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Q: Television compatibility in Australia and UK ( Answered 4 out of 5 stars,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Television compatibility in Australia and UK
Category: Sports and Recreation > Travel
Asked by: andrewp2003-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 13 Nov 2003 00:44 PST
Expires: 13 Dec 2003 00:44 PST
Question ID: 275369
I am moving from Australia to the UK shortly and would like to know if
my Australian television will work normally in the UK?  I understand
that there may be soe difference in connectors (SCART or something
like that in the UK).  Is it worth taking my big TV?
Answer  
Subject: Re: Television compatibility in Australia and UK
Answered By: juggler-ga on 13 Nov 2003 02:28 PST
Rated:4 out of 5 stars
 
Hello.

Unless your television is a multisystem model that supports the UK's
"PAL I" standard, taking your TV to the UK might not be worth the
trouble.

Australia uses the PAL B/G format while the UK uses PAL I.  This means
that if you turn on a PAL B/G-only television in the UK, you will get
pictures but no sound.  However, some newer televisions are
"multisystem" which means that they support multiple standards (PAL I,
PAL B/G, etc.). Check your TV's owner's manual or on-screen settings
menu to see if your television supports PAL I.

See:

"Australia is PAL B/G and the U.K. is PAL I.
...
 If you want to buy an Australian TV or VCR and take it to another
country, you are really only safe if that country is also PAL B/G.
Even this can have it's limitations as in the case of the New Zealand
where they are PAL B/G but use a different form of stereo transmission
to us called NICAM. "
From: Sony Central 
http://www.sony-centre.com.au/news/ntscpal.asp

The "Moving Down Under" web site explains the situation from other
perspective (i.e., someone moving TO Australia) but the information
http://www.movingdownunder.co.uk/files/tv.php

Also see this newsgroup discussion, archived by Google Groups:
"Subject: Will my Oz tv work in the UK?"
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=ZEqw6.1202%24MD6.152754%40news6-win.server.ntlworld.com&rnum=8&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dconvert%2B%2522pal%2Bb%2522%2B%2522in%2Bthe%2Buk%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26scoring%3Dd%26tab%3Dwg

If your TV doesn't support PAL I, you might be able to have your TV
converted to PAL I. You could check with a conversion specialist in
the UK to see if your particular set could easily by converted. 
Here's the web site of a business that specializes in converting
Panasonic television to PAL I:
http://www.tvconversions.freeserve.co.uk/


There is also the possibility that you might be able to use a UK VCR
as a tuner to receive PAL I broadcasts.  You'd have to connect the VCR
to your Australian TV via composite, s-video, or RGB cable.

source:
"However, you can use different PAL versions to communicate between
devices if you connect via composite/s-video/RGB - so you could use a
PAL-I VCR as a tuner for a PAL-B/G TV."
From: AdrianWarren.com: 
http://adrianwarren.com/faq/ontheroad.shtml

------------

search strategy:
australian, tv, uk, pal
"pal i", "pal b", australia, uk
convert, "pal b", "in the uk"

I hope this helps.
andrewp2003-ga rated this answer:4 out of 5 stars
Top answer!  Fast too!

Comments  
Subject: Re: Television compatibility in Australia and UK
From: owain-ga on 24 Jul 2004 07:22 PDT
 
If you are confident your TV will be able to be used with an external
tuner using composite/S-video/RGB, it might be useful to know that
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT or 'Freeview') is widespread in
the UK and decoder boxes can be bought for around GBP 40 with no
ongoing subscription, giving you a wider variety of tv and radio
channels - see www.freeview.co.uk for information.

Owain
Subject: Re: Television compatibility in Australia and UK
From: lordsnotty-ga on 05 Sep 2004 09:15 PDT
 
Can any of you tell me if uk video taped tv programmes will be able to
be seen on nz tv? I would suppose that ordinary non-tv videod tapes
can be used on any tv? Thanx for any info.
Oh, and by the way, anybody got any ideas why my jvc digital camcorder
refuses to link into my ibm thinkpad? just arskin like.
Subject: Re: Television compatibility in Australia and UK
From: juggler-ga on 05 Sep 2004 11:16 PDT
 
Lordsnotty,
You're more likely to receive a response if you post that as an official question:
http://answers.google.com/answers/askquestion?catid=0

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