Xbox is downloading online content.  So if you want to just play the games then no problem.  You could always invest in a voltage adapter as well- 15 pounds on Amazon.com

 DtM,

This is what I was looking at.  They have other ones on there as well.  It might not be worth shipping I'm  not really sure.  Like you said if it's not shipped correctly it's not going to be good.  I was thinking it would be cheaper to buy one in the states....but I could be wrong. 

newcomer link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/697360-REG/Samsung_UA_40C5000_UA_40C5000_40_Multi_System_LED.html [nonactive]

Thanks Tikifrei, it's been such a long time I've needed multi system products like these I didn't know they still made stuff like this for consumer use.

It's up to you to see if you'd want to bring one over and then the DVD players, perhaps US gaming consoles etc to be able to use them here. If you do, ensure the TV is transported correctly and is fully insured.

I don't know of any UK retailers or the discounters that keep multi system TV's nowadays, I'm sure there must be available still though - but no idea on pricing. I used to look at stuff like alot some years ago, but today there's so much other ways of getting content, I've not even had the thought cross my mind for multi system stuff. I understand it may be different for you though.

Weigh up the cost of the TV in the US, and any that are here with insurance and shipping etc and evaluate from there.
cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

In terms of multi-region DVD's, some that say they aren't multi-region can be "hacked" with a simple code. I'll post up the website where you can check if there is a hack. Check this before buying your player as some can't be hacked (LG seem to be difficult ones) We just bought a DVD player for the 2nd TV, a Toshiba from Asda for £25, the hack online was just a case of opening the disc draw using the box button, not remote, and then keying in a 6 digit number on the remote - the message then came up that it was on Region 0 (i.e. region free)

DW's US dvds as well as our UK ones work.